Philadelphia

Last weekend Dane had to go to Philadelphia to take a test which was awesome because that meant that the school was pretty much forcing us to take a vacation!

We got there thursday night because his test started at 8 a.m. on friday and it was an 8 hour test so me and the kids were on our own most of the day friday. 

My friend told me about this place called Smith Memorial Mansion so I decided to take the kids there and it was UNBELIEVABLY awesome!  I was a little bit nervous about getting there because I had to get around downtown Philadelphia on my own and our GPS is broken and Dane and his fancy I-phone were in the test so if I got lost I knew I couldn't call him to help me, so I google mapped and printed directions how to get there from our hotel and prayed that I didn't make a wrong turn ... well I did make a wrong turn somewhere along the way so my printed out directions weren't all that helpful anymore...I thought I was going to have to pull over and buy an actual map of Philadelphia, do they even sale those anymore!?!?  But by some miracle I found my way to the interstate I was supposed to get on and made it

Ok so like I said this mansion was amazing, a couple donated it to the city of Philadelphia in honor of their son and it's been open since 1899.  The entire inside of the mansion (all 3 floors) is just for kids 5 and under to play in and it is full of all kinds of different toys.  And then outside there are like 5 different playgrounds for kids 10 and under to play on and it is all free!

When you first walk in there is a big room with a train, playhouse, kitchen sets, and train table.  And next to that room is a room full of giant legos and blocks.

The view from the home of SOME of the outdoor playgrounds

Upstairs they have a reading room with like a trillion books and then this toy room full of cars and trucks of every kind, a little bridge, more kitchen sets, a big doll house and tons more

Outside they have this awesome wooden slide that you slide down on on potato sacks

We ate our lunch out on the giant balcony

When we were about to leave I saw an entrance to the basement so I thought we would just take a quick look at what was there so we went down and the whole thing was full of play cars and trikes with roads and a working stoplight, totally Beck's cup of tea so we ended up staying down there for quite awhile

I can't believe I had never heard of this place before it was crazy!  I would be there at least once a week if we lived anywhere near it.

Quinn is an awesome sleeper...except in hotel rooms.

First I had both kids in bed with me...but she was not going to go to sleep

Then I moved Quinn to the crib and kept Beck with me...still she's not going to go to sleep

So then I just turned on the light and let them both watch a movie in the crib

but Quinn wouldn't stop pushing the buttons, so I moved her back into bed with me...but she was not about to go to sleep

So I moved Beck back in bed with me and put her back in the crib but since I had already told him he could watch a movie I had to let him but I made him watch it under the covers...she still wasn't going to sleep

Then I just moved the crib across the room and she finally went to sleep

Saturday morning we went to tour Independence Hall which is where both the Declaration Of Independence and Constitution were debated and adopted

Wish I could share some more info on Independence Hall but we spent most of the tour out back wrangling these 2

Same story for the Liberty Bell, we decided we would just google the info after we got home, we had to get our kids out of there they were being so wild I was sure they were going to put another crack in the bell

The highlight of the trip:  Me and the kids were playing in this field waiting for Dane while he ran to the car to get our stroller and this big group teenagers came up and formed a circle around us and started going crazy taking pictures of Beck and Quinn, it scared Beck to death that this big group of teenagers were getting right up in his face taking his picture so he ran off and they all groaned so I told him if he didn't come back and let them take his picture he wasn't getting icecream so he let them snap some more shots and then one girl asked if she could stand in a picture with me and Quinn I was dying laughing caue I had no idea why they were taking pictures in the first place but I said yes and then one by one they all took turns standing next to me and Quinn and had eachother take their pictures.  It was SO funny but SO wierd!  This picture I got of them was probably only half of the group and it was after the big photo shoot...if I took a picture while they were taking our picture I think I would have only gotten half of ther actual face in the picture because they were standing so close.

I guess thats the price you pay for having such good looking kids jk

And of course you dong go to Phili without getting some Phili Cheesesteaks!  They were sooo good!