Spring Break 2012 -- Exploration Place



We went to Wichita, Kansas to visit my dad for spring break. Of course it rained buckets pretty much the entire time we were there! We did manage to find some inside activities to keep the girls from going too stir crazy...We went to Exploration Place. It is a huge building that several different "kid friendly" exhibits. The las time we went there the girls were little (1 and 3), so I was excited to see what they would do now that they are litle older.

The girls are having fun right when we walk in!

 The girls are striking a pose outside the castle at Exploration Place. They loved getting to play "princess" for the day. They had lots of different doors and even a castle kitchen! I think that was one of Sarah's favorite parts.

 Emily on the steps to the castle. It has a winding staircase that you can use to get to very top of the castle. It has several different stations such as a star gazing area, complete with black lights, a dress up area, a stained glass window station, even a library. It was all pretty neat for a little girl who's life ambition is to be a queen!

Don't I wish that it was really that easy!

Daddy and Sarah on the throne!

Emily striking a pose again :)

 



Sarah getting ready to use the catapult!



Emily is a pro at this!

After visiting the castle we moved on to the next exhibit.  (Although it was hard to take the princess' from their castle) It was all about using geocaching and using a GPS. Emily was very excited to use her new reading skills to read us most of the clues. Below she is looking for clues to help us unlock the door.



After that we went to the next exhibit which was all about Kansas. The girls went into a "tornado" that acted like a F1 tornado. Sarah was having none of it! She started crying, but Emily wanted to stay in. As you can see Emily is having a blast and Sarah is already starting to cry. I don't think we are ever going to get that girl to go on any roller coasters ever!

Emily and Sarah having fun building a river.

One of the visiting exhibits was a vet center. Sarah and Emily were too busy

taking care of each other to worry about the animals.

The final exhibit was all about flying! The girls got to sit in several different airplanes and "fly." There some flight simulators and helicopters to try out. 

 

We had a blast! It was so exciting to see them get so excited everything...

Time Changes are ROUGH!!!

Well we had a time change last weekend. No one really likes time changes, but there is someone in our house who does not handle the change very well. Sarah was crashed out on the way home Monday...I think it is probably a good idea that she is not going to Kinder next year. I don't think she could make it through the day :) But I wonder at what age I will look at them when they are sleeping and not feel a huge amount of tenderness in my heart. On a side night...I think she will end up taking that blanket with her to college.  But considering she is determined that when she "gets married and has 10 babies, her daddy is going to build her a house right next to ours" I don't know if she is going to make to a college that is too far away...

End of the Day...

I am a firm believer in "love languages." I have read The 5 Love Languages and learned so much! Then I had the girls and discovered their languages. It is very interesting to look at them from this angle. Emily is very much "Words of Affirmation" for those of you who do not know this language it is all about saying good things about them.  For example "Emily you did such a good job making your bed." This fills up her "love bank."  As a teacher, this language comes out of my mouth so very easily. Well Sarah's love language is "Physical Touch," So she feels most loved when she is cuddled with or played with in this way.  This shows so much of why she is such a cuddler.  She loves to cuddle and will do it any chance she gets, but it also means she will rough house with Daddy as much as she can. Emily will stop after a short time and Sarah just keeps at it! Well as any working mom knows, the time from when we get home until dinner is over and cleaned is the HARDEST part of my day. This is usually the time the Sarah is the hardest to deal with. I know all she wants is to cuddle on the couch, and truly it is all I want to do to! But dinner just won't cook itself. That is why is so wonderful when Daddy is home when we get home...

If you had seen her face 5 minutes earlier... cuddle time with Daddy makes it all better! 

"Princess Emily"

We got this comic from our wonderful next door neighbors. She wrote "Guess who I thought of when I saw this?" No guessing in my mind...our own personal princess...Emily.

She has been dreaming of being a princess forever, but I think after being a "football princess" it just increased her dream!  We are always talking about babies because Sarah is determined to have 10 babies and just be a mommy...well it is probably a good thing that Sarah is going to have that many babies because Emily likes to tell me that she is not going to have any babies because they are too much work! She tells me that she isn't having babies or dogs or cats because they are too much work...."maybe I'll have a fish" Hmmmm...Then finally the other day she tells me maybe I'll have a baby because if I have a baby then I'll get to be a queen.  I think quite possibly that she will end up taking that baby over the Sarah's house for Sarah to watch :)

Sure to do love my "little mommy" and my "princess" 

Cheerleading...

We signed Emily up for a cheerleading clinic put on by RHHS dance/cheer squad. She was extremely excited. They got to put on the half time show at the girls basketball game the next Friday.

Emily getting ready for the game to start

Sarah not so excited about Emily's big night..

Such a big girl!

Yeah...can really see our lives for the next several years..."Mom how come she gets to do that???"

I just can't belive how big our "little girl" is getting. It just seems like just the other day we were bringing her home...now she is doing all of these "big girl" things...to think in just a short amount of time it will be her as one of those "big girls" out on that court. 

Valentine's Day

We recently celebrated Valentine's Day at the Davis house. It is hard holiday for me to balance being a mom and being a teacher...with parties for all the classrooms in my life it makes for a very busy time in our life.  It helped that Mathias decided to do their party on the Friday before Valentine's Day. I managed to get all of the stuff ready for both parties....did I happen to mention it was also conference week?? So when I get home at 7pm on Thursday I am making a Valentine box for Emily...

Emily and her box!

Emily's decorated cookies :)

Emily's party and my classroom party managed to occur at exactly the same time, but Emily's teacher took some pictures and e-mailed them to me. If you will look at the last picture of her class you will notice that she is the one who can't stop laughing...

Well we managed to survive...the next week I was digging through her backpack and found this Valentine...melted my heart!







" I am glad to have a mom like you. You make me happy. You cook dinner for me." Pretty special.

Well the following week I was able to go to Sarah's party....as I have said countless times...it is much easier to be the mom at the party vs. the teacher at the party!

Such a cutie! 

Well as part of their party they worked on sorting and then making a pattern with their Valentine's hearts....Look at that lovely AB pattern!



Proud Momma

At Emily's school...my school as well...there is a board that just advanced work put on it as an example for other students. As I as walking through the hallway a couple days ago I see a story that Emily wrote hanging in the hall. I was a pretty proud mommy.

"When I think about Independence Day I think of fireworks and eating with my family." You will notice us sitting in chairs.

There is just something great about being able to see your kids everyday at school. I get to hear those funny little stories and see another part of the young lady she is growing up to be...