Marbles Museum

We wanted to do something fun for the girls on Valentine's Day since it was a Saturday and Daddy was off work. We had been wanting to take Avery to the Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh for a while and thought that it would finally be a perfect day to go. I've had a few friends that have taken their toddlers and said it was a great place. So, we drove on over to Raleigh and enjoyed a few hours of interactive play. It's really the coolest place for kids. We had a great time. Avery ran around like a crazy person from one thing to the next. She found a baby doll not long after we got there and toted it around the entire time! She played in the ball pit, painted her face (and Riley's), played in the post office, hospital, kitchen, raced cars, raced boats with Daddy and much more! It was the absolute best kid thing we have done in a while. If you live in the area you must go or find one in your area because kid's museums are all over the country. So, I must tell a short story about what happened when we first pulled up to the museum and parked. Ryan got out of the car and walked around to Riley's door and started pulling out some things we needed to put in the stroller. On top of some of the stuff was her paci and paci clip (see picture below). Well, out fell the paci clip, right down the storm drain that we parked over. It was so sad. I litterally had a little teary-eyed moment while I mourned the passing of our paci clip! That thing was a life saver and we used it ALL THE TIME! We stood and looked at it and could see it very clearly but it was just too far down to try to reach, and who wants to be reaching down into a storm drain anyway! YUCK! So, we rejoiced in the fact that we had another binky (I've learned to travel with more than 1, in fact I usually travel with about 3!...you never know!) We went in to the museum and played and when we came back out we looked down at our paci clip and said goodbye one last time. So, apparently this event was pretty memorable to Avery as well. We were at the mall a little later checking out at Baby Gap (after our delicious dinner at California Pizza Kitchen) and the sales man noticed Avery's painted face - yes I let her walk around the mall with her painted face (see above pictures) - you are only 3 once!!! And he asked her if she knew her face was painted (his lame attempt to make a joke I guess) and we told him about our trip to the museum. He asked what else we did there and Avery could think of nothing else about our memorable day except "Daddy dropped Riley's paci. It was sad!" I mean COME ON, seriously??, is that all she is going to remember from that fun trip? I hope not! What a day! So, now I am in search of another paci clip...if you find a cute one, let me know!