Rockstars and New York City

My kids likely aren't going to be rock stars when they grow up.
Today, we drove to a coffee shop, Booda Beans, in Apex, about 40 minutes away, because a children's musician was performing and because I have wanted to check out Booda Beans itself after reading about it on trianglemom2mom.com. (It has its own kids play area!) We, of course, were late and walked into the coffee shop about 20 minutes after the musician, Stacy Clearman, had started his show. Guillermo immediately covered his ears. "Too loud," he said and froze. Maya followed her brother's cue and covered her ears, too. I led them to the back to the kid's play area. It has a kitchen, blocks, plastic dinosaurs, a Little People's house, and a long train track, among other toys. They played for awhile while I sat and had coffee, and each time they came to talk to me, they covered their ears.


We stayed at the coffee shop for about an hour and then headed to KidsTowne, a wonderful park in Apex that I had been meaning to check out. The play structure is mainly wooden, with several levels that lead to castle-like towers. It's great for climbing and hiding. Guillermo quickly befriended a girl one month YOUNGER than Maya and they chased each other everywhere. (I don't think he knew she would more likely be Maya's friend because of her age.) Maya was a bit more hesitant but later made friends with a few brothers, one closer to Guillermo's age and the other closer to hers. Once when she couldn't find them, she turned to me and said: "Where are my guys?" Guillermo loved the tire swing, Maya loved climbing. We stayed for two hours before I persuaded them it was time to each lunch.


We drove to downtown Apex (pop. est. 34,807), which seemed to me to have about one block of restaurants and stores. It has a tw0-lane road, with parallel parking on both sides of the street and there were a fair number of people walking outside.
"Wow, I didn't know it was going to be this busy," Guillermo said as we drove past the stores. "It's like New York City." We found a pizza restaurant (and they ordered slices of pineapple pizza) and pretended we were in New York for the next hour. Guillermo asked that we call him Peter Parker. Maya was Mary Jane. I was Aunt Mae.