Happy 30th Mark!

Yesterday we celebrated Mark's 30th! birthday with a drive into Philadelphia. We saw the Liberty Bell, Constitution Hall, walked down to Penn's Landing, ate cheesesteak and generally roamed around downtown.


The highlight for the girls was visiting Franklin Square
which is a cool city park with a carousel, playground, fountains and miniature golf course. They also had a little temporary exhibit of the wonders of ancient Egypt made entirely of Jersey sand. The girls thought this was really cool,but were disappointed they couldn't build their own sand sculptures. (hence Elsa's grump face).


They LOVED the carousel ride. Now Elsa's smiling. They informed me it was just like Mary Poppins. I've noticed a huge cognitive leap in the girls since we've returned from vacation. They've taken their imaginative play to a whole new level. They've been playing really intricate games of preschool, cooking, etc. They've started telling stories along with their play. At the park Mark overheard them talking about "Once there was a little girl, named Daddy . . ." and they went on to imagine "Daddy" at preschool. Another time I found them upstairs talking to Raike and Able (two of their friends who moved away). All on their own, they had named their dolls Raike and Able and were taking care of them. So cute!


Later we tried to took the girls miniature golfing. Very exciting to have nearly 3 year old helpers. They liked to collect the balls between shots. (even midplay). But, we made it through nine holes. Not bad. The course was all miniatures of the tourist sites of Philly.



Mark and I are big PBS/NPR geeks. We were pretty excited to see the home station of Terry Gross.



Finally, we came home for cake. The girls were very involved in the making and decoration of this chocolate cake. They've been excited about this birthday all week. Relatives will be happy to know that the girls immediately launched into "Sto Lat" after the singing of Happy Birthday. I think their Polish pronunciation is better than mine. I looked up the word, if anybody is interested.