BCC Planetarium

We've heard from several people that this place is cool, and FREE. So we went to check it out tonight. It's reputation was upheld, it wasn't very big, but had very cool exhibits. We walked through the gift shop to get to the main room, and the hallway leading up to it was illuminated with black lights and glow in the dark art. Jaina wasn't too sure about it at first, she kept saying "no" in her cutest little voice. But once we got inside she warmed up very fast. Ryan kept saying how awesome it was, he's a just a little bit obsessed with anything space related!!

Is it just me or does Ryan look about 15 here?!

We went up to the roof to check out the observatory, but it was an overcast day so not much to see. We'll have to go back when it's a little more exciting :)
We also plan to go back to check out a show soon, so we will definitely be back.

A good time was had by all!!

Highlights

Highlights has come out with a cool new magazine called HighFive, especially for preschoolers!! Every month a new magazine comes in the mail for the kids courtesy of Grandma. It's such a treat for Ryan to have something that comes in the mail for him. It has made him very interested in checking the mailbox. When we get home from our daily adventures, and pull into the drive, he always wants to dash to the mailbox to see what's inside!! It's also really cool to see him reading it since I read Highlights as a kid myself. His favorite thing to do is finding the hidden pictures.

Ryan's shots :(

Ryan is officially 4 years old....the only down side is the shots he had to get at this 4 year well check. I was so grateful that Angel took a LONG lunch break to be there. I sure wasn't expecting him to get 4 shots...one in each arm, and each leg. And there was only one nurse doing it, so he had to get poked one at a time. Poor guy, but Dad says he was a super trooper. But at least now he's good for a long long time We took him out afterwards to get a happy meal, and a frozen strawberry lemonade, that made it all better!!


He said the cutest thing after the exam as they were laying him down on the table to prepare for the immunizations, he looked at Angel and said....."I don't think I like this...." Oh man, good thing I wasn't in there with him...I wouldn't have been able to do it!!

Oh, and here are his 4 yr stats:

weight: 42 lbs (75%ile)

height: 42 3/4 inches (97%ile)

Woah....i knew there were Martin genes in there somewhere....here's the proof!!

Riverwalk Nature Center

We have passed this place probably, hundreds of times going down US1 and never saw it!! What a hidden gem this is. And this time, we didn't actually set out to find it either. Our plan was to go to a museum, and when we got there it was closed....LAME!! So we scrambled for something fun to do, got on our phones and googled away. This place popped up!! The boardwalk was really neat, a long wooden path through the nature to get down to the river. We saw all sorts of birds, insects, lots of spiderwebs. The river had a little beachy area that was cool for the kids to walk on. And when we were all done with that and in bad need of some AC, we went inside to the nature center. There are a a lot of hands on things to do there for the kids. The coolest thing was a touch tank with snails and horseshoe crabs.

Even the wondows are cool :)

Here's a horseshoe crab washed up on the beach

We went the two nights later to watch the turtle nesting, pretty cool to see it from this perspective though!

Future Scientists!

Bike Parade

A couple girls at church had this cool idea. We decorated the kids bikes and had them ride around the gym. It was super cute and fun to see them racing around. Jaina doesn't have an official bike of her own yet, but she has laid claim to Ryan's batman trike!

Ryans SUPER birthday party

After much planning, prep, and anticipation Ryan's big day finally arrived!!

The party has been in the works for a few months now, ever since he said that he wanted a superhero theme...Angel jumped for joy and we ran with it.

Here are the invites, I made the envelopes out of comic book pages, Angel agreed it was a worthy sacrifice!! :)

A picture of what the scene looked like the night before the party. The 4 bags behind the cupcakes are the favor bags for Ryan's amigos.

It's not really a party without the missionaries right!?

The cardboard box supercity!

This year Ryan even helped to make his cake!! Which is why he probably thought the next morning that he was allowed the eat them. After decorating them and early morning Angel was firing up the grill and I were busy getting some other things ready, when I came back....two of the cupcakes were missing. I caught up with Ryan not long after that....and boy did he have a guilty look on his face. Two cupcakes down!! I was hoping that he ate the cupcakes and spared the fondant toppers, but no such luck!! So this pic is missing the iron man and captain america topper. On the up side, he said they were good!

This was a totally cute pics, Ryan's friends sat right beside him all on their own for the happy birthday song.

The bouncy house arrived before the guests did...which was good because it took a little while for the Ryan and Jaina to warm up to the huge, angry hulk on the outside!! After the other kids jumped in though, it was impossible to get Ryan out....I don't even think he ate lunch!!

When we were able to get the kids inside we had them decorate their capes to take home. Thanks so much to Alicia for helping me with this project!! It was really cool to see their individuality come out when they were personalizing the capes! Not one looked the same. Jaina had her own cape too, but she insisted on helping one of the other kids with theirs!!

Angel worked so long and so hard on these signs, they came out so amazing!! What a cool way to welcome the guests to the party!!

I saw these marshmallow pops on another blog and had to make them....so pretty and so yummy, pure sugar!!! The tin is full of yellow, blue, and red M&M's. Ryan sifted through 2 large bags to pull these out!! This is what was left over that didn't make it into his tummy. A snack and a math lesson on sorting all in one!

Everyone loved the boys shirts, thanks Grandma, super cool!

It was A LOT of work, but it was all worth it to see the joy on Ryan's face when it was all pulled together. Happy Birthday to out favorite super boy, we love you!!

Downtown Disney

Our last stop before taking Clarissa back to the airport was downtown Disney.

Her and I were like zombies from sleep deprivation, but it was fun!!

We love this place, it's a taste of the magic, with none of the price :)

No admission ticket, no parking fee, it's GREAT!!

Pirate Captain Ryan....Aaaarrr Matey!

this place was something new since we left. TREX restaurant, just like rainforest cafe but with dinosaurs!! Ryan thought it was pretty cool until, we walked in and TREX tried to swallow him whole!

The lego store is another great place, it is so amazing to see these works of Lego art. What an awesome job to have....I wonder how much they get paid to do that?! Perfect job for Ryan :)