Discovery World and The Beach

Merrick’s mom was here last week and we did some fun stuff with her. One afternoon we went downtown and checked out Discovery World. It was our first time there and we had fun exploring.

 

We especially liked the Aquarium area, where you could walk on fish tanks or have the fish swimming above your head, etc. It was really cool.

   

Then we stopped over at Sil’s Drive-Thru for some hot fresh mini donuts. Totally yummy. After which we headed down to the cold lakefront to dip our toes in the water, get totally sandy building a sandcastle, and chase some seagulls.

Boy was it chilly. Well we had some fun with Grandma Smith and then I didn’t take any pictures of the rest of her stay. (On Friday we drove up to the Dells, stayed at Wilderness and enjoyed all the indoor waterparks there.)

Avery's First Day of School

Avery had her first day of 4K today. 4K is our 4-year old Kindergarten. She gets to ride the bus which will be super convenient and especially nice in the winter. Here are some pics we took of her with the rest of us before the bus came.

I love these two cuties. They were especially photogenic this morning, which I appreciated. :)

And here she is, getting on the big yellow bus and me, probably fixing my hair nervously. She just walked right on, sat in the front and waved out the window as they took my baby away!

I actually tried stalking the bus. But I lost track of where it went so I ended up sitting in the parking lots waitin for a long time and then was too chicken to get out of the car to watch her walk inside (I didn't want her to see me!) so it was kind of pointless. But at least it gave me some peace of mind. I didn't cry - didn't think I was going to but I was very nervous/anxious for her to come home.

She had a great day. She was excited to see me when she got off the bus 3 1/2 hours later but once we got inside she told me she had a good time and told me all about everything they did. Camryn was especially excited to see her sister, which was nice. It was a good day. Tomorrow we get to do it all over again!

Avery's Room

We recently acquired a full size bed for Avery's room so we got her some new bedding.

I repainted the "Avery" letters to match (they were lavender before) and the big masterpiece is this:

I painted it! I was pretty proud of my hard work, although it's far from perfect. I traced a picture I liked off the computer onto parchment paper, then rubbed it onto the canvas, then painted it. It turned out pretty good and Avery appreciated it. Mostly, it was just a fun thing for me to do and didn't require too much artistic imagination or anything. :)

Day Trip to Madison

On Saturday we took a day trip to our state's capitol, Madison, Wisconsin. It was only about an hour and 20 minute drive so not bad. We can't believe we haven't been there yet! It was so fun and very beautiful, situated right between two lakes, with so much great architecture and little specialty shops and restaurants to see. So first we went to "The square" around the Capitol for the Dane County Farmers Market. It's the largest producer-only farmers market in the nation and it wraps all the way around the Capitol building grounds. We got some yummy stuff and enjoyed running around on the lawn.
This is what I get for having Avery be my photographer:

Then we headed over to the Henry Vilas Zoo, Madison's free zoo about ten minutes away. It was pretty small but had some fun animals to look at and it being free, we didn't feel like we had to stay all day.

Of course the girls talked us into a Carousel ride.

By then we were wiped out from being in the sun all day so we headed back home. It was a fun little trip that we'll definitely be doing again someday.