Oshkosh B'Gosh

Whee! We just sailed back into town after two nights in Oshkosh. We left Friday noon for the WPA's annual homeschooling conference. The conference started Friday evening and ran all day Saturday. Kitty Daddy and I traded off kid duty, so we each got to attend some of the sessions. Daddy made it to three and I went to two. Bug and Bean (with either Mommy or Daddy and sometimes Beeb) went to sessions on making seed starter pots from newspaper, a fun and games session, a stories and games session, a paper airplane making session, and a flat traveler session (more about that last one at some point...). We stayed in the conference center (which apparently was a dorm in a previous life), so the kids got to try out dorm living and Kitty Daddy and I got to relive our undergrad days and two nights was quite enough of that! I much prefer being a grown-up! I do believe that everyone had a fabulous time. Bug didn't want to go ("I'm so shy about conferences"), but now he can't wait to go back next year.

Although the conference was over by suppertime on Saturday, we opted to stay over a second night and see a little of Oshkosh. We got to go swimming on Saturday night and we spent Sunday morning at the Oshkosh Community Playground and the Oshkosh Zoo, both of which are part of Menominee Park right on Lake Winnebago. The playground was one of the biggest and nicest I have seen. We got the Beeb seal of approval:

(Why yes, those are Oshkosh overalls he's wearing!) and the Bean seal of approval:

and the Bug seal of approval, but that one was moving and climbing too fast to capture with a camera. Well, that and I was pushing Beeb on the swing most of the time we were there!

The play structures were just too cool. There was the standard towers and stairs and climbing and playing things that we've seen at other dream parks (like McKee Farms Park, where we used to play a lot), but a few of the things that really caught my eye included a castle:

See the arrow loop for shooting arrows out off? See the keystones on the two arches?

There was also a very cool airplane:

And, my favorite by far:

The first time I walked by (before I had dug out my camera) there was a kid peeking out of the mouth. Bug got eaten too, but I was pushing Beeb on the swing. I didn't look closely enough, but Bug and Bean tell me that you can look out through the eyes (maybe a telescope or periscope?)