Monday, October 20, 2008

Free Military Channel for a Weekend

This is what R just told me as he was jumping up and down in the way that only he can:
"Yes! I was afraid they were going to say the Phantom was #1, but they didn't! After all, it doesn't have a gun.

I knew it! It's the P51 Mustang -- the best military aircraft in history. I knew it; it's an American classic. I feel (and I'm sure dad does too) that this is the best military plane of all time. Oh yeah!"

This has been my weekend -- a weekend of free Military channel. With TIVO, that weekend will last all week.

Monday, October 13, 2008

A Fun and Busy Weekend

M and I had this ethical dilemma last week. We were invited to a fancy 40th anniversary party at the Chicago Yacht club that was to start at 6pm on Friday night. The dilemma was when to leave for the windy city. It would take us 3-4 hours to get there, depending on traffic. I had a half day (only a couple more of those for the year) but the kids were in school. The dilemma was when to take them out of school. Since we had to take them out early anyway, we decided to just have them skip school and head to the museum of Science and Industry. This is a museum that we have wanted to take them to for many years. We were waiting for the right time and when they were the right age. Boy, are they the right age now.

R wanted to start in the exhibit called Toys 3000. It taught kids how toys are made and tracked the business of a ball company. The boys had fun climbing a way that tracked the timeline of the business.


They got to watch robots make a toy, a gyroscope, for themselves. They got to pick out the color of the toy and the robots put their names on their toys. Here, T watches, fascinated as the two parts of the gyroscope are put together by the robot.


T loves his gyroscope and says it's cute. He played with it for the entire ride home on Saturday. Here he is, making his "he's so cute face."




One of the robots in the exhibit took a picture of our family and "danced" with it. It was pretty cool.

The coolest exhibit of all for us was the submarine tour and exhibit. When M and I were at the museum a decade ago, the sub was outside and there was no tour and no exhibits around it. That's what we expected and we were excited about that. However, now there is a great exhibit -- lots of hands on activities and a great tour with an engaging story. They don't allow pictures in the sub itself, but here are the boys driving the sub in the simulator. The boys were very proud of themselves because they had a successful mission, after they just watched a pair of adults fail their mission. That's my boys!




That's it for now, I'll write more about the weekend soon.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Apples are the Tofu of Fruit

We went apple picking when uncle D and Aunt J were here last weekend, so I've been making apple things lately. I started with apple sauce in the crock pot and an apple crumble pie. As the boys were eating the pie, T asked me what was in the recipe.

Me: There are apples, cinnamon, sugar, and a bit of flour
T: There seems like more to it. It's so delicious.
R: The apples taste all cinnoman-y.
Me: That's because they soaked up the cinnamon and now they taste like cinnamon too.
R: Oh, I get it. Apples are like the tofu of fruit!

R was remembering a conversation a few months ago when I told the boys that tofu doesn't really have much flavor of its own, but takes on the flavor of whatever it's cooked with. You gotta love when those synapses start connecting in those brains.