Tosselilla

When my friend Camilla invited us to join her and her daughter at Tosselilla, I thought "Sounds great, I love Italian food!" Turns out that Tosselilla is an amusement park in Skåne (the region of Sweden where we live)...and is only about a 40 minute drive from us.  Oh...ok....that sounds like fun, too!  Before I continue, I must disclose that this excursion occurred BEFORE our trip to Paris, but I didn't finish the blog post in a timely manner (and THEN I didn't want Disneyland to steal the spotlight from this more modest park...so I waited).   The hubby thought I delayed posting this so people don't think that all we do is take our kids to amusement parks!

The first thing I noticed when pulling in to the parking lot is that Tosselilla appears to be in the middle of a forest.  Even though it seemed like hoards of people were piling in to the park, being surrounded by nature made it seem less busy and somehow more relaxed.  Kind of like the anti-Disney.

Satellite view of the park (or at least part of it)

We entered the park and the kids immediately headed toward a playground.  One of the interesting things about Tosselilla is that there are several jungle gyms, bouncing pads and other options for physical play mixed in with the typical rides.  Most of these are surrounded by wood chips or sand (I can't escape from all of the sand in this country!).  The girls played at several of these areas throughout the day.  I see liability as the main reason why these areas - with a certain risk of injury- are not so common back in the States (the crazy lawsuits seen in the U.S. have not yet migrated to Sweden).

Ellen helping CeCe with the zip line!

Of course, it wasn't all about the playgrounds...the girls definitely enjoyed the other rides as well.

Malena is on the left- she went on this ride over and over....

Now when I saw this next area of fun, I had a mix of emotions....part "oh my gosh, how fun...I remember those!" and part "ewwwwww gross....a big pot of germ stew!"  Of course, the girls thought it was the best thing ever and luckily didn't end up with TB or whooping cough after their ball pit experience.

How fun is that??

Next it was back to the open spaces...a quick stop to visit the goats....not exactly Six Flags, right?  For about the cost of a quarter, you could get food to feed the goats- unfortunately the children were mobbed by larger goats while the "kids" waited for the leftovers.

Malena with one of the babies....awwwww!

CeCe makes her way over....

Next we stopped for lunch.  Another nice thing about the amusement parks around here (Disneyland NOT included) is that you can bring in your own picnic lunch.   They even have barbecue pits where you can grill hot dogs, hamburgers, etc.  The Swedes seem to take their picnic-ing very seriously- our friends had pasta, sausages, fruit, vegetables...the works!

After lunch, we headed for the water park.  Water park?  Uh oh.  For some reason, I had in my head that there were only "water rides" at Tosselilla.  I had brought along towels for the girls, and even extra clothes, but no swim suits (even though my friend told me she was bringing her daughter's suit).   It was also a little chilly so I didn't figure the kids would want to do much that was water related (I know....that was a very stupid assumption!).   So I ended up just having them wear their shorts in the water.  Of course, up until this moment, every beach or fountain we have encountered has children all over the place swimming in their underwear.  However, on the day I forget the bathing suits, all of the other kids are styled in proper swim wear.  Luckily, my topless children were not evicted from the water park for indecent exposure!

Malena tested out two of the water slides all by herself (of course I didn't have a bathing suit, so there was no chance of me accompanying her!).  Here's a quick (5 seconds quick) video of Malena on one of the slides...watch those other kids scatter!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6BA_UtVuiw&feature=youtu.be

After we got the kids dried off and dressed, we stopped for a quick snack.   After eating, Malena walked over to the edge of a small lake and came RUNNING back, saying that I had to come and see the fish.  I wasn't in a huge hurry....I've seen fish more than once....but I have to admit these fish were more entertaining than any I had seen in a while.  They were right next to the shore, almost piled on top of one another (which leads me to believe they were waiting for some type of snack).  When we started throwing them pieces of bread, it was total chaos!  I think watching these fish was one of the highlights of the day.  Note to self...our next outing will involve a loaf of bread and the closest pond!

Watch your fingers!

Well, it had been a full day and I was trying direct my girls toward the exit.  However, I was diverted by a "Mom, can we please do the boat ride? Please?"  I agree, but there is no "boat ride" in sight.  I see a only a four seat, human powered paddle boat...with only one of the three of us possessing legs long enough to pedal!

Thanks Mom!

One last thing....I did let the girls have ice cream on our way out of the park...and I think I referred to it as "dinner".   Nothing like one more sugar rush to complete a day of fun!