Last Sabbath (a week ago), for our last day in Pittsburgh, we went to the Pittsburgh zoo.
It was a HOT HOT HOT day, but we still enjoyed it. The aquarium is part of the zoo, so we appreciated the air conditioning there. The picture above is the girls looking at some of the fish.Sunday morning we left Pittsburgh and headed to Erie, PA. I was sick part of the week in Erie (see my earlier post), so didn't do as much as we'd hoped up there.
We did take advantage of the fast food restaurants near our hotel with indoor play areas. The big girls had fun pretending whatever they came up with, Little Bit's favorite part was stairs, the "little kid friendly" stairs that were a part of the play area gave her the chance to "practice" and perfect going DOWN stairs as well as up (and yes, now that we're home, she now goes DOWN our stairs here at home too, though if someone's around to carry her, she wisely choose that option LOL).
We did take advantage of the fast food restaurants near our hotel with indoor play areas. The big girls had fun pretending whatever they came up with, Little Bit's favorite part was stairs, the "little kid friendly" stairs that were a part of the play area gave her the chance to "practice" and perfect going DOWN stairs as well as up (and yes, now that we're home, she now goes DOWN our stairs here at home too, though if someone's around to carry her, she wisely choose that option LOL).We did do some fun stuff while we were in Erie. One day we drove out on the peninsula into Lake Erie and took a boat ride tour of the bay and lake. It was hard to hear the tour guide, so the girls got bored, but I found it interesting :-)
Another day we visited the Children's Museum in Erie. Unlike the one in Pittsburgh, the one in Erie wasn't affiliated with the science museum membership we have, but it also was only $5 per person. And, as I expected, once I saw the price, it was quite abit smaller than the one in Pittsburgh. The biggest frustration (to me) was that there was no on-site parking, or nearby parking garages that I saw (or that the site mentioned). The site suggested street parking on the nearby streets, and I found an open spot very close to the museum, BUT it had a 2 hour limit. Now, if I'd had another adult with me, it wouldn't have been a big deal for one adult to go out after 2 hours and drive around the block and re-park (in the same spot or a different one), but to load all the kids into the car and change spots would have been abit more of an ordeal. So, since we'd seen the whole museum after 2 hours, we left. There WERE some neat things there. The big girls loved a huge play "grocery store" and would happily of played there all day. It had all kinds of "real" boxes and packaging for things that are easy to clean once empty. It also had plastic "produce" and meats and cheeses and such (even plastic ice cubes for the sea food display). And then there were shopping baskets and play money and real cash registers . . . the girls LOVED it. Little Bit would have wreaked havoc in there so I took her to other displays while her sisters played. She had fun for awhile (instruments, balls, etc). There was a little "Little Tykes" toddler toy with a "door" that she had fun for quite awhile going in & out of the door. But she got restless so I finally dragged the big girls away from their precious store.
Little Bit liked the rocking horse in the "antique toy" section (the big girls liked a tin doll house). She'd climb onto the horse (yes, by herself, yes it was rather tall for her) and say "coc, coc" (rock rock). We also made copious use of the hotel pool since that was something that didn't take AS MUCH energy on my part. The pool included a 1 foot "kiddie pool" and while we were in Pittsburgh I'd gone to Ikea (it was across the street from the hotel, I "HAD" to go!) and had picked up a set of their stacking cups, thinking she might have fun building towers (or having us build towers) and knocking them down, so we took those to the pool with us each time and she got lots of practice "pouring" and such (all the other little kids seemed to enjoy the cups too). A1 had become very comfortable "swimming" underwater. It's her own adaptation of a doggie paddle, but she's able to get around and spent lots of time swimming the length of the pool. She's now comfortable going into the deeper water. A2 is also developing her own "stroke" underwater and "swims" quite abit, but prefers to stay in water she can stand in at all times (typical of their personalities).
Our last "field trip" was to go to the Maritime Museum. We were hoping to get to tour the "Niagara" a tall ship originally used in the War of 1812 that's been renovated and is now "sea worthy" (or lake worthy? LOL). Unfortunately it was off sailing somewhere, so we were disappointed. Hopefully next time we're up there, we'll be able to tour the ship.
And a final picture, Little Bit was so proud of herself to use a spoon all by herself to eat grits at Cracker Barrel on our way home.
In Homeschool news, we finished up Polished Cornerstones and officially "closed" the 09-10 school year with the end of July.
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