Vacation at Oma’s 2009, Part III: National Museum of Natural History

Well, we’re back home now and the last ten days have been a whirlwind of trips to Toronto, doctor appointments, playgroups, babysitting, and the like.  I am finally getting a chance to sit down and finish this post.

The third big trip we took while visiting my parents was to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.  It was not my children’s first time experiencing fossils, gems, and taxidermy animals, but really, these things never get too old.  Especially when you’re a museum junkie like me.

Our trip began with a super exciting Metro ride from my parents’ house to the National Mall.  Obviously, it was much more exciting for the little guys than it was for the adults- all of whom have frequently ridden the trains before.

Like all boys, mine love trains.  They love to play with their wooden toy trains and they love to ride trains.  They really love to go through the tunnels, and as anyone who rides the Metro knows, there were lots of tunnels for my children to appreciate. 

After arriving at the Smithsonian stop, we made our way- manoeuvring and carrying Sweet Pea in the stroller- up the escalators and emerged into the glorious heat and humidity of Washington DC in mid-August.  We walked across the Mall and stopped to take the prerequisite pictures in front of both the Washington Monument (see above) and the capitol building- which was under construction.  If you look really carefully to the left of the dome in this picture you can see the giant crane that was parked next to the capital.  The boys thought the crane was a lot cooler than the capitol building.

After arriving at the museum and taking a potty/snack break, Bud quickly decided that we needed to visit the Ocean Hall section first.  I think the giant globe hanging from the ceiling had something to do with his decision.  So did this guy:

Yeah, that’s a giant whale hanging from the ceiling right in the middle of the exhibit.  My children were very impressed.  

We made our way through the Hall, watching the available videos and admiring all the animals- Bud became suddenly fascinated with sea cucumbers for some reason and we searched high and low until we finally found a preserved one for him to admire.  He really likes to eat garden cucumbers, so I guess he felt like he should admire the ocean variety.

Next was the Discovery Room- my favorite part.  Anything my kids can explore and learn from gets an A+ in my book, and this particular room was exceptional in the quantity of specimens the kids could get their hands on. 

There were dozens of boxes like this one labelled “Butterflies” that  Monkey and I are examining.  Each box contained several smaller boxes containing skeletons, preserved animals and insects, and other similar items that had to do with the subject of each box. 

The walls of the room were covered with a spattering of examples of habitats and stuffed wildlife with binoculars hanging from the wall to admire them and attempt a closer look.  There were microscopes and slides, magnifying glasses, African instruments to try out, books to look up information in, a section to make crafts pertaining to some of the exhibits, and a lot more.

It was glorious.

Bud loved the binoculars, but the thing that he really became interested in were the microscopes.  It was his first experience getting his hands on one and seeing that tiny world enlarged, and I think he is as attached them them as his mother.  During a later trip to a teacher supply store to get a few school supplies, he tried like crazy to convince both me and my mom to buy him a microscope.  We did give in and get him a small handheld one, which he has since used to examine everything he can get his hands on.   The biologist in me couldn’t be prouder.

The afternoon was filled with fossils of prehistoric animals- including Monkey’s favorite dinosaurs.  While we were there he kept darting back into the room with the t-rex, triceratops, and other dinosaurs to see them again. 

We couldn’t bypass the exhibit on volcanoes, meteorites, caves, the weather, and other earth and space related things- Bud would have thrown a fit if we had tried! 

We did get to touch a piece of Mars- that was really interesting and not something I was expecting.  I don’t know if we actually touched it- I think it was under a piece of very thin glass- and it was about the size of the eraser on the back of a pencil.  Maybe smaller.  Still, I didn’t know that the Smithsonian had a piece of Mars. 

We saw the Hope diamond and the rest of the gems and minerals exhibit- definitely interesting but definitely lost on my boys.  Plus I guess they don’t air condition that room and it was miserable and crowded.  Oh well.  The Hope Diamond was very interesting and I learned a lot about it’s history that I hadn’t known before.

The last exhibit we saw were the mammals.  I have never seen so many animals stuffed and put in one place.  They were arranged to look like they were in their natural habitats- there were several clustered around a fake waterhole.  There was one obviously dead species of deer hanging over  a tree branch that you walked under while a variety of stuffed large cat prepared to dine on it.  There was a beaver in it’s dam, a polar bear on some ice, a rabbit in mid hop, and- Monkey’s favorite- a giraffe sticking out it’s long, bluish tongue to eat leaves off a branch.

So after a long day and another Metro home we finished our planned daytrips around DC.  We spend the rest of the trip hanging out with my parents and doing a little shopping.  We really had a great time.  The boys already talk about how much they miss Oma and Pa and ask to watch a slide show of the pictures from our trip so they can talk about all the things we did.

Now it’s time to get ready to start our new school year next week!  I can’t believe the summer went by that fast.

Vacation at Oma’s 2009, Part II: Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

Not really what you were expecting when I said Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, huh?  Optimus Prime ranks high on the list of important historical figures for my sons, though, so when we saw the giant statue outside the IMAX at the museum, we had to get a picture of it.  It almost looks like he is defending Monkey against some evil Decepticon sneaking up behind him.  Good job, Optimus.

Anyway, back to the museum. 

This particular museum was new to me- built after I got married and moved away. 

It is designed to look like an airport from the outside- a huge hanger with a control tower sitting at the front.  Inside the hanger is loaded with more airplanes and helicopters than I knew existed.   There are old planes, new planes, famous planes, infamous planes, planes for the military, planes for civilians, and planes for a million other reasons I can’t remember.

Of course, Pa (my dad) and Hockey Guy knew what they were for.  I found it all interesting, but I really know nothing about planes so I probably didn’t appreciate it as much as other people did. 

Monkey just kept asking when he was going to get to go for his plane ride.  At one point he even came over to me, pointed to a plane, and said, “That one.”  When I asked him what he was talking about he said that was the plane he wanted to ride and when I was ready to drive him, he was certainly ready to fly.

He also found this doll wearing an suit from the Mercury mission (I think it was the Mercury mission?)  He stood next to it, hand on his hip, and said, “Um… I think that should be me.”

He got a little grumpy when we said he couldn’t actually wear it.  Or when we told him that he couldn’t actually play with the toys in the display about space exploration inspired toys from the sixties and seventies.

I think he thought the whole museum was meant for him to play with. 

Tough luck, kid.

The coolest part of the museum, though, was the space hanger.  The first thing you see is a giant space shuttle- the Enterprise- staring you down.  Behind the space shuttle is a huge American flag.  Suspended from the roof of the hanger are satellites, astronauts, rockets, and a million other things I couldn’t identify.

We didn’t get to see any of the missiles Pa used to work on when I was a little girl, but there was tons of other interesting things that my kids could recognize and enjoy, like the model of the Mars rover, the space laboratory, an android, and many others.

Definitely a good time to be had by all.  Especially because, while it was over 100F and 96% humidity outside, the air conditioning was blasting away inside. 

I love air conditioning.  Almost as much as I love Optimus Prime.

Okay, just kidding on the Optimus Prime part.

Vacation at Oma’s 2009- Part I: Medieval Times

We’ve been down south visiting my parents for the past week, enjoying a nice stay in very hot, humid weather.  Mostly we’ve been hanging out in the blessed a/c, though.  I love air conditioning.  I am not a hot weather type of gal, unlike some of my sisters.

We’ve been doing the tourist bit more than usual, too, since it always seems that we never get around much when we come to visit my family.  That’s fine with me- for the most part- because I have seen a lot of what DC and northern Virginia has to offer in days before I had a husband and family.  Poor Hockey Guy, though, and the kiddies, have not.  So this time I agreed that we would go out and do more while we visited.

So I twisted my dad’s arm and convinced him we needed to go to Medieval Times.  Bud and Monkey are both really interested in knights and horses so I knew that would be a hit. 

Was it ever.  I don’t think either of them would tear their eyes away from the show for more than a second at a time.  They were completely captivated.

They cheered for our knight- the red and yellow one, waved their flags, booed for the green knight (who was the bad guy), gave thumbs up for the winner, and did everything except eat their food.  I did convince Bud to drink a little soup, eat a few bites of chicken, and he eventually believed me that the apple turnover was good and he inhaled that.

I am not exactly sure what Monkey ate- I heard rumors that he really liked the ribs, which I found surprising.  He sat with Auntie Baby Sister the whole time.

That’s my baby sister.

So by the end we had deemed Medieval Times a huge success with our kids.  Well, with the boys, anyway.  Sweet Pea sort of cried a lot and wanted to walk around, which obviously was not going to work.  We did the baby pass back and forth until the end.  She was happy at the end when Pa bought her a little stuffed pony in a purse. 

What a princess.

Not necessarily in a good way, either.

Payback

Dear Mom,

Do you remember back when I was little and I would do something awful- like knock your plants over or lock my little sisters in closets- and you would say something like “I can’t wait until you are a mom!  I hope your kids turn out just like you!”

 Remember those days?

Well… today you got your wish.

Today was the day when I had to dive head first into the water- fully clothed- when one of my children got in over their heads.  Literally, Bud was in right over his head and gasping for air.  And panicking.

Did I mention I was fully clothed?

And that I didn’t have a spare set of clothes for me?

Not so much as an extra t-shirt.  Nothing.

And that we were hours away from home?

While I know you are not the type to gloat or laugh at another’s misfortune, I think that we both know what you are thinking deep in your heart of hearts.

“She had it coming to her”

I love you, too, Mom.

PS.  Yes, my mother really had to jump into a pool fully clothed to rescue me once.  Never did I truly appreciate her unselfish actions until today.

PPS.  I learned two important lessons today.  One, never, ever, ever under any circumstances leave the house to go to the beach without a full change of clothes for everyone- even the people who don’t plan to swim.  Second, bring life vests.

Oh, I also learned that wet underwear are really, really uncomfortable after five hours.

Gardens

After talking about my garden fresh food a few days ago, a few people have asked me about my gardens.  So here are a few pictures!

Here are my vegetable and herb gardens.  I chose to do a block style garden to maximize the space I had and make it easier to access the different row for tending the plants.  Each block is four feet by sixteen feet. 

In the block first block (closest to me in the picture) there are leeks, potatoes, carrots, and there were beets, but they are already picked and put in the pantry for the winter.

The next block is spanish onions, green onions, garlic, and some herbs (cilantro, oregano, thyme, and rosemary that didn’t grow). 

The third block is cucumbers and broccoli.  The broccoli is already harvested, blanched, and frozen for the winter.  The cucumbers are just starting to fruit.  I plan to pickle quite a few and let my kids go crazy on fresh ones.  They are Bud’s favorite.

The second to last row is tomatoes- which have gone absolutely crazy- and a variety of peppers- mini bell, green bell, and hot and sweet bananas- that got completely overshadowed by the enormous, crazy tomatoes.  In the picture on the right, you can see the crazy six-feet tall tomato plants behind Bud- there are thirteen plants in all.  I planted a mix of sweet 100 cherries, roma, big beef, and pink ponderosa tomatoes.

The last block is corn, sweet and snow pea, and green and burgundy beans.  Bud is picking beans in the picture above, and you can see the corn in the top right corner.  The peas are trellised just off to the left out of the picture.

The garden on the left size of the first picture is herbs, sunflowers, and lettuce.  Behind that (out of the picture) we have two blueberry bushes that I planted this spring.  On the far right of the big vegetable gardens (barely noticeable on the far right of this picture in the middle) are one mature raspberry bush and four immature raspberry bushes.

Please excuse the toys and lawn chairs in this picture.  And the weeds.  There are always more weeds than I can possibly manage to pull.    In the very middle is basil, then Bud’s sunflowers on either side.  He planted those miniature sunflowers first thing this spring and they are about ready to flower.  On the right is lettuce that is growing so much we can’t eat it all and I can’t give it away fast enough.  On the right of the sunflowers there is chives, dill, lemon thyme, silver thyme, oregano, and some garlic.  I think next year this will be exclusively garlic, herbs, and maybe sunflowers. 

So those are my gardens.  Right now I am picking beans every other day and blanching and freezing most of them.  Green beans (and the fun burgundy ones that look purple but turn green when they are cooked and taste just like green beans) are my favorite vegetable by far so I am enjoying those a lot.  The peas are being picked off the vines, but they never make it in the house- we break open the pods and snack on the peas while we pick over the rest of the garden.  The first tomatoes are starting to ripen.  In a few weeks we’ll be canning tons of tomatoes and making pickles.  Then it will be corn, but we’ll eat that fresh off the cob for dinner one night.  Bud will be especially excited when the cucumbers are ready for eating fresh.   It’ll all be ready soon!

Sweet Pea’s Finest

 

 

I thought, since I was asked so nicely, that I would put up some pictures of Sweet Pea’s new room.  It used to be our computer room, but now the computer is downstairs (which is why I rarely get online anymore). 

We picked up both shelf units, chair, rug, toy boxes, and flower pots hanging on the wall at IKEA for her birthday presents. 

I love IKEA.  It has a solution for every home organization problem.  I could spend hours there getting ideas.  It’s really, really dangerous to let me go in there, though.  Really dangerous.  It’s a really good thing that it’s so far away.

It’s not a very big room at all- only about eight feet by ten feet, I think.  Our computer desk and bookshelf dominated the entire room when it was our office.   There was just enough room to manoeuvre a chair around.  A twin bed would pretty much take up the entire room.  Luckily when we get that far we have a lofted bed that will leave all the floor space open.

I love this leaf canopy, also from IKEA.  It takes up a huge part of the room, but it’s so cute I couldn’t help it. 

Really, I did restrain myself from buying more.  I promise.

The light fixture is adorable, too, from the same place (gotta love that store!) It is covered with tiny butterfly and bug stitching with those adorable leaves!  Sweet Pea loves it if we hold her up so she can touch the butterflies.

She really loves her room.  I am still looking for a few more things to put on the wall.  So far there is just the flowerpots and the beautiful crossed-stitched picture that my Nana made for Sweet Pea when she was born. 

I also have a few new pictures for Oma of Sweet Pea in her many, many dresses.  So here you go, Oma- and check out the picture at the top for another dress.

Country Eatin’

 

Back when I was growing up in various cities around the US, I knew where food came from.  The commissary.  I mean, I knew that fruits and vegetables grew somewhere at some point, but eventually all food ended up at the commissary where my mother would go every couple weeks or so and purchase two cartloads of groceries to bring home for her three teenaged daughters to devour.

Whoever said that girls don’t eat as much as boys had never been to my house. 

Anyway, my parents made attempts at growing our own fruits and vegetables in a few locations, but my sisters and I generally turned up our noses at what we felt was dirty and inferior to commissary vegetables.  After an incident with a caterpillar in my salad bowl (who was probably not impressed that I had taken his dinner and tried to make it my own), I pretty much refused to eat anything that we had grown at home.  I wanted to eat only properly processed and shipped vegetables with no bugs that we had purchased at the store like everyone else, thankyouverymuch.

I did love visiting my grandparents in Texas and eating my Papa’s fresh tomatoes, peppers, onions, beets (pickled by my Nana), peaches, and pecans.  But that was different because they were Texan vegetables and therefore far superior to any other.  Even store vegetables.

When I moved away from the city after marrying my Canuck sweetie I was once again introduced to farm fresh vegetables.  My initial impression was that the enthusiasm that was so obvious amongst the people living in my new home about their fresh fruits and vegetables was due to their lack of world experience.  I was well travelled.  I was college educated.  I knew better.  Fruits and vegetables from the store were far superior… and normal.

Boy, oh boy, was I ever wrong.  It’s okay.  I can admit it.  I have been very, very wrong about many things in my life.  This is a big one to me, though.

My eyes have since been opened to the world of the best food ever.  This is eating how God intended it to be- farm fresh.  Or garden fresh, in my case.  I am frequently amazed at home much I like fresh versions of produce I previously thought I wasn’t a fan of.  Like peas.  I ate the canned and frozen versions growing up, but they were definitely not my favorite vegetable.  No where near it.  Fresh peas picked from the vine, shelled by my own two hands and popped into my  mouth straight from the pod, though, is an entirely different story.  It’s like comparing Bach to Aerosmith.  They are both music, and Aerosmith is alright- I can take it or leave it.  However, you can hardly say that the two are equal- one is obviously missing the richness and genius the other explodes with. 

I could listen to Bach and eat peas off the vine all day and feel very rich indeed.

It’s been like this with every variety of produce I have tried- potatoes, green beans, corn, tomatoes, raspberries, onions, herbs, blueberries, carrots, apples… you name it.  The fresh ones just blow the store bought ones out of the water.  Fresh produce brings an entirely new dimension to eating.  The flavors, the sweetness, the crunch, the juiciness… it’s just not there in store bought produce.

Not only that, but cooking with fresh veggies and fruits is so easy.  They are so good just as they are that you don’t want to do much to them.  You definitely don’t want to mask their flavor with heavy sauces or in casseroles.  Just a light cooking and a bit of butter, salt, and pepper or a sprinkle with a fresh herb is the most a garden or farm fresh veggie needs to be amazing. 

Once my eyes were opened to the superiority of locally grown fresh produce, it was logical to start learning when things grew, when they were ripe and available- learning to eat with the seasons. 

Right now we’re right in the middle of raspberry season- the fruit that packed the biggest surprise for me of all since I severely disliked anything raspberry related before I went out last summer and picked some off the bush and popped them in my mouth.  Then the scales fell from my eyes and I did nothing but pick and eat raspberries for the next two weeks straight.

These I bought yesterday from my favorite local family owned and operated farm stand.  It’s just about two miles from my house.  My children and I eat these straight- we don’t even wash them off first.  Washing them off makes all the delicate pockets of juice break open.  Just a quick glance for bugs and dirt and we pop them right into our mouth. 

Groan.  They are so good.  The sweetness and juiciness almost reminds me of eating fruit snacks.  Only so, so much better.   They aren’t sour in the least.

These are from my own garden.  Well, the peas came from the same stand as the raspberries, but the carrots and green beans were planted and tended by my own two hands and picked this morning. 

Amazing, huh?

Mmmm… home-grown is so good.

The Land of a Thousand Dresses

It’s very different having a little girl in the house.  Especially now that she’s starting to show a lot of personality and general girly-ness.  Not that I mind in the least, since I myself am a girl.  Plus, after years of blue, green, trucks, baseballs, and hockey I am loving all the pink, lace, and princesses. 

This child is definitely all girl, too.  She can already twirl around, wiggle her hips, and has all of us wrapped around her little finger.  She is mostly quiet, sweet, and has a shrill shriek that can only be fuelled by estrogen.  And she really, really likes clothes.  Especially dresses. 

My mom found a great deal on sundresses last year just after Sweet Pea was born and purchased several in the 18 to 24 month range of sizes to have for this summer.   After months of her attempting to pull them off the hangers when I ask her what she wants to wear, she finally fits into all of them.  Now, she won’t wear anything else.

Not that we mind.  We think she’s adorable in them.  My mom wants pictures of all of them, but I thought I would share just a couple here. 

She is even getting a little bit of fuzzy hair to make her look like a girl. 

The dresses really help, though.  No more getting mistaken for a boy at the grocery store thanks to Oma!

Hiatus

I have been enjoying my hiatus from the internet since we moved the computer to the basement and refinished the upstairs office/third bedroom into a room for Sweet Pea as a birthday present in May.  The room looks great, but I rarely get online anymore because of it.  Life is keeping me pretty busy instead, though.

We’re having a cool summer so far- great for us, bad for my garden.  Everything came up nice and green and tall because of all the rain, but now everything is waiting for hot days and nights to ripen.  I have tons of tiny green tomatoes hanging on vines, desperate for a heat wave to turn them into delicious red juicy tomato sandwiches.  Hopefully soon.

Here is a cake I made for Canada Day.  I like how it turned out- and it tasted fantastic.  I got the recipe from Pioneer Woman’s site.

I picked the strawberries myself on rainy afternoon at a local farm.  The best strawberries I have ever eaten.  I also put up five gallon sized bags of them in the freezer for the winter.  So now all us winter birthdays will get our strawberry birthday cakes.  The boys are thrilled.

Bud is playing t-ball this summer and really enjoying it after a rocky start.  The entire first practice he cried and didn’t want to participate.  I know he was really overwhelmed.  After a month of practices and two games, though, he is an expert and loves to go.   Last game he played catcher, which he really enjoyed.

Hockey Guy took a week off from work and we had a “stay-cation”.  Didn’t go anywhere- just enjoyed a week at home together with the kids.  It was very nice and we got a lot done.

We’ve got a lot of stuff coming up soon- hopefully putting up more food from the gardens and local farms, some real vacations planned, and getting ready to start our next round of school in September.

That’s about it from the Great White North.  Eventually I will start updating more regularly again. 

The First Baby Doll

Everyone was so generous with Sweet Pea on her birthday- she got lots of birthday money from her many grandparents (my kids have 10 grandparents and great-grandparents still living!  Lucky ducks!)   I went out and bought her some clothes- including the ones in the pictures from her birthday- a sun hat, and shoes.  Yesterday we took the last of her birthday money to go and buy her first baby doll.

I am a huge doll lover, so buying my first daughter her first real baby doll was a big deal for me.  So big, in fact, that I started researching dolls while I was still pregnant with her.

So I am a big nerd.  It’s okay.  I have accepted it.

For Christmas she did receive some small Kathe Kruse Waldorf dolls, but they were not real baby dolls.  They were just baby toys.  She took to one of them, this multicolored doll with knotted hands and feet whose hat is tied to a wooden teething ring- she really loved to chew on it.  The other, she never really was interested in.  Too bad, but it’s small and beautiful and will probably become more of a “pretty” than a toy.

So we set out with the last of her birthday money to buy her a good quality baby doll.  It had to meet my criteria: durable, good quality, washable, and something she could grow with.  If I have my way this might be her only baby doll, so I want something that will last her.

And we found…

Baby Stella!

She is absolutely adorable and meets all my standards for a baby doll.  She is made entirely from a very soft velour type cloth with adorable little fingers, toes, and even a tiny belly button.  She is completely washable.  How fantastic is that?  Plus she’s in our budget!

In Baby Stella’s mouth is a tiny magnet (sewn in very well) and her pacifier has a magnet as well, so Sweet Pea has figured out how to attach and detach Stella’s little pacifier.  It’s a great game for her and really keeps her occupied.  Baby Stella is recommended for ages 12 months and up, so it was the perfect first birthday present.  Sweet Pea can even say her own version of Stella: Saaayyaaaaah.  This doll is so cute and already a big hit around our house.

As Sweet Pea gets older I hope to be able to get a few of Baby Stella’s accessories and some well made wooden doll furniture.  There was a woman shopping in the store while we picked out Stella – a grandmother- who said she had purchased Baby Stella for her granddaughter’s first birthday.  Her granddaughter is now four and still completely loves Baby Stella.  As she has gotten older the grandmother has purchased the accessories that were age appropriate so her granddaughter’s play with Baby Stella could continue.  Exactly what I wanted to hear.  Hopefully it works out the same for us.

As for now, we’re all head over heels for Baby Stella.

I even saw Hockey Guy playing with Sweet Pea and Baby Stella. 

Shhh… don’t tell him I told you that.