Perot Museum

We decided a few months back that we weren't going to have a birthday party for Olivia.  We'd have to rent a space, and then by the time we paid for food and decorations and all the other things we would need... it would add up quick.  She's only turning 2 and we don't have any family here.  She doesn't know any different at this point.  We decided that we'd take the money we would spend on a party and hopefully take her to Sea World in the fall (when it's not so blazing hot out!).  So instead of having a party, we are just having a "fun" birthday weekend.

We decided to spend today at the new Perot Science Museum.  It's the last day Olivia can get in for free! :)

We walked in and Olivia said right away, "Look at the big dinosaur!"

We arrived a little after 10:30, but quickly found out that they only sell so many tickets at a time.  So we had to purchase tickets to enter at 12:30.  Not ideal.  But we adapted.  We watched some dancers in the lobby, checked out the gift shop, watched a movie they were showing, ate lunch and then they let us in a little early.

We headed straight to the kids section.

She headed right to the water table! :)

Next up, she had fun playing with this very simple flower exhibit.

They had a cute farmer's market set up.

Then there was a truck you could climb up and put the food down the chute.

She did this until others started waiting and then we had to give others a turn.

 There was also a little camping section.  There was a tent, lots of little puppet type animals and a log to crawl through.

Peeking through the top of the log at Mommy and Boppa.

There was a little mini-Dallas skyline that doubled as a playscape.

We left the kids section and visited the rest of the museum.  Since it was our first time, we wanted check out all that was available.  Olivia loved the dinosaur exhibit and the areas that showcased animals.  But for the most part there wasn't much for her to do.

So after a bit we headed back to the kids section and let her stay at each station for as long as she wanted.  Again, she chose to go to the water section first.

She also played with the flowers again for a long time and climbed up and down bridges and obstacles.

We left around 3, which means she missed nap.  This is only the second time this has happened.  She does pretty good though.  Like with everything, she just rolls with the punches.

We made a few stops on the way home (her and Boppa stayed in the car), so she did eventually fall asleep for a short nap in the car.

Another way we celebrated birthday weekend was by taking a crazy bath!

I saw a similar idea on pinterest and logged it away until it was her birthday.

Michael's has tubes of 12 bracelet glow sticks for a $1.  We bought 5 tubes and then also one large star glow wand from the Target dollar section.  I filled the tub with water and then added all 60 glow sticks.  (I decided not to turn them into bracelets, but just left them as the wands.

She took a bath in the dark.  She had more fun handing them to us one by one.

She played with the glow sticks for a while after bath too.

I don't think she quite gets that it's her birthday weekend yet.  She has been going around saying "I'm going to be TWO!" for a few weeks now.  But I'm not sure she's relating museum and glow in the dark tub with her birthday.  Tomorrow should be fun! :)