Out and about in Beantown

Noah is ready to go . . . although he's not entirely sure where we're going!

 Waiting for the blue line train to arrive

 Enjoying some absolutely yummy food in Quincy Market

 Lael was loving her pizza . . .

 . . . while Noah preferred the fries!

 We even ran into Benjamin Franklin . . . he was quite far from home!

 Some random pics

 The kids were excited to see this statue of Sam Adams.

 After an adventure-filled day, it was time to head back to the hotel for some swimming and wind-down time!

 Bye-bye, Boston!

Boston's Museum of Science

Boston's Museum of Science . . . where it's fun to find out! 

That was the advertising slogan for the Museum of Science in Boston when I was growing up.  I remember hearing that often when commercials for the museum aired on television.  Our family had a museum membership one year, and I remember enjoying it so much.

While up in New England for Thanksgiving, we took a trip to the Museum of Science . . . alot has changed in 25 years!  The displays are alot more "high-tech", but still so much fun!

We all enjoyed the mathematics exhibit . . . lots of optical illusions and things to figure out.

Then there was the "Creatures of the Night" exhibit . . .

Don't I have the cutest bats in the world?

Here's Jaden-the-bat . . . 

 . . . and Lael-the-bat!

 Yes, this is a picture of a picture of my kids!  They are in a completely dark room, and they're trying to figure out which hole a particular peg fits into - very tricky when you can't see what you are doing!

 A highlight for everyone was the lightning show! This was something I really wanted the kids to see because I remembered it from my childhood visit to the museum. (However, Noah didn't enjoy it so much, so he and I visited some other exhibits while Daddy and the big kids stayed.)

This is the Van de Graaff generator. During the lightning show, bolts of lightning are produced by this generator, which is the world's largest air-insulated Van de Graaff generator.

 Yes, that's Lael in the lower left-hand corner . . . she looks pretty little next to this dinosaur model.

 We had fun looking at models of sailing ships from different times - ancient Egypt, Greece, Phoenicia, Rome were especially exciting to see since we've studied those time periods in school this year!

 Lael would have spent all day here if she could . . . waiting for a chick to hatch!  Unfortunately, no chicks decided to emerge from their shells during our visit.

 The museum tired this little guy out!

 It was a great field trip . . . so much fun that they didn't realize how much they were learning!

Swimming fun

We took a much-needed family vacation/Thanksgiving visit to Massachusetts over Thanksgiving week.  For a trip to qualify as "vacation", we must stay in a hotel with a pool - at least according to Lael and Jaden!  So that's exactly what we did!

Noah enjoyed the water - as long as he was held close in Daddy's arms!  Otherwise, the water was a bit chilly for him . . . but he still didn't want to get out!

 Jaden loves everything about the water - whether it's hanging on the side of the pool . . .

 . . . or jumping in!

(Of course, making the biggest possible splash is a given!)

Lael loves the water too . . . and I've been so pleased to see how confident both of the big kids have become with their swimming!  They were swimming several laps the length of the pool! 

Jaden's also gotten quite good at floating on his back.

 One game everyone - even Noah - could play was "catch the ball" . . . Noah enjoyed throwing the balls for Lael and Jaden to swim after!

First Haircut

It was time for a haircut - just a trim!

Here's the before . . .

. . . and during . . .

. . . and after!

Isn't he so handsome!

Snapshots of our homeschool co-op

This is our third year as part of our homeschool co-op . . . the focus this fall is the arts.

Jaden has an art class taught by his most favorite teacher in the world - his mom! :)  Called Meeting the Masters, each class has focused on a different artist and his artwork.  Today we learned about Vassily Kandinsky . . . here Jaden is working on his own version of Concentric Circles in Squares.

 He also has a building class - they've made all kinds of Amazing Structures from many different building materials - like marshmallows, pound cake, toothpicks and raisins, grahams and marshmallow fluff . . . here he's working on his popsicle stick bridge.

 While the big kids are in class, Noah spends time in the nursery - being cute, of course!

 Lael is taking a drama class - we are excitedly awaiting the premier performance of their play next Friday night!

 And no co-op would be complete without a gym class - Lael and Jaden have their gym class together.  Here they are having fun with the parachute . . . you can see them, right???

We enjoy our Thursday mornings so much, so we thought we should share them with you! :)

Exploring Lego Digital Designer

This is a scene created by Jaden. 

The characters are based on those in Indiana Jones movies. 

Indiana Jones himself is front and center in this scene.  Can you find him?

(Here's a hint:  he's holding his trademark whip in his hand.)

Beautiful fall day . . .

On a beautiful Sunday in October, we decided to take a few pictures . . .

Jaden

(in his favorite picture-taking spot outside our church)

 Noah with Daddy

 Lael relaxing at home

 And Noah being his sunshiny self!



Fire safety night

We had the opportunity to attend a fire safety night with our homeschool group this past week.  The firefighters at Perseverance Volunteer Fire Station did such a great job!  The kids got to see the equipment on different fire trucks and learned about what situations merited the use of which rescue vehicle.

 You never know when some massive cutters will come in handy!

 Of course, a highlight of any fire station visit has to be climbing into the vehicles . . . pretending to be a firefighter is so much fun!

 

 Trying on the gear of a firefighter really helped Lael know that the clothes are really heavy and HOT!

 Firefighter Jaden hanging out with a new friend!

 The kids saw a firefighter in full gear so they could see (and hear) what they could expect if they ever were in a situation where they needed to be rescued.

In addition to all that, they even got to fight a house fire (okay, so the fire wasn't real, but the hose was)!

Pictures of that to come ;)

It was a great night!