Heidi's 4th BDay Weekend - Indy, IN

For Heidi's 4th birthday we traveled to Indianapolis, Indiana, to celebrate in style at an indoor waterpark and the Indianapolis Children's Museum. We had an awesome time! Happy Birthday Heidi!!!

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An Adorable 4 Year Old Birthday Girl

A partial view of the indoor waterpark at the hotel we stayed at for the weekend
Reagan's intial reaction to the water park. Just a little excited???

Kennedy's wasn't quite as sure at first...It didn't take long for everyone, including Kennedy, to begin having lots of fun

Snuggling an exhausted Missy K

The big bucket got Daddy!

A very silly and tired Missy K

Reagan loved the small slides she could go on and was very dissapointed she couldn't ride the big ones. Kennedy also enjoyed the small slide but I didn't get a picture of her on it. My girls are wild and crazy! No fear!!!

On Saturday we spent the day at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. It was fantastic! While waiting for part of our group to catch up to see the Dora and Diego exhibit the girls enjoyed a very intricate dollhouse display.

The Dora and Diego exhibit is a traveling exhibit that opened the weekend before we were there. The Indianapolis Children's Museum is the first stop on this exhibit's tour around the country. Because Heidi wanted a Dora party it was what gave Aunt Dorothy the idea to have a party in Indianapolis. It was super busy but the kids loved exploring everything!Kennedy, my little monkey, making her way across the rock wall on her own.

While she would have loved to do it "myself," the monkey bars required a little assistance from Aunt Dorothy. :)

Reagan, on the other hand, discovered she is big enough to do the monkey bars on her own. Way to go Reagan!

Kennedy loves Diego and Baby Jaguar, it's her favorite show. Over the weekend while we were traveling when we asked the girls what they would like to watch next on the DVD player Kennedy excitedly exclaimed "Diego!" Tim said "Of course." To which Kennedy innocently asked "Why you say of course, Daddy? Why you say of course?" lol :) What a little nut, needless to say she was in heaven in this exhibit! :)

Kennedy nursing a reptile in Diego's Animal Rescue Center

Kennedy loved playing in Isa's flower garden. She had a great time with the flower/shape puzzle as well as planting and digging up the flowers below.

Jackson enjoyed some good attention from Aunt Jolene. :)

Not surprisingly, given her love for puzzles, Kennedy zeroed in on a puzzle in the spaceship and quickly put it together

Enjoying a break in space :)

Reagan busy building a constellation

After Dora and Diego, Reagan wanted to visit the exhibit on Egypt. Here the girls are exploring an Egyptian househould. They were particularily interested in the stove and food in general.

Heidi caught up with us in Egypt and had fun feeding as well as filling the donkey's baskets with Reagan and Kennedy.

A very sweet birthday girl with her very sweet mommy! Love this picture! :)

Daddy and Jackson checking out the sofa situation in the Egyptian house. Tim wasn't sure he was ready to invest in this furniture for our house. :)

We had the opportunity to visit a Nile Crocodile but Reagan was not real sure about this experience!

Meanwhile, since Kennedy was hugging the crocodile, Daddy suggested she give it a kiss. She took him quite literally and walked right to the front of it to give it a kiss right on the mouth! lol :)

We learned that Nile Crocodiles are excellent mothers and the girls had a good time playing with the "baby" crocodiles they had on display.

Reagan riding a Sphinx

Reagan enjoyed putting a pharoh puzzle together in an area where they discussed archeology

On our way out we stopped to play on the world map that showed the relationship between Indianapolis and Egypt. Reagan began hopping from continent to continent and "swimming" across the oceans. As she swam across the Atlantic and landed in North America I pointed out to her that she had made the same trip as the Pilgrims. Without missing a beat she matter of factly told me "No, Mom, I've landed in Mexico." She was right of course. I guess I'll have to be careful not to be so general when discussing world geography with my 3 year old...

Cousins Brendan and Claire having fun at lunch

While in Egypt we were able to have each of the kids names written in Arabic for us. Pretty cool!

After lunch we headed to the Dinosaur exhibit. Reagan was very disappointed to discover there were no living dinosaurs. Kennedy had a great time throughout the exhibit and Reagan loved a computer game she discovered where she could create dinosaurs, even though Daddy said she got eaten everytime. lol :)

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Daddy and Kennedy with a Duckbill Dinosaur

Our little archeologists, Kennedy and Holden, hard at work

Reagan worked on digging for a little while but thought her progress was a bit too slow

Kennedy spent a lot of time digging away

Kennedy had a great time at a couple of dinosaur tables. I loved how she would introduce the dinosaurs to each other and mostly wanted them to be nice to each other. Holden joined in with her play for a while too. They're so cute together! :)

What a honey bear!

After the dinosaurs we went on a train trip with Uncle David.

Reagan climed inside one of the train exhibits

Kennedy was happy to observe the trains from the outside :)

Next we headed to a discovery area of sorts. The girls had a great time exploring with Uncle David. Here they are experimenting with the effect of dams and changing water pathways.

Uncle David was a great sport helping Kennedy observe and float different boats

Yes, Kennedy is still on Uncle David's shoulders in this picture. :)

The girls were fascinated with a perpetual motion machine. It was pretty cool and I loved watching them trying to figure out how it all worked.

It was nearly as interesting, and even more entertaining, watching and listening to Daddy and Uncle David try to figure it all out. :)

Reagan's "princess" smile on the carousel. Daddy did not ask who's horse would win the race on this carousel. Thank goodness! lol :)

Aunt Dorothy held Jackson while we rode the carousel with the girls.

There were small buildings for the kids to play in, including a home. I found Holden and Heidi posed together like this. Holden was actually originally lounging a bit more but I wasn't quick enough for that shot. Regardless I still love this picture! Way too cute!!! lol :)

Several older kids kept delivering ice cream to Kennedy from the ice cream shop to the house. She had quite the collection of ice cream going there... lol :)

After a fun filled and packed day at the museum we headed back to the hotel to celebrate Heidi's birthday with super and a Dora and Diego birthday cake.

Alaina enjoyed her french fries :)

Heidi received some great dress up cloths from her Grandma, Aunt Jolene

Our own American Idol :)

Heidi's Aunt Ashley got in on the dress up fun too lol :)

Reagan having fun during the party - Love those eyes and that smile!

Missy K had a great time too! I love those big eyes and smile too! :)

Kennedy having fun flipping with Uncle David

Such a sweet picture of Aunt Dorothy reading one of Heidi's new books to the kids!

Jackson had a good time at the party too, especially when Reagan was entertaining him :)

Then it was time to head back to the water park and we let Jackson see what he thought of the water. He was a bit serious at first but really enjoyed it, especially the fountains.

Kennedy obviously enjoyed the foutains too. lol :)

But I don't think anyone enjoyed the fountains as much as Holden!!! lol :)

This big old crab which served as a slide was a very popular area for the little kids

Alaina enjoying some quality Grandpa time :)

The cousins all had a great time playing together

Sunday morning we headed back to the pool for a bit of fun before heading back to Lexington. As I was packing up Sunday morning I found an Ariel toy with two of her sisters I had meant to give Reagan and Kennedy to play with earlier in the weekend. They had a great time with their mermaids and I believe the mermaids had nearly as much fun as the girls sliding on the crab. ;)

I sure love this precious girl!

Reagan was very excited to see Claire again Sunday morning :)

Reagan and Kennedy finally got caught by the big bucket when they weren't paying attention! Ha ha ha! lol :)

Love this sweet girl too! :)

The mermaids liked playing in the fountains too :)

I wonder what this serious father/daughter conversation was about? :)

Love this happy baby boy! :)

Happy and adventurous sweet girl! :) You go claire!

Back to the crab...

Since Mommy is more adventureous than Nervous Nelly Daddy Jackson really got to check out the fountains Sunday morning. :)

My sweet kiddos! :)

A couple of things we didn't get pictures of were the lazy river (which all three kids had a great time in) and the hot tub (which we also all enjoyed). Sunday morning we were finally able to get a couple of life jackets so Daddy took the girls into the bigger pool where they had a fantastic time before we had to go. This was the first time Kennedy had done any swimming like this and she loved it! :)

Thank you Uncle Dan, Aunt Dorothy, Heidi and Holden for including us in such an awesome weekend! We had an amazing time and can't wait to see what adventure you take us on for Heidi's 5th birthday!!! :)