YAA Museum

The Young at Art Museum was AMAZING and I'm so glad we went!

 It was free museum day for some participating museums on Saturday (yesterday Sept 22) and we decided to try this one out. It's in Davie, about a half hour from where we live, and we had a ROUGH morning, but we made it there! Only to stand in line for eternity. I seriously would have left if the kids were not so excited. I really, really want to go back another time because it was insanity on the free day. It was PACKED. I literally thought I lost Molly at one point, she had been standing RIGHT beside me and suddenly vanished and so I thought someone took her so I immediately notified the first worker who walked past right then and I was explaining that she was "four, blonde hair, super skinny, Wonder Woman tshirt, she was just right here" and then she suddenly appeared again. Nerve wracking. We had friends from our ward who came and left half an hour later because it was just so insane. But my kids LOVED it, so we stuck it out for about two and a half hours. But I feel like we were a little gypped at the awesomeness of it because of the craziness of the crowds. There were so many cool art projects you could do, but it was insane trying to find a scissor, or tape, or glue, and I'm sure on a regular day there would be plenty. So I told Sterling we have to try again. I was still very impressed and liked it a lot. Just stressful trying to count heads for two hours!

Hidden slide in the garbage to music room.

Neon hallway!

Russ would have stayed here all day. It was the worst trying to get him out of here. Oh, funny story. There was this adorable couple with two little boys while we were there and they were also trying to move their kids along. The dad went over, one-handedly picked up the 2-3 year old son on the stomach, balanced him in the air out of the sand, brought him over to a bench and then starting de-sanding. He had little black braids/dreads whatever they're called that were about 2 inches long and the dad started rubbing his head and sand was literally FLYING everywhere! I was laughing so hard! The dad looked at me, but I couldn't stop laughing! It was so cute and funny!

They had one wacky corridor that led to nowhere, but had really crazy dresses enclosed (the last dress was made out of straws and plastic spoons) and it reminded me of some unit my sister Andrea used to do for her 10th graders and she'd hang things like a boot from the ceiling. This toilet was upside down on the wall and Will could not get over it. He begged me to take a picture, haha.

Ruth's wish that she put on the wishing tree.

This was the Saturday morning cartoon exhibit. The kids loved it, but there were SO MANY KIDS! haha.

I thought I took a picture, but there was this giant wave you could climb inside, basically a massive jungle gym. My kids went inside (it was tiny entrance, not really for adults) and didn't emerge for over ten minutes. I was getting nervous, except there was nowhere for them to go but eventually back out. They LOVED it! 

Basically it was a huge success and such a great children's museum!

Nieghbors Playdate

 We have these Polish friends, the Neighbors, who we see all the time, but never hang out with. Annabelle is in 1st grade at Banyan with Ruthie so we saw her every morning and afternoon last year at walkers drop off and pick up. Then Edison and Molly ended up in the same class at First United Methodist Pre-K this year. So Aneta and I swap and she picks up Molly with Edison and I pick up Annabelle with Ruthie and less driving for both of us! It means we see each other every single day, but we finally decided to do a play date!

Annabelle and Ruthie

The kids had such a great time! It was so so so hot that Aneta and I were struggling to keep Wyatt and Russ happy because their feet would burn (luckily I have water shoes for Russ now) but they kept wanting to walk around. But I think the older kids could have played forever.

Sterling's Birthday!!!

Sterling and I have had zero alone time since we got back from Utah. And so a date was definitely needed. We decided to eat right on Atlantic Ave in downtown Delray Beach, which is the CUTEST place in the entire world and makes me love where we live so much. We ate right off the beach and saw some beautiful sunset while we walked over.

For our appetizer we had truffle fries with gorgonzola fondue. It was the most amazing thing I have ever tasted in my life. Why can't EVERYWHERE have potato wedges that taste that amazing? I told Sterling we have to go back before we move just for an appetizer!

The beach is right behind that.

Our mahi-mahi on tomato. Pretty good.

In Miami the beaches had curfews (I know, because a policeman kicked my niece and I off the beach once, oops. He also asked if we had the Utah license plate minivan and kindly recommended we take our gps off the dash. Gosh we were florida newbies back then!) So I timidly asked a security guard if we could walk along the beach after dark--in a huge calypso Jamaican accent he said "why sure honey! go have some fun! just be careful!" It was hilarious. And we ate some icecream in the pitch black on the beach and it felt amazing. Kind of like sitting at the top of a quiet mountain. Or on a roof in the darkness. I wanted to stay forever. Definitely some much needed alone time without kids.

Making the coconut cake! They were awesome helpers! Coconut cake has to be made the night before to give the coconut milk and sweet and condensed milk time to soak into the cake holes that you punch.

The next night. Happy Birthday! 31!!!!! Can't believe we're starting in our 30s (this means I turn thirty in a few months, ah!) but it is the absolute best!

He got a meat thermometer for the grill and a little tiny drill from Ikea that will hopefully be useful with putting up bunkbeds, baby gates, all the little things we normally want a tiny drill for and don't have one. He also got a new computer a week ago....so merry christmas!!

The kids were so excited for his birthday! They each wrote their names on the card, Molly was the funniest she wrote MOY very carefully then said "Doy! I forgot!" so we carefully stuck two little "L's" in there. They wanted green wrapping paper (thank you christmas leftovers) and even wore green that day after pow-wowing in their bedrooms because it is daddy's favorite color.

It just so happened that the IM team he's been working with for the last 12 weeks over the long summer stretch we were gone and that he just finished up with invited him to dinner. So it was the attending doctor, some third years, and several residents. They invited wives, which I feel like they never do, and Sterling loves IM and loves this team, so we splurged and went out on Tuesday night which was his actual birthday. It was this CRAZY place where they gave you your broth and you had your own little stove for it, and then things went by on a magnetic conveyor belt and you'd just grab them to put into your soup. Everything from fish eyes and clams and half of a crab, to wontons and mushrooms and all sorts of veggies and noodles. I asked what kind of cuisine this was and they said Chinese, but mostly Shanghai. They said this is what they eat in Shanghai. So there you go. There were also tons of hot sauces, so Sterling was in heaven. And they had all sorts of icecream. We liked that it had several things off of one of our favorite games, Sushi Go!, like green tea icecream, miso soup, oh man I can't remember now but every time we heard one we'd grin at each other. It was really, really fun to be around all the people I've heard about for three months. They were a really great group that Sterling really enjoyed and it was a really fun evening. And that's pretty much our date night quota for the next three months, so at least we had fun!