Spencer checks the McDonald's Happy Meal website about every other day waiting to see what the next happy meal toy will be, then which toys they will be and what they will do (this is available the week before they come out), and finally when they are available and what the next ones will be. And so it continues. I find my kids are generally happy if they have one toy from that group. Which means we go about once a month. I know it's unhealthy and honestly McDonald's is my least favorite fast food restaurant when it comes to taste, but it's the place for kids. My kids get nuggets, milk, and apple slices (which McDonald's substitutes for fries at no extra charge unlike some others...) along with a fun toy (McDonald's kids toys are usually the best made and coolest of the fast food chains) for $3. And we go to one of the many with a playland so my kids get to run around and play in a safe, warm play area. So we went this past Friday as our Friday Fun Day Activity.
Spencer is loving his Hot Wheels Fuse Car and Tessa loves her pretty Barbie fairy doll with removable wings. Spencer used to be scared to go to the top slides, but his little sister isn't scared, so as long as she goes he is no longer scared. And this time was Clara's first experience on slides as I let her go down the little toddler slide with the kids. She loved it and Tessa loved letting her slide down on her lap.
It's been about a month since we visited the library and it's right by one of the McDonald's near us, so we tied them both in. I'm grateful my kids still get excited for the library. The kids go straight to the "movie" and "tv show" books so I go looking for other books without characters they know. They load up their bags with ones they like and I grab some more. Then they each choose one DVD to checkout. Tessa chose a Barbie Christmas Carol movie (only because we couldn't find a single Blue's Clues or Dora) and Spencer chose a Pokemon, which he just recently learned about. Then we go over to the little kid couches and the kids take turns having me read them a book. All the Dora, Blue's Clues, Princess, and Barbie books for Tessa. Spencer is into Transformers, Batman, Spiderman, Marvel Heroes, Pokemon, Scooby-Doo, Sponge Bob, and Star Wars books. And we read Clara a couple of the lift-the-flap or touchy-feely books. Each time we go varies with how long we stay, but this time we read books for about 45 minutes before heading home. The kids get to choose however many books their age is (Spencer-6, Tessa-3) and they each choose one for Clara. Then I choose about 10 to read to the kids or have Spencer read to me. I keep meaning to decrease the number we get and go more often to avoid the late fines, but I still average $3 a month in late fines.
Usually when we get back from the library I let the kids watch their movie, but this time I made them clean the toy room first so they didn't get in much movie time before dinner. There wasn't too much fussing so it must have been a fun Friday!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Discovery Gateway & Clark Planetarium
Okay, so this was actually last week's Friday fun day activity. My kids had a blast at the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. Both of them absolutely loved the "Beehive" which is an exhibit full of different things to do with plastic balls. Their favorite, along with most other kids there, is putting the balls in the air wind tunnel that blows their face and hair when they open it to slip the balls in. They then watched their balls go through the clear tubes before falling into the main ball catching area. They can also drop balls into holes that make different sounds, or in a some device that makes the balls go somewhere or do something fun. Of course this is also the most crowded exhibit with the least amount of parent supervision, so it also seems to make me the most frustrated as my kids are not the most assertive kids and I have to intervene to get some other kids to let mine have a turn after umpteen minutes. But my kids had fun. Clara even liked the wind blowing on her from the wind tubes. I should mention Spencer insisted on wearing his pirate hat and it wasn't worth a fight...
Then there's the Kid's Eye View. Tessa loved the grocery store, buying all sorts of stuff. They have carts and baskets and shelves full of stuff you'd find at a regular grocery store. They also have cash registers. Spencer wasn't interested in this but loved filling up the car with gas and climbing up onto the life-sized horse. He also liked trying to climb the climbing wall, although he never made it up more than a couple steps. Both of the kids enjoyed the garden, planting and picking the plastic vegetables. They also had fun playing in the little house and at the kids construction site. There is also a fun looking water section where you put plastic ping pong balls in the water and watch where the water takes them. It was so crowded here that my kids didn't even want to try to get a turn and we went for the elevators.
While the bottom level is more "play" the upper level is more "discovery" I think. Up here Spencer's favorite was a thing where he could basically make a stop motion animated film. Tessa's favorite was the stage. They had a full stage with various backdrops and three different lighting effects. They also had 4 girl dress-ups and 2 boy dress ups. I mention the number because we had to wait a while before one of the girl dress-ups became available. That being said Tessa had a blast dancing around, switching backdrops, and hiding in the curtains. Spencer enjoyed the lights. And, to my amazement, Spencer even agreed to dance with Tessa when she was looking for a "handsome prince". Usually this request is vehemently refused by Spencer at home. Up here there is also a large section of hands-on activities like puzzles, building blocks, magnets that spin each other, and a shaking table. The kids loved the shaking table as they built towers and buildings out of the blocks and then turned on the shaker and watched them tumble. Clara thought it was hilarious when I sat her on the shaking table and turned it on.
The kids also loved the helicopter on the terrace. It's an acual helicopter, I believe from Life Flight. The kids loved riding in the back and pretending to fly in the cockpit as well as pushing the buttons in the control room. Then there's a section where you can pretend to be a newscaster, which didn't interest my kids, or stand in front of a green screen with something going on behind you. My kids liked standing in the snowstorm and the emploding building.
As fun as the museum was, I believe it is overpriced for what you get. It was $8.50 per person over the age of 1. At that high of prices, non-participating parents should be allowed in free. Or they should at least discount ages 1-3 to like $5.00 as they're too little for like half the stuff there. They do have buy 1 get 1 free coupons they send out in the Utah ad newspaper that comes on Tuesdays with the Harmon's ads. Even with that it's too pricey for us to go to more than a couple times a year, but if you're going to go make sure you have a coupon!
Because the Clark Planetarium is across the street and it's free to look around (only the movie and light shows cost $), we decided to briefly stop by there as well. Spencer is very much into space exploration and Tessa loves to play on Mars and walk on the moon. They're small exhibits made to look like Mars and the moon with a pathway the kids can go on and a little blurb you can read. Spencer also loves looking at the pretend Saturn on the telescopes and doing the light bulb experiment where you see how hard you have to turn the thing to create enough electricity for different types of light bulbs to turn on. There's about 20-40 minutes worth of stuff to look at depending on the age of the kids, but my kids had fun.
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| The two kids putting balls into the wind tunnel |
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| Tessa getting blown! |
Then there's the Kid's Eye View. Tessa loved the grocery store, buying all sorts of stuff. They have carts and baskets and shelves full of stuff you'd find at a regular grocery store. They also have cash registers. Spencer wasn't interested in this but loved filling up the car with gas and climbing up onto the life-sized horse. He also liked trying to climb the climbing wall, although he never made it up more than a couple steps. Both of the kids enjoyed the garden, planting and picking the plastic vegetables. They also had fun playing in the little house and at the kids construction site. There is also a fun looking water section where you put plastic ping pong balls in the water and watch where the water takes them. It was so crowded here that my kids didn't even want to try to get a turn and we went for the elevators.
While the bottom level is more "play" the upper level is more "discovery" I think. Up here Spencer's favorite was a thing where he could basically make a stop motion animated film. Tessa's favorite was the stage. They had a full stage with various backdrops and three different lighting effects. They also had 4 girl dress-ups and 2 boy dress ups. I mention the number because we had to wait a while before one of the girl dress-ups became available. That being said Tessa had a blast dancing around, switching backdrops, and hiding in the curtains. Spencer enjoyed the lights. And, to my amazement, Spencer even agreed to dance with Tessa when she was looking for a "handsome prince". Usually this request is vehemently refused by Spencer at home. Up here there is also a large section of hands-on activities like puzzles, building blocks, magnets that spin each other, and a shaking table. The kids loved the shaking table as they built towers and buildings out of the blocks and then turned on the shaker and watched them tumble. Clara thought it was hilarious when I sat her on the shaking table and turned it on.
As fun as the museum was, I believe it is overpriced for what you get. It was $8.50 per person over the age of 1. At that high of prices, non-participating parents should be allowed in free. Or they should at least discount ages 1-3 to like $5.00 as they're too little for like half the stuff there. They do have buy 1 get 1 free coupons they send out in the Utah ad newspaper that comes on Tuesdays with the Harmon's ads. Even with that it's too pricey for us to go to more than a couple times a year, but if you're going to go make sure you have a coupon!
Because the Clark Planetarium is across the street and it's free to look around (only the movie and light shows cost $), we decided to briefly stop by there as well. Spencer is very much into space exploration and Tessa loves to play on Mars and walk on the moon. They're small exhibits made to look like Mars and the moon with a pathway the kids can go on and a little blurb you can read. Spencer also loves looking at the pretend Saturn on the telescopes and doing the light bulb experiment where you see how hard you have to turn the thing to create enough electricity for different types of light bulbs to turn on. There's about 20-40 minutes worth of stuff to look at depending on the age of the kids, but my kids had fun.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Carl Bloch exhibit at BYU
My husband really wanted to take a trip to the BYU Museum of Art to see the Carl Bloch exhibit so we decided to make it a family event as our Friday Fun Day for this past week. The tickets were free, we just had to reserve a day and time online. We told the kids that we were going to a real art museum to see some really cool paintings of Jesus. They seemed excited enough. So we packed the kids in the minivan and drove 40 minutes to the Museum.
As for the exhibit, the paintings were beautiful and inspiring. It was a different experience seeing the original paintings as large altar pieces rather than just the prints. Well worth the drive and the time and the cost (free) for us adults. Maybe not the absolute funnest thing for kids, but they also seemed in awe as we first entered the exhibit.
The exhibit itself was smaller than I thought it would be. There were only 7 or so actual paintings of Christ by Carl Bloch. Then there was a self-portrait, one of his wife, a friend, and his parents. And there were a few other paintings he did of an area he spent the summers, some boys fishing, and random things like that. And although our kids are very well behaved, they did become bored after the first two paintings. That's where the Ipad came in handy. You can rent one for $3 that comes pre-loaded with a bunch of information about the paintings. The kids enjoyed taking turns with the headset listening to and watching the information it provided. And that gave us adults a little bit of time to take in the paintings.
Carl Bloch was an amazing artist. The love and gentleness he was able to portray in Christ's face really touched me. I was really touched with his painting of The Daughter of Jairus. Even Spencer, my 6 year old son, recognized it. He said, "That's the story of the girl who was dead but Jesus said she was just sleeping." Carl Bloch captured the mother's emotions of her daughter being dead. I was present when my brother-in-law passed away after suffering through brain cancer. A lot of emotions went through me in just a short time that I won't get into here. I loved him very much and it was very hard. However, as a mother I know it would be even harder and there would be different emotions if it were my own child. I sensed in this painting the sorrow and exhaustion in the mother's face, in a gentle motherly way. I wanted to cry for her and put my arm around her to help her through this hard time. Then my eyes wandered over to the door where Jesus was entering and the sun was rising and my heart leapt with joy because I knew Jesus would be able to miraculously return this little angel to her mother. I felt a part of this story. I also loved the "Christus Consolator" painting. The people around Christ were all different. A child, a widow, a sinner, an infirm. Christ welcomes, heals, loves, comforts every one of us regardless of our trials or stage in life. And the painting of Christ with a child made me feel how sincerely Christ loves each of us and is there for each of us. Not because he's supposed to, but because that's just him.
Okay so I'm getting away from the point which is that this was our Friday Fun Day activity of the week. The kids at first didn't seem too interested. But when I told them the story of what was happening in the paintings they seemed to "get it". For about 30 seconds. Once again, that's when the Ipad came in handy to give us adults a few more minutes. Spencer's favorite painting was the one of Prometheus chained to a rock with Hercules killing the eagle that had been eating his liver every day since Zeus chained him there. He's seen the Disney Hercules movie and he loves Superheroes so this one was his favorite. It gave me a brief teaching moment regarding Greek mythology. Tessa, my 3 year old daughter, liked the Christ paintings for about 5 seconds each and then just wanted to play with the Ipad. Clara, my 8 month old, was very squirmy but quiet when I was holding her and was contained but noisy in the stroller.
Overall Brodie and I enjoyed the exhibit, but with a 40 minute drive each way the kids didn't really think it was all that fun. They didn't complain, but they weren't jumping around. Looking back I guess we could have taken them somewhere fun to eat like Pirate Island while we were in the area and then they may have looked back on the day with greater enthusiasm. At least the $3 Ipad rental was cheaper than a babysitter would have been.
As for the exhibit, the paintings were beautiful and inspiring. It was a different experience seeing the original paintings as large altar pieces rather than just the prints. Well worth the drive and the time and the cost (free) for us adults. Maybe not the absolute funnest thing for kids, but they also seemed in awe as we first entered the exhibit.
The exhibit itself was smaller than I thought it would be. There were only 7 or so actual paintings of Christ by Carl Bloch. Then there was a self-portrait, one of his wife, a friend, and his parents. And there were a few other paintings he did of an area he spent the summers, some boys fishing, and random things like that. And although our kids are very well behaved, they did become bored after the first two paintings. That's where the Ipad came in handy. You can rent one for $3 that comes pre-loaded with a bunch of information about the paintings. The kids enjoyed taking turns with the headset listening to and watching the information it provided. And that gave us adults a little bit of time to take in the paintings.
Carl Bloch was an amazing artist. The love and gentleness he was able to portray in Christ's face really touched me. I was really touched with his painting of The Daughter of Jairus. Even Spencer, my 6 year old son, recognized it. He said, "That's the story of the girl who was dead but Jesus said she was just sleeping." Carl Bloch captured the mother's emotions of her daughter being dead. I was present when my brother-in-law passed away after suffering through brain cancer. A lot of emotions went through me in just a short time that I won't get into here. I loved him very much and it was very hard. However, as a mother I know it would be even harder and there would be different emotions if it were my own child. I sensed in this painting the sorrow and exhaustion in the mother's face, in a gentle motherly way. I wanted to cry for her and put my arm around her to help her through this hard time. Then my eyes wandered over to the door where Jesus was entering and the sun was rising and my heart leapt with joy because I knew Jesus would be able to miraculously return this little angel to her mother. I felt a part of this story. I also loved the "Christus Consolator" painting. The people around Christ were all different. A child, a widow, a sinner, an infirm. Christ welcomes, heals, loves, comforts every one of us regardless of our trials or stage in life. And the painting of Christ with a child made me feel how sincerely Christ loves each of us and is there for each of us. Not because he's supposed to, but because that's just him.
Okay so I'm getting away from the point which is that this was our Friday Fun Day activity of the week. The kids at first didn't seem too interested. But when I told them the story of what was happening in the paintings they seemed to "get it". For about 30 seconds. Once again, that's when the Ipad came in handy to give us adults a few more minutes. Spencer's favorite painting was the one of Prometheus chained to a rock with Hercules killing the eagle that had been eating his liver every day since Zeus chained him there. He's seen the Disney Hercules movie and he loves Superheroes so this one was his favorite. It gave me a brief teaching moment regarding Greek mythology. Tessa, my 3 year old daughter, liked the Christ paintings for about 5 seconds each and then just wanted to play with the Ipad. Clara, my 8 month old, was very squirmy but quiet when I was holding her and was contained but noisy in the stroller.
Overall Brodie and I enjoyed the exhibit, but with a 40 minute drive each way the kids didn't really think it was all that fun. They didn't complain, but they weren't jumping around. Looking back I guess we could have taken them somewhere fun to eat like Pirate Island while we were in the area and then they may have looked back on the day with greater enthusiasm. At least the $3 Ipad rental was cheaper than a babysitter would have been.
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