What a Day!

This morning, I grabbed the kids and we headed up north to buy a special surprise present for Father's Day.  It is so hard buying anything for Doug that doesn't include car parts, tools or a gift card.  I finally thought of something and needed to buy it while he's away on his trip.  The kids were amazing.  A full hour long ride and not a single whine...of course, they consumed an entire bag of Japanese vegetable chips.  Adam, not only went an hour in the car, but was immediately bolted into the stroller for the errand then put back in the car seat for another 30 minute drive to the aquarium.  He was never allowed to stand up and stretch his legs.  And he never complained!  Actually, he fell asleep on that second ride, thank goodness and had himself a mini-nap.  I gave Mary the option of heading to McDonald's to play at the playground and eat an early lunch before heading home (it was 10:50am by this time and I thought we might even be able to make it in time for a nap at home) or we could drive to the aquarium and play on the cool net playground.  Of course, she heard aquarium and she was all for it.  I even told her I didn't have enough time or money for us to pay and actually walk through and see the fish, but she was ok with it.   Once we got there, she immediately wanted to see if the dolphins were out.  The 2 times we've been, we've missed the shows (because we were inside looking at the fish) and haven't been able to see them at all.  They've built a new tank and a huge seating area (in the shade -Ahhhhh).  Did I mention the show is completely free?  It was fabulous.  She was so excited to finally see them.  You can tell, it was finally a gorgeous day here.  Yea!

Now, that's a happy girl!

After the show, we walked to the playground to run off some wiggles.  By now, it was 12:20pm, but because of the amazing "mom bag" we'd had plenty of snacks to tide us over until lunch.  This place never ceases to amaze me.  It has nets for 3-6 yr olds and some for 6-12 yr olds.  There's even a toddler play area...that Adam really wasn't interested in, since his sister was busy somewhere else.

After we finished playing, I still figured we'd hit McDonald's drive thru on the way home, but as we were pulling out, I saw the sign for the Butterfly Garden.  My little girl LOVES butterflies.  She even wants a butterfly birthday cake...and she was wearing a butterfly skirt today.  It was meant to be.  This was probably the last time we were going to drive this far north before we move.  Better do it today.  We pulled in and I knew we needed to eat first, so we headed to the restaurant and had a typical "tourist trap" kind of meal; filling, ok, but not fabulous.  Mary really enjoyed her beef curry, though and that's all that matters.  The kids were amazing.  By this time it was around 1pm and they still hadn't had lunch (we normally eat at 11:30am) and they weren't even whiny.  Though I'll be honest, Adam let out quite the excited squeal when I found the last remaining pieces of Skittles in my purse and offered them up as appetizers.  

Mary gets way too shy when people offer to take our picture with my camera.  For some reason, she always refuses.  Oh well.  At least she lets me take her picture, so I can't complain too much.

We walked to the butterfly house where they have netting on the doors to help trap more butterflies inside, so we could get up close and personal.  It was really cool.  I guess Adam didn't realize what he was looking at, since he reached out and grabbed one by the wings.  It furiously started flapping it's wings for dear life and Adam freaked.   It was pretty funny and of course, I had to snap a picture first.  Sorry, lil' man.

After sweating like crazy in the hot,humid day, I decided the kids (and I) deserved some ice cream before driving an hour home.  It was delicious.  We had a wonderful, thoroughly exhausting day.

You can tell it was a good day by looking at Mary's shirt (beef curry and chocolate ice cream).  There was many a chuckle by the Japanese employees as we were walking out the building and a flat out belly laugh by me.  Aww, makes me say, "I love my kids today."