I promise I will finish posting about our vacation soon, but I just had to share what happened at dinner last night!
You may have noticed at the end of my blog, I have an advertisement for e-mealz. I absolutely love this service! It has saved my meal planning rut and made knowing what's for dinner so much easier on me. It comes complete with a grocery list, which is a lifesaver when you shop with 2 little ones. It is organized by section and by meal number (so you can delete if you are not using a meal that week). The best thing for me is that my kids will eat the meals! They love them and have even started eating more fruits and vegetables. Yay! I do feel like I am turning into my good friend Danielle because I haven't been serving the same meal twice, but it is making dinner more fun!
Mr. TD has been wanting to try pouch cooking. Guess what?! It was on my meal plan for this week! So, I got all of the ingredients and last night I made Foiled BBQ Chicken. Yum!
We have been allowing Princess TD to say the prayer before dinner and sometimes Little TD joins in. Last night Princess TD decided that she wanted to pray before our meal. Here's how it went:
"Dear God, Thank you for Mommy and Daddy and for our dinner, even though it looks really yucky, my Mommy made it so I will eat it. In Jesus' name, Amen."
Mr. TD and I were doing everything in our power not to bust out laughing!
I know she's only 5, but what insight. We need to be thankful for everything...even if it looks yucky in our eyes!
Oh, and she did eat her dinner.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Our Vacation: Day 2 in St. Louis
After a fun filled day on Day 1, we decided to stick with it and head out for another fun kids adventure. We spent Day 2 at The Magic House. This is a 3 story house that has been converted to a huge display of physics and other physical sciences. My favorite memories were the reaction time testers, the Touch Tunnel, the Shadow Wall, Robotic Arm-well, I loved it all! Again, much has changed here as well since I was last there, although I think I was in college the last time I visited here. In some ways though it changed for the better. There was a much larger play area for little ones, which Little TD loved. His favorite part was the fishing pond. They have a little pond with magnetic fishing poles and when you catch a fish, you deposit it upstream and follow it through glass in the floor all the way back to the pond. Awesome game for a little boy! The other cool thing was a water play table. It's really hard to explain, but they had fun things to do to show surface tension, how to direct water flow, flow through pipes and other cool stuff for us engineer types. The rest of the little ones play area was very similar to the Childrens Museum in Houston, which my kiddos love.
The Second story held much of what I remembered. There we found the color blindness charts, which in explaining it to Princess TD, I gathered an audience of other girls from a school group listening to what I was saying and asking why they couldn't see the numbers that color blind folks would see. We looked through the optic lenses and smelled the hidden scents (they haven't changed at all). Princess TD tried to wrap herself in a bubble, she was able to get it to her knees before it popped. We played in the Shadow Wall room and then Princess TD tried to race in a wheelchair. She did pretty well, I think she went 0.25 miles in 30 seconds.
Next we went up to the third floor. We played in the magnet room attaching metal pans to a magnetic wall. We then moved to the line for the electrostatic generator. The first time Princess TD got her hair to stand up, but she took her hand off before we could get a picture. The second time, I joined her, but I was too hot for my hair to stand up, but we got the picture anyway. We played a little bit with the pneumatic mover and explained how the bank drive through machines work. She really enjoyed that and made a new friend in the process. Unfortunately, the 3-story slide was closed. I sure hope they open it back up, that was the most fun way to get down from the top!
Currently they are expanding the Magic House, so we will have to make a return trip there. It was fun and reminded me why I love science! Here are a few pics from this day!
My favorite fact: The average 4 year old asks 437 questions a day!
The Second story held much of what I remembered. There we found the color blindness charts, which in explaining it to Princess TD, I gathered an audience of other girls from a school group listening to what I was saying and asking why they couldn't see the numbers that color blind folks would see. We looked through the optic lenses and smelled the hidden scents (they haven't changed at all). Princess TD tried to wrap herself in a bubble, she was able to get it to her knees before it popped. We played in the Shadow Wall room and then Princess TD tried to race in a wheelchair. She did pretty well, I think she went 0.25 miles in 30 seconds.
Next we went up to the third floor. We played in the magnet room attaching metal pans to a magnetic wall. We then moved to the line for the electrostatic generator. The first time Princess TD got her hair to stand up, but she took her hand off before we could get a picture. The second time, I joined her, but I was too hot for my hair to stand up, but we got the picture anyway. We played a little bit with the pneumatic mover and explained how the bank drive through machines work. She really enjoyed that and made a new friend in the process. Unfortunately, the 3-story slide was closed. I sure hope they open it back up, that was the most fun way to get down from the top!
Currently they are expanding the Magic House, so we will have to make a return trip there. It was fun and reminded me why I love science! Here are a few pics from this day!
My favorite fact: The average 4 year old asks 437 questions a day!
Our Vacation: Day 1 in St. Louis
Ok, things have calmed a bit so that I can sit here and update you all on our vacation. I wanted to do something each day that would be fun for both kids. There is a lot to do in St. Louis, but not all of the fun things or historical sites are age appropriate. Our first full day in town, we headed out for the Museum of Transportation. I can remember going here when I was a child and hearing about Jesse James and getting fools gold at the end of the tour in the caboose. It has changed a lot since then, but it was still lots of fun. We were able to climb on some engines, look inside a caboose, learn why there are no more cabooses on the rails, and see inside a tanker car. We also rode a train replica and a cable car similar to that which used to run in downtown St. Louis. My aunt remembers taking trips in the cable car, but they were pretty much gone by the time I came along. There were exhibits on the old days of train travel showing the dining cars, the sleeper cars, and the luxury cars. The train engines were so big, even Mr. TD looked small standing next to some of them. They had a snowplow engine and a snowblower engine. They were pretty cool to see.
Since I had been there, they added an automobile section. Mr. TD loved it, they had a Willy's Jeep! They also had a 1963 Chrysler that was powered by a turbine. It was fully restored and was beautiful! They also had a display on Route 66. Princess TD and I had a short discussion about that and the Disney movie Cars, and that what we were looking at were items from actual places that existed on the Mother Road. Of course she wanted to see something from Radiator Springs, so I explained that Radiator Springs is much further west on the road than St. Louis was. Then she started singing the song..."It goes from St. Louis, down through Missouri, ..." Then she reminded me that Grammie has met they man who sings the song. I guess I can't say she never listens. (No, not John Mayer. My Mom met Chuck Berry when she and my Dad were dating.)
It was a great day and fun for all the kids involved! Here are some of the highlights!
Since I had been there, they added an automobile section. Mr. TD loved it, they had a Willy's Jeep! They also had a 1963 Chrysler that was powered by a turbine. It was fully restored and was beautiful! They also had a display on Route 66. Princess TD and I had a short discussion about that and the Disney movie Cars, and that what we were looking at were items from actual places that existed on the Mother Road. Of course she wanted to see something from Radiator Springs, so I explained that Radiator Springs is much further west on the road than St. Louis was. Then she started singing the song..."It goes from St. Louis, down through Missouri, ..." Then she reminded me that Grammie has met they man who sings the song. I guess I can't say she never listens. (No, not John Mayer. My Mom met Chuck Berry when she and my Dad were dating.)
It was a great day and fun for all the kids involved! Here are some of the highlights!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
We've been all over!
We left Texas to visit my family in St. Louis, Missouri, the Saturday before Memorial Day. We went from home to Tulsa, Oklahoma to spend the night before going on to St. Louis the next day. We spent three days there visiting various places and family. We then left there and headed to Little Rock, Arkansas. After spending the night there, we visited the Little Rock Zoo before heading off to Ft. Polk, Louisiana, for my nephew's birthday party. When we left Louisiana, we brought my neice and nephew home with us for a visit. At the end of the week out of town, we stopped in 5 states and covered close to 2000 miles! It feels like we spent half of our vacation in the car! Both kids enjoyed the trip and I think we were able to keep them entertained in the car so that none of us went crazy! I will post on each activity separately so that this doesn't turn into a huge post!
After the week long visit with the cousins, my sister and her husband came in for the weekend to pick up the kids. The Dads took all of the kids out in the boat for a fun day of tubing and swimming, and in Little TD's case, fishing with his new "Cars" fishing pole! My sister and I had a great girls day at the Gulf Coast Home Educators Conference. My sister was able to get some great information for my neice and nephew and now has a plan of attack for next year. I was able to get my hands on a couple of the curriculums I was considering and I now know what I will use with Princess TD for next year.
All and all, it was a great vacation!
After the week long visit with the cousins, my sister and her husband came in for the weekend to pick up the kids. The Dads took all of the kids out in the boat for a fun day of tubing and swimming, and in Little TD's case, fishing with his new "Cars" fishing pole! My sister and I had a great girls day at the Gulf Coast Home Educators Conference. My sister was able to get some great information for my neice and nephew and now has a plan of attack for next year. I was able to get my hands on a couple of the curriculums I was considering and I now know what I will use with Princess TD for next year.
All and all, it was a great vacation!
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