McDonald's Kitchen Tour

Due to Raccoon's food allergies, we never eat at McDonald's. But we happened to be near the one with the largest play area yesterday. So we stopped in, to the immense joy of our kids. As playtime was winding down, the hostess came over and asked us if we'd like a kitchen tour. Yes!

After suiting up, we went behind the counter. My favorite thing was the soda machine (picture below), and at the end, free sodas. The kids liked washing their hands and pulling on the rinse hose above a large sink out back. The King was impressed by all the cleanliness measures and considered it a tour about the danger of germs.

Overall, a win-win for everyone, and the bonus of an unexpected field trip.

Field Trip and Frank

When I look back at Raccoon's childhood, perhaps if his kids ask me for stories about when their dad was little, I want to remember Frank. The avocado. Raccoon found him (it?) yesterday in a friend's yard and brought him home. Upon hearing that we could not eat it yet because it wasn't ripe, he named it, made a home for it, and turned it into a pet, much to the delight of his entire Sunday School class this morning. I love Raccoon's joy and how he builds a world for anyone in need. Habitats, cushy avocado rides with seat belts, whatever needs doing he'll find a way. Upon completion, he's off to the next thing.

This afternoon, as Frank's novelty was waning, we drove up to a local volcanic park (not the erupting one!). A small cafe was open with a gorgeous view. The lake in the picture is supposedly 200 meters deep in the middle. On the drive home, I couldn't get over how much material the volcano had deposited in the hilly country. It must have been some explosion, long ago.

Museum of the Month

Camlann, a Medieval Village

We watched a longbow demonstration while we waited for the big event - the knights!

 My knight in shining armor

Raccoon loved seeing them in armor, but there was too much talking and 

not enough fighting for him to make it through the 1 hour demonstration.

A real live knight!

Robin, however, was not at all impressed and promptly fell asleep in the baby carrier. 

Raccoon picked me some flowers, my sweet boy.

The highlight for us all (Grama and Grampa came too) turned out to be making
our own beeswax candles by dipping string on a stick into a large cauldron. 

Museum of the Month

The Zoo - July 2013

The highlight for Raccoon was feeding some of the animals. 

He touched an alpaca and a deer.

 

Robin's favorite was a stuffed baboon in their taxidermy shop.

I liked the tiger show they did with their white and golden tigers. 

They fed them treats in order to visually inspect their bodies, so 

the tigers would stand up against the fence. It's amazing how big 

and powerful they are, and so gorgeous.

Of course, I couldn't resist a picture of this. :)

Museum of the Month

It's been a long time since I've done one of these posts, but hopefully there will be more in the future. There are tons of interesting places to go near our new home. This month's was the KidsQuest Children's Museum. I got free passes through our local library, hooray!

I chose to go right at noon, thinking that there wouldn't be many children there, but I was wrong. It was very crowded and Raccoon soon felt anxious and overwhelmed. Robin was not happy either (see her bored face), but she fell asleep shortly after we arrived.

What Raccoon did enjoy - as much as he could on sensory overload - were the various water tables. He spent the most time connecting various pipes, along with getting thoroughly wet.

We have been to two other children's museums in Maine, but neither one was as busy as this one (at least while we were there). It makes me a little sad that I thought it would be fun, but it mostly just ended up being stressful for all of us. When things are going well at home, or at least whatever is our normal, sometimes I forget what life is like outside our safe zone. It just reminded me that I am still a special needs mommy.

Museum of the Month

I haven't done one of these posts in awhile since we haven't really gone anywhere new. But last week we went to an exhibit called "Our Body." It was various skeleton and organ combinations done by medical students at a local university. My husband was grossed out since they were real dissected bodies, but Raccoon and I were fascinated. We even found a skeleton with painted blood vessels, so the exhibit became Pepe and his family. :)

Museum of the Month

Last night, we stopped on a whim at a small circus. They had pitched their tent just a few blocks from church, so when we drove by, Raccoon was VERY excited. He sat through church like an angel in order to go afterwards. Besides some questionable clown skits, it was a lot of fun. Raccoon watched enthralled as jugglers, acrobats, and tightrope walkers did their thing. Our favorite part was a little dog who did tricks, even climbing up a rope ladder to jump off a platform into a waiting net. Then the little dog came out dressed as a white tiger (Raccoon thought he really was a tiger) and did more tricks (pretending to be dead, following the clown around when he wasn't looking, reviving, etc). Seeing the wonder on Raccoon's face made it all worth it. I love that the world is still a magical place to him.

Museum of the Month

Raccoon and I are in Maine right now, and we enjoyed a visit to the Children's Museum in Bangor today. The highlight was the second floor: a tractor trailer truck with loud buttons to push, a mini-restaurant and kitchen, a ship with a cargo conveyor belt, a hammock, a mini-farm, a sailboat, and much more. Raccoon did well, although it was definitely too much to handle all at once. I had to drag him kicking and screaming out of the waterway exhibit when it was time to go. Poor little man. But we may go back just to visit his favorite exhibits. It was more like a giant play place than a museum, although there was some sneaky learning going on.

And I almost forgot! We had an unexpected overnight in Washington, D.C. courtesy of American Airlines, so we also got to visit the National Aquarium (highlight: an albino crocodile and some baby sharks). We walked through about 10 blocks of downtown and saw the White House from afar, so all in all, this has been quite the month for museums, despite all of the travelling.

Museum of the Month

We went back to the dinosaur museum because Raccoon loved it so much. The mammoth and the acid-spitting dinosaur from Jurassic park were on loan to another exhibit, so it wasn't as fun this time, although Raccoon still loved the life-sized Spinosaurus.

We also went to a sidewalk exhibit of giant masks. Raccoon found some of them scary, but he wanted to hold the camera and take a picture of each one. We recently celebrated Carnaval here (a milder version of Mardi Gras) and silly string is Raccoon's newest obsession.

Museum of the Month

Today we went to a dinosaur museum in one of our local parks (thanks to dear hubby who saw an ad on TV). It had some life-sized statues, along with some mechanical dinosaurs that roared, sprayed water, and lunged. It was pretty intense for a two year old, but Raccoon loved it. There were around 10 exhibits in all, the last one a huge, moving Spinosaurus. It was a little confusing because they also had some Ice Age animals mixed in (saber-tooth cat and mammoth), but who knows, maybe they did all live together. The highlight for Raccoon was getting sprayed by the huge mammoth as it reared back on its hind legs.

Afterwards, Raccoon jumped on a trampoline while attached to big rubber bands and a harness (we call it bungee jumping, not sure what the official name is), then did a pony ride, then climbed inside an old airplane turned into a children's play area.

It was such a fun day. This evening, my husband remarked how calmly and quietly Raccoon was playing, almost by himself. I think we finally reached Raccoon's preferred level of stimulation, but both of us are exhausted!

Museum of the Month

October's museum: reptiles, mostly snakes.
      Highlight: we got to touch a boa constrictor.
November's museum: insects, with a special focus on beetles.
      Highlight: we got our picture taken with 3 Hercules beetles clinging to our clothing.

Today Raccoon and I went to visit a water museum. On our way out the door, he saw a friend of his playing in the park, so I asked him, "Park or museum?"
He yelled "Museum!" and ran to get in his car seat. My husband was impressed.

Our favorite exhibit was an upright peg board. When pushed on one side, the indented pegs stuck out on the other side. We did the typical handprints, then a staff person passing through suggested we try our faces. I tried it first and sure enough, there was a mask-like image of my face sticking out on the other side of the board. Surprisingly, Raccoon also wanted to try it. It was odd to see our faces in plastic pegs, almost like a robot clone. I'm not sure what the peg board had to do with water (something to illustrate cohesion I think?), but we enjoyed it.