Play Dates and Park Picture Dump

Monday, we had our weekly multiples play date.

We started the play date inside.

Then, we moved on to the basement, where the kids played for awhile.

There was so much to do!

Then, the kids wanted to go outside. It was cold, but we're expecting some snow this week, so it was nice to get outside while it was sunny.

The mom that hosted the play date had the best backyard! There was so much to do.

The boys always love sand boxes.

They even had pet chickens!

And look at that amazing play house for the kids.

It's so cute with a little porch and everything.

There was just so much for all the kids to do outside.

After our play date, we came home, had lunch, and took naps. After the boys woke up from their naps, we headed to the park before running some errands. The boys had a blast.

We're expecting a good bit of snow in the next day or two. I'm hoping the forecast is wrong and it skips us completely. I don't want to be stuck inside. And I don't want school to be cancelled. But, I'm prepared with some indoor activities if we do get snowed in. Thanks, Pinterest. ;)

Fun Bath Time

Sunday was our errand running day. After we all ate breakfast, relaxed, and watched some of Monsters Inc (for the millionth time) we ran to the stores we needed to go to for the week.

It was another cold day and we had spent the day before driving to Lynchburg and going to the children's museum, so we just wanted an easy day at home. I had seen on another blog an idea to do a ocean theme jello sensory bath This blog had so many great ideas to do with kids and an entire section on things to do just in the bath tub, so you don't have to worry about the mess. You just rinse the kids off afterwards. I was so excited and thought the boys would love it. Well, I added too much water and I guess it was too warm, because the jello melted almost immediately. But, I had put two bags of sea creatures from the dollar store into the bath and Evan had so much fun.

Carter, on the other hand, refused to get into the bath. He thought it was "scary" I don't know if it was because it was in our bathtub (they always take baths in their bathroom) or if it was because the crabs from the sea creatures looked like spiders, or the water color. I have no idea. But, he had a blast running from their bathroom to ours, bringing Evan more stuff to play with.

I loved the idea of them getting some fun bath time play in during the day. Especially when it's cold and we're stuck inside, this is a great winter activity. I saw some more ideas on that website that I'm going to try. Next time, I'm going to do it in their bath and see if Carter likes that better.

I knew I would want to take pictures for my blog, so I put them in swim diapers.

Afterwards, we let them rinse off in the shower. It was their first time taking a shower and they thought they were something! They played for awhile and we only made them get out because it was dinner time, they wanted to play longer.

Trip To Lynchburg

Saturday was Dr. Seuss Day. I had no idea that this was even a thing before I had kids, but it is and the boys had the perfect shirts to wear for the occasion. I could not get them to take a picture, I finally promised them fruit snack and told Carter he could bring the barn into the picture, if they would just stop and smile in their shirts and this was the best I got. Oh, two year olds.

We decided to drive the hour and a half to Lynchburg to check out their Children's Museum. It's 4 stories and I'd heard such good things about it. It was so cold, but it wasn't calling for any snow or bad weather, so it was a good day to go. Here's the museum from the outside, doesn't look like much, but it was amazing inside.

We got there about 15 minutes before they opened and the boys wanted out of their car seats, so we decided to walk around, but it was freezing!

We thought the downtown looked so neat.

There was this school bus outside of the museum that you could climb into the front and play around in.

The boys thought it was so neat, Greg and I were just excited to get out of the cold.

The name of the children's museum was Amazement Square

The employees let us and another family in 5 minutes early since it was so cold but we had to wait until exactly 10:00 before we could let the boys play. I didn't think Evan was going to make it. When we walked in, he was like "Wow!!" Wow!" and just amazed by everything, he was ready to play.

So, the museum is 4 stories and in the middle there is slides, ladders, tubes, zip lining, etc. the kids could climb up to the top, then ride a slide down to the next story, etc. So, Evan immediately climbed in and started to explore, it took us a few minutes to find him, so I got a locker and put all our coats and my purse and camera away so we could play and chase the boys and not have to worry about anything. I stayed with Carter most of the time and Greg followed Evan. It was exhausting because we were going up and down the stairs while the boys were playing in the middle, trying to make sure we didn't lose them. There were so many fun exhibits, so many that it would take several trips to do it all. I hate that I wasn't able to get more pictures.

I got all our stuff and took a couple of pictures before we left, while we were trying to talk the boys into leaving. They did NOT want to go. They could have stayed there all day.

It was a long day, an hour and a half drive each way, but it was so worth it. The boys had so much fun. Evan even did the kids zip lining. I saw it and thought that it would be perfect when the kids got older and later I see Evan riding it! There was a water canal replica that the kids could ride boats down and play in and Carter spent a lot of time there. We were all exhausted when we got back. The boys wouldn't sleep in the car because they said they wanted their beds, which worked out because then we all got a nap.

Greenleaf Park

The boys spent Friday morning watching "Monsters, Inc" for the 100th time this week. It's their new favorite movie. This is how Evan watched the movie. I could tell they were getting bored about being inside, so we went to Chick-Fil-A so they could play a little bit.

They had their chocolate milk and fruit cup to start off with.

They played really well for awhile and got a lot of energy out.

A tantrum ended our time there and left me carrying one of them without shoes to the car kicking and screaming and trying to calm down the other one because they were out of mints) So, besides that embarrassing ordeal, it went well.

After their nap, we decided to go to a park we've only been to once last summer. It was cold, so we bundled the boys up and put hats on them. They really needed this outside play. Greg and I were freezing, but the boys had so much fun, so it was worth it.

They loved trying to go up and down this 'bridge" because it was a little slippery and they had to try hard to go across it.

There were so many new things to climb.

There were riding toys that they got to climb on and play on.

They  both loved this dinosaur.

Evan taking a 20 second break. I swear, he got up almost as soon as he sat down.

Then they wanted to explore.

They found sticks and played with those awhile and then we went home.

It was so nice to go somewhere different, even if it was cold. We have a couple other parks we want to try out. I know the boys had a blast trying the new things out.