Chicago Museum of Science and Industry

Here are some pictures of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

Learning about diesel engines

Do the molecule bounce

One of the Eye Spy displays

*The* Weasley car!!!! My favorite thing we saw all day!

Conducting electricity

Kenton County Parks summer programs

Kenton County Parks and Recreation has so many great programs. Their director, Steve Trauger, does an excellent job putting together programs that are fun and interesting for all ages, and my kids have loved going to these for years now. Two of our favorites are Wild Wednesdays (which are animal-themed programs) and Almost Every Other Thursday Science. Both of these happen at park shelters with nearby playgrounds, which works out great if you are bringing several people with varying interests -- some can stay at the program while others go off to play or swing or dig in the sand or ...



The programs include an ongoing Nonperishable Food Drive for Senior Services of Northern KY (Senior Services of NKY is very open to families with kids volunteering together, by the way -- we did Meals on Wheels with them last year -- they're excellent to work with); pop-top tab collections for Ronald McDonald House; various opportunities for volunteering; and often prizes, popcorn, and/or pizza for all!

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A recent farm/petting zoo-themed Wild Wednesdays program



Maya and her friend, Hayes





Seth, Maya, and their friend, Chooj



Maya & Seth

Riley milking a goat

Maya with a baby chick

Riley with a baby chick

Seth milking a goat




Another Wild Wednesday Program: Raptor Rehab

Almost Every Other Thursday Science: Bugs & Insects

Insect building

Lookin' at the world through flies' eyes (Oh, No! I can't find a link to the Heywood Banks song!!!)

Contrary to popular mythology, kids really can still listen and learn, even if they are not sitting "criss cross applesauce" in a circle on the floor. One of the things I love at these programs is seeing the kids able to be however they are comfortable, coming and going from the program if they need to, etc.

Taking a pass on holding the hissing cockroaches. We'll just look today, thank you very much!

Pizza!

Home Fun

I am *really* not fond of mowing the lawn. We had let one patch up around our hammock in the back yard get quite jungle-y, and I figured I better make it more suitable for the more pristine-yard loving types in our neighborhood. It was wet out and slick (it's a very hilly yard); and, just as I was catching myself from sliding down the hill, I noticed I was mowing over this little guy (below). I was so worried that I had sliced him up, but fortunately he was tucked safely in his shell and seemed unharmed. After we watched him for a while in his temporary, makeshift habitat, we checked around in the back yard to make sure there were no little turtle offspring being left behind. We didn't find any evidence of anyone others; so, since I had destroyed his habitat with my mower, we carried him across to our neighbor's back yard and left him in some brush near the creek.

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Some remnants of *play* inspired by the above experience

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Maya is such a night owl and often gets inspired to write or draw or start some other project just about the time everyone else is winding down for bed. I love that she can stay up late and do her thing without worrying about needing to be up early in the mornings. This is how I left her the other evening as I headed off to bed. She was working on a book involving all those creatures on the table.

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Riley with one of his Lego creations -- this one combines several things he loves: Lego building, spiders, and it can be rebuilt into a snake

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Ah, the things that can be done with M&Ms -- making pictures and mosaics, bar graphs, estimation, adding/multiplying/dividing and most especially subtracting. Yum!

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Side-by-side Club Penguin

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We recently painted our kitchen table with Dry Erase paint. Seth (who is majorly into Godzilla lately) and I have been drawing scenes from an old Highlights Top Secret Adventures book about Japan. We draw Tokyo, big skyscrapers, pagodas, the Pacific Ocean, and Monster Island; and he brings Godzilla toys over to destroy/erase it all. The other day when he was looking for the Japan book again he came across the Top Secret Adventures Australia book. He recognized that it was a book about Australia from the picture on the front: the Sydney Opera House. I figured he recognized it from Finding Nemo; but, no, apparently there is a Godzilla movie where he battles in Sydney. So, here we are in the picture below setting up a Sydney scene to destroy.

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Here is Seth, who fell asleep while watching and playing along with Godzilla vs. Hedorah. He seems to have defeated all of the pillows and blankets; but if that sleeping bag was Hedorah, it looks like it might be coming back for him!

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These are some pictures the kids drew with the help of an Ed Emberly drawing book.

Seth with Godzilla ("Why do people always make Godzilla green. Don't they know he's supposed to be black?")

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Riley's werewolf wildcat thing

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I was too late to get a picture of what Maya was drawing. Hers was packed up in an envelope to take to Build-A-Bear workshop.

Oh, and here are a couple of our favorite new-to-us websites lately:

iKnowthat.com, especially the virtual Beehive world.

gamesgames.com -- I especially love the Mahjong games

Chicago: Then and Now

Just came across our old pictures from our first trip to the Chicago Field Museum. It was January 2004 --- That's Riley, age 5 in the black Hulk shirt; Maya, almost 3; and Seth at 5 months.




Now:
May 2009. Riley is 10, Maya is 8, and Seth is 5.


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January 2004


May 2009


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January 2004



May 2009