Growing those brains

Yesterday it rained and today it rained. I was going to go stir-crazy alone in the house all day with just me and the little man again... so we coordinated with a few friends and met up at Studio Grow in Concord for some exploring.

The studio is cute, not overly crowded (because it is kinda pricey), and has a lot of imaginative play and artsy activities that Andrew loved. We were there for 2 1/2 hours and probably could've stayed longer.

Playing with the animals

Trains- surprisingly not his favorite activity today

Dollhouse time- loved opening and closing doors and moving furniture around

Andrew and Izzie loved taking care of the babies- Izzie fed her baby...

They both helped prepare lunch

And then they put the babies to sleep

There was a whole room devoted to dancing with instruments, pom poms, and ribbons. There was also a disco ball. Andrew kept sneaking back into the room when I wasn't watching to boogie and shake the pom poms! :)

Big indoor play structure with tunnels and slides

Little man spent awhile just pushing this stuff around and piling it up.

and of course climbing on top of (instead of through) the tunnels

I loved the little magnet boards with shapes (Andrew did too...just caught him itching with a grumpy face in this picture... he actually did like it :))

Ball pit! There were originally more balls in there... but Andrew liked throwing them out.

Painting time! Any excuse to get dirty is fun for Andrew

Stamping

Coloring with stencils and markers
(forget to get a pic of the kids at this center, but it was a lot of fun)

Playdough time- we came back to this one again and again

This activity was the most coveted. I almost want to buy one. There were more tears over this activity than any other because it was SO HARD to take turns because it was so fun! :) It's kind of like a mini roller coaster. Andrew, Claire, and Izzie liked going down backwards at the same time and racing. If only there hadn't been five other kids that wanted turns too. It was a great activity to practice sharing though...


Overall the morning (which stretched into the afternoon) was a lot of fun and we ended our trip with a visit to Sunvalley Mall for Mrs. Fields cookies and lunch... which made it a perfect day... until Andrew took too short of a nap and woke up screaming and tantruming for 30 minutes (think head banging/throwing himself on the floor)... I guess every day can't always be totally perfect with a toddler, right? :)

We solved the tantruming problem by grabbing some rocket popsicles and Ben & Jerrys at the grocery store. Now both of us will be in good moods tonight!