Strong Museum with the Langes

We have been trying to get together with the Langes for WAY too long, so we finally set a date and no one got sick!  We headed up to Rochester and after playing at their house for a while, we decided to head out to the Strong Museum of Play.  Bridgette and Abby have been there lots of times and knew the fun that was coming, but it took some convincing to get Cameron and Leah on board with the plan.  There are SO MANY fun toys at Bridgette and Abby's house, they didn't want to leave.  Luckily, we told them about enough cool stuff at the museum that they finally were okay with leaving.

All of the kiddos checking out the horse in front of the museum

Hmmm, what is this part of the horse?

Of course, after the girls draw attention to it, Cam had to check it out too.  All of the parents stood off to the side, giggling and not answering inquiries about what that part of the horsey was.

Kiddos at Sesame Street - not the best picture but no one wanted to stand still for a picture when there was so much to play with!

We went into the Butterfly Garden, which was so neat.  There were tons of butterflies, some tortoises and lots of cute little birds.

 

Cute bird

Another beautiful butterfly

Leah loved the little quails that were running around.  She was never quite quick enough to catch one though.

She was very nervous about the butterflies - liked looking at them but did not want one landing on her.

Cameron and Jaime checking out the tortoise

Pretty Bridgette - we were hoping that a butterfly would land on her flower headband

Abby found some flower petals on the ground and was trying valiantly to get a butterfly to land on her.

Mama and Leah

Once we were done in the butterfly garden, we headed over to Berenstain Bears land.  The kids had so much fun there!  Here is Jeff buying something from the quilt shop.

 

Cameron, Abby and Leah with their customer

Abby headed over to the restaurant to cook up some food

I'm not sure what Cam is making, but it looks yummy!

Cam and Bridgette playing giant Connect 4

Leah riding in the pumpkin coach.  This picture was taken about two seconds before she did a face plant off the seat.... oops.

Next up was Wegman's!  Cam and Leah were super excited about this one.  Each kid got their own mini cart and went shopping in Wegman's to get five items.  Cam took off like he meant business.

He very seriously perused the whole store before deciding on his items.  His items were totally random things, but to him they were picked out very purposefully.

Tim was following around Cameron with the camera, so we didn't get any pictures of Leah shopping, but she had a fantastic time too.  Her shopping method was more of a grab five things as fast as you can, but she had a blast.

After shopping, the kids checked out the toddler play area.  There was much excitement over bananas.

Leah washing off the bananas

Cameron driving the banana delivery truck

Silly smile cutie!

Abby and Cameron putting on a show

Leah getting in on the action

Cameron and Leah playing on the trolley in the old timey area of Strong Museum.  This is the only part of the museum that is still familiar to me - it looks the same as when we used to play here when we were kids!

The last stop at the museum was to ride on the train.  The kids had lots of fun going in circles around the track.  All of my pictures are blurry, but they had so much fun.

Another super fun day with the Langes!

A night at Nana and Poppa's House

On the same day that we went to the playground, Cameron and Leah got to stay over at Nana and Poppa's house.  Since neither Tim nor I were there, we asked Nana and Poppa to write a guest post for us, to explain it in their own words.  So without further adieu, here is their post:

We have been trying to make a point of having Cameron and Leah spend the night at our house more often.  This summer has been so busy that it hasn't happened very often.  Finally we had a free night so they came over just before dinner time.

We spent a lot of time, both before and after dinner, playing board games.  Poppa made up new rules for cribbage that made it easier for Cam and Leah to play since their favorite part was moving the pegs in the holes.

Nana asked Cameron what they wanted for dinner.  He got a big smile on his face and said "Pfannekuche".  That worked out well since Nana had planned to make that anyway.  It's basically like crepes with jam spread on them and it's one of the kids favorites.

After dinner, we picked vegetables in the garden.  Leah hasn't quite grasped the idea to ONLY pick the red tomatoes so the green ones are now ripening on our windowsill.  We wanted to take pictures of the kids, but Cameron wanted to take some too.  He held the camera and told us how he wanted us to pose for each one.  My favorite one is the "kissing sandwich".

Leah, Cam and Poppa

Leah, Cam and Nana

Now it is Cameron's turn behind the camera

The Kissing Sandwich!  Gotta love Leah's face in the picture!

We decided to go for a walk before bedtime.  We pulled out the "antique" tricycle that was originally purchased for Nana when she was 2 years old (53 years ago!!)  Cameron thinks it's pretty cool.  Leah wanted a turn too, of course.  Nana showed them how two people could ride together which they thought was pretty cool.

Off they go down the road, Cam on the trike and Leah on the train

How two people can ride on the tricycle.  The helmet is a little big for Leah, but what a cute picture!

What sweet babies!

Time to switch, now Cam is on the train and Leah on the trike.  The best part of this picture is the make-shift pushing stick that Poppa is using so that the kiddos don't have to actually use their own legs!!

We read lots and lots of books before bed.  Cameron kept begging for "just one more" and since grandparents are such pushovers, he got his way.  Cameron had a bit of trouble falling asleep.  He kept hearing "loud noises" which was just cars driving past the house.  Where they live, they don't get a lot of traffic so he isn't used to it.  Eventually all was quiet and everyone slept well.

We were all awake before 7 AM and Nana made french toast for breakfast.  Another fun and successful sleepover.  Nana and Poppa were a bit worn out, but the kids had fun!

Playground Fun

Last weekend we were going to go to a big truck show a few miles north of us, all of us and Poppa.  Unfortunately, after a bunch of searching, we were not able to find the truck show, so instead (in order to appease Cam and Leah), we went to a playground.  Not just any playground though, a new playground!  That they had never been to!  I love that that was more than enough to make them happy!!  Here are pictures from the brand new playground.

There was a sweet rock climbing wall that Cam liked

Leah tried to climb on the rock climbing wall too, although she went for the slightly less challenging parts of the wall!

There were some cool dinosaurs to climb on

Hello triceratops!

Digging in the dirt

Cameron really enjoyed the rock wall

Balance beam - Cam was pretending that there was fire underneath so he COULD NOT fall.

What a cutie!

Leah on another dino

She is so darn cute! :)

Time to slide!

Wheeeee!

The playground had a sweet old school merry-go-round ride.  Cameron and Leah had a blast playing on it.  Can you tell that Cam is having fun?

They went back and forth between riding in the middle and riding on the edges with their feet hanging off.

Getting pictures was tricky because they were moving pretty fast

I love Leah's grin and her flying pigtails!

Trying to get a picture of them together.  They were too busy looking at Poppa, who was being silly and chasing them.

A full picture of the merry-go-round, along with the two people who were making it go around!

They could have gone around for hours!

There was a racing slide with two slides side-by-side.  The kids were excited to race against each other.

Getting more daring on the merry-go-round!

Two daredevil kiddos!

Cameron also took a turn powering the merry-go-round.  He was so proud to be pushing Leah around and making her go fast!

So even though we didn't find the truck show, we sure had a fun afternoon!!!