Easter and the week preceding

A few highlights from this week!  Stephanie started T-ball, which has practice twice a week and then she will eventually start playing other teams.  She loves it so far... the coach is great.  He is really good with the kids and I have been impressed at how he layers their activities to increase the level of complexity.  The first day some kids didn't even know what it meant to run the bases and just headed straight to the outfield fence after tagging first and most of the others cut the corners and didn't actually touch any bases after first, but by the second practice they were running them like tiny little pros and having a blast doing it. 

This is her outfit she picked for the first practice (she insisted on holding up a craft she had worked on that day). She also did not want Gwen in the picture and stood in front of her.  Gwen didn't mind...

Gwen at practice.

Later this week, we went to an arboretum in Raleigh for an unconventional Easter Egg hunt.  The eggs were hidden around the property and spelled an early spring bloomer...

Not her best writing, but not all of the writing surfaces were ideal.

We went, OF COURSE, with our neighbors.  After the hunt, the kids won a prize, in this case seed for bees and butterflies.  Perfect, as we are trying to eradicate our grass and have a pollinator habitat.

Gwen had to get in on the seed show-off.  She was completely exhausted and I was very surprised to see that she still had enough energy to mimic her sister. 

Everyone was quite tired the next day, so I decided on a lazier day at home.  But I did dress Gwen in a super cute outfit and had to get the camera out anyway.

And that brings us to Easter.  We had a really good basket hunt complete with clues, but none of my pictures turned out great- mostly because Stephanie was enthusiastically running around in search of the next clue and even the fast camera couldn't keep up.  She actually spotted an outdoor one from the window upstairs, but still took the time to first dress in the Easter outfit she picked out weeks ago, complete with head boppers. 

At the end of the hunt, she tore into the presents, but then expressed that she was sad that the hunt was over, which is funny because as we were doing the hunt, I was thinking that I was always a little sad when it was over when I was a kid. Both kids were a bit exhausted by the time church was over, but we did naps all around and had a good reset!

Another day, another adventure

Wednesday: Nice and low key play date at the neighbors house.

Thursday: Afternoon at the Museum of Life and Science with our neighbor buddies

Friday: Neighbor buddies convince me it a good idea to go to the indoor pool in Raleigh (it was) and why not hit the nature preserve on the way home (okay, I needed to charge the car, and there was a charge station there, but I only needed to charge and hour and we stayed for three)

Saturday: See previous blog post

Sunday: I had a lovely afternoon at home while Gwen had a nice nap in her own bed, while Kevin and Stephanie haul back to Raleigh for an 80+ minute orienteering race).  OH! And bonus-time change!

Monday: Stephanie and I both wake up in less that premium moods- my patience is thin, she is on a very obvious emotional edge- I decide to cancel the next adventure, Greensboro science center with the neighbor buddies.  Neighbor adult Buddy is very understanding, neighbor child buddy is very disappointed.  I am already packed and prepped and after talking to them decide to un-cancel and off we go on our first trip to the Greensboro Science Center. 

Tomorrow: Museum of Life and Science

Honestly, most weeks aren't like this, and we are usually only gone for most of a day once or at most twice in one week.  But the weather has finally turned  warm, the neighbors have all been around and, frankly, it is often harder to spend a whole day at home than it is to spend a hectic day out and about.  

That brings us to today's pictures.  The Science Center was good.  No Life and Science Museum (and really, who could expect that much), but it definitely had a few gold stars, especially the aquarium.  

 

Stephanie easily identified this Lego structure that was down a random hall in a stretch of classrooms as a Star Wars ship.  I wasn't sure, but, like all good museums, items were identified by small cards, and indeed she was correct.  

Siamese turtles!  Really!

My friend with us recommended this shot in the aquarium... So cute of the big kids!

Sting Ray petting was a big hit and on the list as our last must do again item before we headed out.

There were free range chickens and peacocks, and the peacocks were beautiful.  The big kids were desperately following it very quietly to get as close as possible.  Gwen was less of a fan, and tried to scale the wall into the goat pen to get away.

Speaking of scaling walls...

Baby gibbon... So ridiculously cute

Gwen liked the wallaby almost as much as she likes strawberries.

Planetarium-Ice Cream Saturday

Another Saturday has come (and nearly gone) and all I have to show for it is a mere 206 new pictures.  We started out at the planetarium (a typical weekend stop, as we are members, parking is free on the weekends and it is close to home and Kevin's work) and then headed to ice cream.  We also ran a couple of errands (I didn't take any pictures at Kroger or Lowe's... maybe next time). 

There is a giant sundial right in front of the planetarium that we have never actually explored- probably because I usually screech into the parking lot a whole 2 minutes before our scheduled show- but today we had ten minutes, and took some pictures.  When we left, we had to check it out again to see the time change.  After that, off to ice cream at Maple View Farms- a downright picturesque place to grab a delicious treat.  Kevin was at work (technically, so was I, but my job tends to be more fun than his most days!) so he didn't join us, but we will get him to one of our Saturday fundays soon. 

Got there at 12:20... the dial is maybe a few minutes behind?

Stephanie got to volunteer for the non-Newtonian fluid demo (just silly putty)

We left at about 2:30... this dial is definitely losing time!

"Please to be handing that over"

Missed a spot!

"Ta Da!"  She managed to get the spoons to stand up in the table and was loudly celebrating.