Boston: Easton Childrens Museum

Our trip thus far was fun filled and action packed, meaning Fiona hadn’t been napping well. Poor thing had a terrible cold, so on Tuesday we decided to stick close to the house so that I could put Fiona down for a normal nap. So we headed over to the Easton Children’s Museum. Being spring break the place was packed, and it was full of stuff for the kids to do. As an adult it was like sensory overload, but the kids seem to have a blast.

It had all kinds of things to do; a little fire engine to climb on, a fireman’s pole to climb,  a couple different ball areas (whats with the excitement of watching a ball roll?), a reading room, a mini boat to climb on and pretend to drive, a tunnel, and a stage complete with costumes and makeup area. And that was just on the main floor, there were 2 other floors equally packed with things to do. But the makeup area captivated most of the kids, ours included.

Heather helped James get ready for the stage.

I drew a heart on Fiona’s cheek, and then she took over and wanted to do her own makeup.

Not sure what she was drawing, but look at that concentration!

Boston: Dairy farm and ice cream

After a tiring morning playing in Boston with Isabel and her family. Fiona and I headed back to my friends house. Her son (Eric) had spent the morning having two of his teeth pulled; ouch! Poor kid was on an all soft food diet, so as a treat we headed to a local dairy, where they make their own ice cream!

What kid doesn’t like ice cream? Fiona got a scoop of banana (and when I say scoop, I mean she got a scoop of banana in a cup and then I put 2 spoonfuls into her cone for her. Then I ate the rest, yeah I’m mean that way)

Since its s dairy farm, you can meet the cows that produced the milk to make the ice cream. Talk about buying local and knowing where your food comes from!

Fiona saying thanks for the ice cream!

You can even pet the calves. Fiona was a little nervous, and would run up and touch the cows nose and then run away. Can’t blame her, cows are big. Even baby cows! James however was not afraid, and gave the cow a good nose rub.

Mmmm… banana ice cream.

Boston: New friends and the ICA

I’m skipping a day from my Boston recap, which I will come back to later. But I took so many photos from that day that I haven’t even made a dent in editing them. So I will skip to Monday.

Monday I finally got to meet a friend of mine in person. Isabel and I became friends several years ago when, as she put it “we were both in a dark place”. She and several other woman made a very difficult time a teensy bit easier because we were all going through something similar. Somehow we found each other on facebook and our friendship grew. I learned that she lived in Boston, and we both figured we would never meet face to face… that is until I decided to visit my other friend (Heather) who also lived in Boston. So we hatched a plan to meet. And I have to say she is every bit the personality in person that is online.

I will apologize now for the numerous photos from that morning (note I said morning, I’m saving the afternoon for a separate post). But Isabel is also a photographer, and the result of 2 photographers getting together is lots, and lots of photos! Her post from that day is here: http://www.ifurie.com/the-adventure-continues/. Check out her photos, they are amazing!

We started out the day at the ICA, which ended up really not being a toddler friendly museum. We found one room that the kids were free to wander in and camped out there to chat. The view from the room was amazing.

Fiona agreed.

Isabel has two sons, who are total sweeties. Her youngest is just a little older then Fiona. You can see just how impressed he was with the museum as he tries to eat the ticket.

Most of our conversations went something like this “blah, blah, blah” Click,  then a kid crying “mommy!!”, click. It was so nice to hang out with someone else who constantly has a camera pressed to her face. But for a brief moment, her son needed a snuggle, and she switched from photographer to mom mode .

After wandering the museum we decided to head out for lunch and to let the kids run free. Luckily the weather was some what descent (much warmer then the zoo trip!).

Fiona loved Isabel’s oldest son Jack. Why? Because he would make funny faces and sing with her.

There was lots of playing:

A buddy diaper change:

And then sadly it was time to go. Isabel and her family walked Fiona and I back to the train station. Before the trip I felt the need to warn Isabel that Fiona is a hand holder, and that at some point she would most likely try to hold everyone’s hand. My warning proved to be true and Fiona kept asking to hold everyone’s hand. Leo resisted for awhile, but eventually everyone gives in to Fiona.

Isabel, it was great meeting you and spending the morning with your fabulous family! If your ever in the south, you know who to call!

Boston trip, the Zoo

I was hoping to edit photos as I took them and post them daily while I was in Boston. Ha! I’ve been home almost a week and I’m still not done editing them. I don’t know when I thought I would have the time to edit and post daily.

Anyway, on to the trip. We stayed with a friend of mine that I have known since i was 5 (!), which suffice to say is a REALLY long time. She has 2 boys, both of which are much older then Fiona. She intrigued them, they weren’t sure quite what to do with an almost 2 year old, but they tried their best to play with and entertain her. We were trying to find things that would keep all 3 kids entertained so the first day of our trip we headed to the zoo.

The have a deer petting/feeding area, so Fiona got to pet and feed deer. Things I didn’t know about deer, they move really fast when there is food involved. I tried to get more photos, but in half of them the deer are blurry or they have swarmed my child and you can’t see her, or my friends arm is in the shot as she tries to fend off the deer. The remind me of Tibi at feeding time.

The zoo also has a few rides. Fiona desperately wanted to ride the cars. Technically she was an inch to short, but her pathetic face smooshed up against the fence convinced the attendant to let her ride “with her brother”. My friends youngest son (Eric) rode with her. Sheer joy!

My friends oldest son (James) thought all the animals were great, but the funniest by far were the baboons. I don’t know how long they watched them (long enough at least for me to go change Fiona’s diaper and come back).

It was freezing while we were at the zoo, okay maybe not freezing. But for someone used to temps in the 80′s and 90′s, those 40 degree temperatures were darn cold! Fiona spent most of her time wrapped up in a blanket in my arms. But once the wind died down she wanted to run around with the big kids. She thought they were awesome.

Lastly we hit up the goat area, whats a trip to the zoo without feeding a few goats? Look how sweet they are when you don’t have food:

The rest of the trip will follow soon, there are museum trips, a beach trip and a trip to a creamery.

Happy Easter!!

Things have been busy around here! Work is there as usual, event season is kicking in to high gear so I have been a busy little bee working away in powerpoint. Fiona and I went on vacation, which started out as “woohoo, 5 whole days without my computer!”, then became “I’ll just take my laptop along in case this one project isn’t finished”, and ended up being a normal workweek for me. But I did have a lovely change of scenery and weather! Boston spring weather is a far cry from Austin spring weather! But more on my trip later, I took hundreds of photos so I will be doing a photo recap of the trip later this week.

But today is Easter, which means egg hunts and Easter candy!

Silly me thought that we would have to show Fiona what an Easter egg hunt was. But apparently its ingrained, all we had to do is hand Fiona a basket and set her loose in the backyard. She found the eggs really quickly!

She loved taking inventory of her eggs. In the basket. Out of the basket. Then she thought her eggs should have fun and they went for a ride in her swing and down her slide.

Fiona had a busy morning of egg hunts, playing and more egg hunting. Our neighbors surprised us by hiding 38 (!) eggs on our front lawn for Fiona to hunt. So needless to say she was on a fun high and didn’t take a nap. We tried though. While we was upstairs the Easter bunny visited and filled her Easter basket with all kinds of goodies. One of which was a (tiny) chocolate bunny. As soon as she discovered it she ran over to her daddy to have him “open”. They snuggled while she ate her bunny, and she thanked her daddy with kisses.

I hope everyone’s Easter was equally happy!