Belleview Park

I think that Belleview Park has got to be the most adorable park I've ever taken my kids to. It has a stream to play in, a petting zoo and a train ride. The petting zoo and the train are $1.50 a piece so it is a little pricey for just taking the kids to the park, not to mention the 45 minute drive it takes to get there. It is worth it though when you get to play at such a fun place. My highlights for this trip to the park: Rushmore being stinking adorable in the water-even when he tried to eat the rocks, the kids playing with absolutely no fighting, being with my sister, listening to Larke claim that the baby ducks were hers and finally teaching Gideon how to skip rocks in the water just like my Dad taught me and seeing him do it once.

The Bay

At least once a summer my sister and I like to take our kids to the Bay. It is a good size pool for younger kids with slides for younger kids. We have a blast everytime we go. Eden has recently discovered that she thinks goggles are awesome and she has been so fun to swim with lately.

Flutterbys

We went to the Butterfly Pavilion this week. Which by the way is much cheaper if you have a group of atleast 10, but you have to make a reservation atleast 72 hrs in advance. You get a whole $2 off per person if you do this so I think the forethought is worth the savings. All the kids were brave enough to hold the tarachula except for Larke who is apparently afraid of everything right now. She doesn't want to touch it and she doesn't want it touching her. The kids had fun frolicking around looking at bugs and trying to take pictures of the butterflies. I enjoyed being with my wonderful sister LeAnn and her sister in law Karen. It was fun and the gift shop unfortunately has some very cute things that I really had to restrain myself. One more thing about the Butterfly Pavilion. Gideon and Spencer tried to scare me with a fake taranchula that Spencer was holding in his hand. I, however, was not fooled and I flicked it out of his hand and it landed right in front of a Dad there with his kids. He however was fooled and it gave him quite a scare. I think his wife enjoyed his discomfort the most, but it was definitely a highlight to my day.

Bubbles

I took the kids to the Children's Museum a couple of weeks ago. We had such a blast. I think that we spent like 5 hours there. My favorite exhibit by far was the bubble room. It's a fairly new exhibit at the museum and it was so fun. They have tubes with smoke coming out of them that you can use to make your own smoke filled bubbles, Eden's favorite part They had a huge bubble maker that you can control. They have smoke filled bubbles that fall from the ceiling. There is an area where you pull on a rope and can be surrounded by 4 bubble walls. My favorite part was playing with these very simple metal round with handles that you can make very large long bubbles with. I made the kids all take turns letting me put them in a bubble, because the rounds were big enough to put over the top of a kid body. So fun!
The kids enjoyed the fire truck, the painting, the dress-up, the grocery store, the sand box area, the climbing and well everything. Gideon got to be in a radio play as a detective and Eden helped to make sound effects. It was such a fun day. I love the Children's Museum. I love that it is a place that all of my kids enjoy. I love being able to play with them there.

Just A Picture Of Matt And I On Our Anniversary

SOCCER!

So the last couple months Gideon has had his first experiences with playing soccer. He was very unsure the first game and cried for half the game. Once he got to know his coach and teammates better he enjoyed it alot more. He has gotten to goalie a part of 2 different games and got scored on once and stopped a goal once. He has been getting a little more confident with each game and practice. He has enjoyed learning how to kick, pass and hit the ball with his head. One game he was being a little more aggressive then he usually is and got knocked down. He scraped up his elbow pretty good, but kept on playing. I patched him up during a quarter break, but then he got hurt again when the biggest boy on our team accidently kicked the ball hard into Gideon's stomach. He totally lost his breathe and took a break with me for 5 minutes. I was really proud of him for going back out there after these 2 incidents in the same game. It has been fun to watch him learn.