Cousins are So Much Fun

The Little Man was able to spend a lot of time with several of his Indiana cousins this trip. Here are some highlights:

The first night we were there, Cora dressed the boys as girls.

They're pretty cute girls, too. Hee hee.

There's the designer and her models.

Cutie!

Cutie Cutie!

With Veda Sue

Miss Cora

We swam at Unk's with Isaiah!

The boy is fearless.

There's Unk and Bevi!

The slide!

Love this.

This is Gibson, but boy oh boy does it look like Veda!

Deacon

Fun times! See you soon.

Drums, Drums, Drums!!!

We took three little boys, three and under, to a place called the Rhythm Discovery Center in downtown Indy last Friday. My cousin Robin and her younger son Caleb joined us. He was the BIG KID. He was very impressed with this fact, and that was so cute. Terri was visiting her dad in the hospital, so Mom took Gibson, and I had LM.

This place is so cool! Seriously cool - tons of instruments the kids can actually play on, and then lots of exhibits we didn't really get to read because of the aforementioned boys. They had a blast! Here are some photos:

The first thing we came to was this gong drum.

This place was not quiet. And at first, Gibson wasn't so sure about the noise. But, he caught on pretty quickly. And, if I were to go again, I would take some inexpensive foam earplugs just to kill some of the sound.

A giant chime!

See - Gibson got into it just fine, eventually.

Then, there was a drum set. They loved it!

And a little video!

It was great fun! The kids loved it! Then, on the way to the car, we encountered a family of clarinet players, performing on the street for tips:

Not your typical street musicians...

See you soon.

Grandparent Ingenuity

I posted this on Facebook, but I have to share it here too - Grandpas with experience like this are hard to find:

Oh how we love this man.

And, of course, a post that takes place in Grandpa's back yard has to include some bird photos, so here ya go:

whatchulookinat?

noseriously. whatchulookinat?

See you soon.

Children's Museum

LM and I returned from our jaunt to Indiana last night. It was a fast and furious trip - somehow I thought maybe it would be more relaxing since we were going to be there a few more days. This did not turn out to be the case! On the first day, we went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum with Terri and Gibson and Mom. I have such fond memories of this place when I was growing up that I hope I can take LM here many times over the years so he gets to know it too. It is a very cool kid's museum, as you will see! It's the world's largest, and I think it's also the best:

First up was a Hot Wheels exhibit.

When I saw this exhibit was at the museum, I wished LM's other cousin Andrew was with us, because Andrew would have died and gone to heaven. I'm not sure we would have ever gotten him to leave, actually. Also, you will see throughout, there are a few little girls in the exhibit, but it is overwhelmingly favored by little boys. Some things are hard wired, I guess. 

There was an arched entrance that lit up full of little cars.

Then, there were full size replicas of little cars and vice versa.

Some you could even sit in!

LM was most impressed by these motorcycles.

His Mama is not so sure she likes this fact.

Then there were lots of places where you could launch and drive cars.

Oooh! Cutie.

Driving another replica.

More ramps.

Then there was this one big giant ramp on the wall!

Definitely a cool exhibit.

Then we went over to a teddy bear play area meant for children under five.

Nana took the camera for a while.

There, we were putting objects in sand.

Then we colored.

Then there was more sand...

...which got in his shoes.

There was also a doll playhouse.

These mowers were very popular for a while though.

Gibson first had one. Then LM played with it, but went across the room to find another one for Gibson to play with. He drug both across the room to give one to Gibson. They played with them for a while, then LM went to do something else. Gibson, feeling it was his duty to hang on to both, drove two for a while, before giving them up for the next thing. Cute.

He drove them right into the playhouse, where Gibson was, to give one to him.

Mission accomplished.

Now Gibson with two!

Then, this loader was very popular.

Then we checked out the trains.

We walked through the dinosaurs, too but the boys were waning.

And we walked by the Chihuly exhibit.

LM thought the "glass" pieces looked like instruments.

Then we walked from the bottom of this glass to the very top to the carousel.

Kids under three couldn't ride the movers.

Lame.

Mom tried to get us as we moved all around the carousel.

Well, we didn't move, but the carousel did. 

Then we played with the vegetable heads.

And this old horse was kinda rough.

LM liked it anyway. Gibson, not so much.

Hello down there!!!

A little reading nook.

This was a black light room of mirrors.

And then we were pretty much over tired.

We arrived late the night before, so we barely got through lunch with this tired boy. He took a FOUR HOUR nap when we got home. Ahem. We just scratched the surface of this museum. It's HUGE! It's much larger than when I was a kid and it was huge then! Of course, some exhibits are for older kids - we did hit the toddler highlights - but there is more to go see on another trip for certain.

See you soon.