Hands-On Children's Museum--part 1

Today, we went down to Lacey to visit my parents and check out the Olympia Hands-On Children's Museum that I had heard so much about. A lot of my twin mom friends had recommended that we go there as they had all had a fun experience, so since my parents now live close-by it seemed a natural destination. There were so many cute pictures, I decided to break them down into two posts.

They had all kinds of stations around the building and they were so fun! This was the craft room and the twins got to paint with things other than paint brushes. It was messy, but they loved it!

Josiah and Caleb are seated here at the table in the play kitchen area. Many of the other children had loaded the table up with lots of food and other items and Josiah has a very gleeful expression here that I was able to capture.

There was even a smaller tot room where Naomi could crawl around on a soft mat and look at herself in the mirror. I always love getting the mirror pictures and she did not fail to prove that mirror shots are super cute!

I was pleasantly surprised to find they had a kid's stage station where they had lots of dress-up clothes with mirrors for the kids to view themselves, and then a stage with a wooden microphone to perform as well. Caleb of course was the first and only one to dress-up and make his way into the limelight. I didn't tell him he should talk on the microphone, but he knew just what to do! I suggested he wear the cow costume and he willingly tried that on and then found this wooly vest and decided that would be his hat, hence the cow/sheep appearance.

And Daniel who refused a costume, promptly found the "sound booth" and began pushing sound cues for his brother Caleb who was up on stage. It had some fun noises like "thunder," "ta-da," "trumpet," and those kinds of things. You can see how proud he is here that he is running the sound. Somehow I don't doubt we might have a comparison picture in future years with Daniel at a real sound board and Caleb on a real stage. Time will tell!

Caleb tried on the firefighter costume and went back to the microphone to perform again!

Naomi hung out with Grandpa for most of the time because she had fallen asleep in her carseat, but when she woke up, she was very curious and wanted to see all that was going on. She loves to play with Grandpa's hat and was trying to reach his toothpick here.

They had an entire wall of those push pins that make an imprint of your hand or whatever you put on them. Naomi and Grandma are exploring those together.

There was also an ambulance and a trauma unit station and Caleb was very emphatic about calling for help on the red phone. He also took the stethescope to examine one of the sick baby dolls in the doctor's office area.

Hands-On Children's Museum--part 2

Daniel and Caleb found this delivery truck first and were fighting over who would get to drive it. Mommy had to intervene and institute some turn taking to solve the dispute! Daniel was thrilled to get his turn as you can see!

At the building site area, They had some plastic rocks to shovel into the back of the dump truck and Josiah didn't waste any time trying that out! They also had these long boards with which the kids could build a large house. They reminded me of Lincoln Logs, but flat boards instead of round. They had hard hats and pretend tools here as well for the kids to play with.

There was a long train table with wooden tracks and trains for the older kids and they had some buttons that you could press to make various train sounds. Daniel is listening intently to hear where they are coming from. When I showed him he could make them, he spent some time pressing all the buttons over and over.

Josiah liked this area the best and requested to come back there after we had seen the rest of the stations at the museum. He said, "Goodbye" to his trains when he left the area as well, which was really cute!

Daniel was having fun making meals for me in the play kitchen area and here was encouraing me to taste his latest dish he brought over. I love his beautiful blues in this shot!

Josiah was in the garden area here near the store picking some fresh produce. I loved all the walls how they were so intricately painted to fit each area. It was all very colorful and fun!

At the veterenarian station, they had stuffed dogs with leashes in numbered cages, weighing stations to examine the dogs, and a place to give them a bath (minus real water of course). Caleb was getting ready to wash one of the dogs with the long, green gloves.

After the fun day we had at the museum, we went to a little bakery/cafe just down the street and the kids had some donuts with sprinkles to enjoy. It was great fun and it was well worth it to check out the museum! This will definitely be a place to go again and again in the future. Thanks Mom and Dad for the fun time!

Sick Family!!

So, the morning of Jan. 8th, David and I got a BIG surprise....and not a good one! Three little boys with three piles of throw up.....yeah, I know....TMI (too much information)!!! Thankfully the first two piles were on wood surfaces and the 3rd was caught in a towel and not on the couch (thank you sweetheart for that one!) These guys were down and out for that morning and just sat as you see them here (or slept for a bit too) and then come afternoon they were up and at 'em again as usual. I was sort of hoping for a slightly longer respite with them being ill, but it was short lived. I was also hoping that the dreaded bug would pass over me, but come Monday night I discovered that I was not going to be spared. Tuesday was pretty much a non-day for me as I was recovering and then we were all done with it. Daddy and Naomi were the only two that escaped!

Good news for the year though, we seem to have had LESS illnessess than ever before thus far. (Shall I knock on wood just to be safe? Ha ha!) For this, I am very thankful!

Uncle Brent Fun!

We had a surprise visit from my brother at the beginning of January when he was on his way back from visiting our parents. He stayed for couple of hours and we talked and he interacted with the kiddos. Caleb and Daniel decided to try out their new "medical equipment" on Uncle Brent and were checking his ears and blood pressure here. Uncle Brent truly DOES have ear problems, so it was kind of ironic and he was trying to keep Caleb from irritating his ears further and was laughing during the "exam."

It was nice to see him again! We had a visit planned to come up and see him on the 22nd, but he actually got sick and had to cancel, so we will re-schedule again for some Saturday in February to go and visit he and his wife Katie.

Special Moments

Daddy is getting hugged here by all three boys at once and he is sporting his mischievous grin to boot.

Naomi girl is hugging tight to her sweet little BunBun right before going to sleep at bedtime.

Josiah found a fun way to entertain the baby. He got her to sit in the Lego Duplo box and then pushed her in it on the rug slowly with Mommy's supervision. This face says it all...and notice the gripping of the box. She fit in the box very snugly and was giggling and enjoying her new ride. Josiah is doing his silly pose in the background on this one; a very characteristic look for him.

Cute Bath Time Comparison

Naomi is finally getting used to taking a bath now (she used to hate the water and cry when I put her in it). She loves to play with the water and makes all kinds of happy noises now when I give her a bath.

Here is Josiah on what WOULD be in 4 years Naomi's birthday. Thank you for time stamps on the photos! He is about 9 months here in this one, so they are very close to the same age. I looked for pictures of the twins too, but wasn't able to find them off the top (we have LOTS of pictures), but I did find a blog post of them in the bath to share (just click the link).