So so much Sci Fun....

Today was a teacher workday so the boys were home from school. I was still up before 6am but it was nice not having to fight with kids to hurry and eat and to be making lunches. Mom and Dad agreed to spend the day exploring a new science center with us. My Mom and Dad gifted us with a Greensboro Natural Science Center membership this summer. The membership is also good at many other Museums and Science Centers all over the country. We have definitely used this gift. Today our adventures led us to Sciworks in Winston Salem. It was little bit further than I thought but this place was AWESOME!! The kids (including all the adults) had such a great time. We were sad we didn't plan better and allow more time there.

We left the 'boro a bit later than we would have liked and then because it was a bit further than we thought we ended up having to feed the kids before going to Sciworks. We ate lunch at Burger King. The toys were Sponge Bob Square Pants and I can't begin to tell you how bad I dislike that character/cartoon. The kids were great not to pitch a fit about not getting kids meals with toys. They did get a little hat thing that made them happy. K accidently spilled Papa's coke all over Sassy's new coat. This was only the beginning of a very exciting day. :)'

"the perfect chair mom!"

The first stop at the museum was the music room. They had a carpet piano in the floor. A2 loved crawling up and down it. K would crab walk and army crawl over the keys. Even Dampa had some fun. The fun was just beginning. They also had a bunch of kitchen utencils, pots, pans, and griddles that you could created music with. One thing I didn't get a picture of was a invisible laser harp. That was pretty neat too.

The next room was a discover the body room. As you can see there was a life-sized game of "Operation." We all had fun with that one. All the kids had fun pulling the insides out of this MASSIVE doll and then stuffing it all back inside him.

Next came the mouth... They had these big teeth set up with dentist tools so you could clean, brush, and blow air at the teeth. I love A1's serious face while she cleans the teeth. K was pretending that the mouth was going to bite down and eat him.
These pictures are from some fun rooms. The chair that Damma is sitting in was a simulator that measured your reflexes when the "light" turns green. C killed it with .04 seconds- that's almost jumping the gun. :)
The physics room was the biggest hit of all. This chair was triggered by air. A1 was a bit nervous at first and made me do it with her but after that EVERYONE had to have their turn (at least a couple of time;) )

K insisted I add the picture he took of me. :)

They had an "aging" exhibit. It was funny to see ourselves "aged". C said, "Mom, I look pretty fine at 20 but not so good at 50." I said, "Don't we all!"

On the way home, Dampa treated us to some pumpkins at the farmers market. A very good way to end such a fun day! Thank you Dampa and Damma!

Noche de Naciones

Friday night Mom and Dad had a branch party celebrating a Night of Nations. Their branch has so many members from all over the world. Members decorated tables with their native decor and made authentic food. It was very cool to see the different decorations and taste all the different flavors of Latin food. Of course, I'm always a little partial to Dads. He can really make some excellent burritos. Even the gringa's had a table. :) Mom made pancakes (of all flavors), bacon and homemade syrup. YUM! A2 really took a liking to her pancakes. K and C had a lot of fun playing with Dad's sombrero. Aren't they cute little 1/4 mexicans. LOL!

Field Trippin again... MAIZE ADVENTURE

This week I went field tripping again but with K this time. This was one of those "play" days. There was not much learnin' goin on that's for sure. On top of it all this cheesy father came as a chaperon that started bossing everyone around, which drove me nuts. At one point, I decided I was going to use the restroom. The only thing available were fairly decent port-a-potty. Well, he announces, "Come on Mom, hurry up and go potty." Like I needed him to tell me what to do let alone talk to me like a little kid. I finished and started to walk back towards our class and he comes and put his arm around me and says, "Now, don't you feel better. No sense in being uncomfortable." I wanted to scream, "YOU ARE MAKING ME UNCOMFORTABLE!" Geez! Other than the freaky dad, the day was great. K is an amazing kid. He seems so much more mature than the other kids.
The first adventure was to find our way through a 10 acre corn maze. The Crazy dad decided he was going to be the leader. (I roll my eyes) We weren't in the maze 10 minutes before a bunch of kids started whining and complaining about how dumb and stupid it was, that they were tired already, and hungry, their feet hurt. Ridiculous. But not once did one complaint come out of my K. He was such a good kid. He actually told the kids in our group about him going on hikes with his family and it was much longer and more tiring than this. He told the other boy in our group to stop whining. It was pretty funny. After our "leader" wasn't able to get us out, we decided to just ask the maze staff to get us out.
The kids then were given bags of sand and got to pan for gems. K was in heaven. He absolutely loved this part. He could have done that all day. And even though his bag of sand didn't have a lot of gems and weren't any big ones he simply said, "Mom, I didn't get as many as some other kids but that's ok. I'm really ok with that." Ah... now why can't more kids be like that. K even wanted to sit by only me at lunch. I can't say enough how much I just LOVE this boy! They were took a tram ride around the corn maze and were allowed to pick out and take home a pumpkin. K was very particular about which pumpkin he was going to bring home. In the end, he found a very good pumpkin. He says he wants to name him but hasn't found a good enough name yet. Soon to come I suppose.

Field Trippin to McColloch Mills

It's hard to believe that I have lived here 10 years and I am still finding that I have yet to see some of the neatest places around. We truly live in a place that has a lot to offer for not much. C was such a good kid. We had some good laughs and saw some really neat history. C got to pan for "gold." All of the students were sent home with a baggie full of gems. Real stuff, too. One child even found an emerald. It was such a neat activity for the kids. I know I have said it before... but I'm so grateful for these opportunities that I get to enjoy with our kids. I sometimes feel guilty that Cheeto doesn't get to.

What can I say...

A2 is just A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!

She truly brings us so much happiness.

Her first tooth made it's appearance today. We were all excited. The older kids had to stick their finger in her mouth for a feel. Only after they washed their hands, of course!

Cheeto put her in a swing for the first time the other day. As you can see from this picture, She was so scared that she held her breath. Sorry she was obviously in motion so the picture is blury.

After about 5 minutes,she was one little happy camper! Like her big sister, she LOVES to swing!

I noticed that A2 started doing this a couple of weeks ago. She does it at random times.
She just sits and walks herself in circles for fun.

A very fun date...

Cheeto won tickets to the 10 year Anniversary party for The 2 Guys Named Chris show. I don't think we have laughed that hard in years. It was a lot of fun. Cheeto has met and knows most of the cast. We had a lot of fun. Thanks honey!

Our little football players

If I could only count the hours that my boys have a football in their hands or a helmet on their head. I thought these were some pretty adorable pictures.

I'm prepared

This fall I started going to a book club with my mother-in-law. I have only been twice but I have had so much fun thus far. Every month they have a door price that has something to do with the book we read that month. This past month we read "The Great Influenza." What a book to read in today's paranoia! It was very interesting. I had no idea what went on in those first influenza years. Well, this was the door prize I won. This blanket is so cozy-which I plan to be selfish with. Every mom needs a blanket that is just HERS!!! :) The basket was full of movies, Vitamin C, Mucinex, face masks, Purell, Soup, gloves, hand soups, etc. Iam very prepared if I get the flu (knock on wood!)

Roadside Cleanup Excitement

One of the final things C had to do to earn his Wolf badge was to do a roadside clean up. We live fairly close to a busy street and lots of trash gets dumped on that busy corner. The kids really did have a great time. We did find a few things in our adventure. C found a snake under a smashed milk carton. Thank goodness it was a little one or I would have been done! :) I DON'T DO SNAKES! Only if to save my child or husband! K said he found a bag. Cheeto said to leave it and he would get it. It was a make-up bag. We just tossed it in the big bag full of trash. We had HUGE rain storm come throw only about 30 minutes before we started our clean up so even though everything was wet and nasty; we still had to do it so C would finish in time. Next thing we found was a business card box full of lost of little papers and lots of magits. GROSS! Well, the best had yet to come. Not 3 feet further up the road, C yells out that he found another bag. Cheeto again said to leave it and he would take care of it. It was a purse this time. It had identification in it, some jewerly and lots of magits. Right next to the purse was some jeans. My first thought was to keep the children moving. I didn't want 6 little eyes to see something that would haunt them for years. I never did see inside the bag, just trusted Cheeto to take care of it. He called the GPD and asked if they wanted to come and get it. Because of the huge rain storm, thousands of residents were without power and taking care of trees down in streets and such. It took awhile for them to come. It was about 10:30pm when an officer shows up at our door. Cheeto was at a friend's house watch Monday night football. I couldn't believe how nervous I got talking to a police man. I'm sure I could have looked guilty with as bad as my nerves were. Why? I have no idea! He said he would take the bag, my information and let me know if he needed anything else. He said if the owner couldn't be reached the bag would be filed as evidence. We haven't heard anything. I'm so grateful that's all we found. When I told my mom she said, "Geez, Shena... What if you found a body?" Thanks mom! Way to give me nightmares!

C gets his Wolf

C received his Wolf Badge this week. He has been working very hard to get it completed. We are so proud of him and can't believe how fast time flies. He was so excited for this night. He was bouncing off walls. As you can see in the picture below... this was not our average "shy" C! He was posing and being very silly!

So was A2!