First Days of Summer

Ah, summer vacation is here. I doubt we're going to be this energetic all summer, but hey, you never know!

Zoo fun. A new dinosaur exhibit. The billboard advertisement is great - it shows a T-Rex with the words "Lions, tigers and bears....yum yum."

Park fun.

Boys have a tendency to use playground structures in a manner it wasn't intended to be used.

TweedleDee and TweedleDum. The park we go to is down our street, turn left, go one block, turn right and then about a block down to the park. These two hooligans escaped my eye the other night as I was chatting with a friend. In a span of approximately 5 seconds, they made it down the block and turned left and were at the corner of our street by the time we caught up with them. Little stinkers. Parenting skills at one of my finer hours.

Martin Nature Park Fun.

I took Rachel and Andy to Martin Nature Park because Rachel had a sudden hankering to see the prairie dogs; ironically the prairie dog wall was blocked by compost bins so no prairie dog fun for us.

We did enjoy some of the other nature parts of the park. I had another moment of "oh, that's why I had Rachel first" when she led Andy across the little stream of water and rocks. It's funny how easy it is to let someone else stick their foot in the water while you just take pictures.

Andy ended up with a tick in his armpit, thanks to nature. Good thing my neighbor has two grown boys, is a nurse, and is from the boondocks so she pulled that sucker right out of his pit without so much as losing a claw. I felt a bit itchy all day after that. Nature is fun.

Silver hair fun.

It's the third wiry little silver-white hair I've found. I plucked out the other two, but I let this one stay put. We'll see how many of its friends decide to show up.

Science Museum Fun!

I hauled Paul, Andy, Jack and Lucy off to the Science Museum because I have a family pass and the place is way cool. We don't go there as much as we should, but I'm going to try and change that.

We could have stayed in this room for hours; I think we put in nearly an hour here. There was the peg board and chutes to make your own marble drops.

The cups table.

The tops table.

There's also a Lego table, foam blocks, geometric shapes tables and a racecar table, but Paul was most intrigued with the wind tubes. They have paper cups and plates to cut into potential flying objects and you just toss them in at the bottom. Fun, fun, fun, I tell you.

Here's Jack learning how to use the weird little scooter-thing. I'm sure it has a fancy name, but I didn't even ask. Just pushed Jack toward the man and said "try it out." And he did.

Then there's the KidSpace area, with the water table that led to Paul's first tantrum (when it was finally time to say bye bye to the water) and the face colors.

That's my little thug.

The weather room!

They have a blue screen, courtesy of News Channel 4 and you too can pretend to be a weatherman! See Andy above pointing out the various conditions in our state.

I shoved all three big kids into the wind tube. They didn't know why and were a bit concerned when I shut the door. And then the wind started and increased with strength. It claimed it got up to 80mph in that tube but I can't verify that because I didn't get in there. I just take the pictures.

And finally...

To end this delightful gallery of summertime fun, I have here a photo of what happens when you mix a spilled paint can, a toddler in sandals and new carpet.