Gears, Science, and Jam Sessions

On Sunday I decided it would be loads of fun to let Maddie decide what we did as a family.  

She of course picked her two favorite things, 

going to the museum and eating rainbow pancakes at Perkins for lunch…

She's an easy one to please.  :-)  

I didn't get any rainbow pancake pictures, but here are a couple from the museum trip.  

Ella was very into the drums….and pretty good at it for a one year old!

Cinderella Opera

I'm a couple of weeks late on posting this, but better late than never right?  :-)

The very last week of March, two of my friends and I planned a mom and "big" girl date for our four year olds….we even planned an extra day/night beforehand to make it awesome-sauce.  

(complete with wine drinking for grownups one night….

click here for proof)

Well that was our Saturday, but on SUNDAY we had the grand finale.  We found babysitters for the littlest littles, dressed 3 little girls up as princesses, primped our selves up a bit and headed out for a princess-themed day.  

First there was a surprise for the girls...

Three matching friendship necklaces…it was so adorable to watch Maddie's reaction.  

She wears it everyday and calls it her best friend necklace.  

(She even took it to show and tell last week)

Then we headed out for the cars and drove downtown to take the girls out for a "tea party" lunch.

The girls ordered lunch, including tea and milkshakes of course!  It was SO cute to watch Maddie acting dainty, and of course she played the part of royalty very well.  

She even ate tomato soup and grilled cheese without spilling on herself!  

Which I think was the most impressed I have ever been!  ;-)

After lunch we drove over to the opera house to go watch Cinderella!

The girls were all very well behaved.  The opera was not in english which I was a little nervous about, but they had subtitles so I just translated to Maddie when she asked what they were saying.  

At intermission we were able to head down to the stage and check out where the orchestra sits and plays.  

It was a fabulous time, and I am really glad that I got to experience it with my sweet girl. 

Afterwards, we had to say goodbye to our Wyoming friends, 

and then of course the girls had to run off that energy they stored up for two hours!  

I really had a great day.  It was nice to be able to spend some one on one time with Maddie.  

I think it's important that I find time to spend some alone time with both the girls.  Ella and I have time together when Maddie is at school, and I really need to make more of an effort to take Maddie out for, as she calls it, "mommy time".  I think this was a great start.  :-)

Museum of Discovery-ing

Friday afternoon the girls and I ventured up to Fort Collins to check out the Museum of Discovery.  I've been meaning to check it out and I am so glad I did!  It's a hands-on, kid-friendly museum with a large music section, a great giant building block area, lots of little building areas, a fun little Colorado dinosaur and wildlife display, and a wild wild west area (that I would love to explore better next time).  The girls had a wonderful time, and I can't wait to take them back.  I ended up buying a family membership so hopefully we'll have lots of opportunities!  

We met my friend Amber and her girls there.  The older girls played hard and the little girls ran around after them trying to keep up the best that they could!

This was part of the music display.  They had lots of listening stations where you could experience all the different instruments and old-timey music.  

And then there was this display…behind glass and everything.  

I feel so old now, I had both a magnavox stereo and a walkman growing up. 

Ella was very excited the whole time.  It was very entertaining watching her! :-)

Little people learning

Building bridges, I asked if they were going to be engineers when they grow up and was inform that "No, that's boring" ha, I guess you just can't compete with the aspiration to become a princess.
Maybe we'll aim for Princess Engineer
 (you can be both) 

Tornado Chamber
…it's like a normal day in Wyoming ;-)  Don't miss that at ALL

The girls thought it was great fun :-)

Ella and I were the only ones that were too chicken to go in :-)
That's okay though,
 it was perfectly entertaining enough on the outside!

Overall, I think that we'll be back soon!  

Next week my goal is to take the girls to the Art Museum in Loveland.  It looks pretty amazing!