Monday, January 24, 2011

New Adventures

It's been bitter cold over the past week and a half. So cold it's not even safe to play outside bundled up. This week is supposed to warm up, thankfully. The girls and I all get stir-crazy when we spend too much time at home and indoors!

Royce, myself and the girls took a ride down to a neighborhood we're considering moving into in the future. They have this fantastic children's bookstore that has live animals running around it. Specifically cats (without tails!) and chickens, yes real live chickens! Have I mentioned the girls favorite animals are chickens?! You can imagine their glee when we arrived! Adia was so excited she was going up to random strangers saying "Chickens!!! Chickens!!!" They also had this lizard with a face that looked identical to jabba the hut (spel?)! Seriously! Both girls cried as we were leaving because they weren't able to kiss him good bye! What a fantastic place.

Last week on the coldest day (-20 below zero!) my Mom and I brought the girls bowling! It was fun and Adia especially seemed to enjoy it. They have bumpers that pop up on the lanes so they can't get gutter balls and this weird sort of ramp you set the bowling ball on and the girls would push the ball so it would roll down the lane. Adia loved to push the ball and then clap for herself and say "good job!". Rasa had fun people watching and putting her face in front of the fan on the ball return. Both girls loved sitting and having appetizers with us.

Today we got going early and went to Eagles Nest just as it opened. They have an area in the back for kids 3 and under but the girls have outgrown it and when we go back there they stand around bored! They love climbing in the big kids area, going through the tunnels and down the slides. I have to follow them because they're still a little too small to maneuver through everything but I enjoy myself (I've always been a big kid!) and it's a nice workout!

After a couple hours of climbing I decided we better get lunch before the girls got too hungry. We went to a park I do a lot of my photo sessions in and had lunch at their cafe. They have an area for little ones to sit and color so the girls colored while we ate. After we went for a small hike outside (much too cold for a long one) and talked about all of the things we saw; trees, snow, more snow, even more snow and some leaves. The fresh air made for sound and peaceful naps, hopefully filled with dreams of new places and nature.

Every time I bring the girls out people ask me if they're always this good or they comment on how well behaved they are in public. Today at the cafe a lady stopped me to tell me she couldn't believe how good they were and the fact that every time they dropped a piece of food they were quick to pick it up and throw it away. I encourage (ok I insist) the girls pick up after themselves at home. I don't like cleaning up after people and I don't want them to think things magically get picked up when they go to sleep or move on to another activity. I PRAY their behavior in public stays the way it's always been. I'm not ignorant enough to think it will but it sure makes my life easy this way!

It's fun having two little buddies to play with. I love our adventures together. I can only imagine that month after month we'll find more and more things to explore, play and learn together. Of course I find it VERY hard to be mindful all the time in the winter and find myself dreaming of green buds on the trees, the smell of grass and the fun of walks in the park. Maybe it's time for an art project. I think I'm in need of some color in my life!

This is the best job in the entire world!

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