Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Sesame Street

They may be a little old for it this time around, but my girls have been asking if we can go back to Sesame Place ever since the last time we went there.

Yes, the girls have grown up a lot in the three years since our last Sunny Day:

Sesame Place 2010

Sesame Place 2013

Sesame Place 2010

Sesame Place 2013

 Fortunately, none of the magic has worn off, neither from the place nor from my children, and they were just as thrilled to be there on this day as they were on that day back when they still watched Sesame Street for fun and edification:

  
There were benefits to being bigger kids this year. The roller coaster didn't seem so scary anymore to a girl who's illegally ridden Rock 'n Roller Coaster twice in a row--

Do you see Will way in the background? I volunteered to help out a mom with two little kids by riding with one of them, since my big girl was tall enough to ride BY HERSELF!

--and big kids have an even BETTER time on all the climbing equipment and huge wet and dry active play areas:

Matt and I didn't even have to trail them, but could sit and chat and catch up from our week apart!

We did skip some shows in favor of those thrill rides that were even more fun this year, but we  went to others, and yep, they were still magical, too:

My grandpa used to record shows like this and I know for a fact that nobody will ever want to watch it.

Right as the parade was about to begin, and all the parents and their excited small children were crowded around, two women got into a fight right in front of everyone. One woman was screaming at another woman that she'd tried to take her son, and then she started punching her, and then a couple of dads jumped in and separated them, and then the woman SPIT at the other woman. An employee ran to get a security guard, and all the mommies, me included, were trying to block off the kids' view with our bodies. The mom next to me turned to me and said, exasperatedly, "Don't they know that we're at SESAME PLACE?!?" It cracked me up--fistfight in the middle of a huge crowd, I'm trying to figure out how to get the kids out if there's a riot or someone pulls a gun, and the mom next to me is pissed off because this place is SUPPOSED to be appropriate for preschoolers!

Unlike last year, we also didn't leave early--on this trip, we apparently had a habit of staying until closing time everywhere we went. We went on more rides, saw another show, met Cookie Monster and Bert and Ernie and Abby Cadabby and Zoe and Grover et all, floated down the lazy river, zipped down the water slides, rode Elmo's Blast Off, and did everything else there was to be done. Gradually, though, we found ourselves sort of naturally tapering off. First Matt and I decided that we were done with rides, although the kids were still free to go strong (and they did!)--

--and then Willow bought herself a bubble-blowing gun and decided she'd rather run around playing with that, leaving Syd as the last man standing. And that kid had energy! She did the same three water slides over and over and OVER, long after it had gotten dark and too chilly for people to ever want to go on water slides (which means no lines, so yay!). When she was finally done with those, she wanted to ride the swings a couple more times to dry off, and then she wanted to stop and notice every single great thing on the way out and have her picture taken with it:

It felt like suitable revenge for every museum visit she's ever had to accompany us on.

And of course, after the park had closed and we'd finally dragged the kid out of there and gotten her strapped into her seat, I don't think we'd left the parking lot before she was sound asleep, snoring in her booster. Will followed her about a minute later, leaving me and Matt to drive on for another couple of hours in peace.

Next stop: Gettysburg!