Wildflowers Art Studio

Yesterday Dad and Stella went to Wildflowers Art Studio. 

At Wildflowers Studio young children come to play and experiment in four learning areas: open ended art, paint exploration, sensory play, and tinkering. 

Stella seemed to really enjoy the open studio time. She also met a couple of new friends that are her age - David, Franklin, & Emily 

ECHO visit on this cold & snowy day in Vermont!

Stella and Dad had to get out of the house and away from unpacking moving boxes. On this cold snowy day we checked out ECHO.

ECHO represents the mission of the organization which is to educate people of all ages about the Ecology, Culture, History & Opportunities for stewardship of the Lake Champlain Basin.

Stella enjoyed the fish and turtle exhibits. 

And the wind tunnel!

Standing in front of the weather station green wall - prediction: cold temperatures and more snow moving in throughout the week.

Below is a picture that Stella took using Dad's phone - "cheese"

ECHO - home to more than 70 species of fish, amphibians, invertebrates, and reptiles that can be found in the Lake Champlain area. 

The Strong Museum

As a midway point, we decided to go to The Strong Museum in Rochester, NY.

We were pretty sure Stella would enjoy the "National Museum of Play" and she did. 

She loves everything Elmo so she really liked the Sesame Street exhibit.

They had some neat green screen setups that allowed you to be "on TV with Elmo."

The exhibits were just as fun for the adults as they were for the kids...

Stella's favorite area was the Super Kids Market. 

She could shop for her own groceries (she bought a lot of carrots) and then check herself out. 

There was a little train ride that we went on.

She really liked the indoor slide too

There was a Nintendo exhibit too with a big screen of the original Mario Bros. game which brought back memories for Mom & Dad

Their feature exhibit was about the Berenstain Bears.

We all really enjoyed the Strong museum. Now it's time to continue our drive towards Vermont.

Leaving Adelene Lane

The movers showed up at 7:45am on Thursday, January 7th. 

The 4-man crew worked for almost 12 hours on Thursday and came back on Friday at 8am to finish packing and loading. 

Once the movers hit the road (around 4pm). Joe and Colby finished cleaning, sweeping, touch up painting and packing the last few items that were going on the truck + trailer.

We had a quick dinner on the stairs around 7pm...

We took one final family picture at the Adelene house (minus Gus who wouldn't sit still)...

Then Stella got into PJ's and we hit the road.

Bye Adelene Lane! We made some great memories there but look forward to making new memories and having a new adventure!

Farewell to the Davis Center

This past week was Stella's last week at the Davis Center daycare.

Stella said bye to Laurismar and Arlene, her teachers from the Baby Angels room. Laurismar and Arlene took great care of her starting when she was only about 11 weeks old.

Stella and Pam give a goodbye hug to each other. Pam was Stella's teacher in Baby Bears from around the time she was 9 months to 16 months. Pam also came over to babysit for her a couple of times.

Kathy (left) and Ashley were Stella's teachers in the Toddler 1 room. Stella really enjoyed spending time with them and her little friends, Russell, Hudson, Madeline, Leni, Maggie & Audrey. 

Ola Faye also was also one of her teachers that filled in throughout Stella's time at the Davis Center. All the teachers did a great job with Stella and will be missed. 

Pee pee in the potty

The new year started out with Stella going "pee pee on the potty" five out of six days in a row. Right now we are just trying to get her to go in the morning and will eventually start asking her if she needs to go pee pee before bed.

Probably a big reason that she is going "pee pee in the potty" is a reward of M&M's. Although it looks like someone (Dad) got into Stella's M&M stash?