Out & About!

This winter Tavin, Penn and I have been quite the homebodies (and we can't complain, we kind of love it).  But today, we had to take Koen to school, so I decided that we should make a morning of it and finally get out and do something.  Not to mention, Tavin (i.e. Captain Underpants) had definitely earned his reward of picking out big boy underpants at Target, so we had to stop there.  Tavin was so thrilled with this aspect of our outing.  He spotted the Target bullseye from a 1/2 mile down Penn Avenue.  Then he said, "Li-Li unnerpan wher are ooooo?"  So cute!  Needless to say, our first stop in the store had to be the children's clothing.  Then he proudly strutted his stuff down the aisles as we gathered the rest of our items.  Look at this proud big boy with his new underpants!

Well, after that super fun errand (well, I always love Target errands, but this time Tav was also super happy about it), we headed to meet my friend, Allison, and her son, Samuel, at the  Carnegie Science Center.  Tav was mildly interested at first.  He just kept asking if we could go home to put on his new underpants, but I told him we could do that after the museum.  This kid is such a homebody and so easy to please.  Oh, how I love that about you, Tav!  He did really warm up to the Science Center idea though when we pulled into the parking lot.  After meeting up with our friends, we went straight to the trains.  (Of Course!)

Tavin and Samuel got a special chat with one of the train area employees.  They were very attentive.  But after walking around the whole display and spotting Thomas as many times as possible, we headed upstairs.  On the way, we ran into a portion of the new space exhibit.  Samuel and Tav are ready to blast off!

We finally made it up to our favorite spot, the 4th floor, where there is a special area for kids under 6 and where school groups aren't really supposed to visit (the best thing ever that a museum can do for little ones!).  Tav and Samuel played with the water stuff first.

Next they did some construction work...

Tavin eventually got into the ball area and then really applied his concentration.  He was all business!

I did grab an opportunity to take a picture with my middle man.  It felt so nice to be out giving him a good time.  So, I had to try and capture it.  Here's my favorite (I took it myself, so you know, not the best photography).

Perhaps you are wondering what Penn Rye was up to this whole time?  Yeah, that amazing little guy arrived pretty tired out and had only had a 7 minute or so catnap in the car, so he eventually fell asleep and stayed asleep for over an hour despite all the noise.  What a good boy!  He woke up just as we were leaving around 11:30am.  We got home before 12pm so that I could feed him before Koen got home.  I had prepared the big boys' lunches in the early AM so that we could eat fast and get outside.  I sent the boys to the sidewalk with their scooters.  They were so excited to be out.  Here's Koen gliding away.

Penn hung out on the front porch with me.  He loved taking it all in!

The little guys were very tired and had great, long afternoon naps.  I have to note here that I let Tavin sleep in his Lightning McQueen underpants (he's been in Pull Ups before this).  He did awesome and kept them dry!!  Yay, Tav!!  Doug was able to get home around 5pm and get the big boys out on another scooter ride, Penn and I got through his dinnertime and then waited on the porch for the big brothers to come home.  

We actually had our dear friends, Cookie & Corey, over for dinner, so Tavin, Penn and I stayed out on the porch to wait for them.  Did I mention it was almost 70 degrees, today?  Crazy!  And such a nice, refreshing change from the cold and the coats, etc.  All in all, a fantastic day with my boys.  Again.  =)