Ben and I, and now Liam of course, do all sorts of fun play activities in and around home... but we're big fans of "field trips". So we're always on the look out for fun classes or activities. We've gone to two such classes since we've been here in North Carolina.
The first was with a real bee keeper. We met her at a local kids' museum. She brought 5 different types of honey for us to taste test, taught us about pollination while we made a flower and bumble bee craft and then let us look at the real bee hive observation house that she brought in from her farm. I thought this would both be interesting and help Benjamin with his, let's call it slightly above normal "concern" for insects, especially those of the stinging variety. She focused on the fact that bees were good because they pollinated plants helping them make tastier fruits and veggies and that they made honey. Ben and I both reaffirmed the fact that we don't like honey, but I was proud that he tried the different types. And we got to see bees up close through the observation glass traveling bee house without the fear of getting stung... UNTIL they started to escape, into a room of 8 preschoolers and their "faking being brave" mommies! All in all it was a really good class... but of course the part Ben remembers best is when the bees escaped and flew around the room ready to sting at a moments notice.
The next class was on Earth day and it involved using recycled products to make musical instruments that we then used in a jam session with a local artist, Jeff Johnson. Ben had a lot of fun making a drum out of a oatmeal canister, sand blocks out of toilet paper rolls and a tambourine out of a butter tub lid. And he played all three at various times during his 3 song set with the band.
Decorating his drum.
Just being silly.
Jam time!
And lastly, we explored The Museum of Natural Science in Raleigh with Daddy and Aunt Diane who flew in to visit us last weekend. It was huge, free and quite impressive. Aside from viewing a movie about Jungle Crows that are taking over Tokyo, eating all the garbage and dive bombing pedestrians who dared to walk too close to their nests... which of course created a whole bunch of new questions and scenarios for Ben to obsess about... it was a good day. (And when you read this someday sweet Ben... know that the movie really wasn't that bad, but you had a gift (at least when you were younger) of making sure to explore ever possible scenario that could happen... see the post published around this time titled "worst case scenarios"!)
Come on daddy, let's do a silly pose.
Marc is pointing out Germany to Benjamin on the giant globe.
Family pics in front of the giant dinosaur.
Aunt Diane tried to get the whole dinosaur in the picture. Ben really liked this. Of course, he doesn't miss anything so... we talked about the "boo boo" on the dinosaur for days. The painting behind the dinosaur made it appear that he had just successfully battled a T-Rex.
So fun to stand in a giant foot print!
Mommy, I'm trying to pose but there are scary bats...
up there! Quick, get Liam out!
These giant whale bones suspended from the ceiling kept Liam quite entertained.
He is such a good baby. He just took in the sights and chilled in his stroller or the sling, which he likes to cuddle because the pattern is so cool!
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