Animals in a Tub - PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest

Mikaela has been hard at work writing a story for a contest through the local PBS station. We finally mailed it off today, but thought we should make a copy of it so everyone could see it. Hope you enjoy! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCyDT8TiAoA

Dinosaur Interview

Hopefully, this works! The other day our neighbor dropped off a great toy for Aiden that his girls weren't really thrilled about. Just needed some batteries and it was good to go. Andy decided to "interview" Aiden about the toy and how it works - enjoy!

(If the video doesn't work on this page, click the links below them to view it directly from the YouTube site.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3so-S_kQOA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0aoRRLJTCM

Field Trip Friday II - Henry Ford Museum w/ the Kreigers

We had another "Field Trip Friday" today, but this time we went along with our friends the Kreigers, Elena & Eshton. Erik was able to join us for lunch as well. Since they are members at the Henry Ford Museum, they were able to take us along with them for free to see a bunch of very cool stuff. We will definitely have to go back sometime because one whole section of the museum was under construction for a future exhibit about some more automobiles. But what we did see was very interesting:

Kiddos in front of the Weinermobile.

Eshton pretending to be hot dog.

Mikaela's turn.

Look at my cute little Aiden hot dog...

Apparently Trevor Bayne had been to the museum recently - I believe this is his actual trophy (not sure though).

Off to the Model T area...

This is where the kids could help put together an actual Model T car. They assemble the car every day. The guide explained it's easy to make because children put it together every day ;)

This is the bus made famous by Rosa Parks:

These are two ski runners for an airplane.

Replica(?) of Wright brothers' plane.

Check this out - a cross between a helicopter and a plane :)

This train is absolutely massive...

Kids were able to pull the whistle and other levers.

I just thought this looked so cool :)

Aren't they cute?

They looked so small sitting up in the cab of that monster...

Next off to the K'nex area where they each got to build/race cars down some slopes.

The K'nex area was part of a Travelling through Time exhibit where they also included some music from the past. Here Aiden and Eshton are getting down to some old school Dire Straits:

There was a whole section on engines, generators, power, etc. but I didn't get too many pictures of that area because the motors and things were so large that I could not capture it properly with our camera.

Not sure what we will do for our next field trip, but we have been enjoying the ones we have done throughout the year. And I loved that Andy was able to join us on this one too!

All I want for EASTER ;)

Yesterday her 2nd upper tooth came out (that makes 4 for Mommy having yanked out of this poor girl's mouth!). She enjoys sticking her tongue through that nice big hole. The adult tooth is already starting to protrude, so we'll see if she gets some in quickly!

Field Trip Friday

Today's Field Trip Friday brought us to the Wolcott Mill Metropark.

I think if the kids were only allowed to play with this replica of the gristmill, they would have been fine staying there all day...

We created coffee filter maple leaves using coffee filters, marker, and liquid starch.

We also created real spiles made out of sumac branches using a nail to "drill" out the center creating a tube for the sap to drip down into a bucket.

Our interpretor/guide was explaining how we could identify a maple tree (especially since this time of year, there are no leaves to aid in the identification.)

Here he is drilling into the tree:

And now for some taste testing:

Yum! 7 samples to be tasted ranging from store bought "syrup" to 100% maple syrup to boiled down sap.

Aiden approved of each sample for the record. ;)

All in all, a beautiful day!