Museum trip

Saturday morning we popped into center city for a trip to the Museum of Natural Sciences.  We had never been before and boy was it fun!  We were very impressed by how inter-active many of the exhibitions were - very kid-friendly and great for toddlers!

Meredith loved all the seeing all the life-size animals.  We were amazed at how incredibly done the scenes were - so real and accurate!

They had a fabulous exhibit of butterflies - a whole room filled with butterflies flying freely.  We were able to get very close to many of them, and even have them brush by us a few times. 

  I had fun snapping a few photos at just the right moment.

 The dinosaur fossils were really incredible and a totally new experience for Meredith.  She'd never been around anything so large before!

Erik took her to pose inside the mouth of a T-rex.  I don't think she actually understood they were inside a mouth...but, maybe it's better that way at this point! :-p

News Flash!

It has happened...

Meredith took her first steps on her own this week! :)

A little girl couldn't have been prouder - giggling and glowing in the praise (hip-hip-hoorays!) of her parents. She took several steps in between us on her own - back and forth, and back and forth - loving it (and all the commotion we were making). :)

You Go Girl!

The next day MJ and I made a trip to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia with friends. It was a great outing for MJ to with her new-found independence and an opportunity to get some serious practice in...

First a stop in the transportation area.

This little girl can never have enough time with trucks these days :)

Then, on to shopping!

This little kiddo got it down pat pretty quickly with an attitude that said, "I can totally do this on my own." And, she did. (Mama is thrilled!!!)

freshly baked bread - an excellent choice.

shopping buddies. :)

Anna Kate sweetly shared her pineapple with MJ

...since she noticed MJ was a bit heavy on the canned goods inventory. ;)

Please Touch Museum :)

Meredith had her first experience at the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia yesterday. It was awesome! We went with 3 of her "big kid" pals - Kezzie, Anna Kate and Marlowe - all 2 year olds. Thanks to Jenn Sallade (Anna Kate's Mommy) for these excellent photos. :)

Kezzie prepared us all extra large big mac's at the play McDonald's cafe....yummy!

The kid-sized grocery store was a huge hit for all the kiddos. Anna Kate loaded up her cart with a variety of items.

Should we get a cucumber?

Marlowe plays "cashier" in this photo - the scanner even chimed as each item was scanned! Wow - so cool!

Meredith helps Anna Kate choose some fresh fruit for her shopping cart.

We didn't even make it to all the areas of the museum, though we stayed there several hours! It's an amazing place. Another favorite area for all the kids was the "transportation" area. Even Meredith found a car her size to take a whirl in. ;)