Fun at the Science Museum

Yesterday we went on a little outing to the Tellus Science Museum. It's right off of I-75 in a town about 50 minutes north of us called Cartersville. Yup, Carter was super excited to go to Cartersville! And the museum was fantastic! I love the Fernbank in Atlanta, but this was even better!


In the lobby we had fun watching the Foucault pendulum. Would it knock over any blocks?? We were on the edges of our seats (if we had seats)...


The first thing you see as you enter the main hall is a ginormous Apatosaurus skeleton. So cool! I love this photo of Carter looking up at the head!


In the fossil gallery we also found a big and scary T-Rex!! Named Stan. HA!


A great area for younger kids was the "Big Backyard" - lots of interesting hands-on science stuff, including this fun magnet exhibit...


There was a large exhibit about Science in Motion - lots of cool cars, airplanes, rockets, etc. Loved seeing Carter the astronaut!


Courtney's favorite things were the fossil dig...


And panning for gems!


Their geeky mom loved this awesome periodic table display!


Another highlight was the kids' very first planetarium visit! Super duper cool.


Tonight before bed Courtney asked if we could go to "the museum in Cartersville with the gems" again tomorrow. Sorry sweetie, not tomorrow, but maybe another time soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Farmers Market Fun!

Wow I've completely fallen off the wagon when it comes to sharing family photos! Oops! I'll try to get back on schedule with it this weekend, but today I thought I'd share what we did today to "kick off" our Memorial Day weekend - a trip to the farmers market!


I asked Courtney this morning if she wanted braids in her hair. I meant two braids. She said "Yes, five braids! If Rapunzel saw me with five braids, she'd say 'Courtney that's so cool!'" So, alas, my sweet girl was sportin' the Bo Derek look at the market...

We were only a few stalls into the market when we came upon a sweet little petting zoo! The kids loooooved it. They got to pet ducklings...


And sweet little bunnies...


Courtney wasn't quite sure what to make of this painted dragon.


Ok, he was a nice lizard afterall.


Here Courtney has a turtle, and Carter has a CHINCHILLA! Very cool.


Once the petting was done, Mommy got to have her veggie fix. Oh how I love farmers markets! I can't help it, I have to show you a few gratuitous vegetable photos...


Carrots, "Yellow Taxi" tomatoes, and beets. Just lovely. I ended up buying lettuce, cucumbers and a couple of those yellow tomatoes to make a salad for dinner tonight. Plus two stalks of gorgeous green garlic - I'll be making a tasty stir fry tomorrow!

After the market, we went to the mall for a fun Lego store visit, then had a picnic with some cheese we bought at the market, among other things. Daddy and Carter kicked the soccer ball around a bit before heading home. A good start to the weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Spring! Mayfield Park & Mt. Bonnell

Today was a gorgeous spring day here in Austin, so the kids and I just had to go on an outdoor adventure! We picked a couple of parks they had never been to. First up was Mayfield Park, just west of downtown.

The park has an old estate and cottage gardens, with ponds...


And peacocks!!


But we enjoyed the most was hiking on the trails, that took us down along Lake Austin.


Sweet brother and sister!


I loved seeing the first signs of spring.


Next we headed over to Mt. Bonnell, the highest point in Austin at whopping 785ft. Well even if it's not really a mountain, it's still a nice place to look at views of the city (and a little fact for you - it's where Joel proposed to me!) :-) It was the first time the kids visited. Here they are getting ready to walk up all the steps to the top!


My sweet boy.


Enjoying the view.


Courtney isn't a fan of looking at the camera these days - but I thought this photo was sweet, despite her not looking.


After our time with nature we met Aunt Laura for lunch at Jason's Deli. All in all, a good day. Well, until I took them for their well checks at the pediatrician right after lunch... ;-)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Giraffes!!

This past weekend the kids and I drove up to Dallas to spend the weekend with Daddy, who's up there on business. We packed in a few fun things, but for now I'm just going to show you one of them - because it was THE COOLEST THING EVER!!! We took the kids to the Dallas Zoo, where they got to feed a giraffe!! Some photos...

Here little giraffe, do you want some yummy lettuce?


Well hello there beautiful. Hungry?


Carter feeding the giraffe.


And Courtney.


He was so happy to be fed he even let Daddy pet him.


Thank you for a thrill today, gorgeous giraffe!


This was part of the newly-opened Giants of the Savanna exhibit. It's absolutely beautiful, you really must go see it!


Oh but maybe not in July - it was Africa HOT there in the African savanna! Ugh. But so worth sweating our way through to get to feed a giraffe!!

A to Z at the Park

Here's a creative & educational activity from last month! My friend Lisa had shared this link, which mentions going on an A to Z walk. I thought it was a GREAT idea for fun, free kid entertainment! So we grabbed the camera, a notebook to keep track of our letters, and headed to the park. Carter REALLY got into it, he thought it was tons of fun. Here's what we came up with...

A is for Air.


B is for going Barefoot.


C is for Carter next to a Cactus.


D is for dandelion.


E is for ESCAPEE!


F is for Frog.


G is for Grill.


H is for Hill.


I is for the Interesting part of the park.


J is for Jump!!


K is for Kid.


L is for Leaf.


M is for Mud.


N is for Numbers.


O is for Orange shirt.


P is for Pelican.


Q is for the Quiet part of the park.


R is for Rock.


S is for Swing.


T is for T-rex.


U is for Up a tree.


V is for Very hard. ("but not for me!")


W is for Wrong Way up the slide.


X is for X. hee hee


Y is for it's good to be Young.


and Z is for Zooming down the slide!


Yes some were a bit of a stretch, but we did our best. Fun day at the park!!