ethanknepp.com » Hailey

Butterflies: Bigger and Messy

Ethan — Tue, 11 May 2010 03:00:18 +0000

We observed our future butterflies this evening, the kids noticed that there was a lot of mess in their container… yuck Hailey said. They seem to be eating alot of their food now and they are obviously growing, longer than an inch now.

: Bigger and Messy

Mother’s Day Weekend

Ethan — Tue, 11 May 2010 02:53:00 +0000

I know, I am late posting, but that’s how it goes with kiddos. Do I think Casey had a nice mother’s day weekend. It all started off with cleaning the house for her on Saturday, which obviously the heavens above were please with my cleaning as they blessed us with a beautiful rainbow that afternoon.

Happy Heavens Rainbow

Casey and I enjoyed a movie later that evening, Blind side. We both enjoyed it, check it out next time you are looking for something good.

Sunday, the kids got out their mother’s day card they made Casey, it was huge, like 1.5ft x 2 ft. Funny how the kids area already realizing how different aspect of gifts get more reactions. We then hurried and got everyone ready and went out for breakfast at the waffle shop on Atherton. We knew there was going to be a line and we were prepared, snacks, toys, games, etc just to keep them entertained till we got to the table. It was definitely the least pleasant trip to the waffle shop ever. I know it was mother’s day, but taking like 25mins to get our food seemed a bit ridiculous.

We then went over to my grandmother’s house to visit. We also took some flowers and a vase. She enjoyed the flowers and got a kick out of watching Hailey and Tyler play.

Later that evening, I cooked Casey her dinner request for gluten-free Mac n Cheese with grilled rosemary balsamic vinegar chicken. And to finish off dinner I made a Cranberry Mint Martini (her new fav).

Cranberry Mint Martini

Happy Mother’s Day!

MillBrook Marsh Nature Center Visit

Ethan — Sat, 08 May 2010 04:48:39 +0000

Today I took the kids to the Millbrook Marsh Nature Center in State College. We have never been to the place, so we decided to check it out. It was a nice day, sunny and not too hot. The kids loved walking on the board walk, but also enjoyed walking on the grassy paths.

We saw lots of birds, even heard a wood pecker once. We saw fish in the streams. We also got to observe a really big ant hill. The kids were very interested in the ant hill, since it was almost 2 feet high. We met some nice doggies and their owners walking on the trails.

Below are a few photos we took while on our visit to Millbrook.

Butterflies: Hailey is excited and they are growing

Ethan — Sat, 08 May 2010 04:32:17 +0000

So Hailey asked me to show a photo of her with her gift, the butterfly garden kit. Here she is excited about her gift and can’t wait to see how they grow.

Hailey excited about her butterfly garden kit present

The caterpillars at this point are about 1/2 inch long. They are also very active, moving around and eating a lot.

Caterpillars: day 2

Stay tuned for more butterfly updates.

Butterflies: Package Arrived

Ethan — Fri, 07 May 2010 04:08:06 +0000

Today my daughter’s birthday present from my sister’s family arrived. It is an Insect Lore Butterfly Garden kit!

Butterfly Garden Kit

So basically as you can see in the image you get a container with butterfly caterpillars in it and a butterfly habitat. The caterpillars are currently a little over 1cm long.

Caterpillars

Hailey and I are going to try to post photos and descriptions every few days just to show how they are growing. Should be exciting.

Visit to Curiosity Connection

Ethan — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:30:08 +0000

Being winter time here, there isn’t really a lot to do in the winter for the kids (unless it snows). So over the weekend we took a road trip down to Harrisburg to check out the State Museum’s Curiosity Connection for kids. Curiosity Connection is a hands on play environment for kids ages 1-5 and their families. Time slots of 1 hour throughout the day have been created to provide an equal play opportunity, so we planned on attending the 2:30-3:30pm one.

We arrived at downtown Harrisburg around 2pm and found street parking (is free on the weekends). Walked to the museum, and got our tickets for the play session ($5/person), and didn’t have to wait to long until it was our turn to go in.

As you can see from the photos below, there were many different activities for the kids to play with; farm, factory, school zone, playroom/tunnel, forest, and legos. It was a good time and I think the kids had fun.

Casey and I both feel that even though the Curiosity Connection was fun for our kids and closer to home, the Lancaster Hands-On House is still worth the drive (bigger, no time frame/session).

After our visit to the Curiosity Connection, we had dinner at Carrabas Italian Grill. We were definitely blessed, both kids ate there dinner while Casey and I got to finish ours in peace. Score!

Mini Monster March

Ethan — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:31:29 +0000

Tonight Casey and I took Hailey and Tyler to Wegmans to check out the Mini Monster March. It was a lot of fun for Hailey and Tyler. Both got a bag with some goodies, plus there were games and snacks throughout the store. We definitely had a good time, thank you Wegmans!

Record Snow

Ethan — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:24:40 +0000

Old news I know, but I finally got around to getting my pictures off my camera of the crazy record snow storm we had here. I took a photo on the way to work last Friday, check out the trees in the back ground.

The kids and I went outside for some snow fun on Saturday before the flurries turned to rain. We had a good time making a snow man and rolling around in the snow. Tyler enjoyed eating snow too!

Tyler taking his first steps in snow

Deck view of the Snow

Hailey posing in the snow

Tyler posing while Hailey works on mr snow man

Hands-on House

Ethan — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:41:17 +0000

Casey and I took Hailey and Tyler to Lancaster, PA this past weekend to a place called the Hands-on House. The Hands-on House is a children’s museum featuring many day-to-day activities miniaturized for the benefit of educating children. Activities like farming, fishing, grocery shopping, acting, and manufacturing were just a few things the kids could experience.

Hands on house

Hailey’s favorite experience was the factory where she could make widgets and learn about the processes involved with manufacturing. Tyler’s favorite experience was definitely the grocery store, he continuously pulled items from one shelve and put them on others. It was so cute.

After the museum, we went to Carrabba’s for some yummy food (they even had a gluten-free menu for Casey) and the kids were so well behaved. It was a fun day trip, if you get some time check out the Hands-on House.