Packing for Thanksgiving

Thursday morning, just before leaving for New Jersey to spend Thanksgiving with Grandma (both) and Grandpa the kids packed the important stuff they needed for the trip. Being too occupied with packing only trivial things (such as clothing and food), I didn't see what treasures the kids stuffed into their bags until we got to our destination. As soon as we arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house, Benjamin and Laura dumped out their backpacks, eager to display their most treasured possessions of the day. Benjamin managed to stuff The Big Book of Rescue Vehicles, a large battery operated "Monster Truck", 5 Webkins, his kitty cat, a Bakugan case, a giant Bakugan, a Bakugan Handbook, several Power Rangers and assorted other toys into his backpack. When it was time to go home, I could not reassemble his backpack so that all his treasures fit into it again.

Benjamin's treasures:















And of course he can't leave home without his Bakugan collection and Captain Underpants books.

While at Grandma and Grandpa's house the kids discovered three 3-color highlighters (intended for them, of course--Grandpa always makes sure he has 3 of everything). The kids found this discovery very excited and needed to check them out right away. Laura enjoyed scribbling in each of the different colors. Benjamin tried out different words to see how they looked in each of the different colors. On the other hand, Joshua decided that it was necessary to write a play with 3 different characters so that he can highlight each of the character's parts a different color.

Learning to ice skate

I signed up all three kids for ice skating lessons on Sunday afternoons at the Broome County Arena. After three weeks, all three kids can manage decently well on ice skates. Laura gingerly walks at a snail's pace. Benjamin stumbles along at top speed and Joshua manages to look like someone who knows what he is doing.

Today Joshua picked his most obscure creature yet for a game of 20 questions--a parasite that supposedly lives in the saliva of a mosquito. He couldn't give us the name when we gave up (perhaps he should be disqualified for that).

We also went back to the letterbox we found last week to share it with Daddy. This time we remembered a pen, but I left the stamp pad in the car. We will have to go back soon--I think we were supposed to stamp the hitchhiker we found there before we move it somewhere else. Benjamin was really excited to find the two letterboxes last week, and he insisted that we take care of the hitchhiker one. Hopefully we will find another letter box for it over Thanksgiving.

Why did the ---- cross the road?

I love driving in the car with the kids and listening to hours of them asking "Why did the ----- cross the road?" Then they make up a random answer that has nothing to do with the question (at least the younger two) and I have to pretend that I "get it". Laura always starts off with, "Mommy, I have a question."
"Ok, Laura, what is your question?"
"Why did the monster cross the road?"
"I don't know, why"
"Because he wanted to go to the other slide. Get it, slide."
This activity could entertain them for hours, except that it drives me crazy after about 15 minutes.

Another fun game we play while driving is a version of 20 Questions in which the answer is always an animal. Joshua likes to come up with the most obscure animal imaginable. The game goes like this when Benjamin is thinking of an animal,
Daddy: Is it a mammal?
Benjamin: I don't know.
Daddy: Does it live in the water?
Benjamin: I am not sure.
Daddy: Does it have 4 legs?
Benjamin: I forgot.
Needless to say, we don't often guess the animals that the kids are thinking of.

Laura wants to know when she can go trick-or-treating again. Every time we've gone to a program at the library since Halloween she hopes to go trick-or-treating again or to get more candy (we went to a storytime that involved trick-or-treating in the library on Oct 30).

Treman Park and Museum of the Earth

Dave can't pass up a chance to visit Ithaca, and the ScienceCenter sent Benjamin a card saying that he can pick up a birthday present there on his next visit. Dave has been looking forward to taking the kids to his favorite Ithaca hangouts, so we started off at Robert H. Treman Park with the waterfalls (as opposed to the Treman Marine Park). Before we had kids, we hiked from the parking lot at one end to the upper falls and back. It was an awesome hike, but 4 miles round trip is a bit much for the kids, so we walked to the lower falls, crossed the bridge by the falls, walked through the cabin area and then made our way back to the parking lot. On our way in to the park, we passed a large playground which was way more interesting to the kids than waterfalls and hikes. Before stopping at the playground we drove on the road that went through the river because Benjamin was excited to see if the car could drive through water.

After the playground, we headed over to the Museum of the Earth on 96 just outside of Ithaca. The museum had an area for each significant period in the history of life on earth. It had tons of fossils and information about all sorts of prehistoric creatures. I would have liked to stay longer, but it wasn't hands-on enough for Laura so we finally left to go to the Sciencenter.

At the Sciencenter, the kids love the outdoor play area. It has instruments, a bubble area, sand area, climbing structure and water area. Sending the ducks down the waterfall is a hit, but kids are also fascinated by the huge lever, demonstrating that a lever can be used to lift a huge weight with little effort. They were disappointed that the Garden of Gizmos was gone, but we were able to make buzzing contraptions. We will have to return soon to see the new exhibit that was about to go up.