A Day Off To Play

Neither boy had school this past Friday and we decided to take the day off for a Family Fun Day. The boys requested to "explore Des Moines" so we did just that. We started the day with snuggles and sleeping in then got started on our day: brunch at the Waveland Cafe, the Art Center, Botanical Gardens, Fong's pizza for a lunch, walked around downtown, window shopped in the East Village, made a quick stop at the Historical Museum, and ended our day exploring with a walk on the Capitol grounds.

I was stoked when I saw this exhibit at the Art Center because I completely forgot it was there! If you have a chance, please check it out. It was very intriguing. If we didn't have the kids with us, I could have easily spent a couple of hours going through this exhibit alone.

Such pretty fall colors in Greenwood Park.

The kids were really excited to see fish in the water at the Botanical Gardens. Harrison was worried Matt might drop Elizabeth in the water, so he held onto her foot just to be sure.

Trying out our selfie skills.

The kids were excited to see the craft tables set up....because they never do any kind of crafting at home (sarcasm).

Max loves the hands on stations throughout the indoor gardens.

Someone got a time out while we were there.

Why he was walking with his shirt up, I have no clue. The Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden is a beautiful place to visit. I was disappointed that the outdoor gardens weren't open yet, but the foggy day made the indoor gardens a great place to be. Check out the Botanical Garden this winter when it's below zero outside--it's a small taste of summer with a waterfall in the middle.

Lunch at Fong's. They are genius and have triangle crayons. Also a big bonus: we went for a late lunch at 2:00 p.m. and were the only group of people in the restaurant.

We played Tic Tac Toe while we waited for our pizzas. I had to teach Harrison how to play....I'm not sure he completely understands the game, but it kept the boys busy while we waited.

Elizabeth was super excited to control the parmesan cheese on her pizza.

Max saw this sign hanging up at Fong's and blurted out "look mom! A Halloween street party! It looks like they have dancing for me and beer for you. It's the perfect event for our family!"

Full bellies from Fong's, we headed to the East Village for window shopping (I wanted to go into numerous shops, but I didn't dare when I noticed they all had breakable items!). We came to the Historical Museum and decided to pay a quick visit to an exhibit that opened earlier this year that we hadn't yet seen.

The Register's globe is now one of my favorite parts of the Museum.

The kids love the mammoth exhibit the most.

This was an intriguing exhibit on the second floor of the museum. Not only does it have tons of information about movies filmed in Iowa, but also information about Iowa theaters.

The Plaza Theatre is now known as Merle Hay Cinema. After reading about it's history, I'm even more sad for it's impending closing.

Truly my kids: they sat down and watched the Music Man.

Max loved the "Field of Dreams" exhibit. He was also amazed that they made a movie about the Bridges of Madison County. "How do you even make that into a movie??!!?" he said.

We made our way to the State Capitol grounds.

Harrison sitting on Harrison County.

I told the kids where I wanted to take pictures and they started running. Matt made fun of their running...and I snapped pictures.

After our busy day exploring Des Moines, we put to kids to work cleaning up the backyard.

Cleaning up my "pumpkin poop." Confused by that statement? End your confusion here: http://ashlen-kidspert.blogspot.com/2014/10/sensory-activity-gone-wrong.html

A day off to play are few and far between. It was a great, much needed day off playing around our fine city. At the end of our day, we shared our favorite things from the day. The results:
Max: Fong's and the Botanical Garden.
Harrison: Waveland Cafe, Botanical Garden, and playing in the backyard.
Elizabeth: "Yea, I had fun."
Hubs: The Historical Museum.
Me: The Art Center and the movie exhibit at the Historical Museum.

Say Yes To Pictures

Wherever there's a mom, there's so few pictures of her. Mom's seem to forget to take pictures of themselves. We're so busy snapping pictures of our kids, the cutest kids alive, that we forget to step in front of the camera. I try to get the good ole' selfie pictures occasionally of myself with my kids, but I haven't had a picture of just myself for what seems like forever.

When I began contributing to What The Flicka? they asked for a picture of me. What the hell? I don't have any pictures of just me! Thankfully, my husband goes along with my ideas and held an impromptu photo shoot in our backyard during nap time. I at least had a picture of myself that I could use for my professional work.

This got me thinking, why do I not take more pictures of myself? I may not be completely happy with the weight I would still like to lose or that I wear my glasses all too often, but it's who I am at this moment in my life. My minis love seeing pictures of me. They love trying to take my picture and sit and stare at it. They tell me I'm beautiful. Some day I want my minis to have pictures to remember me by. To look at and compare family traits. To just have. We recently had our family pictures taken and I had our photographer snap a couple of photos of just me. It took two seconds and the photos turned out great. I now actually have decent photos to choose from for my blog pieces.

It's not close to New Year's but my resolution starts now. I will be taking more pictures of myself. Of me with my minis, with my husband (because we have fun too!), and of just myself. Once a month, twice a month, once a week, I don't care. Just enough so that I have pictures to share, something for my children to have.

 If you need pictures of any kind and you're in the DM area, I recommend looking into Lauren Campbell Photography (http://www.laurencampbellphotography.com/about.html). She does a fantastic job!

 Part of our impromptu photo session in the backyard last summer, taken by my hubby.

At the Botanical Gardens on a fun day off with my minis. Yes, I'm looking rather tired and my hair is ridiculous because of the humidity in the air, but I hope that in the years to come instead of focusing on what isn't great about the photo, we'll remember the fun day we had together.

It doesn't hurt that it makes me feel pretty darn good when I see a decent picture of myself.