Last Childrens Museum

There are so many things to do at this Museum, and I did my best to show you all of it. But you will definitely have to try it out if you have kids, it is obviously worth the visit.

Childrens Museum Part 4

Houston just seems to be getting hotter and hotter. So we only ventured outside to this exhibit because it involved a lot of water. I think Phoenix pushed every button and turned every handle out here, he loved it.
Sicily is so much like her older sister it's scary sometimes. These girls don't like to just get splashed, they make it their personal goal to get drenched. And if that means just diving in...so be it.

These Locks are super cool. Aspen loved them when we came for her field trip, but I think Phoenix loved them more.

Childrens Museum Part 3

We traveled not only to the Museum but also went through Vietnam. Phoenix is a BIG fan of dragons, especially when they are life size.
Yes their faces are painted, self done actually. We put Sicily to work sweeping, Vietnam style. I am ever so glad I don't have this kind of broom. Though it might would come in handy outside.

Hard labor that Phoenix LOVES. He kept telling me to add on more and more produce. "Mulan" comes to mind.

Sicily in a round fishing boat. Isn't that the neatest design! I think a round boat would be a lot of fun.

Childrens Museum Part 2

Working in the Diner was one of the kids most favorite spots, Sicily's especially because everything was just her size. She ordered first though, then worked later.
The Brick Oven Pizza was the tastiest, and the velcroed pizza slices were the cutest thing ever.

She was ever so excited to be able to get her own "drink." She kept bringing me pitcher after pitcher "full" of soda, so cute.

Aspen of course was a good big sister and helped Sicily do the cooking. "Hot," she kept telling Sicily.

And London helped clean up. They turned on the water and "washed" all of the dishes. Sure wish they'd figure out how to do this at home.

All in all a good trip to the Diner.

Children's Museum Part 1

You never knew that they put the kids to work at the Children's Museum. But it's all about $$$, how to earn it and how to spend it. They gave each of the kids a Debit Card, there were ATM machines strategically located for pulling out their money, and Banks to deposit all their well earned checks. Then they put them to work.

We started out in the News room. They earned money by being the Camera Man, News Broadcaster, or Lighting Specialist. They even got to use a green screen and put the different pictures behind the News Man.
Next came the Ambulance, Hospital, and Police Station. Sicily had lots of fun learning how to be and EMT, and London was an excellent patient, Aspen could be a good driver one day. Where as Phoenix was more interested in being a Cop than anything else.

Art School! Teachers and students alike loved the easels.

Going grocery shopping was a lot of fun. You could either spend your well earned money on Lobsters, cake, veggies and more (all pretends of course). Or you could work as a Cashier or Stocker. Sicily's baskets was never quite big enough for all the veggies she wanted to buy.

What an excellent day. Stay tuned for more pictures.

Weird Park

There's a really strange park across the street from the Science Museum. I'm not sure what it's called but it's chuck full of statues of Presidents and important historical figures from all over the world.

Personally I thought this was Don Quiote! But I think it was actually the Spaniard President of like the 1400's or something. He has a cool hat, don't you think?
This was why we actually came into the park. You could see this guy from the street and I wanted to know who it was. It's Confucius. He was born around 550 BC and his sayings are still in every Fortune Cookie around. Isn't that amazing. ;)

Water Fountain Fun

I really think my kids might have been fish in a former life. :) We just can't seem to walk past a water fountain, of any sort, with out them all "diving" in.

I do like these kid of water fountains though. I always wonder how much water pressure do they have to release to actually lift a ball of marble that size. That being said, how do kids never get their fingers pinched on the bottom as they roll it round and round?
Phoenix was jokingly trying to jump in about 2 seconds after this shot. Pretty sure if Aspen had been closer she might have just given him a little push. Little stinkers.

The water fountain above is actually part of this giant sundial. I needed a shot of my currently stair stepped kids and this was perfect. I'm guessing it won't be like this forever. I have a feeling Phoenix and Sicily will one day pass up London and Aspen.

Corpse Flower

Phoenix and I read, "Stink and the Worlds Worst Super-Stinky Sneakers" a few months back. And we discovered that the stinkiest thing around is a Corpse Flower.

Do some research if you can cause they're really cool and only 29 have EVER bloomed in the entire USA! I'll just tell you this, when they are in bloom they smell like Rotten Meat. So one was blooming here in the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and we just had to see it.

Onto the Museum.
Heading up to the Flower.

It's lingering effects were in the stair well.

Since the flower has to be kept quite warm it was located in the Butterfly Exhibit, jungle area. They have a HUGE bug collection, alive and dead, that we got to check out while waiting in line. This is a freakishly huge katydid, that I am ever so grateful does not live by me.

But these cute little pink Katydid's I wouldn't mind so much, aren't they pretty!

Butterfly's everywhere! Even hundreds in their cocoons, we saw some hatching. So cool!

So if you zoom in on this you can read all about Lois, our Houston Corpse Flower.

And here she is. You'll notice she's 6ft tall and the Sink-O-Meter on the right is only at a 3. You really could only smell her if you stood right there by the meter, and man was she ever ripe! Can you imagine if we'd gotten there right when she'd opened and the Meter read 10?!! Wow, that would have been one stinky smell.

Kids with the Camera

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, "Thank goodness for digital cameras." I was downloading some pictures and discovered a few extras that I never took. Have a gander at what my kids get up to when I'm not looking.

I have no idea what London was doing here, or who actually took the shot. That's Sicily's little baby doll stroller on his head if you can't tell.
There were about 20 photos of Sicily all taken from different angles and pulling about 100 faces.
Phoenix, of course! Who else would get this close to a flash in their face.

And about another 10 of her Lego block towers she was building. I can just hear her, "Take pitchur, take pitchur!"

And then there was some documentation of Phoenix's latest purchase.

One last shot of the crazy Sicily.

You'll notice there are no shots of Aspen. That's because not soon after I downloaded all of these, she had some fun with my camera and deleted EVERYTHING!!! I was none too happy. Kids are now banned from using the camera.

Grass vs. Jungle

The grass here in Texas never ceases to amaze me. It just grows so stinking fast. Jared had just finished mowing the lawn, and had scared out over a dozen frogs, and informed me that we needed to move the trampoline. Look at how long that is. Oh! And it's wet too, of course. Wet like you just had the sprinklers on. But no...there has been no sprinklers. Ridiculous!

New Back Porch Reminder

I started a post a few days ago and thought I could save it and finish it later when I got the rest of the pictures in order. But the program had other ideas. It left my saved post down on the date when I'd originally started it. So feel free to either scroll down and read up. Or click on this and it'll take you straight to it.

http://walkertours.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-back-porch.html

Crazy Sicily

This little girl gets sillier everyday. I think she's picking up too many pointers from her siblings this summer. Anyhow, when we got home from one of our many adventures she was having a hard time getting out of the car. And go figure, it's pretty hard to take off your seat belt when you have shoes on your hands and not your feet. Crazy girl!

Notice the thousands of mosquito bites on her legs. They just love her, poor thing. And those were all from one night. Definitely using the "Off" all the time now.

Little Chef

My little Phoenix loves to help me cook. Measure the flour, spoon in the salt. But his ultimate favorite is cracking the eggs! As we baked cookies he cracked his egg in a very ingenious way. Not sure how he did it, but we had to document. He cracked it top to bottom, not side to side. Awesome!

Week Long Picnic in the Park

Each day after the Children's Theatre we scattered around Hermann park and enjoyed a picnic by a different tree every time. It was a bit warm, but not too bad. And the animals were quite a distraction. Distracting enough that my kiddos had an awfully hard time eating their lunches and not just giving them away to all the squirrels and birds.

This brave little bugger I thought for sure was going to drop right down on our table and steal our sandwiches. Phoenix turned right round in his seat, multiple times, and gave him his crusts or chips. And of course the little guy just keep coming back for more.
Phoenix would have brought him home if I'd have let him. But being a "little" nervous for rabies I said no. :) Go figure.

Sicily got in on the action a time or two. She was more interested in trying to pet the fluffy guys than feed them though.

They really liked London. He was calm and patient enough to not chase after them. So they kept coming back.

It's no wonder they're the fattest squirrels I've ever seen. Eating peanut butter sandwiches and Cheetos all day.

Of course there were plenty of pigeons and ravens, but we did catch sight a few other types of birds. A couple of Woodpeckers joined the que for some crumbs.

And a Blue Jay or 2 swooped in before the others could get at it.

And Sicily's ultimate favorite. She followed this little family around for a good 15 mins. She eventually did come back with a smile on her face because "Baby eat my b'ed!" She was so excited.

Childrens Theatre

Last week the Miller Outdoor Theatre of Houston hosted a Childrens Festival, that went on for 4 days. They did 4 little plays: "3 Billy Goats Gruff", "Tortoise and the Hare", "3 Little Pigs" and "Jack and the Beanstock." We went everyday and had so much fun. The kids just loved it.

Here's the "3 Billy Goats Gruff." The Billy Goat with the yellow shirt would panic all the time when they mentioned the Troll. So the other 2 billy goats would coax the kids in the crowd to yell, "Chill Out Fred!!" Then he'd calm down. The Troll was actually really nice and she just wanted to play pretends. She came out as a Cowboy, a Pirate and last a Rock Star. And she wouldn't let them cross the Bridge till they said, "Please!"
It was great, all of the plays taught a little moral about something or other. "Jack and the Beanstalk" taught the kids to be obedient to their parents. Jack finally cut down the beanstalk like his mom told him to and gold coins fell from the sky. So he was blessed for his obedience. :)

All up it was a lot of fun. We got to take different friends with us everyday and Jared even took off one morning to join us. It was a good week.

What Really Happens at a Swim Meet

A typical Swim Meet lasts from 4:00-9:00. So with 5 hours to spend, and only about 30 mins of that, swimming for each kid there is a lot of time to kill. So here's what really happens as a Swim Meet.

Swim Caps have many functions. Not sure what this one is, but hey...it's a function.

Cute little 7-8 year old girls, playing cards and being cute.

Boys being boys, eating snow cones to keep cool and pretty much just hanging out.

This is Aspen and Sophia. They found a good seat in the bleachers during one Meet to watch the other swimmers.

Later they raided the boys "fort" (made of deck chairs) and camped out in the shade for a while. Aspen was hiding in the corner, so this is just Sophia.
London and Dillon playing Slap Jack. We had to teach the boys in our group how to play, none of them knew. So sad! But it was a big hit once they figured it out.

Almost ready to race! You can see London there stretching his arms.

And NOW we finally swim!!

London and Aspen did such an amazing job this swim season. They made quite a few new friends and built many memories. We are so proud of their accomplishments, and we had so much fun watching them learn and grow.