Girls Weekend 2012

My mom, sister, Morgan and I had our annual Girls Weekend a few weekends ago, before Morgan's basketball games started. We were hesitant about going because Morgan had a slight fever and was lethargic the night before we left, but she woke up chipper and ready to go...unfortunately that didn't last. We ended up going, but Morgan would become feverish and sluggish on and off throughout the whole weekend. She never wanted to go home though-she's quite the trooper! ;-)

My mom, Morgan and I met up with my sister late Saturday morning at Cranbrook Institute of Science. It's a natural history museum, so we weren't sure if a 5 year old would enjoy it, but she found some pretty neat things. We got a picture of this T-Rex for Blake and found out that they most likely were not predators, but actually scavengers....I had never heard that about them before!

This was pretty cool too! There was an area where they taught about diversity and there were some pretty neat holograms...I'd never seen a hologram in person before! The display of the room was all physically there, but the women and the boy were just holograms-very cool!

One of Morgan's favorite displays was the butterfly case. All sorts of pretty butterflies to look at. As you can tell, she wasn't feeling her best at this point.
Another favorite was when Morgan found Nemo! You can't see him well in this picture, but I took another...

There he is! :-)

Again, you can tell Morgan isn't feeling the best, but she still crawled into the turtle shell for a picture.

We also saw a show geared towards Morgan's age in the Planetarium there. It gave Morgan a chance to sit down and relax a bit. It was fun to watch her in awe of the stars and participate in the interactive portions of the show. Very neat!

After the science institute, we went out for lunch at a Coney Island. I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but my sister ordered Flaming Cheese. I had never seen cheese lit on fire before...very cool (or hot) and tasty!

We then went to my sister's place to relax for the rest of the day. We made Morgan's Valentine's for her class, talked a bunch, watched a movie, ordered some Thai food, talked some more, drank wine (not Morgan of course), laughed, and just had a great night.

Sunday, we got up and had a slow start to our morning. My sister made us omelets and cut my hair for me as she does every Girls Weekend. We then went to see The Muppets. We actually got there a bit early, so we did a bit of shopping first. I took Morgan into Barnes and Noble (she loves looking at all the books) as my mom and sister went into Bed, Bath and Beyond...then we went and enjoyed the movie. :-)

Afterwards we did a little shopping at The Great Indoors. Between my mom redoing her kitchen and my sister having a new house, they both had a lot to look at there....I just dreamed ;-) I also thought the shopping cart escalator was pretty cool...you can't ride it the cart while it's going up the escalator...that was a bit of a bummer ;-)

That was pretty much the whole weekend. Mom, Morgan and I stopped for a bite to eat at McDonald's on the way home. We actually all got ice cream...a sweet end to a sweet weekend :-)

Girls Weekend 2011

This past weekend we had our 3rd annual girls weekend with the girls in my family. My nieces were unable to make it yet again due to a previous engagement with their mom, but we hope they can make it next year!

Morgan and I left home Saturday morning and headed to meet my mom at her place. Due to snow and sleet and my windshield wiper blades continually freezing (resulting in me having to stop to clean them), my typical 20 minute drive was more like a 40 minute drive to my mom's. I have to admit that my stomach sank at the thought of the typical 2 hour drive to my sister's place turning into 4 hours due to the weather, but the roads were much better in the counties south of me and it didn't take much longer to get to her place than usual. YAY!

We made it to my sister's by 10:30 am then made our way to IKEA. It was my first time experiencing IKEA and it was pretty neat! A lot of the furniture and things tended to be more modern than I like, but I LOVED the space saving ideas that I saw while there. Some day I'll go back for them ;-)

After the IKEA shopping trip, we stopped at Jimmy Johns for lunch then headed to the Hands-On Museum in Ann Arbor. What a neat place!! Morgan just jumped from one thing to another checking EVERYTHING out and it was nice not having to tell her not to touch! LOL!

Experiencing how water moves.

Playing piano and getting exercise at the same time!

Discovering how a toilet works.

Making hand impressions.

Making a bracelet using maritime flags that have been matched up with the letters of the alphabet...Morgan made her name in flags :-)

Morgan's face impression.

The safe way to experience a tornado!

Checking herself out in a wavy mirror.

Next was a stop at Build-a-Bear to use a gift card we had received on some new clothes for Morgan's puppy, Fluffy, that she made the last time we were there. I think Morgan could have bought up the whole store, but we managed to stay within the gift card amount :-)

After Build-a-Bear, was dinner at a place my sister suggested called the Uptown Grille. The food was great and it was a nice way to start winding down for the movie at my sister's place. She had downloaded "The Princess and the Frog" for Morgan, since that was the only Disney princess movie she hadn't seen. (It was okay-didn't care for the voo doo....made it kinda dark.)

The next day was a bit of a lazy day. We hung out at my sister's place discussing wedding plans most of the morning. Before leaving for home, we did some dancing with the Wii Just Dance 2 game. SO MUCH FUN and apparently it works because my arms could feel it the next day! :-)

And that was about it for the weekend. I think the guys all enjoyed themselves while we were gone. Katie's fiance was skiing in Colorado. My dad stayed home and Rich stayed with Blake playing and watching movies nearly the whole time. I think we're all looking forward to another girls weekend again next year! :-)