Monday, July 2, 2012

HOT Summer Days

And I do mean H-O-T!  With temperatures reaching 104 on Saturday and 106 on Sunday, we were on the hunt for indoor weekend activities or a nice shaded pool.  Thankfully, my sister's condo complex has a pool and she graciously invited us to visit (or we may have invited ourselves).  Either way, Ellington had a blast and it turned out to be the perfect way to cool off!
My mom bought E this awesome float so she could maneuver about the pool independently.  (After our last trip to Malone's pool, we discovered that this brave little girl did not like me holding her in the pool... not one bit.)  She was so in love with the water that we had a hard time convincing her to leave when it was time to go home.  This might be our new hang out spot when we visit Charlotte.

On Sunday, we said our goodbyes to Daddy and headed over to Grandma's to spend the next few days at her house.  Another triple digit HOT day meant we needed an activity to keep us cool, so off to Discovery Place we went to reminisce and enjoy the AC.
A lot has changed since my last trip to Discovery Place (15 + years ago).  It is fantastic for older kids, but a little disappointing for Ellington's age.  They do have a little area for kids her age, but the majority of the place is dedicated to older kids with a need of hands-on learning.  Thankfully, we all got in free because we have a membership to The North Carolina Museum of Life and Science (they have a long list of sister museums around the country that you can enter for free).
Ellington loved this little structure.  It had stairs on one end and a ramp on the other.  The railings and stairs were just her size.  After a several minutes of play without any other children joining the room, she became a little possessive over the objects in the space.
One unsteady walker entered the play area and started playing with one of these neat riding toys and Ellington became very jealous (even though there were 2 - one of which she was currently using).  At this point we decided to leave this little area to the younger crowd and head out to the larger DiscoveryKids section.
This wall was one of my favorites!  A gigantic Lite-Brite!  Remember those?
Ellington got the hang of it after watching a few other kids play for a bit.  Then, she lost interest and quickly moved on to the next activity. Blocks!
I adore these natural blocks.  Maybe I should just go in the backyard and cut up a few of my own blocks. :)
Last, but certainly not least... water.  After all, what's a hot summer day without a little water activity?!  She loved the water and the water toys and I loved that they provide smocks to keep kids from soaking themselves and requiring an outfit change.  Maybe I should have used a water smock during our trip to Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh.

I hope everyone stayed cool this weekend!  And for those of you without power, I really hope that your power is restored soon!  In the meantime, go to a local kids museum or invite yourself to your sister's pool. :)



pool time and discovery place

1 comment:

  1. There are few places in the world more awesome than Discovery Place. Ellington is so precious!

    ReplyDelete



Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...