Kids Museum and More

With Kara and Kaiya in town, I decided to use one of my personal days for a day of fun. We decided to check out the Gateway Children's Museum. The kids had a ball!

Speaking of balls, the first part of the museum was all about balls. This center was set up like a beehive. Tubes were flowing all over the place. You can place the balls in all kinds of tubes and places and watch them travel up, down, and all around.

This spot was a suction tube. When you lifted the handle, the wind blew you away. When you place the ball in the tube, the tube would suck it up like the bank canisters we use. The girls loved this part.

Once we spent a ton of time with the balls, the girls checked out the little village. This village had so many fun play areas. There was a construction area, house, market, toddler section, gas station, and farm area. It was so fun to watch the girls.

Ellie loved this place as well. I think in my mind I figured I would just use a stroller and drive her around. Boy was I wrong. She wanted to be out discovering just like everyone else. Since she is really getting around these days, walking wasn't a problem.

There was a water play station that kept the kids entertained for quite some time. With Emma and her desire to always wash her hands at home, this was the perfect thing. Aprons, water and toys. Emma had so much fun here.

Here Ellie is holding a ball out at the water station.

So, Ellie was the cutest thing ever in the supermarket. She was constantly pushing the grocery cart. Her ability to walk without falling is improving so much. It is fun to see Ellie grow up and improve her skills of walking.

Ellie is at the farm station. It looks like she picked some asparagus.

These girls had so much fun here. I had to wrestle them to get them in a quick photo op with me. I am so glad I took a day off to have more Mommy and my babies time. It was so perfect. Emma and Ellie were a little crazy to keep my eye on. I would stand in the middle of the village and keep my eye on Ellie in the supermarket and watch for Emma to go in and out of the little house. I lost track of Emma 4 times. She was in and out of areas so fast. It made me really nervous as a mom, but I just kept trying to keep up with Emma, knowing Ellie would be in the supermarket pushing her grocery cart.

On the roof top, Kaiya and Ellie checked out a life flight helicopter. I am really impressed with how many cool things there were to see and do.

Emma flying the chopprer

With Ellie passing her one year mark, this is the new car situation. Both of our girls are in forward facing car seats. I can't believe Ellie is old enough for this. I think at times I am in denial. For so long, we have been telling Emma to be careful with the "baby". Well, this baby is a toddler now and I am missing my baby girl.

Ni Hao Kai Lan in one hand and milk in the other.

We purchased this wood head and footboard recently. I love it! It makes such a difference in the appearance of our bedroom. Plus, it matches the dresser and night stands.

Mom, I had to capture this little diva for you. I love love her birthday outfit. She looked so adorable and so grown up.

Funny how Ellie totally knows how to pose for pictures.

So my pics are a little scattered. This is at the museum again. Ellie loved being a part of everything. You can't keep her locked in the stroller anymore especially if there is something hands-on to do.

You could use these buckets to collect the balls and then place them in these shoots. Ellie had so much fun. She emptied her bucket multiple times.

Ellie, the shopper

This was in the toddler section. At our house, she has ridden a rocking horse so this was a cinch for Ellie.

The girls at the water station

Emma is also a huge shopper.

She pushed that cart all the way to the play house. Of course I had to follow her.

Looking at the magnets in the play home.

Kinda a random picture at the end, but this is C J Miles. He is the Jazz player that was picked to come to our school. So, yep we won a Jazz player. I am so proud of my class. In the month long competition, my class read over 128, 000 minutes. This is incredible. It was a fun assembly with music, reading, pie throwing, and even the shaving of our assistant principle's head. He told the school he would shave his head if the school read 2 million minutes. We have never done this before and honestly didn't think the kids would pull it off. Boy were we wrong. When the kids were really close to 2 million minutes, some configurations were figured out and announcements were made to encourage the school to read just one more hour more than they had the week before. I guess it worked because Mr. Benson received a nice buzz cut! It was awesome.