The Crayola Experience

For our last day visiting Sarah we decided to go to The Crayola Experience.  Due to unexpected events Sarah couldn't make it so I took EJ with us and we ventured into the land of Crayola.  I wasn't sure what to expect but it was an awesome experience.  I highly recommend stopping by if you are ever in the area.  Plan on staying there at least three hours to give the kids time to see and do everything.  On a side note:  Park in the parking garage.  Do not park on the street!  The parking meters are patrolled by overzealous parking enforcement officers!  I was six minutes late and already had a ticket on my window!  Anyway, when you buy your admission tickets they give the kids a clear bag to hold all the artwork they'll collect, an empty four count crayon box to collect the special crayons from around the center, and tokens to use to get special souvenirs.  The kids used their tokens to get a four count box of crayons, two packages of modeling clay, and a marker.

Working with modeling clay

The coloring area

Painting their safari binoculars 

Glow in the dark markers

Excited about the World's Largest Crayon

 

Each section of the center highlights a particular Crayola product and they got to take home everything they made.  They colored in the crayon room and even got to make their own coloring pages.  A computer took their picture standing in front of a special background and printed off a coloring page.  We came home with Mr. R posing with Spiderman and the girls posing with Cinderella.  They got to play with modeling clay in one area and used glow-in-the-dark markers in another.  The center's theme  while we were there was Jungle safari, so the kids had the chance to make special projects to go along with it.  They painted zebra print paper and used it to make binoculars and colored a safari satchel (otherwise known as a gender neutral purse).  In the puzzle section they colored artwork and had it turned into their very own puzzle.  In the gift shop we saw the world's largest crayon and picked up the last crayon from the scavenger hunt.  The kids had a blast while we were there and went home with great artwork and terrific souvenirs.  On a final note:  You might have noticed that Hiccup is missing from all the above photos.  That's because she was securely strapped into the stroller so that I could keep up with the other three. :)

Philly's Children's Museum

After New York we decided to do something a little more low-key and fun for the kids.  We headed off to Philadelphia's Please Touch Museum which is one of the U.S.'s top 10 children's museums.  The kids and I have been to a local children's museum and I thought we knew what to expect.  The Please Touch Museum put our local museum to shame!  The place was incredible!  We spent about three hours at the museum and we even skipped a section at the end because it was nap time.  

The kids excited to be at the museum

Burning off some energy with EJ

Painting the roses red

Hiccup excited to be out of the stroller

Flamingo croquet with the Queen of Hearts

Shopping in the grocery store

What do you do when all the babies are taken?  Bring your own!

Scooping up balls

Acting silly

By the time we left all the kids were tired.  We drove through downtown Philly and all but two of the kids fell asleep.  We stopped at a Starbucks across from the Betsy Ross House to grab a drink before heading home.  Mr. R was feeling really sad, due to exhaustion, and wanted a hug.  Since he was sitting in the very back of the van I told him I'd pass him his Daddy Doll and he could have a hug from Daddy.  On the way to the back "Hubby", being the history buff that he is, insisted on having a picture taken with the Betsy Ross House.  After a hug from his dad Mr. R quickly fell asleep and then we  headed back to Sarah's house.

"Hubby" in front of the Betsy Ross House

New York City

In the spring my friend Sarah invited us to visit her in Pennsylvania and offered to take us to New York City.  I jumped at the invitation!  I hadn't seen her in months and she'd recently had a baby that I was dying to meet.  We had to cancel our visit twice due to our husbands' interfering, those pesky husbands!  Even when they're gone they still manage to create chaos.  Ok, not really.  We both had the opportunity to see our husbands during the same time period as our planned visit, so of course we rescheduled!  When Sarah got back from visiting her husband we made last minute, and I do mean last minute, plans to go to PA.  It was definitely worth the frantic packing!  We drove up late Saturday night and Sunday morning we drove into NYC.

After a lunch of New York style pizza we ventured into Central Park.  It was interesting seeing all the different street acts.  The kids enjoyed the fountain that they recognized from the movie Enchanted.

EJ, Boo and Mr. R enjoying the fountain

EJ and Boo

After hitting up a playground in Central Park, we headed off to FAO Schwarz.  The kids had been saving up their money to buy something at the famous toy store.  On the walk there both girls fell asleep and almost completely missed seeing the store.

I had to wake Boo up so that she could pick out her toy.  She was so tired though she didn't want to look at the toys.  When we walked through their incredible candy section she perked up enough to pick out some gum.  That's right, we travelled all the way to New York for my daughter to pick out regular old gum balls at FAO Schwarz.  One highlight of the toy store was our elevator ride with Spiderman.  Our group took up almost the entire elevator with our five kids and three strollers, but there was just enough room for Spiderman and his assistant to squeeze in.  Mr. R was shocked to be standing so close to his favorite superhero.  What a great memory!

Our unexpected elevator companion 

After leaving the toy store we walked over to Times Square and then made our way back to our vehicles.

Boo catching a ride with Sarah

Times Square

Driving out of the city was pure chaos!  I think I "blocked the box" at least twice at red lights just so I wouldn't lose Sarah's car.  Thank goodness for out-of-state plates!  I wasn't being a jerk, I was just clueless.  It was such a fun day I can't wait to go back to NYC with Hubby!

Casts Part 3

Mr. R got his third, and hopefully final, set of casts on this morning.  There was some improvement in his ankle movement when they took off his old casts. He could actually bend his foot past 90 degrees.  The nurse who put this set of casts on did a great job bending his feet.  His toes are at least an inch off the floor.  He chose to go with black and orange casts, non-waterproof.  I was thinking everyone would think Halloween when they saw them, but one of my friends reminded me that he was wearing the colors of Oklahoma State University.  OSU is my dad's alma mater so I guess this set will be dedicated to him.  Unfortunately he'll have to wear this set of casts to school.  Thankfully it'll only be the first day though, and only part of it at that, because I'll be picking him up early for his next appointment to get them removed.  I'm hoping for some awesome results this time!

My Secret Photographer

When I finally got around to uploading the pictures from my camera I discovered these:

Mr. R decided to snap some pictures of his baby sister and she decided to ham it up for him.  Maybe I should get him his own camera for Christmas.

Casts Part 2

Mr. R got his second set of casts today.  He chose dark blue and red this time, like Spiderman.  The doctor said that she didn't see much improvement in his ankle movement when they removed the first set.  They had casted him in a neutral position so I'm not really sure what she was expecting. The boy was actually still able to walk on his toes in those casts!  I told the nurses who were putting on the second set to really bend his foot this time because I wanted some results.  When they were done you could tell his toes were completely off the floor and he was forced to walk on his heels.  This time I opted for waterproof casts.  Our neighbor generously offered to let us come over and swim whenever we wanted if he got the waterproof casts.  I also couldn't wait to put him in the bathtub without a ton of towels and trash bags wrapped around his legs.  Fingers crossed that we see some improvement with this set of casts!

A Get Well Card

Unfortunately my dad has to go in for surgery unexpectedly and we didn't have time to send a get well card.  So we did the next best thing.  The kids wrote their own part of the message and then drew some pictures.  Keep in mind that my kids are not artistically inclined...

My mom printed the pictures out and hung them up in the hospital for my dad.  Fast, easy, and super personal.