Winter Adventures

It's no secret that this winter has been a rough one weather-wise. Along with taking advantage of our backyard snow, we have been keeping busy with some of our favorite local attractions.

Last month we went to the U of M Museum of Natural History.  We've been there before as a family, but now that dinosaurs are more interesting to Michael and Sophie, it was even more of a thrill.  Check out my saber tooth tigers.

Apparently the museum will be moving locations, so we'll have to get back a couple of times before the mastodons pack up and move out.  I really love that old building.

One of their buddies from school had a birthday party at Tiny Town.  We hadn't been there in a couple of years either, so it felt brand new again to the kids. 

We took the kids to their first movie in a theater a couple of weeks ago.  Like every other kid we know, they loved Frozen (and so did I).  We didn't take them sooner as the reviews mentioned the death of parents, a snow monster, and nearly freezing to death.  Michael especially is not a fan of scary scenes, but a little YouTubing beforehand to prepare him for that "big marshmallow" did the trick.  It also got us pretty excited about Olaf!

I have not mastered the art of taking a photo with my phone in a dimly lit theater, so this was the best I could get.  Little buddy.  :)

Most photos in theaters look like this:

This was taken at the Fox Theatre when we surprised the kids with Sesame Street Live again. 

They said it was a good surprise!  I know I loved it.  Getting tickets and Mike taking the day off (my mid-winter break) was a somewhat last minute decision brought on by all the photos of friends and their kids in warm places and mouse ears.  We aren't going on any big trips this year, so little adventures are in order!  And these kiddos will only love Elmo and Abby for so long.

Afterwards we went to lunch at Traffic Jam and Snug. 

I'm not sure if they were more excited for the show or the ice cream...looks like the ice cream!

 

We also went on a twin club play date to The Scrap Box where Michael and Sophie made creatures (a butterfly and a bird) out of recycled materials.  After talking more about recycling, they now also help me take our cans and boxes and so on out to the garage.  Having an attached garage makes that more possible than in the past, and Michael especially loves that job!

 

Check out Sophie outgrowing those 3T's.  Spring mom-to-mom sales, here we come!

Other than that, we've been having a great time with weekly lessons like Sophie's ballet:

and their shared swim classes:

Looking  back on all of this makes me feel a little better about Michael and Sophie watching two shows on Netflix while I typed this.  :S  Maybe we'll put our sad snow people out of their misery after nap today.

Before:

After:

That pretty much sums up how we all feel about winter at this point.  Come on, spring!