The Kids Museum

We spent a day at the kids museum at Thanksgiving Point.  That place is amazing.  The kids had fun last time we were in Utah and this time was even better.  Whitney and Rachel are a bit older so they are able to play and understand more of the activities.  It is fun to watch them experiment.

If you are a small Keeler girl, you must enter through the little door.  Whitney excitedly remembered this door and told her sisters about it before we got to the museum.

It's whack a mole, or similar.  The bugs are on the floor and the girls ran all over stepping on them.

Playing inside the store.  I think Rachel was the cashier and we all brought her our vegetables to buy.

We were lucky enough to be there during music time.  The kids got to play with ribbons and little instruments and shaker toys.  The lady running it was great.  We were able to make some ribbons at the end to take home.

There are a few different places for dressing up.  Whitney is the scary pirate.  Rachel and Megan both prefer being princesses or fairies.

Adam gets a look at a dot painting computer screen with Will.  Can you tell what Will is making?

We went over the water area.  The kids put on big galoshes and aprons to help shield their clothes a little bit.  We were playing here for awhile.

Adam loved the special baby water table.  It only had about an inch deep of water in it.  Yet he managed to get soaked.  He had a blast.

I thought this was neat.  You get to put balls up these pipes and watch them move all around based on which direction the force of air is moving.  And you get to control the direction.

Whitney and Grandpa Keeler in the music room.

We went outside for lunch.  Then Grandpa bought everyone ice cream cones.  Yum.

In the back of the museum is a playground and you can walk around looking at animal statues.  Adam liked the little paw prints that were in front of this statue.

Anyway, it was really fun.  We were there for six hours and still didn't see everything.  So it is a neat museum.  We will definitely be going back next year.

To Grandmother's House We Go

We were fortunate to spend the last nine days in Utah and we had a blast.  The kids and us parents were very excited to go spend time with Will's parents and with some of my siblings.  Here are some pictures from things we did in their home.

We arrived only a couple of days after Megan's birthday.  Grandma Keeler gave Megan a present of a cool wooden car with a family of people.  And all the girls got a magic erase book where you "color" with water and then it dries blank ready to be "colored" again.  They are perfect for church.

The kids go out to explore Grandma's garden.  I think Will's dad was showing them around.

They had several opportunities while we were there to pick some raspberries and tomatoes.  They still refused to eat them, but baby steps toward healthier eating.

Of course, one of the great things about going to Grandma's house is all the new toys.

Adam liked the new bouncy chair.

The girls thought it was great fun watching Grandma make pancakes.  She gave them this little one and asked if they would be able to finish such a big pancake.  That made them both laugh.

It is root beer float time.  The girls have wondered since coming home why they cannot always have ice cream like they got with Grandma and Grandpa.  It was a special treat getting lots of yummy desserts.

Will's mom is so good with the girls.  She was so patient with them.  She was even teaching them how to make potholders.  I was impressed.  Whitney really liked this craft and made quite a few.
Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Keeler for letting us stay and hang out with you guys.  It was so wonderful!

Stay tuned for more pictures of what we did in Utah.

Turning Three

My little Megan is now three years old.  I still can't believe it.  We celebrated her birthday yesterday down in Pasco.

We invited our good friends, the Binghams, to come to the party.  They now only live like five minutes from my parents; so that is pretty convenient. We had all the girls decorate bags to carry their candy.

The birthday girl shows off her bag.

We played some really simple games that were fun.  This one was a balloon relay.  Each kid had to pop two balloons and then come back to tag the next person.

It was a little breezy, so some balloons made a break for it.  Poor Megan is chasing her balloon right into the neighbor's yard - oops.

This game was fun.  I found the idea on the Internet.  It is called human pinata.  Will was the pinata with a bag of candy.

The goal is to tag the pinata and then he throws a handful of candy out.  While the kids are busy trying to collect that candy, the pinata runs away.  Will was a good pinata.

This was another Internet find game - flour mountain.  You make a mountain out of flour and put a piece of unwrapped candy at the top.  Then each kid takes turns taking out spoonfuls of flour.

The kid who makes the candy fall have to get the candy - with just their mouth.  It was a funny, messy activity.

After brushing the kids off, it was time to open presents.  Megan got what she asked for - candy and balloons.  She also got bubbles, books, art things, and more.  Her new toy microphone from grandma is probably her absolute favorite.

Megan told me she wanted a Christmas cake for her birthday, in August.  I think the Christmas tree turned out pretty cute.  The store didn't have any green frosting though, so we had to use white frostin and green sprinkles.  Oh well.  It only took like six blows but Megan was finally able to get out those three candles.

The girls went outside to eat their cake and popsicles, so yummy.

Not really part of the party, but we made sure that Adam got a turn playing with the balloons.  He is getting so big also.

So it was a fun, really simple party.  Thanks mom and dad for letting us have it at your house.

Update on Adam

So our baby is now eight months old and he is so cute.  He is also starting to get into more things.  Even in trouble, you can't help but smile.

Adam has become a ripper.  If any books is placed within 2 feet of Adam, he will grab it and try to rip it.  Thankfully, my mom is always giving us magazines and those are perfect for ripping.

Whitney thought she should try to make Adam look like a girl - does it work?

And Adam gets to try his first sucker.  He seemed to like it.

Adam loves toys that light up and make noises.  This little toy piano does both.  Adam can now hit things and make the noises by himself.

There is something about paper.  Maybe my babies are all vitamin deficient because they always want to chew on paper.  And Adam doesn't like to let go once he has the paper in the mouth,

Adam is enjoying being outside more.  We were invited to a birthday party for the neighbors.  Whitney is sharing her tres leche cake with him.

We bought a little chair for Adam that sits on top of a regular kitchen chair.  I like that it has a tray and we can put food on it for Adam to enjoy while the rest of us are eating dinner.  Here he enjoyed beans and noodles and a little pudding for dessert.  It was the perfect meal for him.

Hooray for our baby!  He is getting so big and he is so pleasant.  We are still working on getting Adam to crawl; he goes backward now and gets stuck places.  But I am sure he will get there. What a great blessing he is.

A Day of Free

I love free things.  Really love free things.  So this last Saturday was perfect.  We had a lot of fun and didn't have to pay for anything.

As part of the Hermiston summer reading program through the library we earned tokens to go to the swimming pool.  The weather was perfect for a day in water.

Megan was really happy to get a turn to go in the water.  Whitney and Rachel are in swimming lessons and get to go in everyday.  This has led to some swimming lesson envy.  So Megan got to do lots of splashing and having fun.

Adam has never been a big fan of the water.  He was asleep at the beginning but eventually woke up and watched for awhile.

But then he decided that he loved the water.  I splashed his legs for a few minutes and then let him stand in the shallow kids pool.  He and Megan had fun splashing each other for awhile.  There was a lot of anger when we took him out though.

After swimming we took advantage of root beer float day at A&W.  The free root beer floats were delicious.  But next year I am giving Adam his own because he ate half of my ice cream and liked drinking my root beer.

We went home for a few minutes so I could make some French bread pizza for dinner and then we hurried of to the big parade for the fair.  The girls really got into waving at everyone.

And the infamous watermelon truck.  This was our first year getting a watermelon.  Hooray!

Megan showing off her new frisbee.  This parade is awesome.  We also got a t-shirt, a bunch of little toy footballs, cheese, and lots and lots of candy.

And then we leap frogged our way back to the car - at least, Megan did.  By the time we got home, everyone was exhausted and slept really well that night.  What a fun day,