Lynn Meadows Discovery Center

On Saturday, Nathanael and I took the kids to Lynn Meadows Discovery Center. Normally they charge $7 per person over one years old, but since my husband is an Airman, we got in for $5 per person making Saturday a 7hr day of imagination for just $20 for the whole family! The nice part about it, we arrived when they opened, and were able to leave for lunch, and re-enter with out paying again. We had a great time, and I have pictures to prove it. Enjoy!

(I did not take this photo)

First, outside the center they had a wooden train that the children could crawl through, a wooden house with a window Ivy felt cute looking though as she called out to her Daddy, and 3 wooden tree houses where one could hug and kiss the trees all they wanted.

The kids eyes were all aglow when we walked into the building. To their left there was a life size train station all for them. There was a ticket counter with a chalk board train schedule. The engine had a place where coal made of sponge was kept. There was even two shovels and a bucket the kids could use to transport the coal to the other side of the engine where there was a little hole with painted fire inside that they could shovel the coal into. There was one car that the engine was pulling that had one table for two passengers. The table had food and drinks to go along with it. Outside the train there was luggage and clothes that the kids could use to help them feel more like they were playing the part of either the conductor or a passenger.
(and this was just the beginning)

Right outside the train station was a table with a wooden train track and little wooden trains. Some of them were "Thomas" trains, but regardless what brand they were, Ari had a lot of fun playing with them.

Next, there was a fishing boat that had two bucket, one filled with rubbery shrimp, and the other with plastic crabs. The net had a hole that you could throw the "catch" into, and a rope at the bottom that you could tie off to hold everything in. And of course there were clothes for dressing up. There was also another part in this area that was just the front of a boat. It had a steering wheel and a bell with a rope the children could "ding". There was a third station where there was a middle of a boat with cargo (bags), and a crane with a big hook that you could load the bags onto. Then depending on which controls you used, you could raise up the hook, or spin the crane over to the back of a truck (built out of the wall) and take the bags off the hook and load the truck. There were hard hats and gloves to dress up with.

There were 2 floors to the building, and in the center of the first floor there was a huge climbing thingy. (I'm trying my best to be descriptive!) There was a ramp for those of us where were less limber than the children. This was great for the kids to climb up to the second floor.

Mexico was our first stop. There was a little cart where you could make any Mexican dish you could think of (there was even non-Mexican food.) Ivy had a wonderful time making fajitas.

Is anyone up for Tea? Nathanael enjoyed an elegant time of tea with his two children. At this station, there was a section with all different hats for women that were displayed with hat boxes and wired hat stands. There were decorative mirrors on the tables, and one full length mirror. Next to this there was another section with an armoire filled with men's top hats and dress coats. There were gloves and shoes, and a trunk full of clothes to try on.

It was hard to pry the kids away from the Winn Dixie. There were little black canvas shopping bags that could be used to get anything your little heart desired. The caned food, and boxed items were real. There were many baskets of fruits and veggies. There was a bakery, seafood counter, and refrigerated and freezer section (not actually cold). The cash register was FILLED with money! There were many different activities that were made possible outside the grocery store. For instance, to teach children how to buy groceries if someone were deaf or mute, there was a clipboard with two columns: Need and Found. Then there were lots of little pictures with Velcro on the back that would sick to the clipboard. Another activity had lists already prepared so kids could use to go shopping with and find the items on their list.

There were many other exciting things for the children to do, but the last thing I took pictures of was the Green Screen Kayak. I don't think the kids fully understood what was going on, but Ivy found it interesting that the wall was green, but that it looked like she was floating in water on the TV screen. When I passed behind the boat to help them with their paddles, my body disappeared and it looked like only my head and arms were floating around in the water (I was wearing a green shirt).

As you can see we all had a great time. There is a good chance that we will go back before it is time for us to depart from MS. It was so nice having Nathanael with us for the WHOLE weekend. He drove over on Friday after he was finished with school, and we didn't have to take him back to the base until 11am on Sunday morning. Today (Sunday) was a little hard for the kids after we dropped him off. A few times during the day they were asking when he was coming back. They are also trying to fight off colds, so they were even more whiny than usual.

This was an extremely long post, but I hope you enjoyed every bit of it. I apologize if parts of it don't make sense, I'm tired! Goodnight.

Questions

What is your occupation right now?
I'm a full-time mommy.

What color are your socks right now?
Black, White, Turquoise, Gold, and Red. They are striped.

What are you listening to right now?
Children playing and a Glad commercial.

What was the last thing that you ate?
Off-bran cocoa pebbles.

Can you drive a stick shift?
I have before, need more practice.

Last person you spoke to on the phone?
Melissa, before I went to bed last night.

Do you like the person who sent this to you?
Of Course!

How old are you today?
I am 25 years old . . .

or 310 months old
or 1349 weeks old
or 9450 days old
or 226800 hours old
or 13608005 minutes old
or 816480312 seconds old
(By the time you read this I will be a little older)

What is your favorite sport to watch on TV?
Figure Skating

What is your favorite drink?
Don't really have one. If there is bottled water, I'll take that first unless of course if there is a special drink that you just don't get everyday.

Have you ever dyed your hair?
Yes

Favorite food?
Lasagna

What is the last movie you watched?
Peter Pan

Favorite day of the year?
Get-togethers.

How do you vent anger?
Clean

What was your favorite toy as a child?
A Puffalump (which I still have) and a Brown Bear with a Red bow tie (which our dog chewed up.

What is your favorite season?
Winter if there is snow.

Cherries or Blueberries?
Cherries

Do you want your friends to e-mail you back?
Yes

Living arrangements?
Furnished Apartment, 1 daughter, 1 son, (soon) 1 husband.

When was the last time you cried?
Yesterday

What is on the floor of your closet?
Luggage, Scrapbooking Supplies, Toys (everything I don't want all over the apartment)

What did you do last night?
Watched American Idol and cleaned

What are you most afraid of?
Dying before other people, and making it hard on them.

Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburger?
Cheese...Bacon would be nice too.

Favorite dog breed?
Great Pyrenees

Favorite day of the week?
Some weeks Thursday, other weeks Friday (Nate comes home)

How many states have you lived in?
Ohio, Tennessee, Mississippi, (technically) South Carolina...4. Ask me in a couple years I'm sure that number will be MUCH larger.

Diamonds or pearls?
White Gold/Silver anything

What is your favorite flower?
Not sure yet. I really like flowers, and I don't know the names of them.

Easter Sunday.

Today was a good day. Last night I hid 40 candy filled eggs in the livingroom, and 10 sticker filled eggs in my bedroom.

This morning I woke up to Nathanael sneaking into my bed at 5am. Around 7am we heard the first "pop" and found Ari with his blanket and reebot sitting on the floor looking at the Sponge Bob stickers he found in the egg. He climbed into bed with us and insisted that we admire the stickers too. About 20min later Ivy came stumbling into the room. Her shirt was only half on and her hair was a squirrely mess. After pulling herself together I pointed her in the direction of a hiden egg. After she saw the Strawberry Shortcake Princess stickers inside, I told her there were 8 more eggs to find.

After Nathanael and I came too and were ready to get out of bed, I gave the kids thier baskets and made them wait... I had to replace the batteries in the camera. When I unleashed them, they were off. I had to explain to Ivy that she needed to look for the "harder to find" eggs so Ari would be able to get the "insight" eggs.

After every egg was found, we all sat down and opened them into a big candy pile. The rule was that noone was supposed to eat any chocolate until all the eggs were opened, but I think some pieces were "sneaked"! Ivy ended up finding the most eggs. She was really excited when I brought out the grand prize. It is a strawberry scented Strawberry Shortcake bubble bath.

We ended the festivities with some coloring. Nathanael helped Ivy and I worked with Ari. As you can tell by the picture, Ivy only wanted hers to be PINK. The hole processes what mess free, and I used water instead of vinager so we didn't have to hold our noses. We had a wonderful day with Daddy and it was great to have the whole family together.

It was interesting telling a 3 year old that Jesus died to save us all and three days later came to life again. There were some eyebrowl crinkeling, but she insisted on calling people to tell them the "good news".

Now I am being begged to give them an egg to eat. Love to all and Happy Easter!

Happy Hippity Hoppity Easter!

I'm very excited about tomorrow. Nathanael is going to come over early and spend the WHOLE day with us. I have already filled 40-50 eggs (I'll count them tonight as I hide them) with stickers and chocolate. Tonight after the children are in a deep sleep, I will hide them all over the apartment. When they wake up tomorrow morning (hopefully Nate will already be here) the kids can begin looking for them. Ivy is already VERY excited about the "colory eggies" and has no idea why. She caught a glimpse of them and keeps asking what they are for... hee hee hee.

After all that, we are going to dye some eggs. I'm on a salad kick, and I wanted eggs to cut up. We normally buy the brown eggs, but I purposely bought the white ones and boiled them yesterday.

Hopefully I can get the kids to take a nap at some point during the day, and when they wake up I plan on talking to them about Easter. I did a little researching on line today to see "why a rabbit" and "why eggs" What do they have to do with anything...I never did understand how we went from Jesus' death and Resurrection to magical bunnies and colorful eggs.

Feel free to comment if you know of anything else, or if this is completely wrong, but here is what I've learned.

Oh of course...it was a Pagen holiday...just like Christmas trees!

Turns out...(taken from http://wilstar.com/holidays/easter.htm)

"The ancient Saxons celebrated the return of spring with an uproarious festival commemorating their goddess of offspring and of springtime, Eastre. When the second-century Christian missionaries encountered the tribes of the north with their pagan celebrations, they attempted to convert them to Christianity. They did so, however, in a clandestine manner.

It would have been suicide for the very early Christian converts to celebrate their holy days with observances that did not coincide with celebrations that already existed. To save lives, the missionaries cleverly decided to spread their religious message slowly throughout the populations by allowing them to continue to celebrate pagan feasts, but to do so in a Christian manner.

As it happened, the pagan festival of Eastre occurred at the same time of year as the Christian observance of the Resurrection of Christ. It made sense, therefore, to alter the festival itself, to make it a Christian celebration as converts were slowly won over. The early name, Eastre, was eventually changed to its modern spelling, Easter."

(loosely quoted)...The Easter Bunny originated with the pagen festival of Eastre. The goddess, Eastre, was worshiped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the rabbit. The egg was a symbol of rebirth.

On a different site, (http://www.celebratingeaster.com/traditions/history/)

"The two symbols most often associated with Eastre are the hare and the egg because of their obvious connection to fertility, and the idea of new growth associated with spring and dawn. Legend has it that Eastre would entertain children by turning her favorite bird into a hare that would lay a nest filled with colorful eggs."

So, tomorrow I plan on telling the kids (in 3yr old language)

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."John 3:16 (New International Version)

"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. John 5:24 (New International Version)

"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." Romans 6:4 (New International Version)

I might try to talk about the eggs in terms of the fact that baby chicks and such are born from them...we'll see.

This all may go completely over their heads, but it is the seed that will continue to grow throughout their childhood. I'm sure that Nate and I will get MANY questions, but I believe there will be good discussion.

I find it odd...

Today Ivy and I were watching the Disney channel and a commercial advertisement came on for this Sunday. I was a bit surprised that they were advertising Halloween week in April, and they decided to start the week on Sunday, Easter Sunday. I did a little "google"ing and turns out they did it last year too. I find this upsetting.

I got it back!

Just received a phone call from the Ramada Corporate Office. Originally she was only going to give me my money back for Saturday Night and Sunday Night. I explained to her that I really would like my entire stay reimbursed due to the lack of customer service, and the fact that I paid for a non-smoking room, and received a smoking room. I also asked her if there was any comment on the letter that I had received, and she said the notes only spoke of the fact that I had received a letter. I kindly asked her if she minded if I read it to her. She said yes, and so I did. After I was finished I gave her a little more background of the situation. Then with out any more questions, she said "So total you paid was $$$ and I will be sending a check for $$$ to your address in 2-3 weeks. I'm sorry and we will be investigating this property."

So everything refunded. Nice! I wouldn't say that every Ramada is like this, but I would say to those of you who might be traveling, don't prepay, unless you know what you are getting into. I've learned my lesson.

Keesler AFB, 2009 Air Show

Yesterday Nathanael was able to spend the whole day with us
and we decided to take the kids to the Air Show.
We took lots of pictures...Enjoy!



The kids thought it was so cool that they could go inside the airplanes.



We all had a great time.



Ari thought this plane looked like a shark.
In these pictures, Ivy and Ari pretended
that the "shark" was biting them.



Ivy loved the idea of sitting in the seat, however she was worried
every time we went in a plane that it was going to take off.
She kept asking if we needed to buckle up.



Who's flying this plane?



Everyone was excited about watching the parachuters.



They had moon jumps and slides for the kids to play in.



The main attraction was the Thunderbirds.
They were loud, but Ari loved watching them.