Berry Picking

Just up the street from our house is a place called Blueberry Park, where there are acres and acres of blueberry bushes. I took the boys, not expecting too much, but Bubs was SO excited about picking berries. It's a shame we didn't find more that were ready to be picked and eaten, but we will hesd back sometime in August. The plan is to get some exercise while we pick enough berries with which to make a pie.

Matching!

I'll admit it, I did help Bubs get started here. Once he got the hang of it though, he was a color matching, block stacking mad man!

Vintage Dreams

I cannot even begin to put into words how in love with this little bookstore I am!
While my Mama was in town we decided to leave the boys with Daddy, and have a girls day out. There is a place downtown called Antique Row, and its basically a whole block of antique shops. Well, tucked way down in the basement corner of one of the shops was this little book space - complete with with a coffee shop corner for rent! HELLO LIFE-LONG DREAM! I spent the better part of an hour flipping though the pages of the books here, daydreaming about the cafe I would open if I had the time and money. Maybe someday, when the kids are grown I'll stumble upon another place like this one. :)

Independence Day!

The Tacoma Nature Center was REALLY cool! Outside there is about a mile of trail to hike/walk through, as well as the Discovery Pond, which is basically a playground made to look like the outdoors. Inside there are books, puppets, animals, and a beaver habitat where kids can play. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my two and a  half year old was able to find lots to do, and it was really not crowded at all, despite being the middle of summer.

Walking on the train with Nana, (who was in town for the week). We saw some turtles basking on a log and talked about why they had shells, and picked out a bunch of different colors of flowers. :)

The beaver habitat inside was a hit! There were some costumes and puppets hanging around, but the kids got too involved in climbing and crawling to be interested in much else!

I was really impressed with the Discovery Pond play area. There is so much room to run and play, and so many opportunities for learning. Bubs found a well to pump and a rock to climb that I would have completely overlooked, and was able to get all of his excess energy out! Win/win

Counting Cars

This was really loud and involved cars. Bubs was in love, and he learned to count all the way to 12 :)

Taste of Tacoma?

Well, We had big plans to go to last week's Taste of Tacoma festival, but when we got there Saturday afternoon the crowd was just insane. Both of my boys have a really hard time in big groups like that, so rather than stay we decided to go down to the pier instead. Best idea ever! Bubs has been near the ocean a few times since we have been in Washington, but he's never actually been in the water. It was FREEZING, but we had a blast splashing in the waves. Jam was super happy to just be out and about, being worn by his daddy, and was all smiles all day. :)



We never miss an opportunity for an impromptu dance party!

It took him a few minutes to conquer his fear, but once he did, Bubs couldn't get enough of the waves!



This one is my favorite. I'm really bummed that this picture got so over-edited, and the original deleted.

Tiptoe Through Tide Pools

This was a really neat event sponsored by Tacoma Metro Parks and the Tacoma Nature Center. There was a handfull of naturalists and workers from the nature center gathered at Titlow Beach to explore the shore, and kick off the lowest tide of the season. It was pretty crowded so we didn't have a ton of opportunities for pictures, but we had a blast! Bubs was a little nervour about getting his hands dirty and didn't feel like touching or holding the different types of starfish and crabs we found, but he was all about looking for them. We made a day of it with Daddy, and I'm pretty everyone was just happy to be out and about despite the rain. Needless to say, we will definitely be attending the next Tiptoe event.