Creative Discovery Museum!

Lydia earned a free ticket to the Creative Discovery Museum in Chattanooga by reading a bunch of books this summer at the library.  The ticket was about to expire, and Heather and my mom had the day off of school, so all of us women-folk jumped in the van and headed off on an adventure!

We started out our day of fun with a little water play.

Then we made some lovely headpieces for the girls.

I took my new camera lens so I could get in some practice, which I desperately need.  Some of the coloring was wacko, hence the black and white photos.

Heather was Anna Kate's personal chauffeur for the day.

They had a great toddler area, which we all enjoyed.

Lydia loved carrying around purses and other lovely accessories she found in that room.

They even had a baby pin.

Next, we headed to the dinosaur part of the museum, which Lydia was most looking forward to.  She was so excited, mainly because Curious George often visits the dinosaur museum, and you all know she and George are tight!

We got to dig in the sand to discover fossils...Jessica's dream job.  Really, it is.  Ask her.  :)

Anna was missing her nap time....looks just a bit sleepy. 

There was a cave you could crawl through, which was the other main thing Lydia was looking forward to.  She even packed her little flashlight for it.  

We had studied the brochure and looked at pictures online to get her excited...she really was excited, even though you can't tell it by most of her facial expressions in the pictures.  Ha!

Then we made our way to the musical section of the museum.

Puppet stage!

Kayaking!

Bee hive!

Real bees!

And here is the only crisp picture with good lighting I got from the whole day.  Kind of a bummer.  I sure hope my skills improve quickly.  But at least you all can admire the beautiful Buzz.  :)

Oh yes, and she got Anna Kate to doze off, which was much appreciated!

I love my Lydia!  (In case you couldn't tell.)

And here is the funniest thing that took place while we were there.  For some reason, Jessica decided to let Eleonora paint...and THIS is what happened!

Ha!

We had a great time, but man alive, it wore me out!  Good thing we had four adults working to keep up with the three girlies!  Afterwards we ate lunch at a fun pizza place downtown, and then headed back to good ol Dayton!

8 Months!

I'm back!  I broke my two month streak of blogging, but I have a good excuse this time.  Our internet was broken, but Joel fixed it last night.  Hooray!

Anna Kate is 8!  Can you believe it?!

Jessica helped me take these pictures yesterday...she's holding up the backdrop.  Ha!

We had a hard time, because this girl is on the move!

She is as cute as a button!  :)

And just for fun...Lydia.

Eleonora!

We got to babysit Eleonora last week while Jessica went on a field trip.

She was a good time!  :)

Apple Barn!

I know I already put these on Facebook, but I wanted them here too.  Sorry!

Anna Kate was so smiley and friendly while we were waiting in line that the lady in front of us bought our apple dumpling!  Way to go Anna!  Already starting to earn her keep around here.  :)

I wanted to take a picture of Anna with a big pumpkin, and this is the biggest they had!  And there was a huge dog roaming around that she was nervous about, so no big smiles.  Oh well.  Still cute.

And here's a flashback for your enjoyment.  Lydia was only three and a half months old in this picture, and Anna Kate just turned eight months old yesterday.  They look so different!

Happy Fall!

Pocket Wilderness!

Yesterday the boys didn't have school, so Jessica decided we should all go on an adventure.

A little blurry, but look how sweet Anna Kate is nuzzled up to Daddy.

I could not believe Lydia let this katydid crawl on her arm!

Bleeding heart...

I think that's what our tour guide called it.  :)

The cave of wonder.

The boys were quite adventurous!

The boys decided to take the freezing plunge!

There was lots of screaming!

Pay no attention to the nostrils.  Look how pretty her eyes are! :)

And here we have the cute little turkey head!

Lydia loved collecting things.  She kept putting rocks in our backpack and saving leaves for her daddy.

This picture is blurry too, but it just cracks me up for some reason.  Those boys were being nuts!

We had a great adventure!