My Little Pirate

I love my little pirate! He's decided that his costume has to be worn all day long. So if you see us running errands today, don't be surprised about the pirate I have along. He's excited!

Sacramento Children's Museum

So, for our preschool field trip we went to the Sacramento Children's Museum. It is a blast. I am totally sure our membership is going to be worth it. There is no way we won't use this place.

First, it is all of 10 minutes from our house. Second, it is across from Costco. This means, to avoid fights out the door, I can offer the incentive of getting Costco food for lunch. It is totally worth the $2 for pizza to get out of the door without a fight or a temper tantrum.

This place is nice. They have all the explanations for the various scientific principles taking place on the walls or attached to the exhibits. This means we can read about the exhibit and explain it to the kids without appearing stupid :) It is always a plus to be able to answer the "Why?" question with honesty and without having to resort to google-ing it. Nicholas actually can tell you to "Google it," when you tell him you don't know the answer to something. I guess I have taught him something about computers after all!



While you are paying your money and checking in, they have this giant light-bright thing. Remember the toy where you put up the sheet of paper on the lighted screen and poke holes through the paper with the pegs? Well, it is a giant one of those. Although the holes are already poked and the pegs just go into the holes. It is great because it means the kids aren't pestering me while I am paying/checking in.

They also have family bathrooms. This is a plus for me because they have changing tables and I can go in with Nicholas without him complaining about going into the "girls" bathroom. Happy days!

This giant vacuum toy is on the wall first thing. You put the scarves and balls into it and it sucks them around and spits them out. Abby happily sits here and giggles as everything gets spit out. She chases the scarves and balls around to collect them .



They also have this store area. There is a little register, a scale, and lots of play food to play with. It comes with baskets and a wheelbarrow. Nicholas was kind enough to load up the wheelbarrow for Abby before taking off to go play somewhere else.

Then Abby decided that the wheelbarrow had an off-label purpose: a climbing toy. She insisted on getting in and climbing in it. She actually climbed onto the counter once. I pulled her off and she complained. That was that for Abby's climbing day.

She also was upset that the fruit wasn't real. She would put it in her mouth and try to bite, then not get anything, and be annoyed. It was amusing, but I did feel bad for her.

There is also an art area. They have this big window between the art area and the play areas were the kids can paint on the window. It is great. Nicholas loves to do this because it isn't something you get to do at home - I'm not insane enough to let him paint on the windows. But here, he gets to paint on the windows. It was fun putting my face on one side and then he would paint over me looking through the window. Then we'd move on.

There are also tons of other projects to do in the art room - we just didn't get around to them because, right next to the art room is.......

THE WATER AREA!!!

My children love water. Except Nicholas doesn't like swimming pools that are so deep he can't stand in them. But otherwise, water is great. They never want to get out of the pool in the yard, the bath tub, and if the hose is turned on you have no chance of turning it off without a fight. Every container we have in the back yard has been filled with water at some point. Water is great.

So imagine their joy with the water play area. The best thing was, they have these seats (see where Abby is?) that are for little kids to sit in and play. Abby loved this. I tried getting her out and she stuck her legs out so I couldn't get her out and grabbed on so hard while screaming. I imagine her words would have been, "Not on your life mommy!" It's a great play area. They have some explanations here too, but we just played.

Anyways, we love it here and will be back, multiple times.

Jon's week off.

Jon had last week off. It was a blast. I got a lot done. I had a goal of one room cleaned a day, plus the gym, plus sewing, plus the yard. And some of that list even got done!

We also did a lot that week. We went to Apple Hill, to the Sacramento Children's Museum, and a ton of other places. We were quite the busy family.



We went to the same farm we went to last year in Apple Hill - it's #20 in case anyone is interested. It has some great Halloween stands to take pictures in, a pond to throw rocks into (for Nicholas), some animals to pet and feed, a hay maze (although it was closed because of the rain), nature trails, great BBQ sandwiches (or just the meat in my case), and great deserts and stores.



Abby liked the dirt the best. I am lucky she is so easy to please. Just put her down in a pile of dirt and she will be happy. She will also be dirty and will eat the dirt, but oh well. It is a small price to pay to be able to make her happy.




We also went to the Sacramento Children's Museum. It is a blast. We immediately got a membership there. Nicholas loves it, Abby loves it (more on the museum in a later post), and it is small. Small enough that I can play with Abby in one part and watch Nicholas in another. There is only one way in and out, and they don't let people come in without kids. They also have roaming staff members to help out. We have been back 2 other times since last week. it is fabulous.



The kids also did a lot of playing outside. They love the sandbox in the back. Who knew Crabby (that's the name of the sandbox, courtesy of Nicholas) would be so great. Best money spent on a back yard toy yet - except for the pool.



And so our week with Jon ended. Too bad. Now his busy season at work starts back up and we are lucky to see him at all once that starts.

Things we all know can happen in less than 3 minutes....

Like with kids is filled with fun events that happen in under three minutes, like:

1. The older child filling a bowl of water and dumping it on the younger child - on the carpet - and calling it a bath.

2. Poop poop everywhere (this should need no explanation).

3. Every drawer in the kitchen opened - and they have baby locks on them - and everything pulled out.

4. Cheerios placed everywhere. You might mistakenly think our house is made of bubble wrap form the sounds.

5. Milk from the fridge was helpfully "poured" into cups for everyone.

So this all adds up to 15 minutes of fun for the children and about 3 hours of cleaning for me. I realize they are having fun. My mother just smiles serenely when I tell her these stories. I know inside she's laughing like a hyena. But at least she tries to commiserate.

Just to brag

I've been absent from blogging for a while. It seems to take more energy than I have at the end of the day. So I'm trying to catch up. But for the moment - we took these pictures formally yesterday.

Yes, I made the dress. It's her Christmas dress. I made the top stretchy, so I hope it still fits at Christmas time. I was finishing it (by hand!) the morning of the pictures.

But it was totally worth it.






I have the cutest kids on the whole planet.

But then, every mother thinks so.