May Festival & More

This weekend we visited Lexington for my birthday and Mother's Day. We had a wonderful time and throughly enjoyed ourselves at the May Festival with Dan, Dorothy and Heidi on Saturday.

~

Not long after arriving Uncle Dan and Aunt Dorothy suggested a horse/pony ride. This was Reagan's first ride and she loved it! I told her we would have to ask Uncle Phil for some more horse rides when we're in Wisconsin this summer!

After the ride Reagan enjoyed petting the pony's nose

As usual Kennedy was simply a sweetheart and spent a good part of the afternoon hanging out in the stroller taking it all in. :)

Having fun running around a fountain

Heidi decided it would be fun to feed some animals at the May Festival. It took Heidi a while to get Reagan focused on what she wanted to do but once Reagan finally understood she loved it!

Reagan didn't see Uncle Dan pay for the feed when he and Heidi brought it to her but I guess Reagan has figured out that most things in life aren't free. After her feed ran out she went up to Tim and asked for "More money." Tim thought I had prompted her but I had not at all. He gave her a dollar and we went to buy some more. After that was gone she went right back to him and asked for some more money. By that time she knew where the feed table was and exactly where to take the money. What a little nut! lol :)

~

Taking the money from Daddy to the feed tablePaying for the feed

Handing Heidi her feed

time to get back to feeding a llama

Holding hands - what little sweethearts!

hug

I don't know what this building is but the girls enjoyed running their daddies up and down the stairs a few times. :)

Kennedy loves her Daddy!

Daddy and his girls

Soon to be family of 4

What precious little girls!

Mom and Dad came up to Lexington Saturday evening too. Dan and Dorothy invited us over to their house for a cookout. Dorothy made some incredible potato salad and Dan's hamburgers were fantastic! Thanks for showing us around Lexington and giving us such a great dinner!

~

While we were at Dan and Dorothy's Kennedy throughly enjoyed her time with Pa and especially his hat. lol :)

A fun girl's day out?

Have you ever noticed when you're really looking forward to something or think you're doing something special for someone else it never seems to work out quite right? Well, that's kind of how today went. I had planned a special outing for Reagan to visit the National Building Museum. A friend suggested it and when I looked it up on line their "Building Zone" looked so cool I absolutely knew Reagan would love it! So even if it wasn't the most convenient thing to load up the kids and trapse across DC changing trains and everything I knew Reagan would have a blast...
~

Before I recount Reagan's adventures and so I'm not remiss again in my motherly duties let me start by providing a picture of Kennedy's first metro/train ride (you can see the train in the background). She slept a good part of the way there so I would say it didn't impress her too much or bother her too much either. lol :) I think Reagan enjoyed the elevators as much or more than the trains. :)

When we got to the museum there was so much cool stuff! It was so bright and colorful and looked like so much fun!!! You can see from the few pictures I snapped of Reagan (there were so many more fun activities for kids - big legos, puzzles, books with a reading area, a playhouse where you could see inside the walls, big bricks to build with and so much more) that you would think any kid would have a blast and could play for hours in the "Building Zone." Even though it might look like we had a great time remember pictures can be deceiving... We weren't at the museum for even half an hour. It was probably more like 20 minutes. Reagan's behavoir was terrible and she kept throwing tantrums. I have no explanation for it what so ever. There were so many cool toys and activities. The only thing I can think is there was a museum employee who was a little odd and was asking her questions. On the other hand I should have known we were probably headed for trouble when Reagan kept saying "No, I NOT cute" when anyone told her she was during our metro ride... Whatever the reason there's no excuse for the behavoir and I have no idea why Reagan wouldn't have throughly enjoyed herself today.

~

On that note... here's Reagan playing with magnetic building materials until the employee brought her a second box to explore

Running through a big door we built (before knocking it down and before getting mad because I apparently wasn't rebuilding it the right way even though it was exactly the same as before - I really don't know why she was mad and since all she would do was scream at me instead of talk I couldn't help her out much)

Discovering how to clip toys together

Kennedy getting in on the action too :)

Reagan trying on a hard helmet in the dress up area (the gloves infuriated her before she even attempted to put them on - I guess they looked too difficult???)

Construction worker Kennedy - both girls are ready to go to work with you Grandpa Jim! As long as you don't suggest Reagan wear any gloves that is! lol :)

After leaving the museum and getting calmed down a bit I spotted a hot dog stand. We decided to get a healthy lunch of watermelon juice (never had that before but it was pretty good), chips, and of course a hot dog (Reagan's first!). As it was Reagan's first hot dog I thought that might be fun too. Wrong again!!! Here is the tantrum Reagan threw because I asked her if she'd like a bite. Note: As it was an unhealthy hot dog I didn't tell her she had to eat it, I didn't force it down her throat, all I did was ask if she'd like a bite. What kind of a terrible person/mother would do a thing like that??? I guess the same one that would take a picture because by this point I didn't know what to do with her... lol :)

This next picture was taken especially for the benefit of Uncle Scott and Aunt Arla who can not believe their sweet god daughter has violent temper tantrums let alone ones that involve throwing herself face down on the ground. Well, here's the proof...

After a long hug and snuggle Reagan decided the hot dog did look yummy and enjoyed a few bites. She also liked the chips and had a good time with the straw(s) and watermelon juice which proved to be a hit.

We stopped to enjoy our impromtu lunch/snack across the street from the museum at the National Law Enforcement Memorial. It was very nice and Reagan had a good time in the grassy areas. Thankfully my sweet two year old reappeared at this point and stuck around for the rest of our adventure! :)

Kennedy woke up from a brief catnap and decided to enjoy the nice weather and green grass too.

Reagan is picking grass and dropping it on her head/hair as well as sharing it with Kennedy on her blanket

Regardless of Reagan, Kennedy had a wonderful day! She is such an easy baby!

Because of Reagan's excellent behavoir on the ride back we decided to end the day on a positive note with an ice cream cone. I sure hope our next fun day out is easier and more enjoyable for everyone involved! :)

Kennedy is such a sweetheart!!! Here she is still just chilling out and going along for the ride while Reagan gets her ice cream. She was totally content and happy entertaining herself with her duck from Uncle Barry and Aunt Annette. What a honey bear!

Thank you to Aunt Arla for the dress Reagan is wearing. I forgot to thank her for that in the previous post Reagan was wearing it. I think it is precious!

Kennedy's Frist Zoo Trip

Today we made an impromptu visit to the National Zoo. So impromptu in fact, I didn't have my camera and it didn't occur to me until after we were there that it was Kennedy's first zoo visit! The first time to the zoo and no pictures?!?!? What kind of a mother am I??? So, in order to make up for the lack of pictures at the zoo I naturally had to take a picture of Kennedy playing with a number of the animals (elephants, zebras, pandas, cheetahs {although our toy is actually a leopard}, tiger {we saw orange ones not white}) we saw today. We obviously saw more anyimals than those in the pictures, such as the Capybara, that we don't have an animal handy to pose her with - but then I probably wouldn't have taken Kennedy's picture with the Capybara even if I'd had my camera... Anyhoo... it's not quite the same, but I guess it will have to do. lol :) Even though I don't have official pictures to go with it I can report that Kennedy enjoyed the zoo today. She paid more attention to the people than the animals but overall we had a very nice day and it was great just to be outside again enjoying a break from all our rain! :)

Reagan was very good today and I believe throughly enjoyed being outside. Because Reagan was being so good and it had been a while since we'd been outside (due to the ton of rain we've been receiving) I decided to not worry about her nap. That was a bit of a mistake... While trying to show her the female lion she got mad and tried to get away. In the process she ended up "crashing in a muddy puddle." She was mud from head to toe. The mud was in her hair and all over her clothes. I really wish I'd had my camera to take a picture of her before we cleaned her up! Here she is looking at her pants after we got back saying they are "yucky." What a little stinker!

She sure is a cute little stinker though!

Thank you to Grandma Karen for the matching outfits the girls are wearing! :)

We love books!

For whatever reason Reagan was much more interested in Kennedy today than usual. I sure hope that keeps up because it is so precious! While Reagan was really super sweet all day the one thing I captured on film was Reagan reading to Kennedy. What a great big sister! I love the reading and the sweetness! :)

a

a