Memorial Day at the Museums

We were so happy that Daddy could join us for field trips on Monday.  Today we went to the Dallas Fair Park to explore the museums.  The first museum we went to was the Science Museum which was putting on

 a special "Spy Event."  We decided that we would buy a membership to the National Science/Nature Museum Association which will allow us to get into over 200 museums free.  Now that we are traveling we should be able to put it to good use.

As part of our membership we received a spy kit which Rusty put to good use.  After exploring the spy exhibit the kids went to work on the rest of the museum.  

Here is a sampling of the fun things they did......

We also visited the Children's Museum (which is actually now combined with the science museum which has also combined with the nature museum- so now it's all one big museum- in various buildings :)

Then we took a lunch break by the lagoon.  However I believe that the turtles ate more of our lunch than my family did.  There were so many turtles- red eared sliders, big old snapper turtles, and some that I couldn't identify.  With Rusty's inspiration the kids did "experiments" to determine what type of food each turtle would eat. The conclusion- snapper turtles like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and red eared sliders prefer string cheese- fish will eat whatever the turtles don't.

After lunch we hit the nature museum (see above note regarding museums).  Ben wasn't thrilled here- not enough buttons to push and things to touch- until we got to the "light" room. 

His attention span is limited to physical activity, I'm hoping he will "grow" into learning in other ways as most formal education focuses on other ways of learning, but for now at least his enthusiasm can be channeled at home. 

We finished off the day by coming home and swimming.  We all slept very well that night.

Dallas Texas Temple Trip

On Saturday the kids had a primary activity at the Dallas Temple.  It's about a 45 minute drive to get there so the majority of the activity was driving there and back.  At the temple the kids sang a couple of songs to the temple presidency, read a book about the construction of the temple, took some pictures and explored the grounds searching for the rabbits, ducks, cat, and squirrel that hang out in the area.  They found one rabbit, who I'm sure feared for it's life as a mass of excited kids chased it- which I hope is not a typical experience living on the usually peaceful temple grounds. :)

After the temple we went to a nearby park for lunch.  It's a bit of a challenge being at a park in your Sunday clothes.  Obviously we went home and did some laundry so we would be ready for church the next day.

When the primary activity was over our family went to see the movie Night at the Museum 2- Battle of the Smithsonian, to celebrate accomplishing our scripture reading goal for the month. The kids loved the first movie- in fact whenever we go to museums they talk about what will happen "when" all the displays come to life. This one was fun as well and the kids are already quoting from it.  I guess they inherited that from their dad.

It looks like our next job will be in Philadelphia, PA area so we will get to go see the actual Smithsonian.  I'm getting geared up for studying Early American History and taking the kids to some of the historical sites in the area.  This is something I've always wanted to do so I'm happy we will have this opportunity, even if it isn't exactlly how I planned it :)

Dallin's Great 8 Birthday!

Happy 8th Birthday Dallin

Lauren made Dallin a yummy cake with Banana pudding inside and whipped cream on top.  We forgot to get candles so we had to just light matches for him to blow out. Dallin used his Book of Mormon figurines to decorate the top.
We let Dallin choose what he wanted for dinner and he chose McDonalds- don't figure?
To celebrate Dallin's special day we went swimming. Here is Katelyn all decked out in floaties and Dallin's new goggles.
Here are the big kids!
Dallin got moon sand, pudding, some swim goggles, and the 2nd Fablehaven book for his birthday.  What an awesome birthday for an awesome kid!!  We are so lucky to have Dallin in our family.

Boy Scouts of America Museum

Mondays are free days at the BSA museum in Irving. We figured since Dallin was turning 8 and starting scouts this week this would be a great way to start off.  Unfortunately mom forgot the camera so you aren't going to be able to enjoy any photographic evidence of the event.  

Our favorite activities were the shooting gallery, the pinewood derby track, and the parachute game.  It was fun to learn about the origins of the scouting program. They also had an art gallery of pictures by Norman Rockwell depicting scouts in various situations.  

While we were there we picked up a boy scout shirt and a book for Dallin.  Here's the new scout all dressed up. Man he looks handsome! What is it about a boy in a uniform?? We are excited to see Dallin growing up and learning so much. 

While we were there we met a dad who proudly pulled a pinewood derby car from a box and told us that it was his sons car and that it won all the races last year.  Then he pulled out a new car and said,"This is the car for this years race. I come on Mondays to test them on the pinewood derby track."

Ummm who's car is it?  All of the sudden I had flashbacks of the frantic parents desperately thrusting eggs into their 2 year olds Easter basket.  Hopefully Dallin's troop won't be too competitive on the car thing.  I know in California our ward had a separate race for the dads so they could channel all of their competitiveness into their own cars and let the boys do their own thing.

Father and Son Campout

On the 15th the boys were able to spend some quality time camping with dad.  Of course we didn't bring all of our camping gear, but luckily Rusty was able to borrow a tent from someone in the ward.The place they went camping is the "ranch" of someone in our ward.  As with most ranches they had a manmade pond on their property.  The boys were able to go out and paddle around on a canoe for awhile in the evening.

After some exploring and tree climbing.....

they enjoyed the traditional smores and then headed off to bed.  Unfortunately about 4 in the morning they were treated to a "traditional" Texas thunderstorm.  The tent they were in was not waterproof and they got home around 5 in the morning soaking wet :)

Mom and the girls were glad we missed that part of the adventure.

Lauren's Creation

Lauren is learning to use the photo/video features on the 

computer to create presentations.  

This is her first effort- She'll be blowing us old fogeys out of the water with her computer skills

ENJOY!

Dallas World Aquarium

May 11th we went to the Dallas World Aquarium.  After a little research I discovered that mornings, holidays and weekends are super busy at the aquarium, but if you come after 2pm on a weekday it's pretty mellow- and as a bonus if you homeschool and schedule ahead you get a significant savings on your ticket.  Super Bonus!  This is a beautiful facility with much more to offer than a simple aquarium.  In one area there is a huge waterfall that goes down three stories into a giant aquarium.  You move down level by level enjoying different animals in each level.  At the top there are birds and monkeys, in the middle sloths, snakes, lizards, frogs, etc.  At the bottom there are otters, alligators, and other animals.  Then you can go below and see the tank through a big glass viewing area.  Here there are giant fish, turtle, rays, and even manatees.  

Most of the animals are free roaming (at least the birds, monkeys, sloths, etc) so the kids could get really close.  Here they discovered a Kookabura eating some fish. 

The aquarium displays were so fun.  They had them arranged by country so you could see what a coral reef in the ocean near that country would look like.  They were beautiful, it makes me want to go snorkeling again.  There were some cool seahorses and a tank of jellyfish that were fun to watch.  My favorite part was the shark tunnel.  I'm not much of a video person, but I'll post a clip I took from inside.  This was taken while they were feeding the sharks so we could watch them eat.  What a fun experience!  This is a picture of the kids in the tunnel after the "feeding" crowd left.