Overland Park Arboretum

 This past weekend Madeline, Grandma Sharon, and I took a little trip to the Overland Park Arboretum.

 It really was the perfect day for an outing and the gardens were beautiful!  I love Madeline's silly faces...

 Maddie loves taking photos of the flowers too!  She took several with Grandma's camera.

 So pretty!

 Yeah, I actually got a photo of Madeline with a nice smile!

 They have a new train garden for kids.  Very cool!

 After the arboretum we headed down to Louisburg, KS for lunch and to visit the Cider Mill.

Maddie + Grandma = Best Friends!!!!

Summer 2012 Chicago/Iowa Trip

Earlier this summer Maddie and I took a trip up to Iowa to visit family and to Chicago for some fun!  Grandma Sharon, Aunt Roxie, and Aunt Susie went to Chicago with us too...we had a ladies only trip!  In Chicago we visited the Navy Pier, The Shedd Aquarium, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Field Museum of Natural History.

 Madeline was saying "woo hoo" here...as we were getting ready to head over to the huge ferris wheel at the Navy Pier.

 At the Navy Pier they also had Chicago Children's Museum which Maddie LOVED!!!!  Three floors of fun exhibits including a temporary circus exhibit.

 The photo above is the view from the top of the ferris wheel.  It was huge but went really slow and it never stops!  You have to get on and off while it's moving!

 The view from below...

 Me and Mads at the Navy Pier.

 The next day we headed over to the aquarium and Field Museum.  This giant sculpture was on the way from the parking garage.

 Madeline and I with "Sue" the dinosaur skeleton at the Field Museum.

 Giant dinosaur bone.

 And another dinosaur skeleton.

Chicago's Buckingham Fountain (as featured in the opening of Married with Children).  Beautiful! 

 On our last day in Chicago we headed to the Museum of Science and Industry.  Astronaut Madeline here in full gear!

 Madeline playing in the children's room of the museum.

 This was a really old cool cable car that once carried people around the city.

 It's amazing to think of all the stories this car could tell.

 This cool thing was at the entrance of the toy maker room.  We didn't have a toy made but you could buy one and see it made from start to finish.

Madeline aboard the Zephyr (a diesel-powered railroad train).  The Zephyr was one of the fastest trains of it's time with a top speed of 112.5!

 Fast forward a couple of days and we're in Dubuque, Iowa at a Botanical Garden.

 So pretty!

 We loved the big artsy gecko.

 They had a cute Peter Cotton Tail themed garden that Madeline loved.

 And even some little billy goats!

 Madeline just being silly!

 And to finish off the hot day at the botanical gardens we all had some ice cream!

 Back in Cedar Rapids I took Madeline to the Brucemore Mansion for the library's weekly story & craft time.

 Madeline showing off the dream catcher that she made.

 During our stay we also went to the Iowa Children's Museum at the Coralville Mall near Iowa City.

 Madeline's favorite party of the museum is the pizzaria.  She loved serving up a nice pizza pie to mama!

The grand finale was the parade that Maddie got to participate in.  We can't wait to go back next year!

What We've Been Up To This Summer.......

For those who are regular followers I'm sure you know that I've been a bit on the lazy side this summer and haven't posted in 3, yes THREE, months!!!  Yikes!!!!  Guess I needed a bit of a blog break! ;)

Anyway, Maddie and I have been keeping busy all summer long!  We've taken a trip to Iowa and to visit family and then to Chicago for sight-seeing which I will post pics from in a separate post.

The pic above was from the new garden that started in a planter box that my husband made for me.  Unfortunately with the extreme drought my poor garden pretty much burnt up with everything else even with regular watering. Boo!  The picture was obviously taken before everything went south.

 Maddie had fun this summer taking two sessions of swim lessons.  She really got to be a good swimmer and even swam under water with her eyes open.  She loves the water and loves to swim!  A little fish just like her mommy was! ;)

 Another fun activity Madeline did over the summer was 3 mini cooking classes at a local grocery store.  She made kabobs, did cupcake decorating, and made a berry torte.

 Madeline's fancy cupcake.  Not sure how we'd eat this...

 Doing the cupcake decorating.

We went to visit grandma a couple times over the summer.  On one such trip we stopped to visit a friend of mine from high school who I haven't seen in years and her two sweet kids. Maddie had fun checking out their chickens and cows!  Fun!

 We took a day trip to Powell Gardens during the butterfly festival.  The lady above read the kids a Fancy Nancy book and led the kids in a short parade.

At the festival we saw TONS of different species of butterflies and we even had a few land on us. 

 Here's one of the many pretty butterflies we saw.

Maddie chilling in the stroller while Grandma and I looked at the gardens. 

They had a fairy house and fort display while we were at Powell Gardens too.  Maddie had fun checking them all out. 

 And Maddie hanging out on the roof of one of the fairy houses (Grandma's idea, haha)....

We've also been to Science City, to movies (our favorite was Madagascar 3), gone to the zoo, played at indoor bounce house playgrounds, spend days at the pool, and just had fun playing with friends.  It's hard to believe that the summer is winding to an end and Madeline starts preschool in just two short weeks!

My Little Fairy

This past weekend we took Madeline to a special program at a local nature center that was themed "The Enchanted Forest".  Little girls were encouraged to dress up in their fairy wings so we took Madeline's Tinker Bell wings down from the wall (we use them as a decoration since she never wanted to wear them) and strapped them on!

When we got there our first activity station was making fairy houses for their garden.  They had lots of stuff  to use:  tree bark, moss, stones, twigs, leaves, sea shells, and even some fake butterflies and dragonflies.

                                         Here's Maddie's finished product.

      Next they did a little story time from the queen fairy herself. 

And she brought a few little friends with her including a bunny, a cameleon, and an owl.

                                       The owl was really cool!

Next was the enchanted forest nature walk.  The kids got to make a wish when they passed between two wishing trees.  Madeline had her eyes tightly closed as she made her wish.  And what did she wish for?  A puppy of course!

 We then headed back to the nature center for wand making and decorating cookies with fairy dust.

                                           Mmmm, mmmm, good!

              Nothing special about this pic, I just thought it was cute!

The finale was the fairy parade.  They skipped, and lept, and twirled!