Joseph's Birthday

It was just Josephs birthday, and Jason managed to "score" us tickets to an indoor theme park for kids called "Wannado City". It is really an amazing place...it is over 3 football fields big, and is built like an entire indoor city for kids. The kids go from place to place and get "jobs" to earn Wongas (Wannado City money), and then spend them at other locations. They open bank accounts and get ATM cards to keep their money in, and there are kid-sized ATM machines around the park to take out or deposit money as you need it. When we got there, Savannah first tried to be a Broadway Actress, while the boys headed off to be Archaeologists. Savannah learned a play and then preformed it for an audience on stage in a mini Broadway theatre, and was paid $40. She took Nicolette to the Glamour Salon and got their nails painted for the same amount of money. Likewise, Joseph and Brigham explored an underground South American temple as archaeologists (and found treasure!) and then went on a Mining Expedition as miners. They got paid $30 for each activity, and then spent $60 to go rock climbing. Get the idea? We met the boys by the mountain climbing, and our nails were dry in time to be Paleontologists. Then we had lunch at Johnny Rockets. Lunch was followed by the kids working at Publix supermarket as cashiers and personal shoppers, then making REAL Laffy Taffy at the Willy Wonka Candy Factory. They used their money to ride carnival rides at the fair. Then everyone except Savannah went to the Ringling Brothers Circus to attend Clown College, while Savannah went to J-Jewelers to make an anklet. We met everyone back at the circus in time to watch them perform (it was great), and then tried our hands at being firefighters. They trained, dressed the part, and responded to a four alarm fire at the Fireworks factory. They actually rode through the streets in a miniature firetruck, and put out the fire with REAL hoses and water. After that, they tried their hands at being Inventors, and worked for a while in a veterinary hospital.

The props EVERYWHERE were amazing...at the vet hospital, they have a life-size Golden Retriever that breathes and is hooked up to a dripping IV and EVERYTHING. They actually CUT OPEN THE DOG, and it was realistic and gooey inside, and opened it's stomach to remove a key it had swallowed. After that we went upstairs to spend some money at a Dance Club. We came downstairs and worked at Plantation General Hospital, where they worked in the Nursery, and then as pathologists, and then as General Surgeons. The "person" they operated on had kidney stones...and it was just as real as the dog. It breathed...the oxygen mask fogged up , and the chest rose and fell, and they had to cut open the "skin", remove some organs, and use all the proper equipment to remove the stones. It was SO REAL, that when they cut the "patient" open, Savannah actually gagged and had to cover her mouth. Another kid had to leave. It's pretty intense. The girls also tried their hands at being Super models, while the boys trained as Wannado City Police Officers (and then they got to be robbers, which I'm not sure is a JOB, per se).

And there was TONS of stuff we didn't get to do...like be librarians, work at the Miami Herald as reporters, photographers, and editors, work at CNN, Cartoon Network as artists, movie actors, chefs, pizzeria cooks, airline pilots (Yes -they have the front half of a full size 737 to fly, navigate, and be a flight attendant for), dentist, radio DJ, their own CSI team, bus driver, cruise ship captain and activities director, etc. etc. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!

As adults, you're not allowed into the "attractions", although most you can watch from outside through the windows. The kids are on their own with only the career guides for that profession. Most parents drop their kids off and head upstairs to a parents lounge where they have food, big screen TVs, and wireless internet access. Each kid is equipped with a bracelet with a sensor that is linked to an identical bracelet the parents wear. If you want your kids, you go to one of many "locator's" through-out the park, hold up your bracelet, and it pinpoints the locations of each of your children at all times. It also prevents anyone leaving without their parents. But Jason and I didn't want to disappear upstairs! We wanted to watch our kids explore and have fun!!I guess we're just WEIRD!!