Spring Break Staycation - girls' choice

Since we didn't get to go anywhere for spring break this year, and Ben had to take vacation days to use up carryover days from last year, we decided to have a three day long staycation to explore places around Madison.  On Wednesday, we told the girls that they could do anything they wanted, and they chose to go to the pet store for storytime (free!) and look at all the animals.  The girls each picked two beanie babies to snuggle with during storytime; Amelia chose bunnies, and Megan chose a guinea pig and a rat. 

The theme for the week was bunnies, and so they got to pet a gray rabbit at the end of story time.  They said he was very soft.  Megan liked his twitching little nose.

Then we had to look at all the animals in cages.  This time, Megan seemed very interested in the rat ("just like Ratatouille, Mommy!") and Amelia liked the hairless rat ("It looks so soft!")  I was pretty disturbed by both of those animals, and much preferred looking at the fish or the snakes.

Then I took Megan out for lunch (she chose Red Robin because she wanted a balloon) and Ben took Amelia out (she chose Culver's because she wanted ice cream).  Ben tried to convince Amelia to go somewhere else, like Red Robin, by telling her that she could still go to Culver's for ice cream afterwards, but I think she was worried that he would forget or change his mind, so she was adamant about Culvers.  Megan and I had a lovely time at Red Robin; we colored some fish on the placecmat, she ate all her chicken fingers and apple slices, and she even got a red helium balloon to take home.