Year 2, Day 69: Long Week!

Wow, what a busy week!  We just kept adding things to each day and filled them up!  Yesterday, we were gone for almost 12 hrs!  I decided to take the kids to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis yesterday because we hadn't been there since Christmas and in the next couple of weeks, I'm sure there's going to be bigger crowds because others are on spring break.  Attendance was very light, except for a couple of preschool school groups in the Circus exhibit.  It was mostly unplanned, but we did spend a ton of time in the Egypt portion of the museum because we studied Ancient Egypt this week.  I made them read every sign in that portion of the downstairs exhibit that includes an underwater exploration area and the statues from ancient China.  It was so busy in the Circus exhibit that I didn't have time to make sure they read everything.  I had to chase Abishai through very small openings that weren't great to get a stroller through.  We also spent lots of time with the dinosaurs.  My goal is to eventually read every informational and educational sign in the museum and to teach the kids to not plow through this exhibits that people have carefully designed and curated.

We were at the museum until about 3 and then headed to Grandma and Grandpa's so that Grandpa could take the middles to pick up Grandma from the airport and the bookends could be with Jared while I went to a MOPSnext meeting on cyber safety.  It was an excellent talk put on by the prosecutor's office of Marion County.  They go to every school they can and teach kids how to be safe when they are using social media apps and all the other things you can do on technology.  They have to talk to kids as young as 4th grade.  I know a lot about this issue, but it was a great reminder to double check devices and remind the kids to be careful and how it could be hurtful to them later.  Thankfully, only Benaiah has access to a device that has some of those apps.  The middles just have to be careful not to talk to people when they play on the PS4 online. Believe it or not, the lady that spoke has never done a talk for homeschoolers.  I'm going to try to fix that.  Homeschool kids do have access to devices and these apps as well and need to know about what's really going on out there.  Discernment, and protection, i.e. Justin will not get a wifi enabled device until I get a new phone.  He keeps asking for one though.  Nope, nada, you don't need that.

Speaking of Justin, he's on a one and one trip with Grandpa this weekend.  Gary had a speaking engagement in Nebraska, so Justin tagged along.  Then Benaiah and Jared are going to Ohio for the whole day tomorrow.  That leaves Leah and I and the littlest two.  Leah's going to babysit for a good portion of the day because I have a Lilla Rose event late tomorrow afternoon.  Phew!  We are so busy!

And today, we went house hunting again and went to 7 houses of all kinds in all kinds of places in all kinds of shapes.  We might have found one, but we aren't sure how it's all going to work out.  We chilled the rest of the afternoon catching up on things and preparing for the weekend and week ahead.   We are just so tired!  Abishai had his usual 4 hr nap today, especially after only napping 1 hr yesterday and then being bounced in and out of the carseat today.  Keturah and Abishai had a blast searching all the houses for nooks and crannies and at one point, they just started a screaming war in an empty house!  Our realtor has 12 grandchildren from 4 children and spouses, so she's used to it and didn't blink an eye.

So, here's the pictures from our adventures of the last couple of days!

Hieroglyphics!  Keturah got a little spooked out when she saw the jars that had the dead person's internal organs.  I bought a cool hieroglyphic ruler so we trace our names into cartouches.  Keturah's loved it!

It's a computer simulation, but it looks like you are going down a passage into the mummy's tomb.

Justin, who thinks he's like 5, had a blast gathering rocks and putting them back onto a conveyor belt so they can fall down  and be gathered up again.

We were a little disappointed to see that they had changed the puzzle pieces of this mummy from the big rubbery chunks to these pieces with handles.  I guess this works better.

Abishai wanted to help, too!

A  cast of a real mummy!

What rocks or plants make the different colors to paint ancient things with?

Abishai WANTED to have the goggles on and even put them on himself!

Diggin the Chinese statues out.

Watching the train "take off."

Every time we passed by, Abishai wanted to play with the trains.  And when we said it was time to go, he would throw a major toddler tantrum.

Peek a boo!  I see your belly, Abishai!

In the 12 years or so of going to the museum, I didn't realize that there was a trolley that went through the display windows UNDER the big display!  So cool that they keep these really old trains running!

This boy and ladders.....not so sure it's a good thing since he slipped off the bunk bed ladder not even a week ago!  We've got our dare devil kid!

This is a neat thing where they show the pattern of how to juggle balls.  You have to push the balls up in the right order and at the right time.  Cool!

The Circus exhibit has a virtual reality tight rope that the middle kids did.  But they also has a wire on the ground so Abishai and I tried it.  It was really hard although the wire was pretty thick!  I couldn't stay on it.  And I hate heights.  But kudos to those who can.

Justin learned about science with centripetal force with a spinning ring!  He noticed that if he leaned back and lower, he would spin faster.  Yeah, we learned something!

Balancing board on a "metal can."

Keturah didn't spin as much but still had fun.

Now that's how you do the ladders!  They do move back and forth and it is demonstrate how the circus performers create a tower like structure with tons of ladders and people.

Crazy busy Circus exhibit!

"Ha-hat!"

Practicing tossing rings.

Justin is so strong!  And he insisted that he needed to let it bounce when he dropped it to the ground.  Ok, big boy posturing.

Human cannonball!  I was a little mad because the school group kids were pushing through each other and cutting each other in line and no one was around to correct them.  So, I became the line police so Abishai could get a turn.

1..2..3..Boom!

Keturah's turn.

Abishai saw the clown car first. I'm sure he would have loved it!

Big 2 year old eating his first lunchable all by himself.  Plus dipping his crackers/their chips into the cheese sauce and salsa.  He was hungry!  And he's sitting in a big boy chair!

Yes, Justin, who is 11 1/2, still got dressed up and played in the dinosaur egg nest for 20 minutes!  He noticed that they didn't have many plush dinosaur eggs left, which is true.  I'm so glad that he can still play like this without being embarrassed.

Roar!

Abishai went head first on purpose into the costume bin!  And then he figured out how to get out, too.

The boys protecting the nest of eggs.  Abishai rolled around on his back like he does at home, at ease with the world.  

Abishai liked climbing up and then sliding down the sides of the nest.

Then Abishai became obsessive about the dinosaurs and had to learn to share them after he lined them all up, just like he does with cars at home.

More trains!

The Museum extended the life of their Yuletide slide by making it into a chocolate slide! (All pretend chocolate).

A sign completely made with candy.  

Yes more trains!  But he liked the tractors on the shelf more!  And this stick that had a dinosaur head on it that you could clamp down on people to eat them.  RRRROOOOAAARRRRR!

Yeah, the Circus!  I was so mad.  I made sure I had my back up SD card for my DSLR, but didn't double check for an extra battery and the camera's battery was completely dead!  So, I had to take all the pictures on my iPhone.  Whoops! 

Helping Baba Justin pack up to go on a trip with Grandpa.

Watching big trucks doing their thing!

Feeding Chick from the Cars movie.  Yum!

He choose the baseball hat instead of the camo hat.  Cute jacket, tooo

Bed head after his big 4 hrs of sleep.

Baba Benaiah learning how to cook.

Dominos!  He wants to buy a set of dominoes for myself!

The look of death!

Construction time!  Maybe I'll hire him to do some of the renvoations in whatever house re get.

Benaiah working hard on his domino configuration.

Kaboom!

Abishai adores having his silbings do things with him.  He has the hugest smile on his face and sat really still as Baba Benaiah read aloud.   Benaiah had a hard time reading aloud correctly, although I did teach him!

Another ha-hat!

Oh so sleepy.  I have many more stories from yesterday and today but my brain is shutting down.  Good night!