Our Day Trip

Today we joined Mamaw, Papaw, Beth & Seb for a trip to a "center for history, art, & technology" (as their sign said). We expected to be there a couple hours but ended up spending the entire day there. We had a great time!



The entire main level of the building was geared towards hands on activities for kids. They also offered a short science show and a glass blowing demonstration. The upstairs had more historical things. There were other buildings, too, but we didn't make it to all of them. Here are some picture highlights of our day.

Some of the exhibits/activities




The station in the middle had a bunch of snap circuit boards just like the one Tyler got for Christmas.










































Glass blowing demonstration. He made a fish with multicolored fins & tail. It was neat and reminded me of the time we were in Japan and tried it.













They had an invention lab. The kids could invent or take stuff apart. Danielle made a dog. Tyler made a solar panel that powered some generators, which in turn powered a tv. (All his own idea.) The only problem was there wasn't any glue. So, the kids used masking or duct tape for everything and then we hot glued it all when we got home.


















We enjoyed a picnic in the courtyard ("Mamaw packs the best snacks!") and then saw some of the outside exhibits.








Uh, the kids were trying to see if their, uh, "toots" would sound different on different spots of the xylophone. Really it was a very scientific experiment. Right.

I think my kids loved this area the most. It had baskets full of kapla blocks, wedgits, lincoln logs, uberstix, and other building materials. I loved this area because I have looked into buying some of these items before but in order to get a decent set, you have to spend a lot of money!! The kapla blocks are at least $1 a piece. My kids loved these Magna Tiles the most. (Danielle has declared she MUST have these for her birthday. The light-up table, too.) These are over $1.50/block, so the cost adds up quickly! If we lived closer, I would have bought a membership just for this area. Even Papaw liked the Magna Tiles.























And this evening we were delighted to find a monarch fluttering around the milkweed. We haven't seen any caterpillars yet, but I'm sure we will before long. Danielle was super excited about this guy (girl?).

VBS II

Our summer has suddenly slowed way down. This is the first week we haven't been out doing something, somewhere every day, and I've tried very hard to keep it that way. My house was looking so messy!

The kids are attending VBS at Mamaw's church during the evenings this week. I felt kind of bad that Tyler missed out on Bible school when Danielle went, so I thought this would be a good opportunity. I also thought Mamaw might enjoy having them there. The most convincing reason, though, was that this VBS is in the evening. That means Ron and I have 2 1/2 hours to ourselves every evening. Mamaw's church is on the other side of the world from us, so we can't really drop them off, come home, and then go back and pick them up. Instead, we've enjoyed quiet, no-whining, no-arguing, chewing-with-your-mouth closed dinners out. Afterward, we've found a nice, quiet place to park and have...read. Yep, we're old and that's not at all romantic, but it's been a wonderful way to spend the week. The kids are really enjoying themselves. Although it's the same theme, Danielle says it's better than the other one she attended. All the crafts have been different than the ones she already did, and the closing stories have been somewhat different, too. I don't know how to explain it, but I feel like this Bible school has somehow been more spiritual. It has made for some very late evenings, though. The kids haven't gotten to bed before 10 all week. Some things are more important than getting to bed on time, though.

We're taking Clara in to have her spayed tomorrow. As you can imagine, that has created quite a bit of questions from the kids. When we took Clara to the pet store this afternoon, Tyler told everyone who stopped to pet her that "she's having surgery tomorrow so she won't have any puppies". Among other questions, Tyler asked if the vet was actually going to remove a body part. Thankfully he stopped short of asking which body part, for now anyway. Danielle focused most of her before bed prayer praying for Clara - that her surgery will go well and that we won't be sad and miss her too much. It was very sweet.

The County Fair

I took the kids to the county fair for a couple hours this afternoon.

The kids rode the ponies and each picked one other "ride".

Danielle picked the bounce house for her ride. Tyler did, too, but realized after we bought the tickets that he was too big. He was so disappointed.

A walk through the Monkey Maze made him feel better.

The kids played a couple games...

and delighted in their cheap prizes.

We saw lots of animals, too. These geese were especially chatty, and the sheep kept trying to eat our shirts. One of the donkeys kept braying and it reminded Tyler & I of the part in Pinocchio where the naughty boys all changed into donkeys. Danielle enjoyed looking at the beautiful horses, too. We finished our trip with a bag of cotton candy. We had a nice time.

Take a Hike...and Go Climb a Tree

This afternoon the kids and I explored a different part of our favorite metropark. Some of the metroparks are supposed to have "natural play areas" - areas specifically set aside for kids to climb trees, dig in the dirt, wade in the stream, etc. We were hoping to explore that area, but it didn't turn out to be much more than an overgrown path at this park. We did enjoy the other trail that ran along side the stream though.



Tyler was disappointed he didn't get to climb a tree, which is something every little boy should do, so we found one near the playground that looked just right for climbing. Danielle had to try, too, but her legs weren't quite long enough to make it up as high as Tyler.



We finished our afternoon with a trip to the ice cream shop on the way home.

Friday Fun

We spent the day with our neighbor friends. Our local grocery store hosted Dale Jr's racecar (not Dale himself) today, so we went to see that this morning. Although we're not Nascar fans, the kids know a cool car when they see one! They were most impressed. They needed to move the car while we were there, so the kids got to hear it fire up, too. It was loud but made the car seem that much more impressive.

After seeing the racecar, we spent the day at the pool in town. It was our first day there this year and we had a really good day. Of course, going with friends made it that much better. Tyler jumped off the diving board for his first time. Since he's under 9, he had to take a little swimming test first to prove he was capable. He did well and I felt like all those $$ towards swimming lessons finally paid off!

We finished off the afternoon with swim lessons. Today was the last day in this session and Danielle finished strong. She finally swam a good distance by herself and got promoted to the next class. She was pretty excited. I think we'll all sleep well tonight.

Our Insect Friend

Can you find the insect we found today:

We found this walking stick on the side of the house. The kids wanted to keep him for the day so they could show Ron. We found out one of the foods he likes is rose leaves, so Tyler put some in with him in case he needed an afternoon snack. Tyler thought it was cool that he could crawl up the slippery sides of the bucket and across the plastic wrap at the top without slipping. Nature is so cool.

(In case you couldn't find him, here he is.)

Ron left work early so he could watch the kids' swim lessons tonight. They were so excited to show Ron what they've been learning. They are almost done with their second week of swim camps. Both kids moved up and the only time their classes ran concurrently were at 5pm. It's been a little inconvenient regarding dinner, but much better than spending our whole morning at the Y. Tyler's class was introduced to diving this week. Tyler would like to be on the Y's swim team eventually. His immediate goal, however, is to be comfortable enough with going under that he can dunk Grandpa R. Apparently he's holding a grudge regarding a swimming incident at Disney. I think it's safe to say he's surpassed his goal and is ready for some pool time with Grandpa. After lessons we picked up a pizza and had a picnic at the park. It was a lot of fun.

Water Slide Fun

I have been deliberating for months about whether or not I wanted to buy a water slide for the kids to play on this summer. We had one last year, but it was borderline too small for the kids, so I sold it on Craigslist at the beginning of this summer and put the money in our summer fun fund.

The reviews on the inflatable slides are all over the place, and for the money, I wasn't sure I wanted to gamble on it. But, I found one on Craigslist that I thought was reasonably priced. I went and checked it out the other day and ended up with a new, used water slide for almost 1/4 of the original price (and for the same price I sold ours for). At that price, I will be content if the slide only lasts the rest of this summer.

The kids played on it for the first time today and really enjoyed it.

Clara enjoyed watching the kids play, too. She will be 5 months old tomorrow.

This and That

Danielle's last tball game was Wednesday. She did really well and enjoyed playing. We had fun watching her this season. She gave it her all every game and we're proud of her.

Yesterday evening I took the kids on an amphibian night hike at a local metropark. Uncle Ron joined us since Ron was busy. It was a 2 hour program that included a 15 minute educational program geared for kids. The rest of the time we searched the wetlands for amphibians. Due to a lack of rain, though, the wetlands were dry so we didn't have a lot of luck. Danielle found a tiny toad and caught him before we even realized she had found something. Even though we didn't find as much as we would have liked, it was a lot of fun. The kids enjoyed being out at night.

This afternoon we visited a state park we hadn't been to before. We made a fire and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. Why is it hotdogs taste so much better that way? We had a lot of fun just making dinner. While we were roasting marshmallows, we heard a cooing noise. Clara started barking, the weeds wiggled a little, and this little guy stuck his face out to see what we were doing. He wasn't that scared of us, so obviously he'd been fed before. He roamed around nearby the entire time we were there eating and fishing. Each time he got too close, Clara scared him away. She was a good watch dog!

While we were fishing, the raccoon came down to the water, reached under a couple rocks, and found a crayfish to eat. It was neat watching him. The kids also enjoyed watching all the fireworks being shot off at various places on the horizon. It was a good day.