Friend Birthday Party!

So, apparently we have 5 year olds now. I'm not sure how it happened. But it did. AND IT IS AWESOME. I love five. It is a great age.

The kids had a gymnastics party for their friends the Sunday before their birthday. We had the party at the gym where both kids went to camp last summer and where Colin takes classes every week. It was such an easy party from a parent perspective. All I did was fill in the invitation that they gave me, take drinks, cake, and chips, and pay. PERFECT.

Colin and Gillian and C's bff J.D.
 
 

The gym workers RAN those kids for an HOUR. It was fantastic.
 
 
 

The cake I made! I am so dang proud of that Minion.
 

Fun on Daddy's Day Off

Last week Daddy took a vacation day and we headed off bright and early to the Science Center.  The kids have been asking to go and a new astronaut exhibit had opened, so we had lots of reasons to go!

NASA bound:




Next we made Daddy try the zero-gravity simulator.  It was harder than it looks, apparently.




You should have seen him ZIP up to the top, all out of control.  Tough stuff, this astronauting.

Gillian and I did some micro-surgery.  We have skills.


Colin making some sound waves.


Our friend R2D2.  And a silly faced Colin.


We spent a lot of time in the train exhibit this time.  They even had out their Polar Express model.



We all enjoyed the "working weightless in space" station.





We spent quite a bit of time with the big aquariums as well. And we ran into the aquarium caretaker, who kindly explained many things to us!




The next picture is to illustrate my daughter's personality to a T.

At the top of that ball and bucket elevator is a bin that fills with balls, a bell rings, and it opens and rains down balls. The typical 3 or 4 year old would plop a ball in a bucket, run it up the elevator, and move on. My daughter looked at it and came up with a plan. She filled one bucket, rolled the elevator up ONE bucket, filled the new bucket, REPEAT TWENTY TIMES. Until she filled the whole darn bin at the top and TA DA! It rained balls. Planning, forethought, stubbornness, brilliance, and tenacity. Yep, that's my daughter. And that's what makes it so interesting to parent her!




Three legged lizard. NOT dead. Just caught it while it was doing flips. I have no idea why it was flipping.


The boys went to see the submarine (G and I don't enjoy enclosed spaces), but G and I headed to the Sports Works to jump.



She did a few flips too! And I took a turn too! Sadly, G did not take my picture though! We got to take so many turn on the trampoline this time! There was NO LINE. Unheard of. Highly recommend the Science Center on a Wednesday afternoon.

So glad we have a membership! And a Daddy that takes days off!

Science Center Fun

Last week one day I had an early morning appointment and Daddy just took the whole day off so we could have some fun! When we got up that day, the weather looked iffy for the afternoon, so we decided going to the Science Center was the safer (dryer) choice. And, really, it was the ONLY choice Colin was willing to entertain anyway. The entire week previous he woke every morning and told me "Let's go to the Science Center today." He didn't even want to wait for Daddy to come with us!

So anyway, off we went! We had a variety of fun stops.

Water fountain play:


Robot friends:


Especially RD2 (no, not a typo, that's what Colin calls him, RD2):



And a REAL METEORITE. Holy cow. We talk about meteorites EVERY single day, so this was a TREAT.

(See that talk out of the side of his mouth thing Colin is doing? It's this awesome new "thing" he does. Makes me bonkers.)

After the meteorite and the model trains (that we have no pictures of) we went into the digital planetarium to watch a short movie. It was pretty neat. Full of Big Bird, stars, constellations, the moon, and MORE METEORS! Then we had a quick lunch and moved on to the upper floors. They are "hands on" stuff that Gillian couldn't wait to get to.

Brusha, brusha, brusha....



And then onto the "Sports Works" portion of the museum. Gillian's favorite part! She headed directly for the trampoline. And got in line to wait (a short-ish wait this time).




And then it was her turn! And I got really blurry pictures.



Daddy used his phone to grab a quick video too. Colin is obviously unimpressed.


Colin declined to trampoline. He and Daddy took a virtual body tour (which was totally up his alley) and played some table hockey, maybe?


And then some BIG Operation.



And a race or two...


(She likes to win.)

And some yo-yoing.



And then home after a lot of fun. We got a membership this time, so I'm sure we'll be back! Kids LOVE it.

Science Center Sunday

It's hard to believe sitting here on this lovely 80 degree day, but last Sunday it was 45 degrees and raining buckets on us. We really wanted to go to the zoo last weekend, but an indoor activity was a much wiser choice! So, we settled on the Carnegie Science Center as our alternative! Aunt Cedes and Uncle D decided to join us, so even more fun! I wasn't too sure how much of the museum would be appropriate for nearly-3-year-olds, but they enjoyed it a lot. I can see them enjoying it MORE in 3 or 4 more years, but it there was certainly enough fun stuff to keep them entertained.

We started our visit in the "air" exhibit where you could make parachutes, fly rockets, bang air cannons, and other fun stuff. Uncle D was explaining a few things to Colin. I love how Colin looks like he's intently thinking about things, but really, I think he was picking his chapped lips!



Off to fly some rockets! This was really a favorite with both kids; they came back two or three times to fly them.


Next up was the robot exhibit. It ended up being Daddy's favorite exhibit, but I think the kids will like it more in a few years. They did check out these guys:



They have a little digital planetarium inside the Science Center and we were just in time for a 15 minute show about the stars in Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood! Sadly, the kids have no idea who Mr. Rogers is; our PBS channel only airs his show maybe once a week. But, they liked the trolley and the characters and the MOON! Waiting for the show to start:

They did well sitting and watching, but I think we'll wait a while before we attempt a feature length film in the theater!

Next up was the Ocean and fish exhibit; basically it was a few big aquariums and a pretend submarine to explore! That was fun. Although, there wasn't a Nemo fish, so that was disappointing. We did find Dori though.






The next floor up was the "exploration" zone. It was a bunch of hands-on exhibits where the kids could build houses and "earthquake" them or pretend to be a weatherman or there was lots of water play! In the "Junior Explorer" section they had a bunch of machines set up to transport balls to the top of a shed thing and then pour them back down on the kids. That was a lot of fun! We spent a lot of time doing that! (Oh, and G liked the water play, which necessitated a wardrobe change!)

The Earthquake table!


Ball Machine!



After lunch, we headed over the "SportsWorks" portion of the museum. It has a health, fitness, and activity focus, but most of it was too old for our kids. Gillian had other ideas though. She wanted to do it ALL. Like the Human Yoyo!


Up she goes! She really did a nice job with this. She loves to hang on stuff, like monkeybars and chin up bars.


Ok, Mommy had to take a turn too.

So fun. But I admit, I was sore for 3 days afterwards. So old. So out of shape.

Then, Gillian spied the trampoline. And not just a plain ol' trampoline. A trampoline with a harness so you can do FLIPS. She had to do it. I warned her the line was very long, but she didn't mind. And, that girl, she sat in line without making a peep for at least 30 minutes. (Colin was done by this point and went back to look at the robots with Uncle D and Aunt Cedes). When Gillian decided she wants something, she is going to DO IT. And nothing will get in her way. Someday that will come in handy. (Right?) Anyway, when it was FINALLY her turn, she did great!!!


She didn't attempt any flips. But that's ok. Daddy and I were so proud of her patience and her bravery!

We caught back up with Cedes, D, and Colin at the submarine and went through the "Junior Explorer" stuff again. Gillian wanted to play "Operation":


Oh, and to climb all over Uncle D.


All in all a fun way to spend a rainy Sunday. I'm sure we'll be back! Gillian wants to trampoline again!!!