Sunday, March 22, 2009

Spring Break Fun!

Big plans were made for Spring Break! The kids and I would drive out to Grammy & Poppy's house by ourselves, then Dinky would fly out on Wednesday after he got off work. We were leaving on Friday night, driving to Abilene, staying in a hotel, and then visiting the museum before heading the rest of the way to visit. That was the plan before the cold front and the temperature in the 30s and 40s! So, being the ever flexible mother that I am, I drove in the rain to Abilene, stayed in a luxurious hotel, and found something else to do to take the place of the zoo. Here is what I found:

OK! Seriously! How cool is this? Princess thought that it was named after her! This is an art museum, history of Abilene museum, and a children's museum all housed in the old Grace Hotel in downtown Abilene. One price for admission and we got to enjoy all three museums!

We got there a little early but the kiddos had a great time peeking in these huge glass plate windows. They could see things inside the art museum and they were so excited about going in!

This is an art sculpture called "Grace Notes." When the kids pressed on the colored squares, it made different sounds and music notes. It was very cool, and I played with it quite a bit, too!

Look at how big it is!

The art museum was hosting some art that was made by the children in the schools in and around Abilene. Superman wants pizza and cheetos at every meal, and Princess loves chocolate, so I caught them staring at these fake replicas. That was a one-in-a-million shot!

The Children's Musuem was awesome! It was small, but there were so many interesting things to see and do there. I can't even list them all here, but if you want to see some more of my pictures, just let me know. We might need to plan a road trip!
This is a tornado maker. There was a button to push and then air come out to push this smoke into a funnel formation. The kids could touch it and everything. They really enjoyed trying to figure out how it worked! I can see Princess going to the library to check out a book on tornadoes to figure it out.

They had a "Movin' and Groovin' Room." Essentially, you stodd in front of the screen and every movement that you made was put up in these moving colors on the screen. This was Princess's favorite place and she stayed in there a long time, and she kept going back. She was sweating when we left! Isn't it cool how you can actually see her dance moves in the picture? I also got one that I stage of the kids pretending to kiss. It is too cute!

No matter where we go, Superman's favorite spot always involves blocks of some sort. I must get that child some Legos so that I can see what he will build!

Once we got to Grammy and Poppy's, Superman decided that he would help clean up the yard. There is a huge Sycamore tree in the back yard that drops the seed balls all over the place, and Poppy mentioned something about needing to pick them up before he mowed again because they just broke up and made the lawn mower and bag all sticky and icky. After he had picked up several of the balls, I told Superman that they were called Sycamore balls, and he got a serious look on his face and asked if they would make him sick. I just laughed at him and explained that the Sycamore was the name of the tree. He didn't seem to care!

This is the bucket of Sycamore balls after Superman had finished. He was very proud of his work and didn't want to just throw them away. He asked for a bigger bucket or box to put them in to keep, so Poppy suggested the dumpster in the alley. That didn't fool Superman one bit, but he wasn't going to argue with Poppy!

Anyhow, that is just a little bit of what we did. It was a busy, refreshing week, but we head back to work and school tomorrow. We are already planning some escapades for this summer, so be on the look out for some of our plans! We are going to make it to a zoo!