A quick afternoon at the museum

One of our favorite fixtures in Durham is the Museum of Life and Science. It is a WONDERFUL children's museum with tons and tons of interactive exhibits, activities, animal habitats, and outdoor play spaces (including an enormous tree house exhibit that I'm particularly fond of). It's kind of pricey to make a one-time visit, but an annual membership is a great deal. My parents have given us our membership for Christmas for about 4 or 5 years now, and it's maybe my favorite gift every year! If I wanted, I could take the girls for hours every day of the week. We go a few times a month (weekly currently), and regularly meet up with friends there. Almost all of my mom friends very quickly acquire a membership upon moving here/visiting the museum with a member friend. I've said it before and will say it again: if you're a mom of young/young-ish children in the Durham area, it is WORTH EVERY PENNY to have a membership. It's excellent for beautiful days when you can be outside; for rainy days when you need to go somewhere but need inside activities; for cold days; for hot days. It's pretty fantastic.

Brad will often send a group text to a bunch of dad friends for Saturday morning meetups, too. There's so much to do there that you actually cannot run out of things to do + our kids all have their favorite things. Some favorite:
Erin: Hideaway Woods tree house exhibit + creek
Brad: Checking out the animal exhibits (bears, wolves --> there are wolf pups right now!)
Claire: Butterfly house + Dinosaur trail
Lily: Farmyard animals + climbing area/playground
There are also tons of indoor activities and exhibits that we enjoy, but these are current favorites.

A few weeks ago, we decided- kind of last minute- to head over as a family on a Sunday afternoon. We spent almost the entire time at the Into the Mist exhibit, which a) looks like the Shire and b) is a great place to cool off while it's so miserably hot. I grabbed some quick pictures of the great fun that was had:

This mist pit is Lily's favorite. Related: it is also the area most prone to muddiness.

Tunnels and hidey-holes

This little hut overlooks a creek/really beautiful scenic spot.

Not quite to the point of frolicking in the mist...but she had a good time, anyway.

Claire is so very into birds right now, and we have beautiful cardinals in our area (state bird of North Carolina, guys). We saw this one on our walk back to the car, and Claire was thrilled.

This happened down in Lily's favorite mist pit...

...which led to this (she's wearing a pull up, don't worry)...

...and really tested my laundry prowess. Take that, Mist Pit!

I'll try to post more of the fun we have at the museum over the course of the summer. We'll be there a lot, I'm sure!

Blast from the past: Our everyday.

I was combing through my drafts folder here on the blog and was a little surprised to find this old post sitting in there (clearly I need to check in on the drafts more often). I must have started writing this around the time that Lily was 1. I think my intention was to record some of the things that we did on a regular basis. A little slice of life, if you will. I didn't get as far as writing actual words, but I did upload pictures, so perhaps I can stretch my memory and reconstruct a little bit of those days now? I'll give it a try.

First, let's all acknowledge how small and cute Claire was! (She's still so cute...just not so small)

We were making a paper chain. I don't know what we were counting down to; we've always made paper chains to help us count down to things we're looking forward to.

Ta da! Lily wears this skirt now.

Chaotic view then...same chaotic view now. It drives me bananas, but I'm well aware that I'll miss it one day.

Brynnie is now wearing this little lambie jammie set. We still play with that doctor kit, as well as the wooden puzzles on the side.

I used to corral Lily in my bath tub while I was getting ready in the mornings. Claire always enjoyed getting in and out, too. Interestingly, I *just* retired this gray sweater from Claire's section of the girls' closet. She's been wearing it for a while!

I haven't made these as much recently, but I used to make these granola bars regularly.

It's funny that I included this picture of them playing in their bedroom; we keep some toys and books in there, but generally speaking, they do most of their playing downstairs. I must have been working upstairs. All three girls share this room now, so there's not a lot of space for playing.

This was the beginning of all the Lily Climbing...

The girls still do this when waiting on Brad to come home.

I know I've posted pictures of this play yard many times. We call is the Baby Containment Unit (BCU), but Claire and I felt so smart when we figured out that we could put Claire in it to build/color/play uninterrupted by a roaming baby sister. Currently, Brynna screams every time she's in it, so we're going to have to work up to it.

In addition to the BCU, Claire figured out how to get space from a baby sister by playing on the landing and closing the baby gate behind her. She and Lily do this together now.

Well that was a fun trip down memory lane! I'm glad I stumbled upon it. I should do an updated one of our current daily life and rhythms. And I should also keep better track of my drafts folder!

More May

I came across a few more pictures from May, and while they don't tell a particularly funny or cohesive story, they tell a story of our regular days, so I don't want to forget them.

Mom stayed with us for a week after we returned from our beach trip. She was here for Claire's end-of-Kindergarten activities and Brynnie's birthday party, as well as the usual things that go on during our week.

Please enjoy this photo shoot of the girls with Nana:

I feel like this is a truly good one.

Their faces...oh my word. It also looks like Brynn is doing some sort of jig.

Lily's intensity

Faces again

Brynnie looking at Nana

Brynnie and Nana looking at each other

Stopping to smell the flowers (that's our church in the background, by the way)

We're getting quite the collection of these pictures!

I think they were dancing to a Moana song.

And one with Claire!

Playing while waiting on Claire

Look at that pose!

It's rare that Brynnie gets a bath all by herself.

We went to one of our favorite local restaurants, and Lily was refusing to smile.

See?

Gee whiz.

Then I dangled an incentive and got these faces.

What a ham.

Speaking of hams...check out that tongue.

For some reason, we were all looking at Brynn when she decided to cross her arms intentionally for the first time.

What in the world?

What in the actual world??

She saw how funny we thought it was and repeated it a few times.

She is such a MESS!

But also a sweet little cuddle bug.

And just for fun: this is one of my favorite pieces of art from Claire's May work. It's a collection of some of the birds they had studied.

Good days! Long and repetitive sometimes but very, very good.