Harris Lake

We were driving around checking out the area on Sunday afternoon and ended up at Harris Lake. Looks like they have some great bike trails. We're looking forward to riding when the girls get a little older.

Feeding the squirrels

Ella spotted a couple of squirrels with the nuts in their mouths. :-)

This is why we decided to get out of the car while driving through the park. :-) The girls loved the playground!

North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

Last Friday we made a trip to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. They opened a new wing about a month ago.

Across the street from the museum

In front of the entrance to the new wing

Crayfish

Eastern Red Bat

Watching a flea treatment for a small hamster

The new wing has a lot of cool stuff, but it's definitely geared for older children and adults. The Naturalist Center looks really interesting, but they only let children 8 and older in, so we'll have to wait about 6 more years for that.

This is the kids discovery room in the original section of the museum. The girls had a blast in here!

Possum Ella

Looking through the microscopes

Uh oh, Emma found her favorite feature, the sink!

Animal prints! We'll have to look for some of these in our backyard or at Bass Lake. ;-)

Ella was fascinated with this bear skin, especially the paws.

They have lots of these themed boxes containing interesting things for the kids to explore. Ella liked the ocean, dinosaur, and shark boxes the best.

The rest of the museum is really fun too. The have large walk-through dioramas depicting North Carolina’s natural habitats and the animals that live in them.

There's so much there that we couldn't cover it all in one visit. We'll be returning soon to check out more of the museum.

http://naturalsciences.org/

Show Week at Little Gym

It's almost the end of the season at The Little Gym. This week is "Show Week" for Emma's class. Parents bring their cameras and the kids get medals.

Ella spends the first 15 minutes in the class with Emma until her class starts.

Parachute!

With Ally, the class instructor

Emma's favorite activity, swinging on the bars

The high beam with Mama

Bubbles!

Wearing her medal

Mother's Day

 This was waiting for me when I woke up. :-)

 Ella painted this ceramic kitty for me.

She's holding a unicorn that she painted the same day she made the blue kitty for me.

TurtleFest at Bass Lake

Bass Lake is less than 2 miles from our house. We went there for the first time today for TurtleFest.

Touching a turtle

Emma, looking at a spotted turtle

The biggest attraction was the water. :-) Ella wants to go out on it in a boat/canoe. I think she and daddy will go together soon while I stay home and take Emma to the pool instead.

Rocking chairs!

Puppies!