Fort Worth Museum visit

Paul was supposed to work today but decided not to, so we headed to the local Science and History museum. I've been wanting to go altogether, so I could determine if it was something I could do by myself with the kids. It was so great and I can definitely do it on my own. They have recently renovated and added a Children's Museum. We headed there first and just let the kids run around exploring all the fun stuff. They had snakes to look at, a huge train set to put together, a pretend grocery store, a hospital area, and water fun outside.

Letting Dr. Giraffe calculate their heights.

Off to get the groceries. Logan filled his basket with all the "roasted chickens" they had. Then he just kept adding stuff. Sophie was more interested in just pushing the cart, probably because the one we have at home is commandeered by Logan most of the time.

After we explored the children's area, we went to the Dino Lab and then saw a 4D show about the Barnett Shale. Then the kids got to explore all things related to drilling for natural gas.

We were ready to leave in time to get home, eat lunch and nap. I tried to get a picture before we left, but I think everyone was just ready to go.

Great Backyard Bird Count

I took the kids to the local nature center for the annual Great Backyard Bird Count. They had several activities for the kiddos as well as guided bird walks (which we didn't get to do). The kids had fun looking at eggs, even using a flashlight to get a peek of the chick inside. They also saw different parts of birds up close, Logan even got to use a microscope to see birdseed really, really close.

They made this bird silhouette for the window so that birds won't accidentally fly into the glass.

Then we made bird valentines using bread, egg whites, and birdseed.

They had face painting. Logan had bird (is it a chick or a duck?) on his cheek. As soon as I said "these ladies can paint your face" Sophie immediately started pointing to her hand and saying no. You might remember our "tattoo" experience at the Asian market. So she got a yellow star on each of her hands.

They had a ring toss game where you were trying to follow the migration pattern of a specific bird.

Then there was this table: (try to guess what he's doing?)

I'll bet you didn't guess "finding small rodent bones in an owl pellet". You did! Well, that's exactly right. They had a paper with drawings of different bones so that you could match the ones you found in your pellet and determine which animal the owl had eaten for it's lunch (or midnight snack). Logan loved this table! He probably would have picked through every pellet they had if I'd let him.

While we were there we also got library cards for the kids. Oh, yeah, and listened for the sounds of birds!

Kids Club at the Mall

Took the kids to the mall today for their Kids Club activity. There was a lady who played games with the children, sang some songs and told them a story. After that we did a craft (hint: Valentine's Day is in a week). We also got to give Bearemy (from Build-a-Bear) a high-five.

We brought another craft home so we I could get an extra pair of hands to help me with it. They also had goodie bags for both children and one for me, too. We will be going back next month.

Icy Snow Days

**UPDATE** with actual snow pics

So we had 4 days of ice and snow here in Texas. Yes, you read that right, 4 whole days. Now, I'm still off work hanging with Logan but Sophie would have gone to preschool 2 of those days and the other 2 I'd have planned some sort of outing for all of us. I wasn't prepared for 4 days with both kids, no outside time, and no errands to run. Four days of being in the house ALL DAY LONG! We did get to go out the last day when it actually snowed, and the kids had a great time. The rest of the time we just stayed in. I knew there was no way I could keep the screen time at a minimum so a little extra TV time when it's an icicle outside is okay. Luckily, neither child sits for more than about 30 minutes at a time anyway, so I just turned on the TV and let them come and go. I pulled out the Tot School trays and lined them up in the hallway. I also set up the big cardboard house Santa brought. It actually last about 3 days before I moved it to the garage. They had started pushing on the sides and knocking the house down. And, of course, we had water play. My kids love the water.

We did eventually go outside.

Covering me up with snow!