Day at the Museum

I've learned so much about all these bank holidays that I never knew about...This months? President's Day.

And my 3-year-old told me "it all started with 2 presidents: George Somebody and Abraham Lincoln." Man, she's smart! And then a fight ensued between her parents about the celebration of President's Day. I told the family it was to celebrate those 2 presidents, who both had birthdays this month. Eric insisted it was to honor all Presidents past and present. Google to the rescue - according to History.com, we were both a little right. The holiday originated to celebrate the presidents' birthdays (only after MLK Day in January did the 2 men have to share a day) but now celebrates the legacies of all presidents.

So how did we celebrate? By going to the Austin Children's Museum and only serving chocolate milk to drink in our house - I'm sure the presidents all drank their fair share of chockey milk, right?

 "Mama, put the camera up and let's go! We've got things to see and do!" So off we headed downtown. We parked at City Hall and walked the 2 blocks to the museum. A bit of a chilly morning, but we sufficed by running short little distances to warm up :) 

The feature right now is "Geometry 1-2-3" so all things geometrically-related were on display to play with and experience. The first exhibit had 4 chairs like for Goldilocks and her family (too small, too big, just right). Ellie looks thrilled to be photographed with her brother. Kaleb is already looking for the next exhibit.

 Ellie went fishing, and measured the length of her catches on a tackle box by the pond. Kaleb went for a swim :)

 The kids pretended to be busy bees (something Kaleb is exceptional at doing) and crawled in/through a honeycomb. They even chased one another from side to side. I love watching these 2 play so well together - they truly are best buds at this stage of life! (As an aside, when I picked the kids up today at school, the babies were on the enclosed porch and the big kids playing on the playground - separated by a white picket fence. Ellie, who lives for outside playtime with her friends, was giving Kaleb kisses and raspberries, making him squeal with laughter. She was telling her friends, "this is what my brother likes me to do." And she's so right!)

Ellie crawled in to a triangle of mirrors, which created THOUSANDS of her! She thought it was so cool!

 And for my proudest moment of the day...my kids made a quilt :) Not really, but there were felt shapes on a plastic "bed" that you could lay out a design as the one on the wall behind Kaleb. Ellie made a red and black pattern. Kaleb taste-tested all the felt pieces, go figure!

Tonight, Eric met up with some guys after dinner, and so I had craft time after the kids went to bed. In the temporary absence of bins or shelves in/on which to store all my fabric, I've got it laying on the floor in piles, sorted by color. So what better to do than to work on sweet Kaleb's Robot Riot quilt? It was so fun, but after making only teeny tiny progress in a half hour, I realized this quilt is going to take FOREVER. I've got to find ways to break it into do-able, attainable sections that will allow me to complete enough to feel accomplished at each work session.

The best part? When I finish blogging, I can turn off the light and shut the door, and the mess can stay for tomorrow night!