Road Tripping, Day 5

My mom took off work on the Monday we were in town, and we planned a fun day for the kids.

But before we got started, some of my family showed up at grandma's, so the kids spent the morning playing with cousins.

Olivia enjoyed playing with my cousin Melissa's girls.  Her and Morgan played together for quite a while. 

Logan and Ellie played together, too.  They played Mr. Potato head and they played with trains.  This picture cracks me up, because they are literally two weeks apart in age.  But Ellie is in the 100th % for height, and looks nearly 6 inches taller than Logan. Actually, every time my cousin Andrew's wife would post stats about Ellie, I'd look Olivia's up from when she was that age and they were always almost exactly the same.  So it's crazy for me to look at these two side by side.  She is exactly the same size Olivia was at that age (or at least height) and then there is little shorty Logan. :) Somehow, he did not get the same genes as his sister did.

After letting the kids play for a bit, we set out on our day of Adventure.

Our first stop was build a bear.  Years and years (and years!) ago, my mom took my youngest niece Hannah to build a bear for her birthday.  So she wanted to do the same for Olivia.  We walked in, she saw the Ariel bear, and she was sold.  There was no turning back.

The Ariel bear was a special edition that came with everything--including a special heart and a song!

Dressing Ariel

You can't take one to build a bear and not let the other get something!  So Logan picked out a camo bear.  He pushed the pedal for all of two seconds before he quit because he didn't like the sound.

The completed project!  And Logan in the background with his.

They played at the mall playground for a little bit before we headed to lunch.  We ate at Cheddar's with some friends from church, who ordered some cheese bites as an appetizer.  Ever since then, Olivia has declared Cheddar's her favorite restaurant and begs for the cheese bites.  So my mom told her we could go for lunch.

After lunch we headed to the Ft. Wayne Zoo.  My mom has a pass and can get her grandkids in for free.

Waiting to go!

There were peacocks everywhere!

both of the kids got to feed the giraffe

 Logan in a dinosaur egg

 Olivia in a dinosaur egg

My mom wanted to spoil the kids, so they go to do all sorts of extra rides. The first one was the pony ride.

Olivia was really proud of herself for not needing "help".

Logan swayed the whole time between giddy excitement and sheer terror.  He couldn't decide if he wanted to laugh or cry, but he mostly enjoyed it.

 My cousin Erica and her kids joined us halfway through our visit, so those are my two and two of hers

 Molly and Olivia (and Logan) on the train ride

Molly and Olivia in front of an open peacock

One of the last things we did was the boat ride.

All in all we were there for about 4 hours.  We headed home with tired and hungry (and sensory overloaded) kids.  We had dinner at my grandma's, and Erica and her three kiddos came over.  Our kids played like wild ones for a little bit longer, before I put my guys down to bed.  It was a long, but fun day for the crew.