This is a taste of a regular day around here. One of Molly and Leah's favorite activities is playing music in Molly's room and dancing around. So, here's a bit of them dancing.
The girls and I headed to Port Discovery Children's Museum with our playgroup this week. Leah loved playing in the Wonders of Water room.
Molly and Simon had fun filling this cylinder causing it to spin due to the power of water.
A couple of our playgroup dad's came along for the fun too. Zach is doing a great job overseeing the boat building.
The museum has three floors of exhibits for the kids to discover. Any kind of "shopping" area was a hit!
While the big kids played in the three story tree house, the toddlers checked out the new Tot Trails exhibit. Leah liked making these pegs light up.
And she thought it was fun to sit in these seats that looked a lot like turtle shells.
What happened to waiting until 16 before she got behind the wheel?
The Music Studio was great. They loved playing with the Boomwhackers and the big drum.
Queen for a day...or may be just a moment!
Before we left, the kids requested to play in the Wonders of Water room again. Standing inside the big bubble was a must-do since you've already seen that Molly loves bubbles!
The girls and I went to Toys R Us armed with a gift card from Molly's birthday. We returned with bubbles, including this bubble gun.
Do you think she likes it?
When was the last time you frolicked with bubbles?
And I may have got in a little bubble gun action too!
We've already had to replace the bubble solution and the batteries. The girl loves her bubbles!
We decided to have one more family fun activity while G'Mom and Grampa were in town, so we headed to the National Aquarium. Molly loved it, and got excited about almost everything we saw. She just kept running up to each enclosure and exclaiming "Mom, look, more fish!"
We made sure to hit the newest exhibit, Jellies Invasion. There were so many jellyfish!
One of the highlights of the trip was the dolphin show. It's not Sea World, but it was good stuff.
Molly decided that she wanted to use the map (like Dora does).
Molly's checked out some very large sea turtles in the "Animal Planet Australia: Wild Extremes" exhibit, though she wass so close to the glass that we got two pictures of her.
More fun pictures from Molly's party...
Even Leah got in on the fishing action.
But Aunt Caroline, isn't this supposed to be a Mickey slipper, not a chef's hat?!
Or maybe it's a hair net? Pop thinks so.
To minimize the gift opening chaos, I delayed opening family gifts until after the party. Do you think she's excited?
Leah had a fun time at the party too.
Our family, plus a few mouse friends, at the end of a great party.
This week, it's started to look like Spring. So, we took advantage of the better weather and headed down to the playground by our house after nap time.
Leah loves the slide, and went down as many times as she could squeeze into our visit. Each time she'd get to the bottom, she'd run around to the stairs to climb straight back up so that she could go down again.
Jen started out catching Leah at the bottom, but then Molly asked if she could catch Leah. The catch turned out to be a very sweet hug.
Molly wanted to play in the sandbox, but she didn't want to get sand in her shoes. So, she stood on the side and built some sort of house.
I tried to get pictures of Leah before sliding down several times, but she was very focused on sliding down as quickly as possible. I did manage to get her to look at me this one time, though, before she quickly turned back around to slide down.
The slide may have been Leah's favorite, but she did swing for a short while. Looks like she's enjoying it.
For a fun family outing yesterday, we went to Baskin Robbins. Leah really enjoyed her vanilla frozen yogurt, and especially liked dragging a spoonful along her tongue. I guess it maximized the taste.
Molly wanted rainbow ice cream, so it gave Chad a chance to introduce her to one of his favorites, Baskin Robbins rainbow sherbet. She loved it.
For the third year, I hosted a Mardi Gras celebration with my MOMS Club. I enjoy sharing this New Orleans tradition with my Maryland friends!
The party favors were made...
And someone was very excited about eating king cake with her friends! I made a cream cheese filled, with cream cheese icing. Mmmm...
Molly welcomed everyone at the door saying, "Happy Mardi Gras Day!" The kids decorated their own king's crowns...
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then donned their hats and enjoyed a piece of cake.
Each child left with Mardi Gras beads and a bag of cookies. I hope I lived up the the hype, as according to one friend, "It's the best event of the year!" I had to laugh when another friend said she'd been waiting years to come and was "starting to feel like [she] should camp out for tickets!"
Since it's warmed up a bit, we took the opportunity to get out of the house and play a little soccer. Leah hasn't grasped the "no hands" part of it yet.
Molly scores!
Leah wanted to wear Chad's hat for much of the outing.
Molly figured out a new trick - balancing on the ball with her knees.
It may still have been February, but Sunday it warmed up enough to get outside. Molly and Leah were eager to take advantage of it.
Chad kept saying that Leah was ready to go back to the 70's with her snazzy dress.
Warm weather also means... bubbles!
Bubbles are great to stomp on,
and to pop by poking.
