Jamie's Journal

Nammy and Grampa Moose's visit!

2011-12-11T14:03:00.000-08:00

Nammy and Grampa Moose came out for James' party. We went bowling on Friday night, Autumn scored 3 spares in a row, and beat all of us with a score of 114!. Saturday morning we went to a little horse training demo, then James party, then Autumn's recital, then dad took us out to PeiWei's for dinner, and we drove around looking at Christmas lights. It was fun to have them in town for a few days.

Dec 10th, 2011 - Autumn's dance recital. She waved and waved at us. They put lipstick on her backstage, she really enjoyed putting on a show for everyone.

James' Indiana Jones Party - Doug made an ark of the covenant, and Holy Grail, then ordered the crystal skull online for a capture the artifact game (like capture the flag). We really lucked out, the weather was nice for us, so we were able to have the party at the park instead of at our house.

The little Indiana Jones wip James has is getting lots of use - trying to keep everyone from getting too many welts from it!
Instead of a pinyata (something wrong about hitting the Ark with a stick) we had a ribbon pull that Doug made - it worked out well.

We had hot chocolate, and a healthy lunch, cupcakes, and pudding snack packs because it was too cold for ice-cream.

Sarah smashed the cupcake into her head, and then everyone else started doing this too.
Crystal finally recovered the Ark from the blue team, it was hidden and guarded well, but she finally got it!
Searching for the elusive grail in the woods. The grail was the last artifact that they found.

James' Quilt from Granny McDonald - "Under the Sea", it's really neat! James was waiting for this for awhile, Autumn and Heather got theirs first - when Amazon packages came in the mail, James would ask if it was his quilt.

Shirts for James' Indian Jones Party (Crystal skull, Arc of the Covenant, Holy Grail)
grail

ark

Crystal Skull - luckily the dollar store had T-shirts the right size! (pattern made with bleach)
Heather's School project.

Thanksgiving Joy School

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-11T05:58:00.000-08:00

School Thanksgiving, and Heather's Science Fair experiment

2011-11-18T06:44:00.000-08:00

Heather's New science fair experiment:

Hi!

This year for the science fair I am doing an experiment about reading visualization. I’m curious to see how differently different people visualize the same words.

I’m collecting data with the attached worksheets. I’ve included a few extra copies and am hoping that you can pass them out to some people you know, I want to get lots of data!

Don’t peek at what other people draw until after you fill your sheet out! (front and back). Thank you so much for helping me with my science experiment!

Sincerely,

Heather

What is it?

What we read/hear vs. what we visualize.

Communication with words.

What you see, and what I see

Background

In class we did a visualization exercise with James and the Giant Peach where each of us drew a picture after reading part of the book. I wondered how different people drew different things, even though everyone heard the same words. I want to do an experiment to see what is different and what is the same when people try to visualize words. We use words to communicate. This experiment will help me understand how effective communication is with words.

Question:

When we read, do we all visualize it in the same way?

Hypothesis:

I think some will be almost the same, but that most will be totally different.

Experiment:

Read the following description to a bunch of people. Ask them to draw a picture of what the words mean to them, and to explain why they drew what they drew. Collect and compare the pictures. Take data on what is the same in all the pictures, and what is different.

Visualization Description:

It is strong, kind, and sings. It is full of energy and likes to jump around and play games. It has a huge appetite, and is not a picky eater. It would rather make artwork than solve math problems. It is loud, happy, smart, and fun.

Directions:

Draw a picture of what you see in your mind.

Write one sentence explaining why you drew what you drew.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

2011-2012 Science Fair Experiment___ ____Date: ____________

Visualization Description : It is strong, kind, and sings. It is full of energy and likes to jump around and play games. It has a huge appetite, and is not a picky eater. It would rather make artwork than solve math problems. It is loud, happy, smart, and fun.

Directions:

Draw a picture of what you see in your mind after reading the above description.

1. Write one sentence explaining what you drew.

1. How old are you? _________

3. Are you a boy or girl? _________

4. What is your job? _________

5. Where were you born? ____________

Part 2:

Word association: write down the first word that pops into your mind:

1. Scary _____________

2. Fun ________________

3. Small ________________

4. Hard ________________

5. Big _________________

6. Gooie _______________

7. Honorable ______________

8. Fast _______________

9. Tall __________________

10. Smart _________________

11. Kind __________________

12. Strong _______________

13. Best ________________

14. Dead _____________

15. Slow _____________

16. Glowing _____________

17. Inspirational _______________

18. Exciting _________________

19. Boring ____________________

20. Strange _________________

21. Sharp _________________

22. Easy ____________________

James and Heather won 1st (Heather) and 2nd (James) prizes in the reflections contest this year for the drawings, Very exciting!!!

Turkey stuff at the school - James made his turnkey ski in Colorado, he's really looking forward to Christmas!

James little school thing - had lunch with James and Heather in the cafeteria this day.

now we're ready for a week long vacation!!!

Pioneer Day!

2011-11-13T06:41:00.000-08:00

Jessie Jones Park Pioneer Day!

There were booths on how to skin animals, leather working, black-smithing, log-cabin building, cotton to material, loading and shooting guns, bow and arrow, hatchet throwing, and corn-husk doll making to name a few.

reflection contest artwork! the theme this year is "Diversity". Heather drew lots of different kind of dogs:
James' is titled "Diversity means we're all aliens"

This came in the mail, so cute! We're looking forward to Thanksgiving!

Bleach-stamped T's and Sweatshirts

2011-11-03T16:59:00.000-07:00

Playing around with goodwill T's and Sweatshirts. I printed out a design with the computer, put duct tape on the back, cut it out, and then either sprayed bleach on the paper and then put the bleach-soaked paper onto the shirt, or sprayed bleach on top of it to copy the design.

I'm going to try and make a bunch of these for Christmas, I know, spoil the surprise - but I need sizes!! so send me your size, your favorite animal, and color (has to be a dark color) so I can make one for you! I think I'll use T's for all of them (the sweatshirts soak up too much bleach, and fuzzy out the design)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Print it out
Put duct tape on back
Cut it out, put on shirt with plastic bag inside (so it does not bleed through)
Spray bleach on!
immediately wash. (I had the laundry machine already filled up with water, so I could throw the shirts in after only a minute with the bleach)

T's - you can spary

Sweat shirts - these soak up too much bleach, so it does not work to spray them - you have to stamp them instead. (Spray paper side of cutout, then place the bleach-soaked paper cutout on the sweatshirt, cover in plastic, place a big heavy book on top for ~ 4 minutes, then peel off... use paintbrush to lightly paint bleach onto spots that did not soak it in enough.)

The results!

Sooper cheap (the T-shirts only cost a couple of dollars) I know, but hopefully kind of fun. I think I might go get some contact paper to cut the designs out with (it will actually stick to the shirts, to get a sharper line, might be able to do some more complex designs that way), we'll see, if you think they're goofy, just remember it's the thought that counts, right?

East End & 1st Knight Award!

2011-11-03T14:22:00.000-07:00

Thurs Nov 3rd - We're so proud of Heather today! She was chosen out of her class to be awarded by the KW Rotary Club - Early Act First Knight. Very cool! (scroll down for vid)

East End Park!
This morning Autumn and I had a much awaited outing to East End together. This is one of our special places that we like to go to during the day - all last week, for some reason, she started asking to go to the lake (which is pretty cool, that she was asking for this rather than going to the park, or Disney etc. etc.). It was a bit chili out, but beautiful blue skies!

t

The roots of these trees used to be underwater... still waiting to get enough rain to fill this lake back up.

I shall not pass this way again
So let me pick the flowers that blow
and let me listen as I go
to music rare that fills the air
for I shall not pass this way again.
- Eva York

Fall leaves!
We don't get many trees that change color, but there were a few red and yellow leaves sprinkled around.

Come, said the wind to the leaves one day, come over the meadow and we will play. Put on your dresses of scarlet and gold, for summer is gone, and the days grow cold...(favorite poem of G-G Grandma Grace)

Nov 1st - Joy School!

2011-11-01T11:31:00.000-07:00

Joy School! Nov 1st

Autumn Leaves

Leaf cutout with stickers, crayon, and then paint (they decided they liked to paint more than color with crayons) all on a straw with yellow streamers.

Harvest Moon
Made with a coffee filter, dipped in red and yellow food coloring + a little water (not too much water), then painted on a little bit, and mounted on card stock.

Seasons
4 trees
Winter tree - glue and white glitter, blue and purple stickers (ice colors)
Spring tree - pink and red flowers
Summer tree - green leaves
Fall tree - yellow and orange leaves

give them a bunch of stickers, and then make them sort out all the colors, and put the right colors on the right seasons. Hang with yarn, use cloths pin on side to mark which season it is.

What makes the seasons?
Take turns being either the sun (draped in yellow blanket holding flashlight) or the earth. The earth child's face points in the direction of the tilt of the earth.

Summer
- earth child faces sun (earth tilts towards sun)
- hot sun is shining right in your face!!! it's hot!!!

Fall
Walk a quarter way around, sun shines on their side
not quite as hot as summer - cooling down!

Winter
earth child faces away from sun - looks out onto the dark blackboard
it's cold without the sun!

Spring
Sun is shining on side again
the snow is melting, starting to get warmer out!

then return to summer position

Food for the birds
pine cone, peanut butter (check for allergies) and bird seed with yarn to hang it up with.

Hibernation
Some animals sleep during the winter season. we watched you-tubes of hibernating animals, and then went and made little dens out of blankets. This is Autumn hibernating on top of her blanket den after joy school was over.

Fall Fest, Flying squirrel, & Modern Art

2011-10-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

James was a ninja, Heather a witch, and Autumn a pink moon princess. Autumn was really enthusiastic with yelling "TRICK - OR - TREAT" at the houses this year. We went to three really scary houses, and all the kids were brave.

Candy Candy Candy!

Halloween Dinner - a pumpkin!
It's a squash - we cut it in half, stuffed it with meat/rice/cheese/sauce, and baked it in the oven.

The filling was good, the pumpkin was a little bitter, but palpable if you ate it with the sauce - a bit like a spaghetti squash in texture. I served it to look like little candy corns.

Autumn's Modern Art!
This one was made by putting it in a box, and then shaking/rolling balls around in the box through two big puddles of paint.

This one used cotton on top of paint - you peel the cotton off after the paint is dry, and it leaves some cool cotton texture in it.

FHE Pumpkin Carving!
It's a week before Halloween, so it will be all moldy and yucky and extra scary for Halloween next week.

This year I really want to try cooking up one of the pumpkins. It's a squash, and you can make more with it than just pumpkin pie - perhaps stuffing one with meat and veggies, and cooking it in the oven? we'll see.

Let it Rain, Let it Rain, Let is Rain!
We got a little rainstorm on Thursday, it's still pretty dry, this was a wonderful sight to see.

BBE Fall Fest
It was really cold out, but the kids had fun anyways.

Autumn vs. James

James - such a little gentleman to let his little sister win!Heather vs. Kentrel - look at her face! This was a serious battle.

Heather vs. James

Displaced Critters
Poor Princess got bit on the nose by something (see the side of her mouth is all swollen up). They cut down a bunch of dead trees in the greeneblt (we're losing about 20% of our trees because of the drought) all the little critters from the dead trees that got cut down are coming over into the yard...
Pooor Princess :(

Piles of cut up trees behind the house :(Another poor little displaced animal - a flying squirrel! I didn't even know we had these back there, very cute - huge black eyes.

We carried him back out to the trees, away from our evil cat (who was lurking below).

Cooking
autumn has been helping me in the kitchen - so has James!

Party and Pumpkins

2011-10-23T04:51:00.000-07:00

Old McDonald's Farm! JoySchool field trip.

Picking out pumpkins is serious business, cute to hear them discussing the pro's and cons of each pumpkin - have to get just the right one!

Halloween Party! We had arts/crafts (pumpkin painting, Marque Masks, trick-or-treat bag painting, monster manicure, face painting etc. etc.) We had a muumy wrap outside, followed by a game of freeze tag, and sardines. Movies upstairs and downstairs, made Carmel apples, and stayed up late telling ghost stories. It was fun!

TP snow! We did this outside this year, it really does get a lot of TP dust in the air!

Breakfast the morning after

Aunt Monica's visit!

2011-10-20T07:43:00.000-07:00

Sat 22nd

Today after the Heather's friends left from the Halloween party, we squeezed in another afternoon with Monica. We had lunch at the beach in Galveston, and then went to the NASA Space center. By chance, JSC had an open house and balloon / parachute festival going on today, so we were able to go into some buildings/rooms that are usually not on the tour - including going into the mission control rooms (which you can usually just see through a window) and letting the kids into a cockpit in the building that does all the wiring/electronics for it. It was really cool to be able to actually go into those rooms and see everything up close!

The kids disappeared - this is where we finally found them.

along with the festival, they had a bunch of booths wet up with some really cool stuff.

This is the wiring inside the shuttle - crazy!

In a real spaceship cockpit - there's a lot of buttons in there!

The two guys with Monica are Mission Directors.

I didn't get a good picture - but they had a bunch of parachuters, little mini hanglider type planes, model airplanes etc. etc.

Houston, the Eagle has landed!

Thursday 20th
We're having a lot of fun with Auntie Mo! Yesterday we rode the train around Herman park, went to the museum, saw rocks and butterflies, came home for dinner / greenbelt walk to feed the turtles, and ended the day with dessert at the movie Tavern - The Lion King in 3D. Today Heather and I are having a mother-daughter outing to see her group perform at the "Sweet Adelines International". I'm excited to get some one-on-one time with Heather, and to see the show!

Seemed like there was more butterflies than usual at the museum - the air was filled with wings!

Autumn really took a liking to her Auntie, and was pestering poor Monica the entire time - including sitting on her at the movies (and I think fell asleep on her). So nice to have such a fun aunt!

Monica reading scary ghost stories to a captive audience while I was fixing dinner. She is a good story - reader!

The vid does not capture it, they passed out glow-sticks to everyone, and shot off paper-fireworks, a big stadium filled with women, it was really cool!

Museum, Zoo, broken arm

2011-10-16T15:50:00.001-07:00

Heather's cast - she broke her arm on the Monkey bars at school.

Result of my kids "babysitting" while I was in the kitchen making brownies, poor little guy!

Trip to the zoo!

Trip to the Children's museum.

Autumn's B-Day!

2011-09-25T17:41:00.000-07:00

Autumn's Birthday fell on a Wednesday this year - I fixed her pancakes and eggs breakfast, we had a preschool field trip to the fire house, where the firemen gave her the bunny she is holding when they learned it was her birthday. We went to Coney Island for lunch - she and her friend Jenn wanted ice-cream, but I told them we were just getting lunch - but surprise, their little happy meals came with ice-cream, so they had it after all. For dinner she wanted burritos, corn on the cob, and yogurt - so that's what we had! (Frozen yogurt from Tutti fruti's)

At dinner asked "When am I going to be four again?" and we had to break the news to her that she could never go back and be four again, but it was good to be five too.

Nammy's Visit!
Nammy came for the party - the weekend before Autumn's birthday. After picking Nammy up, we went straight to the zoo - it's finally cooling down a little so we can enjoy being outside again.

autumn always likes riding on the zebra on marry-go-rounds.

Eating snow-cones at the zoo - red and green tongues!

it's a Texas zoo - so there are long-horns.

Feeding the giraffes!

Princesses and Pirates Party!

Autumn's B-Day cake - lots of frosting on this one!

Heather's friends helped with face painting, we decorated little treasure boxes, then went on a treasure hunt that Doug set up for the kids.

Treasure hunt!

Pinata time!

Presents!

Glitter on the floor after the party (the pictures does not quite do it justice - we have a sparkley house now!) This party was the day before our big primary program at the church - several of the kids were up on stage with glittery hair the next day!

reading stories at night.

Singing Happy Birthday, and Autumn opening her quilt from Granny McDonald
- there's a lot of love in this quilt!

All tucked in under her new quilt - goodnight little Autumn!

2011-09-12T19:21:00.000-07:00

Family Home Evening activity – tonight we played a really fun game that Heather put together for us – grab a bunch of stuff out of the junk drawer, get a cookie sheet, a pillow, a bowel, and a dishrag. Everyone takes turns grabbing ~10 items out of the junk-drawer collection, and arranging them on the cookie sheet behind their pillow. Everyone else then gets to see the cookie sheet for only a moment (onethousand one). Then the arranger changes one of the items – takes one item away, or adds one item to the cookie sheet in secret – once again showing the sheet to everyone. Everyone guesses what has been moved/added/changed – and you get to see who has the best photographic memory (in our case, Doug, by far).

Activity #2 – James has been wanting to play in the fall leaves for a while now, so we went outside at sunset, and were able to scrape enough together to get a good pile – the kids all put on their rubber boots, I blew leaves at them with the leaf blower – and they raked them into piles (and a “bird nest”) then we all had a big leaf fight – and had to have a bath (leaf fights are pretty dirty things) then stories… yea, it was pretty late by the time we finally made it to bed tonight : )

3 little birds in a nest:

1 little seed grows up to the sky, into

1 big tree as the years fly by.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2 blue birds sing a song together, in

1 big tree with a nest of feathers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

3 little eggs so perfect and round, make

2 birds sing with wonderful sounds in

1 big tree reaching high off the ground

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

4 grey clouds float in the sky

3 baby chicks begin to cry

2 tired birds open up their eyes

1 hopeful tree is feeling dry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

5 green leaves wax and wane

4 grey clouds begin to rain

3 baby chicks whine and complain

2 patient birds try to explain

1 big tree is happy again

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

6 muddy splashes from 6 little feet

5 green leaves have fallen in the sleet

4 grey clouds puffed up with conceit

3 baby hatchlings merrily tweet

2 blue birds look for something to eat

1 big tree escapes the heat

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

7 rays of sunshine light, on

6 cold feet of water sprites

5 brown leaves gave up the fight

4 grey clouds are turning white

3 small chicks enjoy the sight of

2 blue birds that dance in flight

1 big tree drinks with delight

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

8 prismatic bugs are hiding

7 rays of sun still shining

6 excited feet are stumbling

5 brown leaves are quickly crumbling

4 white fluffy clouds are floating

3 young birds are quickly growing

2 old birds are reminiscing

1 big tree a sentry standing

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

9 stars shine to make a compass

8 bugs sleep in silent darkness

7 hours of complete solace

6 feet rest throughout the solstice

5 gusts of wind the leaves obey

4 quick months have slipped away

3 baby chicks are now blue jays

2 blue birds give heaven praise

1 big tree glows all ablaze

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

10 wings fly in autumn air, (atmosphere, sky, heaven, )

goodbye little tree! See you next year! (still working on this last one)

My visit-teaching companion is a writer - she's helping me out with some of the stuff I have written. Just a hobby, but it is fun. Heather had the idea for a "book club" where instead of reading books together, you make books together - I'll have to post some of her books, she's made some pretty neat ones.

Speaking of books, James has to read every night for HW - Autumn enjoys picking out the book, and making James read to her.
Bag I made for granny - from what I saw at the relief societies' enrichment last week.

Decorating gluten-free cup cakes.

Doug does not cook too often - had to get it on film! They were yummy hamburgers!

Doug's project getting closer to completion.
it's pretty neat - he cut them all out and carved them himself.

Autumn's artwork - she's in a little art class on Mondays. The first class they learned about primary colors, next class was mixing colors (mixing frosting - very exciting) and seeing red+yellow = orange, blue + red = purple, blue + yellow = green and red+blue+yellow = brown)
some of her art:

Heather did the below one - just goofing around, but I like it. She is learning how to draw pretty well, checks out all these art books at the library, and goes through them practicing - her class voted her the best artist last year, and I think she has incorporated that into how she sees/identifies herself.
Joy school art - Autumn
Art-class art - Autumn - Hungry caterpillar.
Fun with friends at the children museum!

Fire in the greenbelt! It's so dry, this one took out a good chunk of greenbelt trees :(... we think it's kids starting these fires - it will be pretty in the spring though, with all the dead stuff burned away, and nothing but new green.

some of our neighbors - the one with the white dog (Jackson) recently learned she has leukemia - luckily they caught it in the really early stages. She's often out in the morning while all the kids are walking to school, she knows all the kids by name and keeps track of everyone. All our neighbors are commonly out on the greenbelt for walks, it's nice to be in a small-town type place where people know one another.
Sam (the blue shirt) are right across the street from us - they put on the best Christmas decorations, the kids look out the window at their yard, and we feel like we're at santa's workshop. They have made a career out of their yard sense they retired - it's botanical gardens going on over there - they're always out front with their little barking dog named "Barkley" working on the yard with various other neighbors sitting on their lawn talking.
Roland in the white hat - the house to the right of us - a really really nice guy, always out with his camera taking pictures of the flowers and trees and stuff. He is a retired history professor from Carnegie Mellon - specialized in the Civil War.

Joy School 2011-2012

2011-08-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

name shirts!

Before our first pre-school, I decided to make painting shirts for all the kids this year. I got some t-shirts at the dollar store.

supplies: Tshirts (dark colored) bleach, tape, squirt bottle, plastic grocery sacks.

put the grocery sacks into the tee-shirts (so the bleach won't soak through to the front)
Use the tape to put names onto shirt - I ripped the tape in half to make the letters thinner, and give it an antique look.
Spray bleach onto the backs of the shirts over the names, then immediately rinse the bleach off in a sink. then remove tape.

This is a shirt where the tape was not ripped in half:
These are the letters where I ripped the tape in half (I think this way looks a lot better)

tomorrow I'm going to let the kids paint the fronts of their shirts with material paint - then through the year they cane use the big shirts to cover their cloths when we have messy projects (art, cooking, gardening etc. etc.)

The front of the shirt:

the center was made by dribbling a line across the shirt, and then using a comb to comb the paint up and down - then of coarse putting paint on their hands and doing hand prints - all supplies came from the dollar store!

They're some pretty crazy shirts, 4-5yo's make the best modern art!

July picts

2011-08-19T12:54:00.000-07:00

First day back to pre-school!

1st day of school! Heather with her best friend.

Heather and James with their new teachers.

Friday Aug 19th
Back to school cloths, thanks Granny! - went shopping on tax-free weekend, it wasn't as busy as I thought it would be, lots of sales + we ate at the food court, rode the merry-go-round, and got cookies. Poor puppies had their surgery today, we dropped them off at the vet, and then went to the Woodland's mall because it was close to the vet.

Heather wants to wear skirts this year. At least they make them with shorts built in underneath.

Autumn - still into pink princess type things.

4th grade, 1st grade, and pre-K (Joy school, and art classes for Autumn), here they come!!!

Poor puppies! They need lots of love after their visit to the vet.
Thursday Aug 18th - we went to the Museum of Fine arts (they don't let you take picts in there) I think we were the only kids in there - I guess adults enjoy art more than kids do, but it was still fun - saw Egyptian mummies, Monet, photography, sculptures, and modern art - the kids like art.

then we went to the Houston Health museum - it was fun!

Scream as loud as you can booth! (learning about ears) we got a bunch of kids in there to all scream together to see how loud they could get.
This was really fun - the skeleton was rigged to move the same way you were moving so you could see how your knees etc. etc. moved as you bike.

inside the rib cage - the museum is a huge walk-through body where you learn about all of the parts. We also did a 4D film - "Planet me" where they looked at the eco-systems living on your skin.

The one pict from the art museum. We had a really yummy lunch here too with some hungry birds.
Doug's project - he's making a set of Napier's bones which is a preclude to the abacus / slide rule, for his calculator collection, carving them out of marble.

Fire in the greenbelt!! right behind our house, it was scary, good thing someone was back there to catch it quickly!

Poor Nammy, sleeping with all the kids, and the dogs.

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries! We made them for a trip to Miller Outdoor theater.

Theater snacks, yummmmm.
watching a cowboy play out under the stars with our strawberries.

the kids got bored, so they found a light pole to climb up :) .
Dads watching the kids taking turns climbing up the light pole.
Swimming with Nammy.

Children's Museum with Nammy! We were here all day - almost 8 hours! It's a HUGE museum, it was fun.

the museum has a street with little businesses on the sides - the kids get their own ATM card, work at the various stores to make money, then deposit their checks etc. etc. there was a grocery store, Animal veterinary, art studio, police station, ambulance/hospital, wall-street, restaurant, bike shop etc. etc. all where the kids could pretend to work or shop etc. etc.
Is it a good thing to teach kids how to use ATM machines? They loved this part of it...

in a creation room - you make things out of twistie-ties / tape / paper / cups etc. etc. and then you attach them to various robotic things to make them move around / come to life. They also had paper-air plane, and rock ship building and launching, lego derby car + racetrack, lots of different stations with different materials to construct things.

This climbing thing is at least 3 stories tall, Nammy went in with the kids and climbed to the very top and back down.

Rock climbing! They made it all the way across!

Natural History Museum.

Piano recital! One of the families I teach - they are a really special family.James on piano, Heather on Piano and guitar, and Autumn with her little lap harp.