Couldn’t be prouder of my girl today. She has been saving up her money with the goal of buying a companion bird for the little electronic songbird she got for Christmas. Having recently met her goal, we hit up the toy store.

We walked the aisles, and though we saw several similar birds, the style she wanted was nowhere to be seen. I could see her disappointment and as her lower lip started to quiver I told her that we could check another store. She wasn’t too thrilled with that, so I suggested she ask at customer service.

She strode right up and dealt with the woman at the desk all on her own. She knew what she wanted, what it was called and how much it cost. She asked if they might have any in stock and waited patiently while they checked. As it turns out, they didn’t have the exact one she had been wanting but had two similar ones. She asked if she could see both and when they came out she chose one. (A big step for a kid who has had trouble with unexpected changes in the past!)

Having made her choice she went to the cashier, counted out and paid with her cash, and went smiling to the door with her purchase. I couldn’t help but admire the grown up way she handled each step, even with their disappointments, and how she got what she wanted in the end. Good work, kiddo!

Oh, Esme.

I had planned on posting something thoughtful and practical about road tripping with children today. But then this happened. So go the best laid plans!

Even road trip veterans can sometimes have a little too much of each other’s company. During those times, it is handy to have blankets around to construct personal space pods.

I have been wanting to take the girls downhill skiing for a couple of years now, but the time has never been quite right. Today, the stars aligned and all the pieces to the puzzle came together perfectly.

Catherine’s smile says it all. They had a fantastic time skiing and they took to it much quicker than I had expected. By mid day, Catherine was shushing down the blue square trails with me and smiling from ear to ear. Esme rocked the beginner’s hill and was brave enough to ride the chair lift and take one ‘big hill’ before the day was out.

Many thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, Ken F and Peter for making a wonderful day of skiing possible for us three girls!

Have I ever mentioned how much I love a good selfie? Oh yes. I have.

Our afternoon at COSI was all we could have hoped for today. We visit a lot of museums on a regular basis, especially science museums, so we can be pretty harsh critics. None of us had anything bad to say, today, though.

We all enjoyed the hands on exhibits and we spent hours poking in and out of the exhibit halls. The little kid play space, with its make believe areas and water room and playdoh, was a big hit with Esme. Catherine had the big kid lab all to herself and she reveled in having the full attention of the docent stationed there. They spent a good long time building lego together while Catherine talked the poor gal’s ear off.

The highwire unicycle was an incredible surprise for us, and the three of us whose legs met the length requirement all took a turn.

Science museums are always fun, but even more so with Papa at a new museum to us. Here’s a gallery of photos from the day.

Let the exploration continue!

I love finding bits of art around the house. Especially when I didn’t know they had been working on any!

{Stained Glass Dinosaurs, by Catherine}

There is something about a jigsaw puzzle that draws me in. Maybe it the chaos turning to order. Maybe it is the meticulous steps of sorting and flipping and separating. Or maybe it is the examining of the pieces and finding just the right spot for them.

My father-in-law is now discovering that unattended puzzles will get worked on if I am anywhere in the vicinity. This Van Gogh themed puzzle is particularly fun to work as it is really several small puzzles tucked into one larger one. Perfect for this puzzle lover!

I discovered this little guy hanging out on the counter at the Mount Vernon Chipotle. Cutest little thing I ever did see!

If there is one thing I do in my spare time it is dream up fantastic travel plans, big trips and side trips alike, that I will likely never have the opportunity to go on. Even when we do travel I often have two or three ideas for detours or interesting things to see (over and above the awesome things we’ve already planned). Very, very rarely are we able to fit in my extra stops, mainly due to time or money or kids or any other number of reasons.

Today was one of those lucky days when my wild scheme of an idea got put into action. We woke, dressed and left our mid-NY hotel room by 7am and zipped our way to the American side of Niagara Falls. The $10 we paid to park was a good investment to the State Park and was well worth it for our hour’s stay on the river’s edge.

Everything was glazed over with ice capped snow, thanks to the spray from the falls, and the whiteness was almost blinding. We wandered the snowy paths near the water, along with a couple bus loads of tourists and some other, heavily dressed, families.

Our views weren’t as impressive as the photos of “Frozen Niagara” that are all over the internet, but it was still amazing to see the snow and ice. And still more awesome that my quirky, ‘squeeze in a little side trip’ idea actually worked out for once!