Writing Stories

Bridget has taken to writing stories for me.  Many of them revolve around a naughty little dog.  I am loving these and just wanted to share one of them here to bring everyone else a smile too.  :)

A dog did not get his way.  So he got in his car.  Then he got in big trouble.

Bridget wrote this one this morning and told me, "I like this story so much that I think I'll even save it for my kids!"  I love that she is always looking ahead and wants so much to be a mommy one day.

Bridget Mary-EMT

After watching an ambulance zoom past us today, Bridget announced her intention to be one of those people who drive around in the ambulance helping people.  She followed that up with, "What do you call those people, anyway?"  :)  

I explained that if she were an EMT or a paramedic she would be able to ride around in an ambulance and help people in emergency situations.  

She thought about it a few minutes before coming to a decision..."Okay, that is what I will do.  But would I still be able to be a surgeon too?  Because I think I'd be really good at that." 

The Perot Museum

Our first big field trip of the new year was to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, an incredible and brand new museum right in the heart of downtown Dallas.   There is so much to see at this museum!  I don't think you can do it all justice with just a one-day visit.   The museum itself is an architectural wonder...one of the highlights for some of the kids was the escalators that go up the side of the building:

 We had a group of about 35 that met us there, and we also had scheduled a Lego: Simple Machines class for while we were there.  Our teacher was an adult who never wanted to grow up...and now he gets to play with Legos all day long.  He was perfect for the group!  

 

The kids enjoyed talking about what a simple machine is, what it does, and where they might be found.  Then they were set free with a set of Legos and a set of plans to build their own machines.

  They started with a lever, moved onto a wedge, and finished with a gear assembly.  

Then they were allowed to make up their own creations or pick from more elaborate plans.  The kids LOVED their time in the Lego room.  

  We had a picnic lunch outside (thankfully the weather was PERFECT!).  There were so many of us, and so many public school groups there too, that we ended up splitting up a little during lunch.  The kids enjoyed the outside area of a stream, pond, frogs and huge musical instruments while they ran around during our lunch break.  

 My favorite exhibit inside the museum was the human body hall.  They have slices of human bodies, head to foot...one of the most incredible things I've ever seen.  

   All of the kids really enjoyed the engineering hall, where they could program robots, play computers that controlled musical instruments, build roads and create a light show.  It was hard to leave that area!

Other fun highlights were the dinosaur area and the bonus bird level.  The kids loved being able to 'build their own bird' as they worked their way through the kiosks. 

In the weather area, the boys enjoyed being weather forecasters, reading off of a tele-prompter and seeing themselves on screen.

The sports hall might have been our favorite, even though our time there was cut short as we had to step outside to give a friend with a dead battery a jump-start.  They have a motion room where they film you while you attempt a sports move, then they send your video to a computer where you can watch it in slow motion.  You can also play a video side-by-side of a professional athlete doing the same move, to compare.  So fun!  The kids enjoyed the race track, where you can be timed while you race against your friend as well as a cheetah, a dinosaur, or a professional athlete on screen.  Seriously fun to watch!

We left without exploring all of the exhibits, but we hope to have the chance to go again soon!  Maybe we won't have such a big group next time, however.  ;)

We had some friends riding along with us (Sarah, Haven and Kate).  On the way home, the six children in our car were getting a little restless and wild, so we stopped at a nice rest area to run around.  That helped, and we were able to end the day on a really fun note!  

Field trips are so fun, and exploring the world with friends is the best! 

Jonah for President!

Jonah realized this year that ANYONE could become president, that they don't have to be born into a certain family or live in a specific area.  His logical conclusion was, of course, that HE could be president one day.  Here's his platform:  "I don't believe in ghosts or monsters.  I believe in people.  I believe in God.  I do believe in satan but I don't believe anything he says."

He's got my vote.  :)

Splash Kingdom-Shreveport

Sam (along with his dad and brothers) spent the first week of July fishing in Canada.  Yes, that means they spent America's Independance Day by leaving the country.  Ha!

They had a phenomenal trip.  First they flew to Mineappolis, MN, where they grabbed dinner and a hotel room for the night.  The next morning they drove their rental car 11 hours North into the province of Ontario, where they were picked up by a little pilot in a float plane.  The float plane delivered them to a little cabin on a lake in the middle of nowhere.  Don't worry, though.  The pilot brought in all the groceries they had bought on the way.  And he left them a sattelite phone so they could call if the had any emergencies while they were there.  (They didn't know at the time, but the sat-phone was password-protected and they couldn't actually use it!)

I don't have any pictures from their trip, but they caught hundreds of fish (Northern Pike), had beautiful (if a little hot) weather, and enjoyed the time away.  It's not exactly my idea of paradise, but Sam can't imagine anything more fun than a week "off the grid".  He had a blast.  

The night that the guys left, the kids and I headed an hour and half east to Shreveport, Louisiana to visit a water park.  Our radio station had been giving away tickets to a closer water park, and at the end of the giveaway they still had tickets left for the farther-away park....so we got some of those!

The kids were so excited to try out a new water park.  Along the way, we stopped at Arby's for a quick dinner.  While we were there a semi-truck drove into the parking lot pulling a tank.  The kids were pretty impressed with this and we talked to the driver for a while (who told us that the tank weighs 60,000 pounds!).  

When we got to Splash Kingdom, everyone was gathered outside and they hadn't opened the gates yet. There were less than 100 people there, and the radio station people soon announced that this was EVERYONE who would be at the park that evening...no lines, no waiting, SO FUN!

They had some fun new slides...here are Henry and Jonah dropping off of these really fun short slides:

And Bridget loved every bit of it.  She was (finally) tall enough to go down some of the big slides, and her favorite one was a face-first, superman-type slide that made me scream every time I went down it.  She is such a daring little girl!

We had so much fun and we are so grateful to our local Christian radio station for the free tickets and the adventure.  :)

Policeman Jonah

Last night Jonah announced to me his intention to become a policeman when he grows up.  

He just had a few questions.

#1  Do I have to go to college?  (No, but you should.  You'll be more prepared and make more money as a college graduate than you would otherwise.)

#2  How will I know who the bad guys are?  Like, when do I pull out my gun?  (You'll go to the police academy, have lots of training, and you'll most likely know who the bad guys are.)

#3  But really, how do I know when to pull out my gun?  I don't want to shoot the wrong person.  (Yes, that would be bad.  You'll only use your gun if someone's life is being threatened.)

"I see," he said, "So when I see someone pull their sword out and try to stab a girl, then I know I should pull out my gun and stop them."

Um...yes, I think you've got it!  Lol!