Wordless Wednesday: Otters

My goodness, they love the otters at the zoo. It's the only animal they talk about when we get home.

Oh, Toddlerhood

If this was all you saw of our breakfast this morning, you'd think Ben always loved to hop in his chair and eat his yogurt. (The reason for the smart little smock. It's reserved only for applesauce and yogurt.)

This, however, was about 30 seconds beforehand. Ah, the seasons of trouble when you're two are so much shorter.

Grandpa Jeff's

After enjoying a rather unusual week camping in Alabama, we traveled the short distance to Gary's Dad's house in Knoxville, TN. The weather there was gorgeous, as was the company. Aside from the big, big ball, there wasn't a whole lot to keep the treacherous two busy. When the Club's pool was open, it was a hit. That, however, left a lot of unoccupied time! This left us saying "don't touch" more times than I care to count. The playdough, left over from the camping trip, gave us a solid 30 minutes of fun!

Ben's concentration was unparalleled.

Big, ig ball.

How do you play with your playdough?

Bubbles

What could possibly be more fun than finally creating bubbles? Excitement was in the air this afternoon! After weeks of swallowing too much bubble solution (is that dangerous?) with no result, Mia and Ben were thrilled to actually get a few bubbles floating.

Meijer Children's Garden

I can't even begin to tell you how long Theresa and I have been trying to plan a play date. Seriously. Someone always ended up getting sick, or we mutually flaked out on actually picking something to do. Tuesday, however, we all followed through with cooperative immune systems. We all went to the outdoor Children's Garden section of Meijer Gardens. It is SO beautiful there. However, it was also SO hot. I'm beginning to think that doing the area backwards would have been better!

All of the kids loved the water boats, though B took a while to warm up to the idea. There was also a heart wrenching moment where my camera strap came loose and I did some major gymnast moves and caught it behind my back. Really, ask Theresa, I was amazing. :)

Erin was able to come with Eleanor too. (Oh, and Sylvia came along as well. She was remarkably well behaved as always). Here, the children are desperately looking for some shade to hide in. You can see how close in age all our two year old munchkins are in this picture!

Ben was fascinated by the bugs and spiders "hiding" in the play structures. When he wasn't disappearing and causing his mother to run around like a circus monkey, he was staring at the butterflies and ladybugs.

Did I mention it was hot? We were all wilting by the end of our trip! Poor planning on my part meant the twins didn't have enough to drink. My poor drinking fountain impaired children! Luckily, Eleanor was in a sharing mood. I think everyone had a good time; I know we did. It's one of those miraculous places that can hold the interest of small children for as long as I'd like to be there as well. We will certainly go back.