Weekend Entertainment

Lately, I can't stand to be in the house.  Jason is SUPER attached, to the point of being extremely frustrating, and being at home seems to make it 1000 times worse.  Seriously, I can't walk past the kid without him grabbing onto my leg for dear life.  (Imagine trying to cook dinner like this!)  So, we're trying to go out at least twice a day lately.  In the last couple of days, we've hit up some old favorites and some new fun. 

The mall play area and the Museum of Life and Science are good standbys, and we made it to both.  I've definitely gotten our money's worth out of the museum membership and had no problem renewing it for another year!  Jason loves the indoor play area where he can explore different balls, stuffed animals, pretend food, etc.  This time, he found his greatest enjoyment with a metal bowl and a broom.  Seriously, folks, simple pleasures for this kid!  Abbie loves the new mist exhibit and the farm animals, but was doubly excited this time by the insectarium and butterfly house where she caught a butterfly!  She grabbed the poor thing by the wings, but once I cupped it in my hands, it stayed for several seconds before flying away.

On the recommendation of a friend, Tony and I explored a new playground in town, Lyon Park.  Abbie and Jason both found something fun to do, although the equipment was a little beyond their skill levels.  Abbie did manage to climb several things, and Jason attempted to scale the spider webbing (no success there).  I think this will be a good place for them to grow into, and we'll definitely go back.

From the park, we headed over to Duke Gardens, which has a new Discovery Garden.  Unfortunately, it was closed in the morning as they prepared for a grand opening celebration.  But, we did explore the back side of the gardens (the part the students probably see the most, but we rarely walk through).  Abbie ran her little legs off!

We headed home for lunch and naps, which were cut too short and prompted me to plan an  activity to get us through the potentially crazy afternoon.  So, off to Monkey Joe's we went.  I took Abbie there before Jason was born, and she had quite a bit of fun, but I knew that she would love it even more now that she could really climb.  And boy did she!  Her favorite part was biggest slide in the whole building. 

Jason was surprisingly scared of the whole bounce house thing, but enjoyed crawling and practice-walking around the place.  I'm betting that once he gets over his clingy-ness, he'll be tearing that place up!

So, fantastic time overall.  Now to look for more new adventures for next week!