Delaware Museum of Natural History

We usuallly don't visit this museum until August when they have $1 Tuesdays but according to their calendar they're not doing it this year.  So instead I purchased a family Brandywine Treasure Trail passport that gets us (2 adults/3 kids) into 11 different attractions this summer.  Our first outing using  the passport was this museum, the Delaware Museum of Natural History.   

Their special exhibit this summer is "Earth from Space."  Other than the astronaut suit you see in this picture there wasn't anything else except pictures.  

 It was kind of a boring area to explore.  The only semi-interesting thing was the small planetarium that was set up in the back which you needed timed tickets to see the show.  We got the tickets when we entered but our show didn't start until 12:30, it was 11:00 when we got there.  So we explored the rest of the museum and came back. 

In the Hall of Mammals there was a touch screen computer that we used to watch how the different animals moved.  We realized that Megan walks just like a Secretary Bird!  Have her show you how a Secretary Bird walks sometime. 

Oh no!  The polar bear is going to get Megan!  She sure does look scared.

There are trails behind the museum that we went on.  I think this qualifies as "take a nature hike" on our summer bucket list. 

 Of course I can never take the kids anywhere without posing for a picture. 

After looking at the whole museum and going on our nature hike we still had 30 minutes before our planetarium show.  We went inside and split our time between sitting in the auditoium that continuously showed a loop of pictures taken from space of the earth and playing memory on a computer in the Dinosaur Gallery.  When we finally got to see the planetarium show it was just okay.  I'm glad we stayed for it but also glad when it was over because then we could leave. The natural history museum is a nice place to visit but it's small, it doesn't take long at all to go through it. 

We didn't take a picture with the turtle when we first got there so we had to get it when we left, it's a tradition.  He was a hot turtle so the kids opted to stand for this picture.  I just love Megan's facial expressions!

Now we get to go explore some other places with our passport. Of the 11 places on the list we definitely want to go to Longwood Gardens, Winterthur, Hagley and the Delaware Art Museum.  There are a couple others that are maybes, if we have time, like the George Read House and Brandywine River Museum.  I think the rest of the summer is going to fly by.

Summer Bucket List

I created a list of activities for the kids to do, labelled it "summer bucket list" and hung it on the refrigerator.  As the activities are done they get checked off and at the end of the summer we'll see how many they've done.  Here are just a few of the things they've done so far.

We visited a "new to you" park.  

Collected, washed and painted rocks.

 Made ice pops.

 "Invent a fruit smoothie" was on the list but we modified it and did milkshakes instead.  We actually did this one a couple of times!

Go on a picnic.  We did this after visiting Winterthur.  Zach was looking pouty in this picture because we said he couldn't eat until he used hand sanitizer and he didn't want to use it.

 We caught lightning bugs.  Here he is showing me one that he caught.

 So far this one is my favorite.  Today Zach swam in the pool with no floatie!  He started out by jumping to Aunt Kelly.

 Then he would jump in by himself and swim to the side.

 He even swam from the deep end to the shallow end.  All with no floatie! 

Very exciting day at the pool for us especially since I was beginning to think he would never ditch the floatie.  Stay tuned for more activities they do.  



Children's Museum

We spent a few hours at the children's museum this afternoon just for something to do.  By we I mean me, Zach and Kristin.  Zach and I hadn't been here since June of last year when I brought him and Megan after they got their tonsils out.  He was very excited to go today, he remembers it well.  I'll try not to post any pics of the same activities I've done before.  His absolute favorite thing there is the climbing structure when you first walk into the building.  He must have spent an hour altogether in that thing.  He also loves the water area.  I always post pictures of those areas so I'll skip those pics this time and instead show you how he can balance:

You hold the handles while standing on the board.  Once you get your balance you let go of the handles and the time starts.  I think his high score was 1.5 seconds! 

Time for some fishing.  You can, of course, catch fish but sometimes you catch junk like an old boot or a soda can.  Then you have to decide if your catch goes in the trash, gets recycled or saved for dinner. 

There's a kitchen area and a garden.  You can pick the vegetables and then cook them.  Zach was putting the vegetables back on the plants.

Before leaving we went in the studio to see what was in there.  We've simply never explored this area before because Zach is not a big artist but I wanted to see what it was like.  Today they had mini treasure hunts (bins filled with beans, rice or pasta with little trinkets in them), painting on the easels and recycled art.  The treasure hunts were a given, I knew he would sit and play with them.  I got a big NO for the easel painting but somehow I did talk him into doing the recycled art.  There was a bin of cardboard tubes, egg cartons and plastic bottles and then smaller bins that had yarn, paper, styrofoam peanuts, material, etc...  There was glue, markers and scissors on the table.  Zach and I made a tree out a cardboard tube and some paper.  He added a bird he made to the top.  Kristin made a...well... I'm not sure what she made!  She used a tube, some bubble wrap, a lid and some of the packing peanuts.  I don't think she even knew what it was.

So that was our adventure to the Children's Museum.  I was tempted to sign up for a membership again but I didn't so I doubt we'll go back anytime soon. 

Happy 75th Birthday Papaw!

My dad turned 75 today!  Megan wanted to make him a cake. She came with me to the store to pick everything out, made the cake all herself and here she is decorating it:

We went there for dinner and Megan took this picture of papaw grilling.

Since she made the cake Megan wanted to light the candles.  She lit three and let Paul do the rest.

No, there wasn't 75 candles on it!  We didn't want to burn the house down or anything.

And yes, papaw did blow them all out.  Happy Birthday Dad/Papaw!

Happy 17th Birthday Lauren!

Lauren wanted to go out to breakfast for her birthday instead of dinner which was no problem since her birthday was on a Saturday.  Not only did she want to go to breakfast, she wanted to go to a breakfast place that was over an hour away!  It's an all-you-can-eat place that Lauren visited last summer when she went to her regional soccer games.  Paul and I have been there for dinner before but never breakfast and we haven't been there in years.  So of course because it's her birthday we go.  She also wanted a friend to go, here they are standing outside of where we ate.  

An extra person in our group means a family picture can be taken of us.  Here we are in front of the sign by the parking lot. 

We went swimming in the afternoon.  You can see Lauren's new hair color in this pic.  It's a much lighter brown that Aunt Kelly helped her dye last week.

 Seventeen candles on her cake, wow!  Time sure does fly. 

She's excited to be 17 because now all her restrictions on driving are gone!  At least per the state, she's on a case by case basis with us though.  Hope you had a great birthday Lauren!

Winterthur

Back in April Zach went on a field trip to Winterthur and brought home free passes not only for him but for family members as well.  We had to go before the end of June so this past Tuesday Zach, Kristin, Megan and myself went.  I've never been there except for field trips so this place was basically new for me.  The kids and I all know Longwood Gardens backwards and forwards because we've been there so many times but we were totally lost at Winterthur! 

I really wanted to check out the Enchanted Woods first and after studying the maps we finally found it.  Here they are going over the Troll Bridge:

Helping hatch some eggs in the Bird's Nest:

Skipping along the Fairy Flower Labyrinth:

There was also a Fairy Cottage, Tulip Tree House and other areas that we also explored.  We wandered away from the Enchanted Woods and wound up at the Quarry Garden and then this little mud hole that Zach and Megan were fascinated with. 

We went back to the Enchanted Woods and dared to step inside the Forbidden Fairy Ring.  Look what happened!

We walked around for awhile longer before heading back to the museum area. 

There was a beautiful area behind the museum called The Glade that had a waterfall and a series of ponds with koi swimming in them.  The trees created a canopy over everything which would have made it a very peaceful place if there were no kids nearby.  (I'm talking about my own!)

Megan and Kristin sat down next to the reflecting pool, well, to reflect of course!

We headed back to the Museum and went to the Touch-It room first.   Zach visited this room on his field trip and it was funny because he was excited about going again until we got there.  He said it was "boring this time."  I guess that's because it wasn't filled with all his classmates, it was just us!  They played store, pretended to make some strawberry jam, played the very boring games they used to play back then (all wooden) and had a tea party.

We had the whole place to ourselves for about 30 minutes before another group of kids came.  We decided to leave at that point to explore the rest of the museum.  Zach liked finding some of the things that he saw on his field trip.  I enjoyed learning in their new exhibit, "Uncorked!  Wine, Objects and Tradition" that there used to be a frog mug.  It was a mug that had a ceramic frog figure inside on the bottom.  As the person drank the frog was revealed.  It was kind of freaky looking. 

The kids were getting hungry at this point and since I had lunch in the car (we planned on a picnic lunch) we took the shuttle back to the visitor's center.  I'll leave you with 3 more pictures, 1 from each of the kids that they took while there. 

Kristin took this one while we were in the Enchanted Woods.

Zachary took this one while we were walking near the Quarry Garden.

And this one is my favorite, Megan took it.  It's of me trying to figure out how the heck to get to the Enchanted Woods!

I hate maps. My favorite invention is the Garmin GPS!  Here's an invention for someone, mini GPS units you can use to walk around museums and gardens.  I would be in heaven if that were to ever happen.  I obviously figured it out, but you know those signs that they post around the gardens?  They were very helpful too!

Update...

The problem was that I reached my limit on the amount of pictures I could upload for free.  Any more pictures would cost me per month.  So instead of upgrading and paying I decided to delete all my pictures from the first year I started my blog.  So if you go back and look at them they are now gone.  (Some might take 24 hours to be deleted.)

To me this didn't matter too much since I've had those years already made into book form and it sits on my bookshelf.  So if anyone misses the pictures, the next time you come down you are free to check out my blog books!

Over the next few days I'll try to catch up on what we've been up to this past week.

Father's Day 2012

The kids decorated a Father's Day banner in preparation of having everyone over.  Zach just took over Kristin's letter "making it better."  Good thing for him that she thought it was funny.  Lauren or Megan would have shoved him out of the way if he tried that with them. 

All 4 of them working at once.

I started off with the intention of taking lots of pictures but I only took 2.  One was of Zach sitting at his picnic table and the other was of the two most important dads, mine and Paul's.

I fizzled with the picture taking and got caught up in eating and talking.  I didn't even get a picture of Paul with the kids!  (Note to self, do a better job with that one next year.)  

Tennis anyone?

After lunch on the deck...

We went over to the park to play some tennis.  When we first got there the two end courts were occupied so instead of taking kids that have no idea how to keep a ball on their own court onto one of the middle ones I opted to go to the playground instead.  It wasn't long before the courts opened up so we grabbed our stuff and claimed our court. 

Zach was excited to play and he became our official ball chaser.  No matter where it was hit he would run and get it.   

He actually played pretty well, for a 5-yr-old. 

Megan wasn't bad either.  She could serve the ball pretty well she just couldn't return the ball when it was hit to her.  In fact, one time she practically hit herself with the racket as she tried to avoid the ball.  Kristin and I thought it was pretty comical!

Megan and her friend got tired of playing and wanted to walk around the park so I had Zach and Kristin hit the ball against the wall for awhile.  Kristin needed the practice since she can't hit a ball to save her life! 

We'll definitely be playing tennis again this summer.  In fact I think I'll keep the rackets and some sneakers in my car in case we happen to be going by and see the courts empty. 

Shoe Prints

I kept Zach's old sneakers to do an art project with but he didn't do exactly what I had envisioned.  I wanted him to wear the sneakers, step in paint then walk across a sheet of paper.  He had other ideas though.  He first wanted to wear his brand new sandals to paint with.  Uh, no, not happening.  He has such fat feet that I have to order his shoes online and the first pair I ordered was a little too small so I had to send them back and wait for the new pair.  They just came a few days ago, no way was he messing them up!  I finally convinced him to use his old sneakers but he didn't want them on his feet, he put them on his hands instead.  As long as he wasn't using his new sandals I didn't care!  And instead of walking down the paper he made shoe prints like this:

I could live with that too.  We chose yellow and blue paint in the hopes that when the two were mixed he might get some green ones. 

It didn't quite work out that way so he got a paintbrush in the hope that he could blend them enough to get green. 

He got a teal color instead.  I rolled out another sheet of paper with which he painted red.  Well mostly I painted on that one while he played with chalk around me!  So that was my entertaining art project for the day.  I'm glad he is at least a little interested in art since until now he never was.  It was pure torture to get him to do anything when he was little so I just stopped trying.  I guess we'll have to do more art projects this summer since he actually seemed to have fun with this one.

My Annual Lunch Outing with the Kids

Every year I take the kids to lunch after their last day of school (which is a half day, that's why we do lunch).  Every year at the end of lunch I remember why I only do this once a year!  Just kidding, they were great except for the monkey I had sitting next to me.

I like to take them to a place that we've never been to.  This year I was having a hard time coming up with something because I wanted it to be close to home, I didn't want to go anywhere on Main St., etc...  I finally narrowed it down to 2 places.  I let the kids make the final choice and we ended up going to...The Chicken House.  It's a Peruvian restaurant that's at the intersection of Red Mill Rd. and Kirkwood Hwy.  For years whenever I would get gas at the BP across the street I would see their sign and think that we've got to try that place someday.   Well, today was that day.

At first when we walked in I wondered why they were still in business since there was no one at any of the tables.  I mean it's not like we arrived at an off time, it was 12:15 or so, definitely lunch hour time.  On the plus side we got our pick of tables.

I ordered the chicken grilled panini which was supposed to have a "homemade spread" on it but it must have been a very thin spread because I couldn't taste it. That resulted in a bland tasting panini. The chicken was tender and tasty though and the cheese was all gooey and hot. I did end up dipping pieces in a sauce that they brought out which gave it a little kick.  Megan and Kristin both had wraps, Megan had a chicken caesar wrap and Kristin had a chicken ranch wrap.  Lauren chose to get Tallarin Verde which was spaghetti in a pesto sauce topped with a thin, seasoned steak.  She was adventurous!  Off the kids menu Zach surprised me by getting mozzarella sticks and french fries.

Of all of us Kristin and Megan liked theirs best.  They rated the food an 8 out of 10 (with 10 being the best).  Lauren at first liked her meal but then said it had too much of the pesto sauce so she changed her mind, she gave her food a 5 out of 10.  I would probably give my food a 6 out of 10 when I first got it but then bump it up to a 7 after dipping it in that sauce that was brought out.  I definitely think the portion sizes of all the meals were good for the price.  Zach wasn't too thrilled with his food but that's probably due to the fact that he's never ordered mozzarella sticks.  He's more a cheeseburger, chicken nugget or macaroni and cheese kind of kid.  I did like that he wanted to try something new.  We took a dessert of cookies called Alfajores home with us.  They were kind of weird, very crumbly and the first bite didn't taste very good but the more you ate the more you liked it.  They were definitely different!

Would we go back, sure, all but Lauren.  Next time I would try their charcoal grilled chicken and maybe get it as take out instead.