Philly Fun

[This post is absolutely ridiculous because of the amount of videos and pictures in it. I apologize for this, but there were just too many nice pictures and videos from doing too many fun things! So please keep this in mind when you're reading through this post. Sorry!]

Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted, but we just returned from a week-long trip to attend my cousin's wedding in Philadelphia. All of us went--B, me, our 3 kids, J, and my parents. When I was in 4th grade, my 3 cousins from Taiwan came to live with us in New York. The youngest of the 3, ML, just got married last weekend. She's about 6 months older than me and she lived with us until we got into 10th grade, so we have a long history together, especially because we attended the same grade. Lots of memories there...so attendance at this wedding was mandatory...even with 3 kids in tow.

Like most vacations, it was fun, but exhausting...even more so with 3 little kids. You know how it is when you attend events with extended family...it takes forever to make decisions, there's a lot of time just standing around, no one ever knows what other people are doing...basically, mass chaos. We ate dinner anywhere from 7-8pm and Elina seriously never went to bed before 11:30pm the entire time we were there. Luckily, the 8 of us got adjacent 1-bedroom suites so that the kids could get better rest. Bedtime was always a long, drawn-out process. The kids, B, and I shared one suite. Here is how the night would go--Evie was always put down first in the crib in the bedroom. We'd wait until she fell asleep and then Eli would be put on the sofa bed in our living room. Then after he fell asleep, we'd put Elina next to him on the sofa bed. Once everyone was asleep, B and I would sneak into the bedroom and sleep on the bed next to the crib. Long and drawn-out, right? It was the only way to guarantee that each kid could fall asleep right away.
Fortunately, Evie was good to us during this trip. Every night she'd only wake up once. I just caved and nursed her and then she'd sleep a few more hours. She was pretty great. Eli still woke up around 8am and then he'd wake Elina up most mornings. The thing is, Eli would make up some sleep in the car. There was one day where he napped for 3 hours in the car! It got to the point where Eli was constantly just nodding off in the car if we drove long enough. He was just constantly tired. Elina, on the other hand, only napped once and she still denies that she actually fell asleep. This girl is so weird because she will never admit to being tired. She was definitely tired and got progressively more tired as the days passed. Towards the end of the trip she was having meltdowns about little things and I knew the trip was officially over.

Other than the sleep, the kids had a grand ol' time. Here were some of the highlights--

1. Fall foliage The kids could not stop picking up leaves the entire time we were there. I had leaves in my diaper bag, in the stroller, in the car. It was crazy, but understandable. The trees were absolutely beautiful. I could stare at trees in the fall all day long.

2. Please Touch Museum
This is the awesome and amazing children's museum in Philly. The building is grand and the inside of the building is unlike any other children's museum I have ever seen. It's clean, spacious, and just fun for everyone. We were there for about 3 hours and could've stayed for a lot longer. All the exhibits are well-done and the kids were in heaven. If we had this children's museum here, I would literally be there every other day. There's even a full-sized, restored carousel inside! Heaven!

Here's Eli using a digger--



Here's B having way too much fun--


3. Linvilla We went to a real pumpkin patch that was 100 times better than any pumpkin patch we've ever encountered here. Lots of pumpkins and squash and also a great farmer's market. The place also had a huge playground for kids, pony rides, train rides, hayrides, a petting zoo, face painting, and the yummiest apple cider donuts on the planet. We bought 2 dozen while we were there (on the 2nd day of our stay) and ate them for the duration of the trip. Every night before bed, J and I would eat a donut. The kids and I polished off the last one as we drove to the airport to fly back to San Antonio. Delicious! This place was so much fun and I would definitely go back again. The only bad thing that happened was that Eli ran and fell on the asphalt and totally scraped up the right side of his face. His eyelid and upper lip both swelled up. Poor guy...but he looked pretty tough for the rest of the trip.

4. Downtown Philly
We did a lot of the touristy things this trip...just for fun, but also because this was B's first time in Philly. We went to Love Park, City Hall (to see the gigantic game pieces), the Philadelphia Museum of Art (to see the Rocky statue and the famous steps he ran up), the Liberty Bell, and Independence Hall (or at least the outside of it). It was fun to go exploring because even though I've spent a lot of time in Philly in the past, I haven't done the tourist stuff in decades.
Around City Hall they have big game pieces from Sorry, Monopoly, dominoes, and chess. I love these pictures with the iron. Elina wanted it to look like Eli was burning her finger with the iron. My mom was pretending to iron my dad flat since she spends a lot of her time ironing his dress shirts.

5. Crayola Discovery Center
This is located about an hour north of Philly. Only J, the kids, and I went on this adventure. Auntie S actually drove in from NYC to meet up with us. (Auntie S is not married and has no kids, but this place is on her bucket list. Crazy, right?? But then again, this is the same person who met us in Sesame Place last year, too. So, I guess it's not that far-fetched.) Elina was in heaven because the whole place is just filled with craft stations. We weren't even sure we were going to go because the place received mixed reviews. Some people complained that it was the equivalent of the Crayola section at the local Target. Some people felt like it was just a way to get you to purchase more Crayola products. Others didn't like that it wasn't the real factory where the crayons were actually made. These things are all true, but we still managed to have tons of fun. We were there for less than 3 hours and we had to really pick and choose the crafts that Elina could do because of time constraints. If there were no time limit, Elina could have spent all day there. We played with chalk, glow boards, and Model Magic. Elina did a leaf craft with paints and glitter crayons and then she painted with melted wax. I think you really have to be honest about what your kid can do in order to have a good time at this place. If your kid is a sit-down-and-do type of child (like Elina), then it will be worth the trip. If your kid is a run-around-and-go-go-g0 kid, then this is not the place for you. It's also true that each craft station has tons of Crayola products for you to try...and if you happen to like them, then you can buy them. I liked this part because then I could gauge what products my kids would actually enjoy. Far too many times I've bought them things that they forget about after only a few uses. And even though it wasn't the real factory, my kids couldn't tell the difference, so it made no difference to me. As long as they had fun, I could care less.
The best part of the whole thing was the Cool Moves exhibit. It's a color kaleidoscope that records your moves and projects it onto a big screen in different colors and patterns. We all could not stop laughing when the kids got in there and danced around to see themselves.


6. The Wedding

Elina got to be a flower girl at this wedding, so to her, it was the best wedding ever! She wore this beautiful dress and had a beautiful bouquet...every little girl's dream. She did a great job, although she tried to have a chat with the bride in the middle of the ceremony, but the bride let that one slide. =) The reception was at the Hyatt at Penn's Landing...very fancy stuff. Elina hung out with all the other kids and danced on the dance floor all night. Usually Eli loves to dance, but at the reception he got scared of all the flashing lights and the LOUD music. Speaking of dancing, Ah-Gong (my dad) was the highlight of the dance floor. He didn't have a drink all night and he danced like he never danced before! I danced with him and I couldn't stop laughing the entire time. It was so funny, but cute! You have to check this guy out...hard to believe he's in his 60s!


I love my dad's moves...he did the puppet with his arms waving above his body...then he did the stop sign...then he did the cowboy with his hands. An awesome combination!
Here's Elina on the dance floor--

There was also a photo booth where you could dress up and take silly pictures. The 5 of us went in as a family and it was hard to squeeze all of us in there! The camera takes 4 pictures so for our 1st picture I didn't make it in because we didn't know how wide the shot was. As the pictures are taken, we look sillier and sillier. I love the 3rd picture because B is doing a really suave pose...poor Evie didn't quite make it into that one. And I love our last picture because Elina and Eli are both sticking out their tongues and we all look like we're having so much fun.
J also did the photo booth with my parents. At first my dad wasn't that into it, but then he started acting really silly! I love it...especially the 2nd picture where he's throwing the cowboy guns straight at the camera. All these pictures were priceless. What a fun night!
We really had a blast on our trip. Now we're just slowly recovering. The day after we got back, Eli slept until 9:30am and Evie slept 3 hours during her morning nap. Talk about tired! Everyone was just glad to be able to sleep in their own beds again. It's always nice to come home after a vacation.