School was closed on President's Day, of course, and I took the day off to hang out with the girls. 

Abby's school had a free ice skating event in Castle Rock.  Although we went to check it out, it was much too cold to be outside with the way the girls were dressed.  This rink is brand new to Castle Rock this year and is a really nice, covered venue, so we'll be sure to visit again.  We watched a few of Abby's classmates circle the rink a few times and then drove up to the Denver Children's Museum downtown.

The girls loved the museum.  I would have loved it more if it weren't for the fact that the entire kid population of Denver was packed into this building!  We still spent a couple of hours there and got to do several hands-on activities. 

The first exhibit that drew the girls' attentions was the rocket crafting area, which included an area to launch their paper rockets to see how well they fly.

The girls were mesmerized by the Newton's Cradle activity.

Abby enjoyed hammering anything she could get her hands on.

Kayleigh being proficient with a screwdriver.

Playing in the pizza kitchen next to a mock supermarket.

Admiring the pizza they assembled

Crawling down a mole hole

My two little baby birds

The girls LOVED the Big Backyard and Kayleigh jumped up and down the whole time, making it impossible to get a decent picture with her in it!

Exploring a fire engine

Before leaving the Children's Museum, the girls got to scribble on Hopscotch, one of the many cow sculptures all around the Denver downtown area.

After the museum, we went to the Cherry Creek district for lunch. Abby found a place called the Egg Shell and wanted to try it because she was able to easily read the name!  We actually enjoyed a wonderful lunch there - Kayleigh had potatoes and eggs, I had a chicken sandwich, and Abby tried a Belgium waffle for the first time and loved it - then we took a relaxing walk around all the stores and stopped at the Wizard's Chest to find gifts for one of Abby's friends' upcoming birthday parties before driving home.

I sure wish we had the time to do this more often!