mckenna's children's museum.

As part of our Texas vacation, we checked out another children's museum! We went to the McKenna Children's Museum and had an absolute blast! In addition to being a sweet respite from the summer heat, the inexpensive price, ample parking, and many activities made this a great activity-turned-day-trip! Nate just did not want to leave!

The children's museum is all on one level, but is packed to the brim with different centers for kids to learn about different daily activities, as well as some eye in the sky careers.

Outside: amazing water table, climbing structure, sound stations, foam track building, rock wall and animals to climb on - all with a thoughtful overhead canopy to keep most of the sun off! I really can't say enough about how much we all loved the water table. We spent so much time there!

Inside: cowboy ranch, camp site, cave, bank, grocery store, train table, hospital (ER, ambulance, nursery), space exploration, and a ton more. There are a lot of indoor activities, but they are organized to give the appearance of a little town! Very cute and helps kiddos to self-structure the visit. Nathan's favorite indoor areas by far were the hospital and space exploration site.

We had a great time and plan to go again once we head down to the San Antonio area for another visit.

For information on our previous children's museum fun at the Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum, click here!

natural bridge wildlife ranch.

Our first big San Antonio outing! I don't do well in all of this Texas summer heat, so a car trip through the safari seemed like a good option to me!  Our trip through the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch was more than eventful and a huge hit all around!

We saw lots of animals, as promised, and most were more than happy to wander up to our car to let us drop food out to feed them. Just a word of caution - try not to have open food or drinks in the car. The bugs love the food as much as the animals and I think we had about thirty flies in the car by the time we left!

Nathan talked endlessly about seeing the rhino, but the zebras ended up being the absolute hit of the trip! I am more than skittish around animals, so my near panic attack when one of the zebras stuck his whole head in my window more than made that the talk of the trip. Thankfully, there were no bites or bruises from our face-to-face meeting. Just a ridiculous amount of adrenaline coursing through me!

After the drive-thru safari, we made our way through the petting zoo, some of the walk through displays, and (of course) the gift shop! 

shenandoah valley discovery museum.

We've recently discovered our love of children's museums, so I wanted to share some of our favorite things about each one that we visit. We went to the Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum today for a birthday party and had the best time! Even if you're not going as part of a group, the admission price is very inexpensive for hours worth of fun!

First of all, the fact that birthday parties are a possibility here are an excellent alternative to the not-to-be-named overdone options that parents dread. The kids had a great time celebrating and learning together!

The layout of this kids' museum is on multiple floors (with elevator access), including the roof! Each level has different activities that tie into the theme of that particular floor. Some of Nathan's favorite activities included:

Apple Packing Shed -- learning about pulleys, how to make 'work' easier, gathering apples, putting them through the 'machine'

Climbing Maze - a maze that replicates the path through the human body, the exit of which made me giggle like I was five (lucky that my five year old didn't 'get it')

Health Works -- from climbing through an ambulance, to seeing how an x-ray works, to playing doctor, this area was a huge hit!

Newton's Cradle -- because what kid wouldn't like this?

Lego's -- my kiddo is obsessed! This table was his happy place!

Triceratops Skeleton -- a huge hit with Nathan because he loves the Little Critter book about the lost dinosaur bone

If you're looking for a fun and educational family outing, I highly recommend this location!

five.

Another year older, another year wise, and another year further away from being my little baby. Nathan turned five this weekend! This kiddo is sweet, energetic, a little shy at times, and absolutely hilarious. I took him out to the battlefield this weekend to do some golden hour photos for his fifth birthday. Here are some of my favorites!

At five years old, Nathan:

• Absolutely adores playing Lego's and spends hours after school each day playing 
• Is so close to swimming on his own! The swimming lessons that he's been taken over the last two months have made such an improvement in his confidence and his basic swimming skills
• Loves all things disgusting - including body parts, noises, smells, etc. 
• Telling stories, real and imaginary, to his parents, teachers, and friends
• Negotiating...bed time, play time, treats, you name it. The kid likes to stall and look for loopholes
• Saying things that are hilariously insightful or just plain out there. Nate has a quirky little personality and it's been shining through a lot lately in some of the funny things he's been saying (check out the most recent round of nathan-isms)

And now, for the questions that I ask Nathan every six months. It always makes me smile to see how these change over time (check out his answers from four and four and a half)

1. What is your favorite color? Green
2. What is your favorite food? Pizza
3. What is your favorite t.v. show? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
4. Who is your best friend? Owen
5. What is your favorite animal? Lion
6. What is your favorite song? Honey, I'm Good by Andy Grammer
7. What is your favorite toy? Lego's
8. What is your favorite movie? Bolt
9. What is your favorite stuffed animal to sleep with at night? Winnie the Pooh
10. What do you want to be when you grow up? A cop

Happy 5th Birthday, little love! 

nathan-isms, vol. 9.

A few funnies that I've been storing up: 

Testing out the acoustics at top volume in the Starbucks bathroom, whilst washing his hands: 

N: Tops and bottoms, tops and bottoms, in between, IN BETWEEN, wash 'em all together, wash 'em all together, now they're clean, NOW....THEY'RE....CLEAN!!

While playing outside, I noticed that Nate had stopped to talk to one of the neighbors down the street: 

Me: [yelling down the cul-de-sac] Nate, what are you doing? 

N: NOTHING, JUST TALKING TO THIS OLD MAN. 

Simply put -- my Mother's Day gift: 

During errands after school: 

N: Are we going home soon? I can feel my blood pressure going up! 

Driving by a couple getting arrested on the side of the road: 

N: [putting down his window] Thanks for catching the bad guys, Mr. Policeman! 

And when I didn't think my Mother's Day gift could be topped, along came Chris's Father's Day gift: 

 

That time that Nate tried to pull a Dora: 

N: I've got my snacks, my sword, my backpack, and a map. I'm leaving on my adventure now!

When doing some "real life" science: 

N: Dad, I'm a scientist and [looking at Chris's head with a magnifying glass] I can see that your brain has worms in it. 

Chris: How can I get rid of it? 

N: Hard work and being nice, like mowing the grass and cleaning the bathroom. 

While listening to the radio: 

N: Mom, what ARE apple bottom jeans and boots with the fur??

Getting the post-field trip debrief: 

Me: How was your field trip today? 

N: Great! I held a chicken, fed it out of my hand, and it TOOTED on me! It was awesome! 

Explaining that ever-evolving gray area called 'parenting': 

N: So why do I have to have a consequence? 

Me: Because you didn't listen to the rules. 

N: But WHY?!

Me: It's to help you learn, Next time you'll think a little more and hopefully listen to what I said. Plus, I'm your mom and helping you learn this kind of stuff is my job. 

N: So .... can I talk to your boss instead? 

cow appreciation day.

We participated in Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a this year and had a great time! Nathan and I were determined to get some free food, so we dressed in head to toe as cows to get free meals. I even painted little man's face!

The costumes were pretty easy to make. I pinned some black spots onto white shirts, made little hats that look like calf ears, and done! How cute is this? Let's just overlook that the make-up looks like half zombie and half cow:

Between the free food, the moon bounce, the refreshingly air conditioned playground, and a free cow stuffed animal, we had a blast!

like mother, like son.

I spent ten minutes swiping through my phone the other day trying to figure out which app disappeared from the home screen. I'm ridiculous, right? I finally had the bring idea to take a screenshot so that I wouldn't have that issue again.

Not ten minutes later, I went into N's room and found him with his camera taking pictures of his toys. His rationale? "This way I know where all of my guys go next time I play." Truly my child!

fourth of july.

The fourth gave us a blissful three day weekend this year! Just piling up the freedom over here. Before the weekend got started, N's summer camp had their annual fourth of July parade. The babies are wheeled through the parking lot in their cribs, the toddlers in strollers, and the older kids (normally holding something especially crafty and patriotic). Apparently N's class started in high spirits with a round of 'yankee doodle went to town' but when they saw the parents lined up outside, the kids definitely started hamming it up. Especially mine..and with his very own royalty wave.

On the fourth, I decided that photos of little man were a necessity. My neighbors probably think I'm crazy, but I got the shot I wanted. Imagine a grown woman practically laying on the sidewalk, coaxing her kid with a two second attention span into cute poses. The end result though? Pretty darn adorable.

I can't remember the last time that I didn't go to a city fireworks display. I lied. I can remember, but I was nearly nine months pregnant and no mortal could drag me away from air conditioning. This year we got invite to a friend's house, so we tried something new. It was a lot of fun and no awful traffic afterward.

The tale of my child with a sparkler:
Me: Do NOT touch this. Once it starts sparkling do not get near other people and when the light goes out, put it in this bucket. Do. not. touch.
Nate: Whoa this is pretty! [runs around near lots of other people, under a tent, and once the sparkler went out, grabbed the extinguished remains]
Me: Noooooooo!

Thankfully, he was more startled than hurt. Then came the big fireworks! For a do-it-yourself display, this far passed my expectations! These shot up over the rooftops! 

 

Hope that everyone had a happy and safe fourth!