Thursday, March 28, 2013

The Children's Museum of Portsmouth

Well, you all know how I'm a sucker for a good museum, especially one that allows my kids to touch & explore by themselves.  After Lorien's baptism we all headed to Portsmouth to the Children's Museum there to let the kids play & explore to their heart's content.  They had a BLAST.

The first area we visited was dedicated to trains.  They had a HUGE train display set up & had tunnels the kids could climb through & poke their heads up so they were in the MIDDLE of the trains.  They loved it.


Craiger is my train lover & he was in heaven with all those trains running around each other.  He wanted to stay there all day & probably would have if I would have let him.


The entire downstairs section of the museum is dedication to "town life."  Each area had something to do with places you'd see in your everyday lives, but they allowed you to explore them & play with them.  The kids LOVED the fire station.  They spent a good 15 minutes "putting out the fires" in the windows of the houses.


They also loved climbing into the firetruck.


Craiger was my little fireman.


We also visited the "doctor" station where Bladen dressed up like a doctor & cared for all the babies in the room.  He is so funny.


The other favorite spot was the farm/grocery store.  Craiger liked milking the cow . . .


while Bladen & the girls took turns collecting the eggs from the chickens.



Bladen also liked pulling the vegetables out of the garden.


The best part of the grocery area though was the supermarket check out line.  I swear this thing was every kids' dream.  My kids are always wanting to "BEEP" the groceries at the store.  They each got to fill a grocery basket & then got to "BEEP" it on the conveyor belt.  They had a BLAST.



Cadence especially loved the tug boat.  The kids got to dress up in life jackets & got to play on the ship.


They LOVED fishing.  They each got fishing poles & got to fish for fish in the lake below 
(magnetic fish & poles).  They played FOREVER here.



After exploring the rest of the town we headed into the BUBBLE ROOM.  Here the kids got to stand inside giant bubbles, blow bubbles of all shapes & sizes, & just had a blast with each other.




Notice Daddy was playing just as hard as the kids
were.  HE was the one we had to DRAG out
of the bubble room.

The kids enjoyed the music room as well.  Who knew some tubes & flip flops could make so much music?  The boys enjoyed beating on drums, marimbas, trash cans, & anything they could hit really.  The girls liked playing melodies on the marimbas since they all play piano & know their notes really well.  It was fun.



After conquering the downstairs we headed upstairs to the artistic area of the museum.  Cadence enjoyed making cartoons, Taya completed half done paintings, & Lorien for a fun magnetic sculpture area.


There was also a giant room where you danced & your shadow projected on the screen in front of you. The boys just liked dancing in the dark.


But the very favorite part of this area had to be the pin board.  Remember those toys we used to have as kids where you'd put your face, hand, etc up to the metal nails & an imprint of whatever you were using would appear in the nails in 3D form?  Just picture one of those life size x 10.  Oh boy, the kids (& GROWN MEN) had fun with that one.  I think Trek & my Dad were the worst at taking turns.  They kept telling the kids to go somewhere else while they made funny faces in the pins.  But we were able to get them to SHARE it for one great picture of the entire family.  It was SO FUN.



After playing with the pin board, we headed over to the experiment circus area where the kids got to do all sorts of fun experiments.  They learned about balance & fulcrums & were able to lift an entire elephant by themselves.


They also learned about air pressure & were able to send a beach ball flying through 2 hoops just by blowing it with a vacuum.


After exploring science for almost an hour we headed to the last area which was about home life & garden life.  The girls especially loved playing in the play kitchen there.



And me, I found a giant wasp.
Sorry. . . I'm a Dr. Who fan & we just watched the episode with Agatha Christie about the giant wasp aliens.  I couldn't resist a stupid picture for the sake of Dr. Who.  
ha ha ha.


The whole museum was a BLAST.

After the museum we took Lorien out to dinner at Cracker Barrel & then we went home & slept REALLY WELL.  We were exhausted.  What a fun & exciting day we had.


Lorien's Baptism

Saturday, March 23rd, 2013
Lorien Danielle Potter
was baptized & confirmed a member of 
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

This only happens once in your lifetime so it was a VERY SPECIAL moment for our entire family.


I love that I have such a wonderful husband that holds the priesthood & has the authority to act in God's name & give my children these wonderful blessings.  Lorien is a very lucky girl to have such a wonderful dad.


Lorien has a wonderful Primary teacher as well.
Sister Lewis has been so great since we moved into
this branch in Virginia.  She even gave the talk on
baptism during the program.  Lorien just loves her.

Have I mentioned how much I love & adore these kids?  My kids are my everything.  I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world.  Just looking at them makes my eyes fill with tears.  I love them so much.


Lorien's 2nd grade teacher, Ms. Oparaji came
to support her at her baptism.  It was SO special.
She brought her a beautiful silver heart necklace
to remind Lorien that she has touched Ms. O's heart
& that she will be in her heart always.  I love it when
my kids are blessed with wonderful people as teachers.

Me & My Precious little Angel.
(someday I'll get to be in a picture & NOT be pregnant.
ha ha ha)

For the actual program Mimi played piano & I got to lead the music.  Cadence said the opening prayer & Taya said the closing prayer.  Sister Lewis gave the talk on Baptism & Baba gave the talk on the Holy Ghost & Trek did the actual baptism & the confirmation.  It was a beautiful program & a lot of members from the branch came to support Lorien in her decision to be baptized.

I think my favorite part of being the "MOM" of the girl being baptized is getting to help her get out of her wet baptism clothes & into her beautiful perfect white dress.  She looked GORGEOUS.




It was a beautiful day for a beautiful little girl.  You make me so proud Lorien.
I LOVE YOU.


Piercing Ears

The rule in our house is that when you turn 8 years old you can decide whether or not you want to get your ears pierced.  Lorien has been waiting FOREVER for this day.  She's been begging for it since she saw Cadence gets hers done 2 years ago.  Well, Lorien turned 8 in February & decided she wanted pierced ears too.  Being the sweetie that she is, she wanted to wait for my parents to get here to do it so they could be there with her for this special moment.

She was SO anxious & ready to get it done.  I don't think she took the time to think about the fact that it might actually HURT a little bit.  She's so funny like that.



But she was SUPER brave.  The first ear didn't bother her at all.  She said she hardly felt anything, but the 2nd ear wasn't as nice.  For some reason there is always ONE that doesn't want to be easy.  She didn't really cry, but the sweet look on her face after that second ear just tore my heart to shreds.  I hate seeing my kids in any kind of pain or suffering.  You could tell she was near tears, but she held her own very well & put on a brave face for everyone.



She was REALLY excited to learn how to clean her earrings & ears all by herself.  She's always been my independent child so she was happy to learn & be in control.



She chose adorable white gold flower earrings with blue cubic zirconia stones as petals.  They were beautiful.  After she was all done, she got up, held my hand & took me to the back of the store & hugged me while she cried on my shoulder.  She didn't want anybody to see her.  It was the sweetest moment of my life.  I just held her close & told her how brave she was & how beautiful she looked.  I love mother/daughter moments like that.


Well, after we were all done, my mom jumped into the piercing chair & surprised us all by getting
HER EARS PIERCED.
She had her ears pierced once way way way back when I was a baby, but she was allergic to earrings & let her holes grow over.  Now, after all she's been through over the last year with the hospital, surgeries, & medications she's been on, she's finding she's not allergic to the many things she was allergic to before the medical mess happened.  So she decided to give earrings another try.  She got pretty white diamonds in her ears.  So far - no itching.  It's amazing what her body is doing right now.  It's like morphing into a totally different body than she had before.  I was excited for her.  She's always envied people who could wear earrings.  I hope it all works out in the end.


Auntie Cari & Uncle Justin gave Lorien a Claire's gift card for her 8th birthday so she picked out a cute set of multi-colored rose shaped earrings to wear after 6 weeks.  She's excited.



It was really fun that Mimi & Baba could be here for such a neat experience in Lorien's life.  We all had a great time.