Yesterday Paul turned 4! I had a few of his favorite activities planned – the library, swimming at Mamau’s, and of course – some park time. But was a bit derailed and ended up at The Springs Preserve. The kids had a blast! Basically, we went swimming at Mamau’s for two hours, and the rest of our nine hour day was at the Preserve. Whoa!

This place is awesome! Plus, there’s a knitting group that meets every other Thursday – so now I’m doubly in love with the place.

The kids used to have an annual pass to The Children’s Lied Science Muesem here in Vegas, and they always had a fantastic time (not always me though – two kids in a place like that….) but here at the Preserve was just awesome! They had a Farmer’s market, so when we got hungry we were able to have fresh strawberries and fresh Lemon Zingers (awesome awesome) which the kids gobbled up. We were active ALL DAY and no one was fussy or ill behaved (there were of course moments when I would encourage them to try a different muesem that had some tantrums..).

Anya was super excited because of all the water. There’s a gallery called, “Sustanabilty Gallery” which she ♥ LoVeD ♥ . They had a game that asked the question, “How far does your food travel to you?” where she could put oranges into this bin and roll them to the top. There was also an engery efficent home that she could walk through (she wasn’t caring so much about being green, but rather about playing house).

My favorite was a Flash Flood Demonastration. There was a platform and a movie and then a flash flood. I am such an easily pleased nerd, but we came back to that demo about three times. Paul was really into it, but Anya got scared after the second time. Steve pretended to get washed away by the flood, and Paul decided to follow suit and pretend as well. It was adorable.

The had a wonderful playground where Paul got to explore caves, pretend to be the Sandman in a gianormous sand box, and a very cool train. There were climbing skeltons – but Paul was too nervous to try those. I’m sure in about a month or two, he’ll be at the top every time.

 Anya insisted on wearing her pink princess shoes – which I allowed since I didn’t think she’d be wearing shoes much at all that day. Of course, we hadn’t planned on the Springs Preserve. So her little feet got sore and I had to buy her socks (the $20 Soul Mate socks were a cheap price compared to gas for our car to go back home and then back to the Preserve).

I’m not sure what’s with the mismatched socks lately – is this a new trend? I love it and cannot wait to cast on for my on pair of mismatched socks. Poor Steve – he freaks when he sees people wearing mismatched socks.

We didn’t get home until almost 9 pm – by which both kids were totally knocked out. However, Paul woke up when we got home and stayed up for almost another two hours. It was maddening! How could a kid be so active all day long and then not be sleepy? Of course, with our kids – wearing them out mentally and physically like this, doesn’t always ensure their sleeping in the following morning. Anya was up by 6:30 :O and Paul was up at like 5:00 am or something crazy like that. However, Paul wanted to stay in bed, and sleep more. He was just having a hard time. Which is totally unlike him.

Today we’re celebrating their birthday’s at Chuck-E-Cheese and then they’re heading out to the grandparent’s for the weekend! Yay! I cannot wait to just bum around the house, knit, or whatever for a little while.