Please Touch

We have been waiting forever to visit this museum with Stephanie, Reagan and Jensen. Now we wish we would have just gone a long time ago so we would have known how great it was and then would have gone again and again! So many fun things to see. Sorry you won't get to see all the pictures, there are too many cute ones to even put them all up.

First we played in a little water section. Lila looked so cute in her little vest protector. She was a little too short to reach most of the toys and see the water but was so cute with the little rubber duckies.

Then we sat in some cars and pretended to serve up some Rita's! For all you poor people who haven't been out here, Rita's water ice is delicious. Water ice is like a snow cone except more the consistency of ice cream rather than shaved ice or a slushee. It is so good and comes in lots of good flavors. My favorite so far this summer has been the swedish fish flavor (all the goodness without getting it stuck in my teeth!)

Then we went to a space room with some cool sciencey kind of stuff. Balls that would float when you put them over some blowing air, rockets you could shoot up into the sky, and space suits to try on. Oh, and of course, finally a good picture of Jensen's shirt! It was his birthday! We were so excited to spend his special day playing with him.

After our space adventures we played in a little home mock up with a yard and a garden. We planted carrots and potatoes and made food in the kitchen. Home sweet home!

Next we went to the hospital. Reagan especially loved this one, he was a natural doctor. They even had a little X-ray machine and MRI machine where you could take images of dolls and they would come up on the light screen next to them. It was great. I also have a little video that starts with Lila hitting herself. I was checking her patellar reflexes and then she went ahead and tried to check her own. Such a smart girl.

Our last stop was Lila's favorite. Grocery shopping! There was a mini ShopRite that we could take our carts around and pick up our food, then we could take it all to the little kitchen and put it away or make dinner or whatever. There was also a check out stand where the older kids could buy their food like at a real store. Lila loved it and even did some cart hopping. She was adorable!

Finally Lila, Jensen and I cheered on Reagan and Stephanie on the Carousel. They looked great! After everything we did there was still so much that we didn't get to do. We know for sure this is one place we will want to come every time we make it out here. What a great place for the kids!

4th of July

The 4th of July was a lot like Memorial Day except we got to add Dan, Kelsey, and J. Dee to the party. Still had good food, good swimming, and good company though! We have enjoyed so much being with family this summer, we have had a great time. Lila had a hard time keeping her eyes open in the sun.

I heart Tim Tebow

When I was growing up I always knew I did not want to marry a guy into sports. Well clearly that didn't work out too well for me. So of course Todd likes to watch sports talk shows. It seems like he is always watching the same show 90% of the time. I don't even know what it's called but it is on for 2 hours in the morning, then they replay it in the afternoon. Although I know it is a gross exaggeration, sometimes it seems like he watches all 4 hours every day. (There are actually a lot of days he doesn't have time to watch any, but when he can I can always guess what will be on). These are the guys he watches. All I know is the white guy's name is skip, and the other guy looks like a living caricature.

I included 2 pictures of what they normally look like as they fight with each other and the third is the best one I could find that shows how easily that guys face could be turned into a caricature. Anyway!

Literally every single time I come in while Todd is watching this show they are arguing about Tim Tebow. Every time. Every day. No mater what. For a while I was sure this was a show dedicated to him. Todd swears that it's not. In case you are wondering, they fight because Skip thinks that Tebow is the best thing since sliced bread, and Mr. Face thinks that he is is an overrated pretty boy fit to be third string or stuck back in college ball. 

So, even though I don't care about sports, and I care much less about Tim Tebow, I have a strange power to bring him up on this silly show. Today Todd left for practice and I came downstairs to put Lila down for a nap. Todd had left the TV on, and Tim Tebow was on there at some awards show. A few seconds later I found out that this was a short clip of that show and then pops up these 2 guys to discuss his performance (the part they showed was some funny little banter between Tebow and some other guy). Then they talked about some award Tebow won and whether he deserved to win it. I have come to the conclusion that I must have some subconscious crush on this football player that I pretty much know nothing about except that his talent is highly controversial. So there it is. I don't know anything about sports, but apparently I heart Tim Tebow!

Lila wets the bed!

Ok, so this happened about a month ago. Todd was freaking out like Lila had some kind of instantly terminal disease, but I thought it was funny and made him take a picture before throwing her in the tub.  He would only take this one so sorry we got Lila with her eyes closed. The story goes we went to church, and we always come home and put Lila right down for her nap because we have to wake her up early to get her ready and then still put her down later than we normally do, so she is always tired for her nap on Sundays. Well, we didn't think about the fact that this particular dress doesn't have any bloomers that come with it, and it was too hot for her tights so she had easy access to that diaper of hers. She loves to take it off, and in the rare instance she had the opportunity, she sure took it! We had been taking a nap at the same time, but since she sounded so happy on the monitor we let her be for a while so we could extended our nap a few minutes. Just a little excrement, nothing too bad, Todd! At least it was contained and not all over the carpet! We love you Lila. Always!

I told Todd we should feel lucky it wasn't sticky-smeary poop. This was much easier to clean!

Time to Play!

We spent some time in the city to play with kids and then eat some tasty food! Could have been a great day. Unfortunately, it was over 100 degrees outside, which made all us adults wish we were naked. The kids just ignored the heat and played with red faces. At least they enjoyed it!

We took the kids to Smith Memorial Playground/house. It is a free play place for kids (with optional donations). It was huge! First we went down a giant slide at the playground. Sorry so many pictures are blurry, we were speedy slide go-ers! And Lila and I took a spill at the bottom. It was great fun.

Then we spent some time on the actual playground, avoiding the sun as much as possible.

Finally, after an excruciating long time (it seemed), we went into the playhouse. Unfortunately, there was no AC. I don't think it was actually hotter inside, but there was no rare breeze to help cool you off. I suppose we should have been grateful that they didn't let the heat swelter in the house like it does in a car, at least the windows were open. But instead of being grateful we sweated our brains out and occasionally passed out on a bench. I think the other parents were better sports about it than Todd and I were. It was just so hot!

I do have to say that it was a WONDERFUL place for the kids to play. I did very much enjoy watching them all have so much fun, and would certainly go again on a more temperate day. When we were finished, we had some time to kill while waiting for Dan and Kelsey to meet us in the city. So we decided to stop by the Philadelphia Art Museum to get some classic Rocky shots. The parking was outrageous so Stephanie and I drove the cars around and let the kids sleep while Todd, Scott, and Lisa went to see the statue.

We then headed over to Reading Terminal Market, one of the places Dan and Kelsey had been wanting to go. We were going to meet them there. We drove into a parking garage, and we all read the prices-

Up to 1/2 hour $6.00

Each additional 1/2 hour $6.00 each

1 1/2-12 hours $29.00

Yup. Once we hit 90 minutes it would cost us a whopping 29 bucks per car. Of course once we had driven part way in there was no way to get out without going through the garage, and once you took a ticket it was an automatic $6.00. So we all jumped out of the car, decided we would run into the market, get lunch as fast as we could, and try to make it back before our 1/2 hour was up. We would just have to miss out on going with Dan and Kelsey. Luckily, I read a sign in the elevator. If I hadn't done that we would have had a much worse experience. I read that if you were going to the market and spent $10 at any one place, you could get your parking ticket validated and then 2 hours would only cost you $4. Whooh! We were all relieved. We still didn't get to spend quite as long as we wanted there, and Dan and Kelsey got stiffed because they got there about 40 minutes later but we all had to leave at the same time due to car shuffling we had to do. But!!! We did eat the most delicious roast pork sandwich there. They were large (as all the sandwiches around here tend to be) and I easily ate my entire thing it was so good. We did walk around just a little and now at least I can say i've been there.