If Only You Could See It...

But I'm loving the leaves right now. Spectacular. The forest behind our house alone is lovely. I asked Cory if he'd noticed a particular spot of trees that you drive by on the way into our neighborhood......
crickets chirped.

In Which I Explain Why I am not Posting

Our camera broke.
I could post without pictures, but...blah.

Plus, I don't love blogging. Have I mentioned that? Not a big fan. If I get in the groove, it's not so bad. When I'm out of the groove (like now)...

Uh, Wendi, if you're reading this, then the camera thing...yeah. I feel a little sheepish. So now not only do we need to buy a camera for ourselves, we need to replace your "loaner" (for a year +) that broke.

Yes, I am embarrassed.

Maryland Science Center

We spent a day at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore with our friends the Maney's (Wendi and her kids Jordan, Spencer, and Landon). Literally, a day. This place was so incredible we were there from around 10:45-4:30ish. Everything was hands-on and the kids had a wonderful time. Thank you to Wendi for taking pictures since I didn't have my camera.

First stop, DINOSAURS. The kids got to uncover fossils, create dinosaurs on the computer, crawl in dino footrpints, and more!

Paleontologists Gabey, Spencer, Jordan, and Lucas.

McKay loved to climb up on all the little info booths and "listen" to the information on the phones.

There was an awesome kids' room where we spent a good deal of time, and probably could've spent more. Here's McKay playing with a water playground thingy (does that paint a descriptive picture for you?), Lucas and Jordan building a run for a ball, and Gabey playing with a large pin mold. This room had everything to build, push, manipulate, engineer, dress-up, and basically have a ball.

A classic picture of Gabers. Look for this one on Cory's new profile pic on facebook.



We spent some time in the "Newton's Alley" exhibit, where there was all sorts of hands-on activities to learn about electricity, force, motion, and all that smarty pants Newton stuff. Below we all take our turn pulling our weight up using a pulley system.

In the "Wonder Warehouse" portion they used this fandangled thing to make circular air puffs. OK, so I'm not the science whiz, but it was cool and we had fun. There's G dancing in front of screens with recorded people. Why? There were sensors next to them, and the more you moved, the more they laughed. So, the "sillier" the kids got, the more the people laughed. Totally G's kind of thing. Jrdan and L are busy creating some crafts.

Here Gabey and I take our turns on the bed of nails. You laid down on the surface, then the employee pushed a button to raise the nails under you. Yikes! You see G's face in the middle picture? That's before the nails. The pic on the left is after the nails are poking through.

Jordan and L in the "Human Body" section trying to figure out how to piece together a human skeleton.

Putting L's vital organs in the right places (stomach, kidneys, liver...).

Landon and M near the end, just after M woke up from a 20-minute power nap.

Final stop, the space exhibit. I think I told the boys to pose like astronauts...I'm guessing G is demonstrating weightlessness?

So, yes, this was an amazing place to visit and we all had a lot of fun. Thanks for going with us, Maney's! Let's do it again next year!

And you're invited to join us, too.

More Mackie

Sorry, 3rd child. Your brothers got 1-year pics...
You did not.
But I got to you at 18 months!
Thanks to my friend Wendi for taking McKay's pictures for me. Here are some of my favorites:

Messes

Entrepeneur

Lucas crossed a rite of passage of childhood:
Opening a lemonade stand. He wanted to expand it to include food. At first, he thought he should have healthy things like apples and carrots (because isn't that what your children would buy from a food and drink stand? You know mine would), but we convinced him that those might not sell so well. Instead, we went with homemade chocolate chip cookies and flavor ice. Business was pretty good, especially after he took it upon himself to walk over and inform the men working on re-mulching our neighborhood playground that they could refresh themselves at his food and drink stand. What a salesman!

Incidentally, the words on the sign are representative of how it felt to be outside that day. And the looks on Gabriel's face are representative of...well, of Gabriel.

Preschool Graduation

Last month Gabriel graduated from Little Hawks Preschool. He went to a nearby high school, where the program was run by a licensed adult and taught by students enrolled in the school's early childhood development class. We had a rough start to the schoolyear, but we all persevered and, in the end, I think he had a fun year! Here is the happy graduate. They all received awards, and Gabriel's was "Mr. Firepower".

Gabriel and Jedidiah ("Jedi") became good friends.

After the "ceremony", they had a beach-themed party with boardwalk games. McKay loved being a part of that action.


Mr. Firepower after a stop at the face-painting table.