Not Just Butterflies at the Butterfly Bash

The boys and I attended the Butterfly Bash at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham today and had a great time. However, I really didn't see this experience coming. I was just as sure as Joey and Johnny that I was not going to eat a bug. But, after riding the train and giving it some thought, I figured I just shouldn't pass up on an opportunity like this one...ha ha gulp! So, with a little moral support from the staff and some help from Kristen with the camera I took the plunge and ate 2 cooked meal worms with chocolate syrup and powdered sugar. Now, I have to admit I didn't, um, chew but they did go down! After all, it is just protein, right?!?





Much more seriously, I got some great flower pictures in the outside butterfly garden and some cool butterfly shots both inside and out.


The boys had a great time holding Owl Butterflies, riding the train, playing in the caboose, and all the other things they always love to do at the museum.



We also had a special treat and got to see the keeper at the Black Bear exhibit give the bears 5 gallon bucket size fruit popsicles. What a treat for them and us since they had to go into the water for a swim to retrieve their pops.


I even got to see the red-tailed hawk and kingfisher in the wetlands area.



What a day!

The link to all of today's pictures on Picasa is here.

Crayon Physics

Joey and I had THE BEST time playing Crayon Physics at The Museum of Life and Science in Durham today. I highly recommend you check out the new Contraptions exhibit, where the computer hosting this game sits, the next time you go to the museum or download the demo or full game at home. I was impressed that Joey, at 7, was willing to try 20-30 times to clear a level. He was very persistent and seemed to really be learning a lot. It's plenty entertaining for adults too! The whole Contraptions exhibit was great fun today as well. More on that later!

Introducing Barley

I didn't watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution last week. But what I was reminded of by the print and TV news media is that home cooked meals are important, and the person buying the groceries and preparing the food has a lot of control over what food their kids eat and how healthy their kids are. So.........

We typically do our weekly grocery shopping on Sunday, and when we were in the store today, I was looking for some new fun and healthy things to eat. A box of Quaker Barley came into view. I read the soup recipe on the box, and an idea was born. Why not make the soup for dinner.

Now the boys and I are not strangers to cooking together. As a matter of fact, I've been cooking with the boys since they could pull the stepping stool up to the counter. But, with the pressures of working full time, trying to get through homework, and all the things that seem to take away our time these days, it's been getting less and less. Frozen pizza and lasagna are weekly staples:-(

I told the boys we'd make soup for dinner, showed them the box, explained that barley would be kindof like rice in the soup, and let them help me pick out the rest of the ingredients.

Back at home, Johnny chopped the onion, Joey browned the hamburger, Joey peeled the carrots, I cut the carrots, and Joey rinsed and cut the celery. We added in some bay leafs and basil and a can of diced tomatoes. Oh, and the barley with water and beef boullon. Simmer and wa la!

Now Johnny won't eat chunks of tomato and Joey steered clear of the celery, but mostly they ate their bowl of soup. I sure enjoyed mine. It sure was nice to have a real, hearty meal. And, there's even leftovers for tomorrow!

The recipe is here. Of course I took a few liberties with it, but what I made was close.

If you haven't cooked with or for someone you love lately, maybe this will be inspiring. I make no promises to make as good a meal every night, but I would like to have a goal of adding more home cooked and healthy food choice meals back into our lives.

Joey's Night Heron

Boy was I excited when I came home from work today to discover this piece of artwork in Joey's backpack. Wow! Sure did make a mom smile after a long day.

A Great Day at the Robot Rumble

The kids and I just love special events at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. Joey, Johnny, Madi and I went to the museum for the annual Robot Rumble today, and boy did we have a great time.

In the South Gallery, near the main lobby, there were quite a few Lego Mindstorm exhibits. The 537 Hedgehogs from Hillsborough were letting the kids make buttons, pick out a bendy robot man, and play with remote controlled robots. At another table, IBM?, they were showing the kids how to write Mindstorm robot programs, upload them to the robot, and then watch them in action. In this case, the programs were basic things like go straight, turn around, and come back. The kids also watched some older kids demonstrate more sophisticated programs where the robots used light or touch sensors to pick up loops on their 'hands' and navigate obstacle courses. Great stuff!

In the Mercury room behind the front lobby, robot battles were gong on, and other types of robots were on display. The kids enjoyed watching the battles and especially the 'What is a robot?' presentation. We learned that sometimes toys look like robots but are not really robots. The kids thought robots talked, moved, needed batteries, had a computer in them, etc. We got to see what was under the 'skin' of a Furbie, a toy Wall-E, a Lego Mindstorm standing robot, and even a toy version of the robot from Lost in Space. Very informative and fun!

Outside next to the butterfly house, several more exhibits were set up. In one 'pit', two robots battled each other. In another, a high speed robot on 4 wheels that could operate on either side was a thrill as it crashed into boards and flipped through the air. All my kids got a chance to operate that one. They also had a table with robot armlike tongs to give the kids a feeling for how robot arms work. There were even Rock'em Sock'em Robots for the kids to play with. We liked this area so much we had to come back for a second trip!

Last but not least for us today was the robot submarines from iRobot in the pool where the sailboats usually are in Catch the Wind. My kids didn't wait in line to use the sub remotes, but we did enjoy watching the other kids operate them. The subs would sometimes pop out of the water and put out a splash of water. Funny!

In other exciting news, there is a new tiny male pig named Auggie in with Miss Piggy. Boy was Auggie cute! Miss Piggy was putting on quite the show today too pushing her green ball around the pen!

We got to see Yona the new bear cub the museum took in as a rescue from off the side of I40 in Tennessee. We spoke with one of the keepers that told us that Yona is a year old. She's learned to kindof leave the other 4 bears in the bear habitat alone and is getting along fine with Gus, the youngest of the adults and the only male. The keeper threw in some apple halves, and we got to see Yona chomp down on that. The other bear in view today was Ursala.

I waited all winter to see and take a picture of a hood merganser, and today was the day! They even came pretty close to the boardwalk area.

We saw Ranger Greg on the boardwalk, and he pointed out a snake sunning itself on a tree branch. We were also amazed at the number of turtles up on logs in the wetlands sunning themselves.

We made a quick trip through the dinosaur trail and fossil pit as well as the inside animal room and taking a peek at the new Contraptions exhibit. But then, in what seemed like a blink of the eye, the day was over and it was time to head home.

5/22 is the Butterfly Bash and 6/12 is the Bubble Blitz, and we look forward to visiting the museum on those days too.

The best pics from today are in this album starting here.

Time to Sled!

The kids and I were delighted for the winter weather that hit Raleigh Friday night into Saturday. I guess we got somewhere between 3" and 5" with a good bit of accumulation being sleet instead of snow. Not good for snowman building, but perfectly fine for sledding. We've been let down by so many forecasts in the past. I'm glad this one worked out.

We went out twice today...once around sunrise for 90 minutes and again around midday for another 90 minutes. We were joined by many of our friends on both outings, and it was just great to be surrounded by the excitement of kids totally delighted to be out playing in the snow.

Sledding always reminds me of happy times living up in Trenton, NJ the first 10 years of my life. I remember snow fences and people ice skating on real ponds and enough snow to walk up to the hill on Line Road for some sledding. I hope some day my kids will look back on these times with the same fond remembrance as I do of my childhood snow days. It would mean a lot to me.

We had my Flexible Flyer out today...the one I used as a child. Fast on the hill...what a thrill.
But, I'm saying thanks tonight that Joey is doing as good as he is. Best as I can tell, he went down the hill on the Flyer on his stomach and with Johnny on his back and then couldn't see to steer or forgot how to steer and they slammed into a log at the bottom of the hill. With no braking, that could have been up to 30mph. Joey's left cheek took the brunt of the hit, but it looks like his eye is OK. He's got an abrasion that's the size of his first, but no deep cuts. Poor kid. Ice, ibuprofen, and a little TLC mostly have him comfortable.

Tomorrow's another day, and the snow is still around. I suspect we'll be making more snow memories.

More Pictures from the Museum of Life and Science

I was super tired when I was trying to blog about the Build a Flappet workshop last night. Wonder why?!? :-) Here are some of the other pictures from our day at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham that I think were the best.

The kids love the 'music' room, and whenever we visit the museum, they spend lots of time in there running around. If you aren't familiar with this exhibit, the room is divided into 9 quadrants, and movement in the various quadrants produces beautiful music. It's good exercise for the kids too. I like trying to catch just the right blur shot.

We didn't spend a lot of time outside because of the cold, but we did take a quick walk to visit our favorite farmyard animals. Joey was disappointed that he didn't get to see Nimbus the bunny who was inside for the day, but we really enjoyed Max the cow and the other animals.

The kids love the playground area. The carpet was off the 'slide', and the Madi decided it would be super fun to run and slide down it. It wasn't that fast, but her antics going down the slide feet up in the air so as not to slow her down with her shoes rubbing was just too cute. I always love my on top of the culvert shots of whichever kids want to line up too.

Back inside, we enjoyed the weather exhibit. Pictured is Joey with the tornado. It was really wanting to form and reform quickly yesterday. The kids also had a blast with the 'sand spinner'. That exhibit simulates hurricane type spins and clouds. That thing spins fast, and there's another shot of the kids and the exhibit twirling fast!

Madi enjoyed the origami exhibit upstairs. Johnny played with the beads. That exhibit teaches kids about volumes and has some surprising results with regard to which container truly holds more beads...not the one you think. Joey was fascinated with the exhibit that had the rubber duck, blocks and tea cup. It's a guessing game. Can you name the object based on a silhouette of a front of side view. He put me through the paces on it a couple of times. We also did some of the patchwork block shapes. Very relaxing. Debbie and I were commenting on how we could do that for hours if only the kids would let us.

The upper right shot in the collage is some sort of lit-up artwork near the patchwork quit area. I was in super macro mode with the lense touching the plastic artwork cover.

And, yes, that's my silhouette with the light colors bouncing around me as I took the shot with the camera hidden by my shadow. That's another really popular exhibit. The kids are tickled every time to manipulate the colored lights coming down on them.

As you can see, we had a great time evern before we went to the Flappet workshop. The kids were so excited to revisit their Flappets this morning before school. Lots of flapping going on.