Rocket Land

Today I took the kids to "Rocket Land", as they call it. (There's a rocket on the sign.) Most weekdays Rocket Land offers some sort of special. This summer, Tuesday's deal includes a free game of putt putt with your paid admission to the fun gym. I would never pay for these guys to "play" putt putt, so this is a good deal for us.

This was the second time I've taken advantage of this deal and taken the kids to play putt putt. Actually, it's really not so much playing as it is taking the golf clubs for a walk. At the first hole today, both kids excitedly dropped their balls and started swinging. Danielle let me show her (once) how to hold the club and putt the ball. Tyler didn't want any instruction. He dropped his ball, pounded the ground a couple times with the putter (confusing baseball w/golf, I think) and swung. He crumpled into a heap when his ball didn't go in the little hole on the first swing. I tried to explain that very few people actually get it into the hole with one attempt and that the fun is gently hitting it until it does roll in. Whatever. He picked up his ball, and we moved on to hole #2. Danielle, straddling the ball, somehow managed to knick a piece of it as she swung her club back and forth like a wrecking ball. When it didn't make it to the hole, she marched down the green, picked up the ball, and threw it toward the hole. Meanwhile, Tyler lined himself up, tapped the ground a couple times, and eventually hit the ball. Again, he was devastated when he missed the cup. He had enough of that hole. He picked up his ball and marched on to hole #3. After throwing the ball at hole #2, Danielle had decided she'd had enough. So we carried our clubs and our balls to the rest of the holes. Occasionally Tyler would try a hole one time. Mostly we just walked the course. Once we chased some ducklings and jumped up and down on the wooden bridge. This is why free putt putt is the best putt putt.

We had fun climbing around inside the gym. There were some older kids there today, and they were playing a little rough. They were throwing balls at each other (which was against the rules, as my kids pointed out, loudly) and calling each other names. Tyler was concerned about something one of the kids was yelling. I couldn't clearly make out what the kid was saying, so I told him maybe he was yelling someone's name. As we were getting our shoes on to leave (3 hours later!) one of the kids was beside us. She hollered out "You're a nerd" to someone. Tyler's eyes got big and he said, "Mommy! Is that a nice word to say?" "No, not really." "Well, was that someone's name?" "I don't think so." "She shouldn't have said that, then." "No, probably not." So nice when my kids learn a lesson. Right. An hour later I overheard Tyler chanting "nerd" at the dinner table.

Here are my favorite one-liners from today:

Tyler: "Mommy, those spikes on your legs really hurt!" (I swear it's not really that bad.)

Tyler to Grandpa regarding his (Tyler's) dessert: "Don't even think about it, Grandpa!"

Tyler to me after yelling at him for the hundreth time to go back to bed: "You're really very grouchy tonight."

Tyler: "What do flies actually do to you when they land on you?" Not actually an amusing one-liner, but interesting. I just can't bring myself to tell him "they vomit on you".