Whitaker Center

(If you click on the collage, it will enlarge so that you can see the smaller pictures better.)

Pappa came down to visit the girls this week, and we made a trip into Harrisburg to visit the Whitaker Center--which has a science center, a toddler play area, and IMAX theatre. We skipped the movie, spent a bit in the science center, but it was tough to tear the girls away from the play area. There is a toddler area with lots of foam things to climb on, a 2-story building to climb in and 'build' with foam bricks, a grocery store, stage with puppets and dress-up, ambulance, and water table.

The two pictures on the left are of the girls in the midtown market grocery store, top center picture is of the girls in the ambulance, top right is Maggie in the toddler play area, then pushing a cart with a brick, and a shot of the water table. I wasn't able to get many pictures of Katie because she was in the building most of the time. It was so much fun, I would love to get a family membership to go all the time, except the cost to park (5 dollars a visit)...and the joys of travelling into the city....something I have only done on my own about 10 times. Bonus: if you park in the Walnut Street garage, you won't even need to walk outside...it is connected to the WC.

We'd like to go back and if anyone wants to come with us, it would be best to go before the end of September. They are now celebrating their 10th anniversary with special pricing...only 10 dollars for the whole science center AND a IMAX movie ticket. If you want to just go to play in the toddler area...only 5 dollars a person! Right now they have an exhibit on Forces of Nature with a spherical projection screen, a tornado that you can touch and stand in, and a booth that will let you experience hurricane force winds.

Fun and Chores

Example A: trip to Elizabethtown Library to play in the kid section = fun

Example B: Merry Maids = chores, girls getting to use the swiffers = fun for both girls and Mommy. They work for cookies. = )

Bathing Beauties

Yes, I know I have been slacking a bit with pictures, but here is a shot from last week after visiting Lori and Andrea and going swimming. Hard to believe, but it was our first trip swimming this year, joining a pool is so expensive and not many pools have public swim times.

Katie had a great time, working up the courage to go down a slide into the pool, and Maggie LOVED floating for hours in the water.

We ended going to the pool with Dad when he was down this Thursday, and the girls got to have a blast in the baby pool (Maggie made no fuss when she put her face in the water.) She was constantly squatting and splashing, just so happy to get all wet. We took the girls in the big pool and I discovered Maggie's new favorite is being held under her arms facing me as I walk back in the water. She lays practically flat and to my complete joy, she was doing breaststroke kick!

Trip to the Pitcavages

We were too busy having fun catching up, so I didn't take more pictures....but here is Lilly, Katie, and Maggie in the tent playing.

On our way home, the girls needed to stretch a bit, so we went to Chick-fil-a for a treat and some playtime.

Thanks for having us, we had a great time!

More quotes

Katie has latched onto a new phrase: if you would be so kind. I'm not exactly sure where she got it from, and she's not exactly sure how to use it, but that just makes it even better. I first heard her say it when we found ourselves (as we so often do) in a toy aisle at the store. She was admiring some Barbie outfits (OK, we both were...), and said "Daddy if you would be so kind to get these for me I would really enjoy playing with them." Too cute. It was almost hard to resist--almost (you know how much they charge for those things?). She had another good one with Angel the other night, telling her "I guess I should have enjoyed and appreciated my time in the tub before the sprayer" (she's not a big fan of the sprayer). Nothing gets past this kid. I remember a long time ago explaining to her why I didn't want her doing something potentially dangerous, even though she promised to be careful, by saying "there's this little thing called an accident..." A week or so later I was stopping her from doing something else dangerous and she says "because there's a little thing called an accident?" What other 4 year old says things like "May I have a word with you?" and "If you would be so kind..." ? She's one smart cookie.

As for the other smart cookie, Miss Margaret now does an adorable hands out, palms up, shoulder shrugging "All gone" when something is--you guessed it--all gone. She adds this to her cute and squeaky "Thank you" and the classic "Uh oh." She's figuring things out at an amazing rate, learning from big sister's example (Yikes!). Even better is her obsession with putting things away, which is, to put it mildly, not something typically demonstrated by Katie. She'll dump out the foam blocks just to get to put them away (if you've never seen our house on a random weekday when we haven't had company in a while, then you'll have no idea what a blessing having a neat child would be--no offense to our wonderful but often disastrous first-born), and the other morning she took her sippy cup into the kitchen and placed it matter-of-factly in the bottom of the dishwasher. It was so cute that I almost didn't point out to her that it actually goes in the top tray--almost (I mean, if she's going to do it, she might as well do it right).

the purse family

Maggie liked Katie's purse so much that I made an itty bitty Maggie sized one (on the right) and Katie thought it would be only right if I had a matching one too!

Ok, I need to get back to quilting....

Katie's Dance Bag

Katie needed a new bag for dance, just big enough to carry her ballet shoes and bottle of water...so I made her a buttercup bag. The pattern is from Rae (Made by Rae on my blog list).

Maggie has taken a liking to it, so I shrunk the pattern to 70% of the original size to make one for her...fabric cut, ready to sew!

I can't do justice with my horrible photography, but I was really happy with this...straight topstitching and everything!