The Children's Museum

Yesterday we took a trip to Oak Ridge to visit the Children's Museum. I wish we lived closer because they always have a blast. Here are a few of the highlights.

This cracks me up! They are so used to me being the one taking pictures that when Daddy had the camera and told them to smile, they still looked at me. lol

OMFGBBQ! It's Anakin Skywalker! Soooo coool!
(Not to worry, daddy was just barely outside the frame, in case Ben lost his balance.)

It's Bee-Keeper Ben!

And Bee-Keeper Lauren!

Building a cabin with Daddy for the headless Storm Trooper.

Playing the old xylophone

Enjoying some sushi. Yum!

Playing in the Dollhouse. This thing is so awesome! 2 stories, all the perfect size for the under 10 crowd. There's the kitchen, a living room, a playroom, and a bedroom. It even has a front door with a working doorbell. And of course the back patio, with full size benches for Mom and Dad.

Ben & Lauren with "the twins" after feeding them breakfast and getting ready to take them back upstairs to tuck them in for a nap.

And finally, they were putting on puppet shows for us. Adorable!

So much for plans!

Yesterday I had planned for us to visit the Children's Museum in Oak Ridge. Silly me for assuming they would be open on a Monday! All was not lost though

Philip had an early meeting, so we dropped him off and played at the playground. We were having fun until a couple of mean little girls showed up. They wouldn't let the kids play with them, which is no biggie. The problem came when they got off the 2 swings, and Ben & Lauren tried to go get on the now empty swings. The girls ran back and informed Ben & Lauren that they were not allowed to use them. WTF? It was almost time for go pick up Daddy, so we just headed back a little early.

After that, we drove to campus to check out the McClung Museum. We'll have to go back to see the rest of it, but we saw the Egypt and Cherokee exhibits before the kiddos lost interest.

Dancing Queen!

Lauren started asking to take ballet classes when she was 2.5. For various reasons, I made it deal with her that if she still wanted to do it when she was 4, she could. Well she's 4, and she still wants to dance. We went down to the dance studio yesterday and got her registered.

She's taking a combination class for younger kids. The class has pre-ballet, jazz, and tumbling. She also picked out her dance clothes. She picked out a black leotard with a flower and skirt, and we also got her tights and ballet slippers. She's very excited about starting in a few weeks.

Greetings interwebz!

Welcome to my shiny new blog! I'm starting this one to keep a record of the kiddos growing up. For those of you that don't know me and have stumbled across this blog, here's a bit of background.

The characters:
Myself - stay at home mom and professional photographer, soon to be 30 (yikes!)
My husband - restaurant manager, a young barely 29, going on 9 years of marriage
Ben - almost 6, very outgoing, starts school this fall
Lauren - 4.5, very much a girly girl

As of this year, we are a homeschool family. While this isn't strictly a homeschooling blog, I will be posting about projects and trips and posting links. We're going with a relaxed, eclectic approach.