Adventure and Me

Today we stayed in Birmingham and explored the McWane Science Center!

In the entry, there was a cool unnamed-musical-ball-thing-to-watch.  It was like a mousetrap game, if that helps explain?  The balls would bounce off ramps, into baskets, chime bells, clunk on metal, drop down wooden xylophone keys, all very cool! : )  Sometimes the balls would back up, and then take flying leaps, three at a time!

This was a Tornado Tunnel-with winds up to almost 100 miles an hour!  Once you are in there, you can't open the door!

SO thankful for these lockers!  We got to stow our coats, iPad, purse, etc. so we didn't have to carry all our stuff around.

Bed of Nails

Nervous, but loved it!  You control the raising and lowering of the nails yourself : )

Hoisting themselves with pulleys (hard, harder, hardest!)

"We all know your idea is crazy.  The question is, whether it is crazy enough." Niels Bohr

"It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves." Andre Gide

Can't explain how it works: light in four sections (like a kaleidoscope), and it throws 70's tye-die images of you on the screen!  That's Mary Claire on there now making prayer hands.

Couldn't figure out how else to get it on film!  It was a room that fools the eye (obviously!)  We were all in one space, but the boys were by a large window, and Mary Claire was by a small one..beyond that, I can't explain it!

..just because I've figured out how to live amidst chaos. : )

More than anything, I like the faucet, tile, and bubble bath!

Ches looks thrilled, huh?  Mary Claire is in the bottle vehicle for the "mice" to drive.

Ethan is driving the bottle car.  There are cat sirens and food alarms, and even a periscope for those cats with good noses. : )

Mary Claire challenging me in a brain contest.  We wore those bands with sensors on our foreheads, and the screen to the top of the picture shows our alpha and something-else brain waves, and the most calm wins as the ball moves towards the highest strung.  Surprised who won?  Look at that girl looking down, calmly relaxing.

The touch area.  This is a Bonnethead Shark, a relative of the Hammerhead.

Clay reaching!  There were also Atlantic Stingrays, Cownose Rays, and White Spotted Bamboo Sharks (but they were sleeping-they are nocturnal).  I gel'd after I touched them-do they carry germs?

He says this fish is sad, that all the others don't want to play with him.  (He's psychic.)

You could work his jaw and make him roar!

He loved it.  He's becoming an expert-he can tell real bones from the synthetic.  Is he too old...or too smart?

Digging for fossils!

How cute is this?  He found a GREEN mask! : )

The "sand" was so cool!  It is actually teensy pieces of colored rubber.  Like the brown rubber mulch we put around the pool, that wouldn't float or fade? It's awesome!  No dust flying up, and it doesn't hurt your eyes, or stick in your shoes!  I want some.

She's in the Lab, working on minerals and fossils.

He's examining a massive bullfrog skeleton (yes, real!)

We had to break for lunch (at 2!), and check out this cool pyramid!  From the bottom, Plenty (moving whenever you can), More (Making your heart work harder), then Enough (Stretching and building your muscles), and the top is Less (Sitting Around).  Love it!

And a keyboard (he's using one all the time now, and brought one with us on the trip.  He's playing all the old songs I used to play!)

Super Cool Huge Lite Brite! (Remember those?  We just got my old one out over Christmas break!)

Super Happy Boy looking at all the Lionel trains!

We used the pulleys to send stuff up, then the conveyor to deliver packages down below.

Little proud of this: Egyptian Pyramid (yep, all me!)  hahaha  Blocks are strangely calming : )

...and then it was destroyed.

Love this.  It's kinda like a mandala, kinda like the magnet toys in your doctor's office (um..your pediatrician's office where you drag around the cars or insects with the magnet underneath?).  You push start, and the magnet ball starts moving making these super cool designs in the sand. When you start it again, it makes a whole new design.  Symmetric and beautiful, and since it's a machine, it's Perfect.

This is pottery-wheel-meets-black-glittery-sand!  You pile up the shiny stuff, turn up your wheel, and make designs, super cool!  They had educational info on the "walls", but it was fun to play in too!  I can't tell you more about that face.  Just feeling spicy?

And in Birmingham, they FREAK out when it snows. They closed the McWane Center early at 3:30 due to a little dusting!  We were the last ones out, and only because security swept us out! (at 3:15!)

I have to tell you, we wanted to laugh.  They had police cars blocking (with lights flashing!) off the interstate (because of this snow dusting!)  We couldn't get on Interstate 20 to Atlanta, so we stayed here. : (

Seriously, we tried to go to Atlanta, but because we waited till the kids were really done (and till they scooted us out!), it was too late.  Birmingham freaked out at the 30 degree weather and some snow.  I promise, when I took this picture, it was just raining.  The rest of the city was equally freaked, and everyone left work early, therefore we sat in a traffic jam with only two roads out of downtown.  Argh.  We finally GPS'd our way to Sam's (and got there after DARK!).  Good dinner at Landry's, more card playing all through dinner, and then more swimming (back at the same hotel)!  We called them and requested the same room again.  Wish we'd known earlier-that's a lot of stuff to pack up, haul around, then bring back up again only hours later!

Sorry, Atlanta, we'll catch you next time.  We couldn't even decide between the Coca-Cola factory tour, Cabbage Patch Babyland General, Stone Mountain and The Great Barn, and of course, The American Girl Cafe and Store.  I mean, how do you decide? (and still get back on Saturday?)
We'll be in Birmingham till afternoon tomorrow, then make our way back to Memphis by bedtime.  Then make the trek back home on Saturday.  That's about 4.5 hours of drive time each day.  Not too bad.  We *heart* Red Box, and hopefully we haven't seen them all! (and I just found out about this Take 2 deal for Valentine's Day-we should have two free ones coming!)

Hope you aren't freaking out about snow or something. (or going in two hours late on Friday morning for rain!) (Ok, it's currently 33 degrees, but the low is 31 degrees tonight.)
I'm sorry, I should have sympathy.  If I lived here, I'd probably be excited to see some snow, and I'd want to go home early too. (or go in late tomorrow)  Yay for cities in the South-
Enjoy your extra two hours!

Walking the Kids

We are in the car, hurtling almost 80 miles an hour towards our next destination: a restroom!  Hahaha!  We already had a little one who couldn’t wait.  I don’t know if I should tell you what we do.  Mmmm…thinking if I should soil my reputation. ; ) heehee  When Ethan can’t go any longer, we let him go peepee in a cup (if we have one!)  I climb over the seat, unbuckle him, then let him go, gel off invisible germs (Even though pp is sterile!), and we stay on the road.  When the kids were younger we’d pull over and let them go outside if they couldn’t wait till the next exit (why is it always an emergency?).  Anymore, I’m scared to pull over on the highway-both because of privacy and safety!  There aren’t “trees” on big roads, and good grief, if someone texting ran us over, I’d never forgive myself!

I see these crazies texting and driving (and I saw one yesterday holding the steering wheel and a cigarette in her left hand, and was texting with her right-don’t think I didn’t yell at Ches to steer clear of her! I just want my kids’ old Magna Doodle to send her a MESSAGE!  Don’t you have things to say?  I do! : )  I’ll just make a poster to hold up, “Don’t Text and Drive-You Scare Me!”

Ok, enough private information, my kids would recoil if they read this.  Thank goodness I don’t let them on! : )  We really are headed to Birmingham, and after our bathroom/lunch break in Tupelo, we’re on our way.  We are a little more than two hours from Birmingham.  I am just thankful for clean Love’s bathrooms, yummy fajitas at Chili’s, new movies from Red Box, and the brilliant sun shining!  It’s still pretty cold here (33 degrees, and really windy-don’t know the wind chill!), but warmer than the 8 degrees back home!

We’ve now had a family meeting, and we’ve decided to go to the McWane Science Center tomorrow.  We won’t be in Birmingham till after 4pm, and it closes at 5!  If we go tomorrow, we’ll get so much more out of our $51!  There are four floors of fun, and we are excited, but it can wait.  We are headed to the Apple Store at The Summit first, then to check out the entire outside mall, then we want to make it to Sam’s before they close, then finally go to Riverchase Galleria (indoor) mall.  I am *hating* my hair lately (and don’t go back in till Feb. 9^th!!), so I’m going to get another silver sequined hat for Mary Claire (me!) to wear till Hair Redeaux day!  I got her one at Justice in Branson, MO, but we left it at home.  I think they are worthy of owning two!  I won’t see anyone I know, so who cares if I look 16.  (ok, ok, I know I can’t look 16, but maybe a wanna-be 16?)  It’s that or ponytail for 7 days.

And…here is our photo journal from today!

Mary Claire working on her morning work for school. Glad there was a desk!: )

Clay getting our cantaloupe ready.  We cleaned out most of our fresh fruit, veggies, and cheeses and brought them with us in case our refrigerator lost power! : )

Aww...aren't they cute?

A cool train yard!  They are lifting JB Hunt trailers onto flatbed train cars.

He made an "F" then an "E" out of crayons!

Sweet boys having lunch-and corn on the cob in Tupelo! Yum!

Finally in Birmingham, and ready to do a little shopping at The Summit.

Outside our favorite...Pottery Barn Kids!  Don't you love the planter?!

These are not in the catalog-but so cute!  House lanterns!

Awww-mazing Sunset

Walking the Kids bronze-we had to take pictures.  The leash is imaginary, but he's pulling them!

The kids are posing in the crowd-the dog is pulling them too!

I heart my sweet kiddos : )

Is this a pose?  More swimming...

Oh my gosh, a great day!  More travel time, about 2 1/2 hours, then some shopping, a great dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, and of course...the new Reese's cheesecake!  We did get the new hat and still had time to swim this evening.  Love, love, love snow days! : )

The news is tomorrow...after the McWane Science Center...we are on to Atlanta!