HMNS and CMH

For Stella's birthday, she wanted to go to the Museum of Natural Sciences with Hawken. He was concerned at first that it was a "date", but I assured him it wasn't. :) He had a great time and even got a REAL dinosaur tooth to keep! So exciting!  Afterward, they met up with us at the Children's Museum for story time.

It was a fun day. Happy birthday Stella!

package!

Auntie Coco sent out a package for the kids and it was full of goodies! Thanks Coco, they were SO excited. The boys got some Pokemon things, Sully and Lullaby got some candy, it was a happy day.

preschool happenings

It's tricky to TEACH about winter when we live in a climate that feels a lot like summer fall spring repeat… I make up for it by doing wintery activities, like this cute little melting snowman guy. The preschoolers built this putty snowman.

An hour later, and this is what he looked like! They love this activity and can repeat it as often as they like. This was a gift to Hawken from Auntie Robin and we love it!

We also made snow dough, which is made out of cornstarch and white hair conditioner and a little glitter. It's like play dough, but softer and smells better. It was messy to mix and I thought it may have been a mistake to try for preschool, but after it was thoroughly mixed, it was great!  I was glad that we mixed it up the night before preschool though, because I was a gooey mess for a bit.

We added marshmallows to hot cocoa cups… Very wintery.

We painted pictures of snowmen...

And then we went out and realized we like our winters better like this anyway. No shoes, no coats, playtime whenever we want it without the frostbite.

This isn't winter related, but it happened at preschool and was too cute not to share. 2 of the kids at preschool have pregnant moms now and so the kids often play family and talk about having babies. Lullaby is all for that! She shoved a doll up her shirt and told everyone she was about to have a baby. The other 2 girls followed suit and they ran into the room asking if anyone was a doctor who could help them get their babies out. It was really cute.

If anyone ever wants to read more about what Lullaby is doing in preschool, you can read about it on her preschool blog HoustonKindergartenPrep.blogspot.com.  We really have the best time in preschool.

couch surfing...

Well, this puts a whole new spin on "couch surfing", right? 

Matix

This secretive man has something that he's hiding… Can you guess what it is?

I'll tell you… He's part WOLF, as you can tell from the mysterious wolf paw print on his palm, that you can only see when his backlight shines on it, thereby exposing the secret ink tattoo that has just mysteriously appeared there for no reason whatsoever.

package!

Auntie Holly sent out a gift for the kids and they were THRILLED to get it. It is a book called The Reindeer Wish, and it has the most BEAUTIFUL pictures. Thank you Holly for the awesome gift! :)

Hawken

This handsome man won the citizenship award in his kindergarten class (only 1 of 2 kids - Stella got the other award). His prize was that he got to wear whatever he wanted the following day. He was SUPER excited, and we are as proud as ever that he is such a nice boy and a good citizen. :) Good job Hawky!

NASA Space Center

Well finally, after living in Houston for over 2 and 1/2 years, we went to the NASA Space Center. The kids loved it. It was expensive for just one day, but it was something that we wanted to do before leaving Houston, so I'm glad we went.  Dale and Vanessa as well as her parents and sister and her family all came too. It was a BIG group.  Hawken LOVED this picture of himself and thought he looked like a REAL astronaut. Both big boys decided at some point during the day that they would be astronauts when they grew up.

We took a tour of some of the training facilities, and for some reason we ended up with 8 people in our row instead of the comfortable 4 or 5… So it goes when the kids hang out with their cousins though.

Outside there were engines, and other space shuttle pieces for the kids to see up close and explore. Very cool! The kids realized they could fit inside this small area. Of course Matix was the one to figure that out.

Inside, we got to touch a moon rock. This is one of only 8 in the works that are available to be seen and touched by the public. So cool!

The machinery was incredibly big. To get the whole thing into the picture, Paul was laying on the ground and we had to stick our heads in just the right spot.

The back end of this shuttle was HUGE! The pictures do not do it justice!

Matix and Hawken came running over to me and said they touched "moon dust"… I'm pretty sure it was just earth dust, but they were excited so I guess it doesn't matter much. :)

Solace and Lullaby were in a silly mood and wanted to get their picture taken every few feet. After these 3 pictures, I faked it. I had to or otherwise I would have ended up with hundreds...

We watched a science demonstration about how physics worked in space, rather than here on the earth. It was really fun, and Gavin got to be the assistant.

There was a kids play area, with a slide that was the main attraction for the kids, and a few other things. I thought this little space shuttle viewing area was cool too. The kids lay on their backs and looked out what looked like windows, but were actually computer screens playing a video of what it really looks like during takeoff.

On the way home, Paul fell asleep like this. Really. Hunched over forward. We were in stop and go traffic and so I got the chance to get this picture. So funny. He can fall asleep anywhere!  He was still recovering from his night shift month in December. I swear it takes almost a whole month to just recover!