Busy Learning!

Children's Museum

Several of our friends have recommended the Children's Museum of Brookings, SD, and since Ann and Evie and Libby were out for a visit this past week, we thought it would be the perfect time to check it out.  What a fun place!  Full of information and hands-on activities, there's more than enough to keep children and parents busy for a whole day.  And downtown Brookings is very nice.  After 11 years as a South Dakotan, this was my first time there.  I was impressed, and a good time was had by all.

We spent at least 20 minutes in this construction zone:

Then it was on to the indoor water fun, with balls, waterfalls, steam and lots of splashing:

The girls (especially Eden) loved the giant light-bright:

Upstairs we discovered big, blue blocks:

Then on to the deli and icecream shop where the kids served us up lunch (and charged quite a price for it, too!)

Painting on the glass:

And Eden's back to the light-bright.

End of the day:

Autumnal

Autumn is here in South Dakota, and it's quite beautiful this year.

 I planted 48 tulips and 10 hyacinths with great hopes for the spring.  Sleep well little bulbs, wake up beautiful!

 Z, Eden and Nathan carved pumpkins.  Z drew the face for the big one, and Nathan carved it out.  Z makes his scariest faces in honor of the occasion.

 Nathan gets in on the fun.

And Eden and I enjoy just watching.

Kindgarten School Picture

By George, I Think She's Got It!

Eden walked for the first time today!  She's 19 months old and 5 days, so she's officially got the family record for latest first steps.  The record was formally held by her Mama and her Yaya, both of whom walked sometime in the 18 months time period.  The video is tilted, but you get the idea.

We've known for several weeks now that Eden is capable of standing and walking, she just didn't want to do it.  She was happy getting around on her knees.  I remembered she learned to crawl by going after chocolate chips, so I thought that might work again.  So I sat her down on the bottom step, tempted her with chocolate, and she stood right up.  We worked on this for awhile, and it was clear she could stand up, so I started making her stand up for a longer period of time before she got the chocolate (and then later an animal cracker).  During one of these standing up periods she just got sick of waiting for me to hand her the cookie, and she took a step forward.  Wow!  I ran for the video camera and captured this.  An hour later, at the USF cafeteria, she walked about 10 steps to Nathan, who was holding a brownie, got the brownie, turned around and walked back, all without falling down at all!

We're having a t-shirt made for her which says, "Will Walk for Chocolate."

School Days

Z is enjoying school and learning a lot!  Every day he tells me a new Spanish word or phrase, and his letters and numbers are improving so much!  And he's having lots of fun and new experiences.

One of the kids brought her guinea pig to school last week.  Her name is Trudy (the guinea pig, not the kid.)

And Z's class went on a field trip to the fire station!  Z loved it, and tonight told me exactly what to do if the smoke alarms go off!

The Dead Mammoth

Warning:  This blog post reflects the workings of the five year old male mind.  Read with care.

Yesterday we went to the Augie cafeteria for lunch, as we do every Sunday.  After lunch was over, Nathan wanted to go home to watch the Vikings, and Z wanted to explore the Augie campus.  So Nathan and Eden went home, and Z and I stayed to play.  We wandered all over the campus.  Z showed me many secret hiding places, we discovered an entire field covered in pure gold leaves, which we placed in a secret cave which only opens using a secret word (which we will not divulge to anyone), and we watched a flag football game.  As we were leaving campus we came across the mammoth sculpture outside of the archeology building.

As I read the sign out loud, Z suddenly yelled, "Watch out, Mama, it's alive."  I, of course, jumped for cover.  Who wants to be crushed by a mammoth?  Z set about killing it with his sword (stick).  He chopped off all four of its legs.  He chopped off both tusks.  Then he chopped off its head.  At that point I came back, very relieved. "You saved us, Z!  It's dead!"  Z looked at me quite seriously and said, "It's not dead until I chop off its penis," which he then proceeded to do.  "Now it's dead!" he declared.

So there's the male mind at work:  You're not really dead until someone chops off your penis.