Family Adventure - Milwaukee WI

This weekend we went to Milwaukee.

It was kind of spontaneous.

We wanted to meet Cousin Courtney's twins.

And have a little family adventure.

We went to the Domes for the first time.

They were incredible.

Especially this time of year, when it's still SO cold.

Each of the three Domes have a different (warm) climate.

The first we went into was a rain forest.

With live bugs, birds and plant life indigenous to the rain forest. 

We could not get enough.

It felt like summer.

We walked through, looking at every single thing.

Just soaking up the "sun".

I think the rain forest was all of our favorite.

It was SO perfectly warm and beautiful.

The second dome was the desert. 

It too was beautiful.

Surprisingly, we weren't as into the desert as the rain forest. 

I would have thought ANYTHING warm would do. :)

It was still very neat to see though.

While I love cacti and succulents

my favorite were the Birds of Paradise. 

I enjoyed photographing with my phone, obviously. 

The third Dome was called "garden".

They were featuring a G-Scale train exhibit through out.

It was really gorgeous. 

I could not get enough of the green, trees, flowers and warm sun...

Afterward we went to lunch.

Greg was a little worried to parallel park because 

he didn't want to touch the rims on his low profile tires. :)

We ate at Ian's, and Greg fell in love. 

Then we went to Cousin Courtney's house for some baby lovin'.

 

We met, cuddled and cooed over Stella and Mateo 

while they napped through hours of our visit. 

It was the perfect day.

Zeek's Art Studio

From the early morning, throughout the day, into the evening- pretty much any spare time Zeek has he's drawing or making something. From his own matchsticks and dynamite, to books about dragons and fire worms, he loves to draw, sculpt, paint, glue, tape, write and create. He's always been a little artist. 

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a book at the library that is filled with art lessons. As I got into it I learned that it also instructs how to provide an "art studio" for your kids or students. This peeked my interest. As I read more I learned how awesome and inspiring it is for kids to have a space that is set up just for creating. 

So came the daunting task of reorganizing our craft/laundry/dog/mud room. Since the dogs have recently transitioned to being free in the house at all times, I knew I could delegate what has always been their kennel room to something different. And since I pretty much only use the room to store my card making, drawing and painting supplies, I decided to downsize my own stash and make the room Zeek's Art Studio.

I'd like to say this was no big deal, but until about half way through the project I had no idea what I was getting into.  

Once I had gotten things stripped down, sorted, and cleared out, 

Zeek and I went to Walmart for storage containers and desk lamps. 

Then it was just a matter of setting up the room. 

It was amazing how much stuff we had tucked away 

that was just begging to be used, for years. 

Now, it is all out on display for him,

along with some of the things he's already made.

There is cork board for pinning,

and canvases with easels for painting.

There are two desk areas.

  

We demo-ed the roll top desk we weren't using

and turned it into another space. 

It's good to have extra room for friends

or maybe a brother or sister. ;)

The closet storage space has been optimized.

And Zeek is loving it!

He spent most of his day in there yesterday after 

I revealed the finished product to him.

He ate his meals, listened to his music and stories,

watched his show on his iPad, 

and of course, created away

I'm grateful we have this extra space available to use for this.

I think it is priceless.