Dinosaurs, Robots, and Fishies - Oh, My!

My wonderful friend, Holly, has been bugging me to start a blog because she has lots of extra time, is bored out of her mind, and needs something to read, so... Here goes day 1!

Today started out like any other Saturday - with both boys waking up at the crack of dawn (yay). We had decided late last night that we might go to the McWane Science Center today with the Joneses and we confirmed our plans this morning. Before we left though, I decided to be productive for once, and I cleaned up around the house some. Carter was so sweet and he helped me dust all the rooms on the main floor (except our bedroom which always seems to be last on my priority list). Pledge multi-purpose wipes are such a great invention! I can give him one and set him off on a course to clean the house since you can use those on just about any surface. So, I sprayed my dusting spray and used paper towels, and he followed along behind me, even moving the same things to dust under them :) He's such a good helper. He also got a spray bottle from the bathroom to help me spray the kitchen counters and clean them (it looked like my granite cleaner spray bottle, as he has to be like Mommy). He also helped fold some clothes and got to use "his" Swiffer vacuum cleaner in the kitchen before we left.

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We headed out at about 11:30 for the McWane Center, stopping at Chic Fil A on the way for some yummy lunch. The McWane Center (also known as the DeWayne Center according to Andrew) was SOOOOO crowded! I guess I expected that though, on a rainy Saturday. We drove through the parking deck for a while looking for a place to park, did our usual diaper changes, etc., before we were on our way inside to meet the Joneses. The first floor had entirely too many people, so after we tried a few things there we decided to go up to the top floor and work our way down. The top floor was so much fun that we spent most of our time there in the Itty Bitty Magic City. It's so cute and just the right size for Carter! Among lots of other things, the boys pretended to buy groceries and learned how to make a conveyor belt work, drove a crane by peddling it and turning a crank to move the hook, played on a light up dance floor, and put pegs into a GIANT lite brite. The latter was probably Carter's favorite - he takes after his Mommy :) Overall, I think they were a bit overwhelmed by all there was to do, because they acted like ADHD children on espresso, going from one thing to another.

The second floor was just as much fun - we got off the elevators and got to see lots and lots of cool robots! I think Alan and Jonathan were just as excited about this part as the kids were! Then we went into a space exploration room where the boys cimbed the bleachers and jumped off many, many times (next time maybe we'll save our money and go somewhere with a lot of stairs). After this, it was on to the part of the day I had been promising Carter since early morning (drumroll please)... The DINOSAURS! They had fun looking at all the dinosaur bones and digging in the bone pit to find dinosaur remains.

The many faces of Carter:

The rest of the day was a blur - next was snack time, and after that we went to the basement level to see the aquarium and all the fishies - always a favorite with Carter. Throughout the day, Charlie was such a trooper and slept the entire time - he only woke up once to eat, and that was when we were at the snack bar sitting down and eating (he has excellent timing!). Secretly, I think he took it all in and enjoyed the day too.

Did I mention that throughout the day, I kept seeing a girl with really gorgeous hair? I tried to get a picture of her from afar so I could take it to my hairdresser, but I wasn't able to. Then, I saw her in the snack bar section and asked her who does her hair. I have no idea why though, since I have no plans to switch hairdressers (if anyone is interested, it's Crystal at Studio 21 on Highway 280). After realizing that the knowledge of her hairdresser wasn't going to help me, I decided to once more try and get another picture while she was eating a snack with her family (probably creepy, I know - but it was REALLY good hair!). I think she saw me though, because she looked up right as I was trying to snap it, and she left right after that. Oops! And after all that, I didn't even get the picture :(

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After our really long day at the McWane Center, we decided we hadn't had enough fun yet (ha) and went to the airport to watch airplanes take off and land. The Jones boys enjoyed the airplanes, but Carter had fallen asleep in the car so he missed out :( I guess we will have to save this for another day when we are bored.

Right now, Charlie is asleep in his swing, Carter and Alan are sitting together watching Over the Hedge, and I'm waiting to dig into some freshly made, hot brownies. All in all, it was a great day (and no major meltdowns)! Until tomorrow...