I wrote a while ago about Norfolk Botanical Garden's Mission Monarch -- a project designed to highlight the recent decrease in monarch butterfly populations and educate both kids and adults about ways to protect them. As part of Mission Monarch, NBG has erected a 600-ft Monarch Migration Flyway to illustrate the incredible journey that the butterflies undertake when they migrate to Mexico each year. The trail runs between the WOW Children's Garden and the Butterfly House, and is a nice walk for a little one. There's even a scavenger hunt you can complete to earn a prize (handed out at the front desk in the Information Center).

We're frequently at the Garden and have seen everything a dozen times by now; it's always fun when they put up something new for us to experience, especially when it's interesting information presented in a new and fun way! We highly recommend stopping by if you get the chance (don't forget to check out the beautiful stands of pink and orange milkweed scattered throughout to see the butterflies hard at work!)

We have been having a crazy time these past few weeks as our house undergoes some serious renovations. Remember all that rain we had back in the spring? It wreaked a fair amount of havoc on pretty much every room in our house, thanks to a faulty roof. We're fixing it now, and excited about how it will turn out, but our house is a little bit of a disaster zone. For instance? In our living room we have a couch sitting on top of a couch. Yup. Also, some of my blogging tools (camera, laptop charger) seem to be sitting somewhere around the bottom of the pile. So blogging has been slow (as you might have noticed), but we hope to be back at full speed in the next week or so.

In the meantime, Happy Friday and here are some links that caught my attention this week. Hope you enjoy!


Did you hear that Norfolk/Virginia Beach was named the second happiest metro area in the US? (The first happiest is our neighbor, Richmond -- only a hop & skip away).

Fellow #HRVA blogger The Purposeful Pappy wrote this great article about crying in front of your kids for mamalode this week.

We're about seven items in to this Coastal Virginia Summer Bucket List. Luckily we've got a month left to try to hit them all!

If you have a dino-lover at home, you might enjoy this article that theorizes that all dinosaurs were covered with feathers!

Using game theory to deal with toddlers? I need to try this.

Finding art in science.

This week at Fun and Free Hampton Roads, I wrote about free crabbing (happening tonight!) at First Landing State Park. Click over to check it out. Have a great weekend!

One of my favorite things about Anne is how she loves mechanical things (wheels, horns, engines) just as much as she adores princesses, dolls, and pink. I wasn't prepared for how much exactly she would, but in the two years that we've lived in the Hampton Roads area, we have amassed quite the list of places to go to see planes, trains, and automobiles of all types. I thought I would share our master list, in case you, too, have a little vehicle-lover at home. The list isn't exhaustive, but it will definitely give you enough to keep you running around town through the end of the summer!

Where's your favorite local place to go to see planes, trains, and automobiles? Let us know in the comments.

PLANES

Norfolk Botanical Gardens Airport Overlook (Norfolk): Watch planes take off and land at Norfolk International Airport and listen to the chatter from the traffic controller towers.

Virginia Air and Space Center (Hampton): One of our all-time faves! Learn about the history of aviation and space exploration and see some seriously cool aviation-related exhibits.

Air Power Park (Hampton): Roam around the park and take a good look at the planes and jets (and space capsules) scattered around. Then visit the small museum and the playground for more fun.

Military Aviation Museum (Virginia Beach): Planes and...dinosaurs? We don't know how they mix, really, but the Military Aviation Museum in Pungo is another cool place to see jets and some fearsome reptile replicas, to boot.


TRAINS

Norfolk Southern Museum (Norfolk): This often overlooked museum recounts the history of one of the area's biggest employers; it also offers a look at a 900 lb. railroad coupler and the chance to sit in a locomotive simulator!

Pokey Smokey II at Portsmouth City Park: This miniature train in Portsmouth's City Park is a local landmark -- and has been for years. Runs daily through Labor Day; on the weekends until June 16th.

Virginia Zoo (Norfolk): The small train takes visitors on a 3/4-mile journey that winds around the zoo. Children under 2 ride free. Remember to buy your tokens a the ticket booth when you come in!

Lancaster Train and Toy Collection, Children's Museum of Virginia (Portsmouth): Around a thousand miniature trains clack around this tiny village. Best feature: the crawl spaces underneath and the up-bubbles that offer a conductor's-eye view.

Dale's Train Station (Norfolk): With 6,000 square feet of model trains for sale, this is the perfect place to pick up a present for the train aficionado. Don't miss: the awesome multi-level train layout.

Railroad Museum of Virginia (Portsmouth): See artifacts from the history of railroads in the US, including restored Engine 1134. The museum is open on Fridays and Saturdays.

Suffolk Seaboard Station Railroad Museum (Suffolk): SSSRM offers a collection of items from local railroads plus the chance to peek inside a real caboose! Open Wednesday through Sunday.

The Tide (Norfolk): Ride Norfolk's light rail system to see the sights! A convenient way to get around downtown but a fun ride in itself, too.


AUTOMOBILES

Motor World (Virginia Beach): Motor World features 11 go-kart tracks, including the Family Track, for kids. Mini-golf, paintball, and amusement park rides are also available.

American Indoor Karting (Virginia Beach): This is the place for indoor go-karting, including junior karting for the bigger kids. There's also an arcade, for when you're all vroomed out.

Langley Speedway (Hampton): Go on down to Langley Speedway for short-track racing every Saturday night. This is the oldest consecutive running track in the US, featuring NASCAR Winston Cup series races.

Virginia War Museum, Huntington Park (Newport News): Huntington Park is home to the Virginia War Museum, the yard of which showcases some impressive wartime vehicles (tanks, trucks).

US Army Transportation Museum (Fort Eustis): There's a ton to see here, including planes, helicopters, tugboats, and landing crafts. Open Tuesday through Sunday; admission is free!

Anouk and I were super excited to find out the other day that the long-closed-for-renovations barnyard at the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk has partially reopened! We were even more excited when we trucked back there to discover that the main pen has been completely populated by adorable friendly goats. The new petting-zoo setup means that visitors are free to enter and roam around among the goats and even brush and feed them.

We had a great time meeting the animals and seeing the little baby goats up close. They were nursing from their mothers and headbutting each other plenty, but mostly just trying to stay out of the hot sun. We can't wait to go back and visit some more (and to see the rest of the barnyard when it reopens fully).

Bonus points: the new barnyard is right next to one of our favorite zoo spots, the under appreciated reptile house! And the old Beastro adjacent has opened up again, too, which means tasty treats for all.

Here are a few snaps from one of our favorite adventures so far this summer -- blueberry picking at Beatson's Blueberry Farm in Virginia Beach. We went on a truly hot day (the temp was in the high 90s) and as a result, didn't get quite as many berries as we'd planned but we had a great time picking and talking and singing silly songs together as a family. Anouk thought it was super cool that we were acting out the plot line from one of her favorite story books (sans bears, thankfully). She also thought it was pretty impressive the way her dad could throw a berry up in the air and catch it in his mouth, every single time.

The berries were so delicious -- and interspersed within the blueberry bushes were occasional blackberry brambles so of course we had to test some of those out, too (also delicious). Beatson's is open from Monday through Sunday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and u-pickberries are $2.50 a pint. We heard from a staff member that they will probably have berries for another month or so, so there's plenty of time left if you want to pick a basket of your own.

Happy Monday!

One of my favorite things to do in Hampton Roads is visit the many different historic houses that our area has to offer. From colonial times to the Civil War to 20th century glamour, this area has seen so many great events of US history. It's such a wonder to be able to step back and experience a taste of them by walking in the footsteps of families who lived here in the past.

So for this Friday Five, here are some of our favorite historic houses to visit in #HRVA. There are so many to choose from though -- this list is in no way exhaustive! If your favorite isn't on the list, please mention it in the comments. Happy weekend!

1. Moses Myers House (Norfolk): The Moses Myers House is neat because of its urban location in Downtown Norfolk -- so often you feel like you get an idea of how rural people lived back in the 18th century but you don't hear much about city life. The house is gorgeous, with a spooky history that captures the imagination.

2. Bacon's Castle (Surry): Bacon's castle is one of the only examples of Jacobean Architecture in America, and one of the oldest structures, to boot, dating all the way back to 1665! Younger kids might not like the tour, which can be a little long, but older ones will enjoy peeking into the carefully kept rooms. Everyone will enjoy the gardens and grounds.

3. The Hermitage Museum and Gardens (Norfolk): The summer home of a wealthy family, the Hermitage is a beautiful Arts-and-Crafts mansion on the Lafayette River. Besides that, it has 12 acres of gardens to explore, and a pretty impressive art collection. A nice place to spend a summer day with plenty of chances to -- check out the events calendar here.

4. Adam Thoroughgood House (Virginia Beach): Built sometime around 1720, the Thoroughgood House is one of the oldest surviving houses in the area. Furnished as it would have been when the Thoroughgoods lived there, kids will enjoy this look at colonial life.

5. Riddick's Folly (Suffolk): When Mills Riddick built this Greek Revival house in the 1830s, the community was a little taken aback by its over-the-top grandeur. Today, though, it stands as a beautiful example of antebellum life.

PS: I wrote about a fun family day at the Old Coast Guard Station in Virginia Beach coming up this weekend over at Fun and Free Hampton Roads. Check it out!

Lately, reading with Anne has gotten really fun. She not only can pick which books she wants but she has started to really understand the stories and we will talk about them long after we've finished reading, making up alternate endings and talking about other things the characters would do.

Our list of favorite books is growing longer every day. One of my favorite bloggers, Darcy, does really great lists of her family's favorite books for kids, and I love them as inspiration and as a record of books that have been enjoyed. So much so that I really want to share some of ours, too. (NOTE: this post contains affiliate links, which may result in a small commission for the blog if you click/buy anything through them!)




Paul Meets Bernadette by Rosy Lamb: Sometimes someone else's perspective can change the way we see things. This is what happens to Paul, a goldfish, after the lovely Bernadette is dropped into his bowl and shows him a new and fanciful way to understand his surroundings. The paintings in this book are so beautiful that I have considered copying them and hanging them in the house!


Nothing by Jon Agee: I love Jon Agee because he has kind of a weird, adult sense of humor. In this book, a harried antiques dealer sells "nothing" to a rich customer and the town goes crazy for it, wanting nothing for themselves, too. Pretty much all of Agee's books are hilarious, especially Terrific, in which a grumpy man learns that sarcasm and parrots don't mix.



if you want to see a whale by Julie Fogliano: Another one with great art. The text reminds me a lot of e.e. cummings and Anouk enjoys trying to find a whale on each page.



Little Smudge by Lionel Le Neouanic: In a series of Matisse-like illustrations, Little Smudge learns to stand up to the brighter colors by showing off his particular talents.



Press Here by Herve Tulliet: This is an interesting concept -- on each consecutive page, the dots respond to being pressed, shaken, and blown on by changing color, growing bigger, and moving. Of course the pages are the same whether you do the action or not but for now, A. still believes in the magic and has a lot of fun with this book.



Otis and the Puppy by Loren Long: Otis is a lovable tractor who helps solve problems around the farm. This is the third in a series (we like the others a lot, too).



Fancy Nancy Stellar Stargazer! by Jane O'Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser: I really appreciate the way the Fancy Nancy books introduce kids to new vocabulary words with clear explanations of what they mean, and the way that Nancy is traditionally girly but still interested in a wide variety of subjects. We're plowing through this series.



Swimmy by Leo Lionni: In this Caldecott winner, one black fish teaches a school of red fish how to swim together to avoid danger. Doesn't it seem like we read a lot of books about fish? Anyway, this one is beautiful, too.

What have your kids been reading lately?

Just to switch things up a little, we've been trying to visit playgrounds lately that are outside our normal beat. This is what led us to Fort Fun in Newport News a few weekends ago. I'd heard great things about the recently renovated (in the last couple of years) playground, which is located in Huntington Park, on the James River. The renovations replaced a wooden structure with one that was designed to reflect the history of the area, with a wooded forest and pirate ship to climb around in.

Besides the 15,000 feet of play space, the park features a small children's pier jutting out into adjacent Lake Biggins. We saw fish jumping and turtles sunning themselves (and several junior fisherman casting their lines out into the freshwater lake).

Huntington Park also features a full-sized fishing pier on the river, a beautiful rose garden, and Vietnam War and Holocaust memorials. And it's home to the only public beach in Newport News, on the banks of the James (read our reviews of area beaches here). It's going to take us more than a few visits to experience everything the park has to offer, so stay tuned.

Things have been a little quiet here lately since the summer has been in full swing, but I'm still posting over at Fun and Free Hampton Roads! Lately I've written about free outdoor music at Mariner's Park in Hampton and also some free movie nights around town. Don't forget to check them out!

 World Cup fever in our house! Neither James and I are soccer fans but Anouk is suddenly all about it.