The Aquarium

I took this in the lobby of our hotel before the aquarium. Isabel said "No" to being in the picture. That was a running theme that day. She kills me.
This was my first visit to an aquarium. The kids and I shared a first! Loved it! So very cool. It's just amazing the size of this place. Loved the penguins, seahorses and the sharks. I could have just stared at the sharks all day. Completely fascinating. We got to see Nemo!

She was most definitely "Gan Gan's baby" this week-end

Jackson checking out the sting rays.

He got to feed them a piece of shrimp

She was a little apprehensive of everything. She definitely didn't want to feed one.

Watching the sting ray eat the shrimp

I loved this photo spot

Miss Pouty

In the shark cage!

He's "reading" about our next stop. The Incline Railway.

The ice cream giggles

I took this after we left the ice cream shop on Saturday while we were in Chattanooga. It was the end of our day and the kids were a little delirious from the ice cream. Jackson was laughing hysterically at Isabel so I grabbed the camera hoping to catch some of the fun in the back seat. They were cracking me up!

(I'll try to get around to posting some more pictures from the week-end later tonight)

Chattanooga (Day 1)

Before I tell you how much fun we had I want to thank my Mom (Gan Gan) for taking us on a fantastic week-end getaway! Thank you so very much Mom!!!! I love you!

We arrived in Chattanooga around 1:00, found and checked in to our hotel, dropped our bags on the floor and headed to the Children's Museum. The kids had a blast! We started on the roof and worked our way down.

I love that smile!

Isabel had no desire to touch the "lightning ball"

She did LOVE the music section

Very, very cool music area

Iz covered her eyes every time she saw the dinosaur :)

Digging for dinosaur bones

He's got the digging vest on (Iz wanted to wear this very badly)

Little homemaker

Oh, the water. Jackson LOVES the water area (if he wouldn't try to drink the nasty water I might not hate it so much)

Driving the boat

View from above (I had to be Isabel's "climbing buddy" in the play maze so we were up pretty high)

She found another vest - oh happy day!

He found the train. :)

We actually had to go back inside so she could get in this car because some rude little boy wouldn't share. We got as far as the gift shop on the way out before she remembered. She was a happy girl in that cute little red car so it was well worth the trip back inside.

Well, that concludes the children's museum. It was a great day! Stay tuned because on Saturday we went to the Aquarium, to the Chattanooga Choo Choo, the Incline Railway up Lookout Mountain, Rock City, and finished it off in an ice cream shop! Whew!!

We're off!

It's friday morning and I'm getting everything together for our little mini-vacation. The kids and I are headed to Chattanooga, TN with my Mom. The kids are going to love it! They have a wonderful aquarium, a children's museum, See Rock City, and the Chattanooga Choo Choo!
See you soon!!!

The cutest!

OK, I am doing some back-to back posts here but I just saw these pictures my cousin, Jenny Lou took at her daughter Mary Evelyn's b'day party this past Saturday. The first one is really sweet of Gan Gan pushing her granddaughters on the tricycle. (Not really good for your back Mom!)

And this is my new favorite picture of Jackson. JennyLou, I can't thank you enough for taking this! It is so beautiful. This one will be in a frame very, very soon. Love it!!!!!

What's your favorite?

Some of our best toys are Melissa & Doug. Love them! Love the puzzles, the train and train table (of course), the mail box, cutting food, I love it all and most importantly, so do the kids. Gan Gan gave the kids a new one today that I do believe has taken over as a favorite - Ice cream! Toy ice cream but it's really cool. There are magnets in the scoop, the ice cream and in the cones so they can literally scoop ice cream and it balances on the cone. Very cool.
Their little faces just lit up. Jackson was giggling and Isabel was jumping up & down. If you do not already have this toy you need to run out & grab one. A big plus (especially for those of us with 2 little ones) : it comes with 2 cones, 2 scoops and 4 "flavors" so my kids didn't even fight (well not much, anyway :)
So, what do your kids love these days? favorite toy?

Change of subject-
Do all little girls strip their poor little dolls naked and refuse help to get them dressed ever again? The dolls in our house are not allowed to wear clothes. Why? Don't have any freakin' idea.

Jackson is finally warming up to the idea of the sippy cup. He is even drinking some milk again!
Found some great Diego cups with dinosaurs at Target (I'm going to buy more of these)

Jackson is still not interested in potty training but Iz is doing pretty good. I'll say she goes in the potty more often than the pull-ups. She loves those pull-up's! She calls her pull-up's "My mermaids". I think one of the princesses is Ariel so she is probably correct.

Here are a few from tonight with our new ice cream toy-

It's quite a "look"