Discovery Kids

Saturday morning we took the girls to Discovery Kids.  It's a great children's museum aimed at the preschool crowd.  The girls had a blast!  It was so much nicer than the Louisiana Children's Museum!

Taking care of animals in the pet vet.

A real fire truck!

Playing in the restaurant

At the grocery store Elle piled that cart as high as she could get it!  This was only the beginning!

Scarlett thought ice cream, cucumber and carrot would be enough for her shopping trip.

Riding a tractor!

There was a big art center too.  Elle loved the glue and glitter.

Upstairs at the "airport" Scarlett manned the desk while Elle toted her luggage onto the plane.  There was even a real beeping security check!

Building and racing cars with Daddy.  Elle still has that luggage!

Trying out the Nascar.  This IS Charlotte after all.

I think this may have been their favorite area.  Water play!  Elle will sit and pour water bowl to bucket, bucket to bowl ALL day.  

In addition to the stuff I have pictured, there was also a pretend doctor's office, ambulance, bank (complete with working teller station), a stage with a puppet show, an under the sea area with a whale and ship, a brick factory, a car repair center and a huge playground area for climbing.  

Cameron turns 31!

Thursday was Cameron's 31st birthday.  He had to work (which he was definitely not thrilled about!), so the girls and I tried to make it as special as possible!  We took him out to breakfast at Panera before he had to be at the office.  The girls and I came straight home and began decorating.  We had streamers and balloons and Scarlett chose a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme for daddy.  The girls colored him a banner that we hung in the hall.  I made a pineapple upside down cake.  Cameron called and said he might be able to get away for lunch, so we met him at a local pizza place.  After he got off we went to dinner at hibachi, then brought Cameron home for the surprise unveil of the party.  I think he was surprised!  

Keeping busy this summer

Scarlett and Elle do great with free play with each other...in short increments! Left too long, things always spiral into chaos. I came up with lots of activities for the summer (many thanks to Pinterest...my favorite thing EVER). Here's a peek of some of the stuff I've kept the girls busy with.

Beads & laces. I found these on clearance at Michael's and they have already given me hours of sanity. Scarlett counted 132 beads to fit on that lace!

 

 

Scraps of posterboard, glue & Pom poms

 

She's making a giraffe

 

The indoor outlet mall is 2 exits up 85 and is gigantic! Plenty of kids stores & a carousel.

 

More projects with the beads...magic wands! This one was cute, but that wand has not held up like Elle wanted. There's a lot of "mommy, it's broken (bent). Fix it!"

 

We bought this easel at IKEA and it's one of the best $20 I've ever spent. The girls love it and use it CONSTANTLY! While I took Abbie out this morning, Scarlett drew a grid and wrote her numbers 1-100. She also invited a game she calls "Princess Inc." where we take turns drawing a princess and guessing which one it is.

 

Today it finally got HOT so we broke out the sprinkler!

 

And the ice! The girls LOVE this activity. I froze small frogs & fish toys in ice cubes (dropped one toy in each compartment of an ice cube tray, filled & froze). They liked this better than 1 big ice chunk with a bunch of toys (takes too long to get the toys out & they get frustrated). We used salt, cups of water, and the sunshine to free our friends today!

 

 

We've also kept busy with coloring & cutting (Elle loves). Scarlett has been blowing through her kindergarten workbook. She begs for just ONE more math worksheet! I've been trying to get her to read with me daily, but I think she's getting bored with the limited books we have here. She fusses and asks for more math instead!

We met friends in the neighborhood, so we have played outside with them and joined them at the park. We have also made a couple trips to the bounce place here, Monkey Joe's. Elle took awhile to warm up to the "monkey jump place". She was scared of several of the really big inflatables. She said she liked it the last time we left though!

I've got plenty more planned (& pinned) for the rest of the summer!

 

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Weekend Trip to Raleigh

We made a quick weekend trip to Raleigh Durham this weekend to check out the city and visit some dental school friends. Kervin is an orthodontist in the area and his wife Dalia works at Duke. Cameron saw them at a wedding a couple years ago, but I hadn't seen them since Boston. They have a 3 year old, KJ, and the kids got along great! Elle kept talking about "the boy". We met them early Saturday morning and went to the Life and Science museum which was awesome! There were so many exhibits, you could easily spend days!

We started with weather. Here's a mist tornado

 

The kids in a giant chair!

 

Scarlett playing with balances and weights

 

Then we moved to the outdoor exhibits. This was a water pumping station

 

 

A little later we found this cool device that simulated how seeds spread. They moved up the crane and came floating off the end for the kids to catch.

 

They had a huge butterfly house and insect hall. The bugs were freaking me out! They had these huge spiders in an exhibit with NO WALLS! I guess they are content in there, but it scared me!

The kids eating gummies after the bugs.

 

This was by far Elle's favorite exhibit. They were tiny plastic beads to teach volume. I literally carried her away kicking and screaming.

 

After lunch and a nap for Elle & KJ, we all went to Frankie's for arcade games and go karts.

 

The guys.

 

 

Plus kids! Note those exhausted little ones. We had a big fun day! It was so great to see them!

 

Sunday we got up and headed to Duke's campus to explore the Duke gardens. I has no idea they were so large! It was a beautiful walk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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'Nastics

Gymnastics is going really well! Scarlett joined the preschool 4 year old class in October, grew bored of it and moved up to the kindergarten class at the beginning of May and was asked to join the pre competition team. She had her first "Hot Shots" class last Wednesday. She's doing great and loving it! They are doing real gymnastics on the actual (not scaled down) equipment. Elle got to do her first class Wednesday too. She was so cute...she jumped right in without missing a beat. She must have been watching what to do those 6 months she was "benched" before her birthday. She will be in the 3 year old class. Scarlett goes 2 days a week for an hour and a half and Elle goes 1 day a week for 45 minutes. Here are my little gymnasts!

 

 

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Last week of school

Last week was a whirlwind of finishing school and leaving town for Atlanta and then Charlotte. The girls had Monday off for Memorial Day. They both went to school Tuesday, then Wednesday was Scarlett's last day and Elle's first full day. Scarlett had an ice cream party in the afternoon, so it was a good opportunity to let Elle stay full day. She had been asking me to stay and eat lunch with her friends for a few weeks. She did great! She was so excited to eat lunch, nap and have a little more playtime with Reid. Scarlett's party was cute. The kids had ice cream sundaes, then we got their memory books of pictures and their work, which were super cute. Thursday was Elle's last day, which was just a normal school day.

First day of school

 

And the last

 

At Scarlett's ice cream party

 

Last day of preschool! Posing with Mrs. Linda and Mrs. Kathy

 

 

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