Firefighter's Hall & Museum

We started our summer field trips with a group of 4-5 other moms on Wednesday. Our first stop was the Firefighters Hall & Museum in Minneapolis. I think it's going to be hard to top this one. It was very kid friendly and informative--the kids loved it. M couldn't wait to wear his fireman's hat here.



D and her friend pose by the dalmation.



The kids did a simulation of a bucket brigade.



We got to see all kinds of fire vehicles, from ones that were pulled by horses...



..to ones that you had to crank to start.



D helped in the demonstration on how fire calls were made long ago.





One of the highlights of this museum--getting to slide down the fire pole.





D demonstrated the "Stop, Drop, and Roll" technique during our safety lesson.



The kids got to climb aboard one of the fire trucks they had housed inside the museum.





M preferred the fire truck "ride", like the ones you find in a mall...



...but eventually he made his way to the real one.



The definite highlight of the trip was a ride in a real fire truck through Minneapolis. We sat in the second row of seats inside...



...but most of our group was outside in the back.



When we got back from our ride, the kids got to be the firefighters and put out the fires in this housing complex.





Contest to see who could shoot their water the farthest.





Picture inside the hall.



We also got to learn about and watch a video about Mickey the Fire Cat from Minneapolis Fire Station 10. This is the most hilarious video ever, I think the kids and I could watch this a thousand times. See video here.

We finished off the morning with a lunch on the lawn. The kids loved the fact that there were about 10 or so trains that came by the tracks up the hill.

Butterflies!

I curled D's hair one morning for fun while M was at speech. It looked so cute, but sadly her hair behaves badly like mine does. The curls just kind of disappeared.



Snuggle time with Papa.



On Tuesday, the butterflies came out of their chrysalids. It was so fun to watch them. It was amazing how quickly they emerged once they started.



One last pose with the butterflies before setting them free.



D was afraid at first to have the butterfly on her..



...but M couldn't wait and thought it was great.



Eventually D warmed up to the idea...as long as it was on her sleeve.



They figured out they liked to be on flowers, so they carried them around that way for a long time. I wasn't anticipating that they would actually play with the butterflies, but they were almost like pets. D wanted to bring hers to Steve's softball game that night.

The Fantastic Toy Shop

D's dance recital was this weekend. She is a mouse in the ballet the Fantastic Toy Shop. She had two rehearsals this week before the recital on Saturday.

Pictures from the dress rehearsal.



She is in the front row on the far left side. It is hard to tell who is who because all the mice look alike!





Her method of dance is to watch her friends and do what they do. When I asked her if we should practice, she refused saying, "No, Mom, I just watch what my friends do." Something we can work on for next year.





Here are pictures from the actual performance on Saturday. Again, front row far left.

















After the performance with Grammy. Someone took her tennis shoes, so we had to carry her out to the car. She did a great job and I can tell there is definite improvement from the performance last year.



D put on her outfit again for Grandma and Papa Stiehl, who weren't able to make it to see the performance.



Here she is showing us her scared face, which was part of their routine.

Caterpillars and Chrysalids

We got some live caterpillars and have been watching them grow. It's been amazing to see them literally double in size in a day. The kids have really been into the whole process. The caterpillars come in a small jar with holes for air and food gel in the bottom.



All five caterpillars had made their chrysalids by Friday, so we put them in the butterfly cage. In about 7-10 days, they will emerge as butterflies.



We went to Como Zoo again on Monday with M's ECFE class as an end of the year get together. D wanted her picture taken with every animal.

Polar Bears





Lions
D: "Hello...hello, lions! Mom, why don't the lions hear me?"
Me: "They probably don't understand you because they don't speak English."
D: "Uno, dos!"



Tiger



Cougar



Sitting on the giraffe.





The kids just loved watching the tortoise.



They loved that they got to ride one, too!



It was free carousel ride day at the zoo and the kids had a blast riding their horses.





No, we're not trying out Halloween costumes early. We are doing a unit on caterpillars and butterflies for D's preschool and for one of the lessons she is a chrysalis. She then got to burst forth as a butterfly and flit around.







What a beautiful butterfly!



Another preschool activity involved counting, comparing and guesstimating the number of caterpillars (aka gummy worms) in a jar. They got creative when eating them and made "caterpillar" bread. Yummy!