Free Thursdays

In my quest to have a fun but frugal summer, I discovered that on the 3rd Thursday of every month, the museums in Tacoma are free! The only catch is that admittance is only free at specific times. So with the help of Grannie and Grandpa and an itinerary of what I hoped would be our day, we headed downtown to see what we could see.

We decided to meet at 11am and park at the Tacoma Dome parking garage so we could ride the Tacoma Link (which is always free!) Addison was so excited to be riding a "train", I think we'll have to take another trip down just to do that!

The Farmer's Market was our first stop, since it closed around 2pm. We didn't want to miss any of the goodies! The kids would have stayed at this fountain all day if we'd let them. The weather was perfect...not hot and not raining!

Grannie treated everyone to pretzels from Hess Bakery. I remember selling these same pretzels for German club a million years ago... Raymond got the JUMBO version and then didn't want to eat it in public because so many people commented on it! Funny kid!

Our first stop was the Tacoma Art Museum, which opened its doors for free at noon.

I was a little worried about the kids and whether they would be able to handle this, but I thought we'd try it. The art museum is obviously not strangers to kids because they gave each of my kids a sketch pad and pencil at the entrance and this kept them relatively occupied while we were there.

At the end of our "art tour", we stopped in at the kids' studio and all three kids enjoyed using various mediums to create their own artwork. It was really pretty neat. They had several "suitcases" full of different things and you just choose one and take it to your table. We stopped on their balcony on our way out to have our picnic lunch.

Our next stop was the Museum of Washington State History. We timed it perfectly, since it opened for free at 2pm. We had been here before, so knew better what to expect; lots of interactive, hands-on stuff for my busy kiddos!

Addison loved the dress-up area!

Here is Grannie, helping the boys with a map jigsaw puzzle. Raymond has become quite a history buff and wanted to read everything. The younger kids didn't have the patience for this so we'll have to send Ray back with daddy so they can take their time! In fact, we went outside to let them play while we waited until 5pm for the next museum free time to roll around.The boys found a "secret" hiding place under the bridge. On second thought (could be bums down there) we decided they shouldn't probably be playing down here, so headed on to our next destination...

Next stop, Glass Museum!

Raymond took this at the bottom of the Grand Staircase. Such beautiful glass artwork!I took a lot of pictures on our trip, but obviously none inside the museums! I eventually turned the camera over to Raymond and Grannie really got a kick out of all the pictures he was snapping. Apparently it reminded her of me! She asked if I remembered that first Kodak disc camera they bought me. I wonder how many rolls of film they had to develop over its lifetime! Anyway... I, personally, am very thankful for digital cameras now that I have my own kids!

More Chickens!

Our chicks are only a few days old and we love to catch a glimpse of them hanging out with mom. Or in this case, hanging out ON mom!

In addition to our own, very cute chicks, my friend Kristi brought over some slightly older chicks that they had been raising at their house. Chickens are messy and they decided to bring the "mess" to us.

No problem, we have plenty of space. We were a little worried about how well the two flocks would interact, but all has turned out fine. They leave each other alone, for the most part.

We now have a total of 16 chickens so by next Spring, we should have a ton of eggs!

A wet start to the summer

I absolutely love summer break. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy teaching, but come June, I'm ready for vacation! There is nothing quite like the seemingly endless days of summer when I get to spend time with the kids, our friends and venture out into the great unknown. I have some destinations already in mind, but I think we'll wait for a little better weather. Today, we are home, enjoying a downpour and occasional thunder clap. The kids were already wet and dirty from our trip down to the barn to see the new baby chicks, so I left them outside to play in the rain!

Eggs today, chicks tomorrow

Our chickens have had a rough winter...we are down to 2. Well, we were until one of them decided to sit on a clutch of eggs. We decided to see how it would turn out, so we marked several and didn't collect those. As it turns out, she knew what she was doing! We now have 8 very cute little chicks. Momma Hen is very protective, so we haven't gotten too close, but the kids are really excited about watching these little ones grow!
As an added bonus, a friend of ours wanted to buy baby chicks from a feed store recently. She lives in town, so we agreed that her chicks could come here once they were ready. They've enjoyed them for several weeks, but now it's time for them to go. Looks like we'll have 6 more, slightly more mature chicks by the end of the week...Hope they all get along!

Finally a sunny day

Summer can't come soon enough and we were teased just a little by the beautiful Sunday we woke up to this past week! The sunshine always makes me feel so... HAPPY! Apparently it has a similar affect on the rest of our household...

Kids were still in bed when I jumped in the shower...no longer in their beds when I came to wake them for church. That strange, bright glow in the sky woke them all up and they headed outside with their sunglasses to enjoy the sunshine!

I was so surprised, I had to laugh. What a scene!

Raymond turns 9

Raymond has had a sleep-over to celebrate his birthday the last few years and this year was no exception. 6 boys stayed over and we had a bit more excitement than normal!

We started off the party by breaking the boys into two teams and sending them out into the pasture for a scavenger hunt. The did a great job and had a lot of fun finding things like different colored leaves, a stick, rocks and other odds and ends. When they were finished, Kevin took "inventory." The boys played an assortment of other games until it started getting dark. By this time, we had had a few scraps from falling in the pasture and one boy threw up the 2 liters of red Hawaiian punch he had apparently polished off single-handed!

Dusk is the boys favorite time because it means starting up a fire in our backyard, roasting marshmallows and telling ghost stories! Usually each boy takes a turn to tell a story and Kevin finished it off with a whopper that is sure to bring the boys inside! Addison and I don't usually stick around for all this boys stuff, but she does enjoy the smores part and loves to help pack everything outside!

Dentist visit

Zachary had his 2ND ever dental appointment the other day. The first one was pretty unproductive as he was unable to sit still, with his mouth open, long enough for anyone to get a good look! 6 months later, he did 100% better! I was really proud of him! Not only did he not laugh uncontrollably as the dentist tried "counting" his teeth, but he even stayed still while the hygienist polished his teeth.

They were able to take x-rays on one side, but poor guy kept gaging when she tried to put the film in on the other side. We eventually decided it could wait until next time, as nothing significant appeared to be wrong. After the initial gaging episode, I wasn't sure what to expect when the hygienist came in with those notorious "teeth trays", full of a fluoride treatment. She explained what she was going to do and I should have taken a picture of Zachary's face then, because he looked a little stressed with anticipation.

It all worked out in the end and he was miraculously able to keep them in his mouth the necessary time without 1. gaging or 2. panicking. He did a great job!