Leaf Walk...with no leaves.

For the past few weeks the kiddos and I have been taking walks in the park for the purpose of "finding leaves." We usually make a loop around the designated "Fitness Walk" paths. The kids like to read the numbers off the fitness signs and climb up, over, and around the benches meant for vaulting, sit ups, and whatnot. It's a nice walk, lots of trees, just about the right length, and plenty of dogs to admire and pet (Colin actually pet THREE dogs last week. That's a breakthrough.)

So, off we go! Notice the bags SPECIFICALLY brought to carry pretty, pretty leaves.


See, the leaves are just starting to get nice and pretty!


Lots of running!


We jumped off the rock sculpture, as usual.




We found some HUGE fungi to check out too. Lots of rain last week.


Gillian decided to climb up on a post and tell a story. She never got much beyond "Once Upon a Time" but it was quite cute anyway!



Lots of fun right? Yes, it was. But what was in the bags when we got back in the car? Each bag held one very battered and bruised walnut. That's it. No pretty leaves. AT ALL. Next time, I'm taking a bag for ME.

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!!!

Boy vs. Girl

The craziness at our house today just illustrates the basic difference between BOY 3 year old and GIRL 3 year old. (Well, almost 3 year olds)

I've been encouraging Colin to be more independent with putting his clothes on. So, after nap, he took his diaper off and got on the potty and did his thing. I left the bathroom for a minute and told him to get his undies and pants back on and wash his hands. I came back a minute later and HOORAY he was all dressed! Well, that went better than I thought it would! He looked correctly assembled, so I left it and we moved on. I come downstairs a few minutes later, look at him, and HEY WAIT! Your underwear are coming out the bottom of your pants! It's ZOOLANDER! Apparently he had just gotten the pants on correctly and forgot the undies. Sigh.

Even better....he got the undies put on, but the pants put on backwards TWICE. I got that straightened out. We ran some errands, played on the playground, and made dinner. In the middle of dinner Colin had to go to the potty, so I get up to make sure the seat is set up for him. And LOW AND BEHOLD, the kid has had his underwear on BACKWARDS since naptime. I give up. I just had to laugh.

Now, Gillian? In this same time period, she has gotten her diaper off, her undies on, her princess dress on, accessorized with wand, purse, bracelet, and HIGH HEELED SHOES. Changed in to her real clothes to run errands, INCLUDING SOCKS AND SHOES, all on her own. Only thing I did was button the back of her shirt.

Sigh.

September Funnies

I've been trying to keep track of some of the funny stuff the kiddos say and I thought I'd write down a few before the end of the month! (seriously, how is it the end of September already?)

We checked the book "Olivia" out of the library a few weeks ago. I think it spoke to Gillian. Olivia and G have quite a bit in common. Anyway, we were playing out in the yard one morning and I was sitting in the sun in a chair and G looked at me and said, "Are you basking in the sun, Mommy?" Umm, yes Olivia I AM!


September brought us a lot of "back to school" commercials, especially the Mini Wheat commercials where the Wheats tell us that they "Keep Kids Full and Focused!" We eat Mini Wheats pretty often (well G and I do) and after watching those commercials for a few weeks, I'd hear the kids at breakfast saying "KEEPS 'EM FOCUSED!!!" Over and over. If only I could get the kids to FOCUS when it's time to leave the house!

Daddy recorded "A Bug's Life" a while ago for the kiddos. I wasn't there the first time they watched it, either that or I was busy around the house. But soon after watching it, the kids came up with this game where they piled all the living room pillows between the couch and the coffee table and jumped off into the pillows while shouting. It took about 20 repetitions of "OOOSEY DOOOSING, COLIN!" and "OOOSEY DOOOSING, GILLIAN!" for me to realize they were saying "Introducing, Colin/Gillian!" I think the circus bugs at the beginning of the movie say something like that while they are performing. Anyway, the OOOSEY DOOOSINGs stuck around for quite a while. Made me laugh every time!


Colin has become quite the negotiator. He thinks. If I tell him 3 more minutes or only 2 M&Ms or 2 more turns, he offers me an alternative that HE wants. However, his quantity skills aren't quite up to snuff yet. So if I say, "3 more minutes, Buddy." He says, "NO, TWO MORE!" Umm, ok. Or if I offer him four M&M, he'll yell, "NO THREE!" Sure thing, Mister. Not sure how long it will take for his skills to improve, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts!

Thomas! We Love You!

This past weekend we had the most fun ever. At least according to C&G! On Saturday we traveled to Lancaster to visit none other than Thomas the Train!!! WOOOT WOOOT! Thomas visits the Strasburg Railroad a few times a year and we have been planning on seeing him for MONTHS!

Saturday morning we were all packed up and out the door right after breakfast! C&G are such good travelers! They have lots of practice traveling back and forth to the Land of Grandmas which is about a 2 1/2 hour trip. They do really well on that trip with no "DVD entertainment" but on longer trips we set up their DVD player. Given all of this, Daddy and I found it pretty funny that G started asking for a "show" approximately 5 seconds after pulling out of the driveway. We convinced her to make it another 2 1/2 hours before we turned it on for her!



We met up with GraGra, Papa Greg, Grammy, and Papa Frank near our hotel for lunch. Gillian pulled yet another graceful move, tripped, and fell into the rung of a chair. She managed to give herself a horizontal bruise on her forehead to match the vertical one on her cheek! That girl!

Anyway, we headed to the hotel and while Daddy and Papa Frank went off to visit a train museum, GraGra, Grammy, and I took the kids for a swim in the hotel pool! (No pictures of this since Daddy took the camera to museum with him!) Colin loved, loved, loved jumping off side into awaiting arms. And G was so excited to find the 3 feet deep hot tub to swim in. It's the only place she's ever found to swim that doesn't make her shiver!

Photo of the train museum!


We all had a very nice dinner at a local microbrewery in downtown Lancaster. Funny story: we had been trying to decide between MicroBrewery A and MicroBrewery B before we left. We settled on Microbrewery A and I (thought I had) made reservations there. We walk in late to Microbrewery A and they look confused but are getting us a table. Meanwhile, my phone rings! It's Microbrewery B asking where we are and are we coming! Ummmmm, no. Seems I called the wrong brewery to make reservations! I felt badly, but the place where we were actually seated us very quickly and it was the place we actually wanted to be! (Can I still blame Mommy brain 3 years later?) Anyway, it was a yummy meal and the kids were FABULOUS! Especially considering they only had a brief lay-down in the afternoon, not a real nap!

After dinner we gave the kids a bath in our VERY large, whirlpool style tub. They thought that was awesomely cool. It was like another swimming pool! Then we settled them down in their air mattresses for their first official night's sleep in a hotel. They actually were pretty excited about the whole hotel thing. They kept asking question after question about what a hotel was and how it worked and where it was and why were we staying there. They kept calling the hallways "tunnels" and Colin asked us why there were all those DOORS! GraGra and Papa Greg had a room with a separate bedroom, as did Daddy and I, so we hosted the kiddos. Colin stayed with Papa Greg (of course) and Gillian chose to stay with Daddy and I! I think they were out like lights!

Bright and early on Sunday morning we were up and raring to go! We had a quick breakfast at the hotel, and C&G impressed some random strangers with their behavior. It's always so nice when strangers compliment your kids' good behavior! Then we were off to Thomas!!!

Due to all the recent rain, the railroad had off-site parking and had school buses to bring people into the station! I'm not sure if they realized that to my kids, riding a real, live school bus was just about as cool as riding Thomas! Then, we were there!


And look! Trevor the Traction Engine!


And there he is! THOMAS!!!

He was actually really, really cool! A real working steam engine that looked exactly like our best bud Thomas!

There were lots of tents set up and other attractions that came with our train ride ticket!


Colin really enjoyed his day at Thomas, but we think parts of the day were too loud or overwhelming for him. Or he didn't sleep well at all the night before; he just wasn't as peppy or as excited as we thought he would be. Gillian was though! However, C seems to have enjoyed himself since he's been talking about it nonstop since we got in the car to come home!

We picked one of the open cars to ride in when it was our turn to ride on Thomas.



The ride never really picked up a whole lot of speed and Thomas pushed us one way down the track then pulled us back the same way! It only took about 15-20 minutes, but the kids loved it!


(See that leg that C has his hand on? That's me. Apparently I am not in ANY of the pictures from the weekend)

After our train ride we tried out a number of the other attractions at the train station! Colin's favorite was the cranky cars!


(Oh hey, those are my feet! Another picture of me!)

They had a miniature steam engine that we rode too. It was pretty cool. The young man who was running it would get off after each (short) ride and feed it some coal or some water or oil it! But, Daddy really wanted to do the pumper car! So did Papa Frank! So, off they went!



We stopped for a bit to watch Thomas chuff in and out of the station and listen to him chug, chug, chug. And whistle!



See all his adoring fans?


This is one of the regular steam engines that always resides at Strasburg. They have dinner theater and wine & cheese rides, and all sorts of fun. Gillian keeps pretending she's this engine now!


After checking out all the fun and picking out Thomas balloons from Grammy, we hit the road. Well, hit the school bus back to our car, then hit the road! We grabbed a quick lunch, kissed the grandparents, and made for home! After two very busy days and not enough sleep, I was hoping the kids would zonk out for at least half and hour or so. But, no such luck. Those two TALKED the entire 4 1/2 hour trip back home. Without watching tv. They were so good. And so chatty!

Daddy and I were so proud of our kiddos; they were so well behaved all weekend and so happy and so eager to do what was asked of them. C&G obviously enjoyed exploring every new thing they came across and they were just darn pleasant to travel with. It was a fantastic weekend, and we can't wait for more adventures!