Last Hurrah

School starts for the big girls next Tuesday, and I work tomorrow and Friday is meet the teacher, so today was our last totally free day of the summer.  We had Kaitlin's 5 year appointment at 9 am, but then hit the road to Ft. Worth to use our Children's Museum membership one last time.  We hit some traffic so didn't get there til a little after 11, but we stayed until 4!  The girls all had a great time and we had the entire place to ourselves.  Literally I think there were less than 50 visitors today.  We started in the hands on area where Claire shopped for a while at the grocery store while Kaitlin played doctor with the babies and built some Lincoln Log castles, and Bryn checked out the little baby crawling area.  We went outside for some water play next, and then Claire came and told me "I'm STARVING Mommy" so we headed to lunch, where she proceeded to chow down.  Build your own tacos and nachos - hit all around.  Then we went to the science-y part where they had several instrument experiments that we played with, hula hoops and then of course the air park, where you can use coffee filters, paper cups, and paper to make airplanes or just random things that will fly in the big air tubes they have.  We had that whole room completely to ourselves and thankfully Bryn fell asleep, so I got to spend some nice, relaxed one on one time with the girls.  Claire was of course in heaven with the scissors and tape they had out, and Kaitlin was very interested in perfecting her paper airplane making skills.

Then we tricked Claire into going up to their "Grossology" exhibit.  The last time we went she fa-reaked out b/c it has several big talking robot things and she is not a fan of all that nonsense.  I taught her today to plug her ears and close her eyes and once we got past the first scary lady she was fine.  Especially once I showed her the toot machine, and the big slide where they end up coming out the rectum.  Yes, it is gross, hence the name.  It's all about bodily functions and my girls never tire of those jokes, so really a win-win.  Bryn was very helpful and continued to sleep during all of this.

We rounded out the day outside where we dug up some dinosaur bones.  It wasn't too hot and once again we had the whole area to ourselves, so Bryn got to have her lunch while the big girls dug.  It was just such a nice, pleasant, relaxed day and the girls were so good for me, I wanted to etch it in my brain.  When we were walking back to the car I was carrying Bryn and I turned around and looked and saw those two girls slowly walking, kind of shuffling their feet, talking about how much fun it was.  I just want to burn that image in my brain - the light already seems like fall to me and the way they were just casually walking down the street talking to each other.  I can't describe it really, but it brings tears to my eyes.  I love these girls so much, and I am so thankful that I get to do these things with them.

We came home and Scott is working late for his year-end, so we all swam for a bit and then they continued while Bryn and I came in and made dinner.  We ate on the patio and they enjoyed the meal so much that Kaitlin wrote me a note on the chalkboard "We Love R Meal," and Claire came running over to me several times with both thumbs up saying "You made good food Mommy!"  Then they went in and took a shower while I cleaned up the kitchen and gave Bryn a bath.  They even got themselves totally ready for bed and went and started their dance party while I put Bryn down.  Kaitlin got a ribbon wand at the museum today, so that was a huge hit during dance party tonight.   Kaitlin kept talking right before bed about how today was "the best day ever" and how she just had so much fun, and I'd have to agree with her.  Which is why I'm writing such a detailed post about it - I can never remember specific days when I think back to their younger years, so wanted one down for the history books.  I am not good at taking pics when we are out and about, but here are a few from my phone: