She Blinded Me With Science

If you are wondering if I am still alive, I am. But just barely. I seemed to have come down with a serious cold this week. I very rarely get sick, so I am usually unprepared when it happens to me. Hopefully, I will be recovered by this weekend and able to catch up on all of my blog reading. Until then, here is a post of some family fun we had before I arrived at death's door.

Last Saturday the family and I went to the Science Museum. Number One Son was able to invite a friend of his to join us. We actually made it a two day friend adventure for N1S and his friend.

On Friday, after school, N1S's friend, J, came home with him. They played Star Wars and Legos in N1S's room until it was time to go to the high school basketball game. That was a pretty big deal, since J hadn't been to a game before. N1S and J are in the same third grade class, so Lady Di and myself let them have a little freedom and allowed them to sit anywhere they wanted on the bleachers. First, they chose the highest seats at the top of the bleachers. After a while, they moved down closer to the court and met up with another boy in their class and stayed there the whole game.
Lady Di and I were nervous wrecks trying to keep them in constant view.

Sweet Pea, who was already mad because she couldn't have a friend, followed the boys like she was tied to them with a string. They didn't seem to mind too much though.

After an exciting game, we all came home tired and ready for bed. Once again, SP protested the unfairness of N1S's sleepover buddy but eventually was too tired to mount any serious resistance.

The next morning, after chocolate chip pancakes, we motored off to the science museum. We picked a good day to go because traffic wasn't too bad and the museum was only mildly crowded. We saw an Omnitheatre film on horses which SP loved. The museum was also advertising a travelling display, which is coming this summer, called Star Wars, the science of imagination. N1S and J's eyes pretty much popped out of their skulls just trying to take in the advertisement. You can bet we will be back this summer to see that.

The feature attraction this month is a Cartoon Network exhibit that the kids enjoyed. They got to see how cartoons are made. They also got to experience sound effects, optical illusions and photography. They even had the opportunity to make a stop-action movie with moving shapes.

On the second level of the museum, the boys got to see and touch a real cow's eye. SP didn't want anything to do with it and stood behind me and peeked around. Both boys donned gloves and felt the lens from the cow's eye. Apparently, it was about as hard as an eraser. Both boys were surprisingly brave. I wonder if it had anything to do with the squeamish teenage girls who were nearby?

There is so much to see and do at the science museum that we didn't even come close to experiencing all of it. We all got tired and hungry in the early afternoon, enjoyed a late lunch and then went home to rest.

N1S enjoyed his sleepover greatly. He doesn't get invited too often to sleep over. J and N1S got along together great and I think both boys had a great weekend. Even though SP didn't have her own sleepover guest this time, she kept up with the boys and included herself just fine.

N1S and I will have to get our Jedi robes ready for this summer's return to the museum. I hope they let us use real light sabers.