Kiss the Back to School Blues Goodbye

Are the back to school blues overwhelming your family? Well, we have a few pick me ups that may ease the pain of hitting the books.\n\nJoin us for our Back to School Extravaganza this Saturday, September 1st.  We will have Mister Cooper singing his educational sing a long songs, the Funderland prize wheel where you can win great stuff, games, crafts, organizations handing out great information and more.  The best part of this event is that if you bring in school supplies to River Oak Center for Children you will get an awesome bag and cool stuff from Whole Foods Market, the Sacramento Rivercats, Costco, Nugget Markets, and more! Our newest neighbor, Sunflower Markets, even donated some incredible bags filled with all sorts of goodies for the winners of our bingo game that we will be holding throughout the day. For a list of supplies to donate to River Oak Center for Children visit our event page.\n\nIf you can’t make it out this Saturday then don’t worry!  We can cure your back to school blues with our After School Special, starting September 5th!  Our After School Special first ran back in May and June and got such a great response from our guests so decided to bring it back.  The way it works is that if you visit us after 3pm on the weekdays you can get a wristband for only $7.95… that’s half off!  We also have some other cool fall deals in store too, so keep a look out for those.\n\nWe figure that between our extravaganza, and our great deals you should be beating those back to school blues in no time!

Thank you Ella!

The other day we got the sweetest email from Ella via her grandmother DD.  I think we may have a number one fan on our hands despite our Train being closed for repairs 🙂  Take a quick read… any email that starts out with “you rock” must be a good one!\n

Dear Funderland,

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You rock.  My cousin Danica came from Brentwood to spend the day with me.  We are both four years old.   I am Ella, and my Grandma DD does whatever I want her to do and is writing this thank you letter for me.  We know the  place to go is Funderland near the Sacramento Zoo in Land Park next to the pony rides.  It’s a gorgeous hot day and we find a shady parking place right in front under the trees.  

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Admission to  Funderland is free there are lots of places to walk around and picnic tables to sit at.  We buy  the all day wristbands  for Ella and Danica, so we can ride anything we want as many times as we want.  We get cotton candy because nobody spins it a better than Funderland.  

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First we have to ride the Flying Chinese Dragon roller coaster.  Danica isn’t quite tall enough to ride alone, but she can ride with me, Ella ,because I am two inches taller.  The dragon is  painted all glisteny green, purple and red.  It roars around the curves of  mountainous track.  Swirling force pushes us into our seats.  We stretch our  hands into the air above our heads and scream joyously  as loud as we can. Nobody cares.  At last the dragon stops.  We get out…and we go again and again and again.  Finally we get the front seat right behind the dragon’s head.  We are the dragon.  Wow!

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The Carousel horses are elegant. My father used to ride them.   Grandma DD has to stand next to Danica and her horse because Danica is short, but I, Ella, ride alone and choose a pony with a saddle with hearts on it.  All of us glide through the air  to the beautiful music.

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We get snow cones.  Cherry and Grape.  Because the temperature is 95 degrees all our snow cones are free!

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We want to ride the Funderland Train, but it is closed today. Danica and I spin around on the Crazy Cups till we are dizzy.  We get more snowcones.

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Then we go to the Wild Stage Coach for a long, long, ride. We fly small biplanes. Somebody takes our picture.   We ride backwood buggies – we steer our buggy like Mr. Toad’s wild ride.  Then we ride the logs through the waterfall a couple times for a cooling splash.  

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Oh dear.  Suddenly it’s 5pm and time to go say thank you and goodbye to Funderland.  How could it happen all so suddenly?  We will be back again before school starts.  This is along letter, but it was our best day of the summer.  

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So I guess you know we had a Great Day.  See you again soon

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Ella, Danica, and Grandma DD

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Bittersweet August

How time flies. Can you believe that it is almost August? In just a few short weeks we will be “Back to School” and missing all of the kids at the park. It also means the end of our summer hours and our summer specials.\n\nStarting September 5 we will only be open Wednesday through Sunday, and in these last few days before you must (get) to let go of your children take that last trip out to Funderland to take advantage of those summer specials.  You can still get unlimited wristbands on Tuesdays for only $10 a person, or 3 wristbands for the price of 2 during our weekdays.  If you aren’t planning on using wristbands, and plan on using tickets, grab a coupon here. Plus don’t forget about our Summer Sizzler… whenever it hits above 95 degrees in the park we give out FREE sno cones.\n\nOnce school is back in session you can ease your children’s pain by bringing them to our Back to School Extravaganza on September 1 from 10 am – 6pm.  We will have goodie bags for those that bring in school supplies for River Oak Center for Children, visits from educational sing along sensation Mister Cooper, a number of organizations handing out information, and of course fun prizes and games! And, of course we will be holding our Spooktacular Halloween this year on October 27 and 28.  This staple event at Funderland promises fun and safe trick or treating, a fun haunted house, and a fully decorated park. You can learn more about both on our events page.\n\nThe good thing about the end of summer is that we have more time in the park to do improvements. If you haven’t had the opportunity to check them out, we have two new features in the park.  The first is our new information sign that will keep everyone informed on upcoming events and specials.  We are still putting the finishing touches on it, and it should be ready in the next few weeks. What do you think of our progress so far?\n

New Information Sign

\nThe second is our new seating around our concession stand.  We purchased 10 new outdoor tables made from recycled plastic and steel.  This is a vast improvement from our old wooden tables and we are hoping that in the next year we will be able to replace all the wooden tables and benches within the park with these new types.  If you have ideas on how we can make additional improvements please let us know.  We love to hear your feedback, and have been trying our best to make the park better for you.\n\nLets kiss summer 2012 goodbye the right way… with some great deals, future events, and promises of a great fall!