Fishing

We fish. Do you fish? We haven’t always fished. Today we went and fished. We didn’t actually catch any fish. But we fish. Fish are tricksy, when you fish.

Neil has had to do a ton of research (leading to a whole bunch of red tape covered brick walls…stupid government) about importing and stocking fish. Along the way he found what is involved in fishing at local ponds and thought it would be super fun to take the kids. He was right and today we had our first go at fishing.

My first and probably only memory of ever going fishing was with my Dad somewhere in Southern California. Memories from childhood tend to make everything 3 times as big as they really were, but not in this case. For me, I remember that fishing pond being about the size of a small kid wading pool (and that’s saying something since I was probably 5 or 6 at the time). I remember we caught the fish then they went into the freezer, and I think I was both relieved and disappointed that we never actually ate them. However, it was a super cool memory and I remember thinking how awesome it was of my Dad to take me to do that. Thanks, Dad!

  

I got the kids’ rod up and functioning before Neil was ready with his, so I tried to show Garyn what to do. I couldn’t get it to cast out farther than about 4 feet. I had the husband guy come over and he didn’t fare much better. Then I gave up and had to go wrangle little girls and Little Man asked if he could try. “Sure, why not?” I said. Yeah, he was really good and totally didn’t need any help or explanation…I forget that he getting all big and stuff.

  

Something about this girl in a pony tail makes me melt…throw in her dad teaching her something and I’m a puddle. Little girls are weird like that and motherhood is even weirder.

  

I’m going to cry when we cut this one’s hair and I can’t do a pony tail in it for a while. I love the pony tail! Anyways, first thing she did when I was distracted was to ease herself off the step into the lake with her shoes on. After that it was non-stop walking around, climbing any ledges she could reach, and snacking. I must say, though, that she is a very responsible stroller driver and didn’t even try to push Corra into the pond.

  

I know these pictures look like every other picture of this baby I have posted recently. That would be because she only has two facial expressions: smiling, and not smiling. Oh and speaking of smiling…tonight she also had her first real adventure with solid food. She giggled when I gave her a bite of mushed up avocado and didn’t stop smiling until it was all gone and she had to get down. Yup, smiling with avocado drool was a whole new level of cute.

Overall it was a hard lesson for Garyn that you don’t always catch something. He stuck with it the whole two and a half hours we were there (which surprised me) and had a great time. He’s already figuring out what we could do to improve our chances and asking about other lakes to visit. The girls just loved that I brought yummy snacks…you know, the kind I usually never buy because I’m a mean mom. I like fishing and I’m excited to post some pictures of us with fish we have actually caught. If we could only figure out how to get some into our aquaponics system that would be a lot easier…

Genius.

Genius = museums with lots of hands on, kid friendly displays. Genius = Leonardo da Vinci. Genius = combining the two. Once again the Springs Preserve delivered on the awesomeness front with their new exhibit: “Leonardo da Vinci: Machines in Motion.” We went today for the first time and I’m already planning two more trips (one to take good pictures, not crappy ones from my phone, to enter a contest; and the other to bring sketch books, because of course!) Oh and it’s pretty great when you are prepping your kids on the way to the place even though you should have done a whole unit study on said place and you quickly are informed by your 7 year old that the Magic Tree House book about said place already taught him all he needed to know. Well everything you wanted him to know at this point. Not sure how I feel about Magic Tree House books picking up my slack…

  

  

You know, from one inventor to another. He was in heaven.

  

Love that look. And she liked playing with the big wooden toys models as much as her brother. When he would let her and not steal every new one she found. Gosh.

  

Drinking in the knowledge. The docents thought she was the greatest thing since sliced bread and there were several times I turned around to see where she was and they were holding her, helping her work a display or just talking to her about everything. It made my day, a lot.

  

So in addition to the 40 or so models of his various machines that you could play with, they also had life sized models of his flying machines, his tank, and some other things. It was SOOOO COOOL!!!!

  

Gratuitous fat baby pictures. We always have to play at the park and since she was on my hip in the exhibit (never again will I forget the stroller…Littlest girl is heavy!) this was my first chance to take a picture of her. Oh and yeah…she sits up now. I’ll be posting a 6-month update on all that soon.

 

It is kind of rare that these two play very well together so it was photo worthy. And really the reason for the huge butterfly picture is because Naomi informed me that not only was its name “Redyellowpinkblacky” but her pet dog was riding on it. Never a dull moment at the park for us.

Discovering again…

I’ve written about the Lied Discovery Museum before (and I’d link to it if I could find the post), but we got to go again the Tuesday after Winter Break ended. It was bliss. Very few other kids (all of them 4 years old or younger), no field trips, and we didn’t even go as a group so it was just us. Like I said…Bliss. We discovered some new things and Layna was out on her own because Corra is now the designated stroller baby.

  

Corra discovered that taking a nap is always the right answer.

 

I discovered the raincoats with ears! [squee!] Layna discovered the holy grail of all plastic balls! So much awesome!

 

More ears…tehehehe! Unfortunately Naomi discovered that they put a cover on the swirling vortex of greatness, and so it is much harder to toss a ball in and get it in one of the holes…I’m guessing some kid’s baby brother got tossed in. Just a theory.

 

As if I wouldn’t have a matching set of kids in ears. Garyn discovered that there is actual building stuff in Waterworld…not just the water canon. It was fun to see him playing like a big kid.

 

 

It was so nice to just meander and not hurry the kids through or encourage them to give the other kids a turn. There were no other kids! I’m thinking the Tuesday after Spring Break is over might just be a museum date for us…#awesomethingabouthomeschooling #justkiddingihatehashtags

Lied Discovery Museum

There were exactly 100 pictures dumped from my camera to my hard drive after our latest homeschool field trip. I saved you from that by exercising self-control and reminding myself (repeatedly) that not everyone is as enamored of my children learning and developing as I am. But this place is really, really cool, so here are my favorites.

The museum shares building space with The Smith Center and opened this past March. It’s well-designed for kids of all ages (even one year olds…because you have to pay full admission price starting at age one. I would have had to pay for Layna anyways I’m sure, but next year it will be rough to pay for baby too) and convenient for moms with strollers, so I’m a fan.

 

Have I ever mentioned my chronic inability to be late? To anything…ever? It’s a joke to my friends and a mild annoyance to everyone else. Not sure why but 10 – 15 minutes early is my modus operandi. “Seriously, Mom?” she says patiently with the long-suffering of the young martyr that she is. Once other friends arrived and the kids could work on breaking the door, waiting wasn’t so bad.

 

 

WaterWorld! First up was the best part. Something about playing and manipulating water, I think, equals play perfection for most kids. It certainly does for my fish. Little girl loved the balls thrown into the vortex, Little little girl had full access to all the water she wanted (still at toilet height) but with no mom to shoo her away from it (funny side note: even with the water table and toys, while I was standing and talking to a friend, she snuck away and was booking it for the women’s bathroom across the way. A kind lady pointed her out to me before Layna actually made it to a stall. What is it with kids and toilets?!). Little man loved the ball launching device that would splash everyone in a five foot radius every time it launched a ball. I loved that he had that look on his face the whole time.

 

You should know by now that I’m a sucker for cheesy face-in-hole photo ops. Naomi and her friend sat in the throne together overseeing, discussing fashion, and generally ruling the populace as only three year olds can.

 

Pirate ship with working canon. Done and Done. TWO mirror friends to alternate kissing. Also done and double done.

When we got home Naomi informed her dad that he would be building her a castle out of paper, and a Rapunzel dress, and a small queen dress, and prince clothes. She provided him with random books constructions so he could get to work immediately. We now have a daily ritual where I explain that the reason I took pictures is so Daddy could get to work without having to go to the museum to see it for himself and that he will begin full-scale production “this weekend.”

 

There were lots of other things to play with and make and move and hear and see and touch. Layna enjoyed her graham crackers before we had lunch (in our own private room with our homeschool buddies). Little man and Little girl surprised me by how much they loved all the playing pretend. And in the lobby was a very cool exhibit about leverage and lifting up a car. There was so much more, but in the end we loved it all, and if a baby wasn’t due smack in the middle of the summer we would probably be getting a season pass. I’m thinking that will happen after baby so we have a full year to enjoy it, when I can walk around pushing a stroller or wearing baby in a cute trendy baby-wrap, instead of waddling like an uncouth duck, failing as I try to not bump into people with my stomach. People are so nice about stuff like that. And having the rest of the kid population of the city stuck in schools starting in the fall will be really nice too. Can’t wait!