Get out the Energy

With being out of school for a week and the weather being a little colder, we've been inside a lot.  Ok, the colder weather comment is mostly because it's getting just a little bit difficult to zip up my coat these days.  But as a result, Evelyn has been a little rammy due to there not being as much going on as she's used to at school.  A while back I mentioned I wanted to write monthly about how we try to keep Evelyn entertained, as that has been one of the hardest things about having a toddler.  Well, this is finally going to be another post along those lines!

On New Year's Day Steve and I were both exhausted from staying up late (although not until midnight...and I have no shame in admitting it!).  Evelyn was tired, too, having partied hard with her girlfriends and not falling asleep until 11:00!

We decided to go to Longwood Gardens, where we have a membership.  We love Longwood no matter what the season.  There is plenty to do outdoors, as well as a huge indoor conservatory.  We love going on rainy weekends because no one thinks to go to a garden in the rain, and we usually have the conservatory to ourselves with nice, long pathways for Evelyn to run and skip down.  They have an indoor and outdoor childrens' garden, and a change of clothes is a must as water fountains play a big part in the childrens' areas!  If you are a parent of a toddler and live in the West Chester area, I highly recommend looking into a membership if you don't have one already.  If you don't live in the area, I would seriously suggest looking into local gardens/please touch museums/anything kid friendly and consider a membership if you know you will use it.  We go to Longwood at least once a week in the summer, and now that it's winter we still go about once a month.  It has gotten to the point that Evelyn actually asks to go.  If you decide to do a membership somewhere, I have done some pricing, and I have found that, in general, if you use your membership two or three times, you have gotten your money's worth, and many come with a few guest passes.  

So, on New Year's Day, we all got some fresh air, and Evelyn got to run out some of her energy:

And Mommy and Daddy were rewarded later when she took a nice, long nap!  Happy New Year to you all.  Thank you for reading my sporadic attempts at blogging, and stay tuned as I'm sure that come March I will have a brand new outlook on being a parent to two!