Thursday and Friday were specifically dedicated to our family's spring break "staycation" since we couldn't, in good conscience, drag a recovering-from-the-flu child out of town. So, instead we have
- indulged in a huge pancake breakfast at our favorite breakfast place, which I delighted in after my own almost two-year hiatus
- built new and old Lego sets (Sis has the Friends beauty parlor and Bud and Mama are putting the medieval castle back together again)
- danced in a brief rain shower, while trying to spot a rainbow
- watched a red-tail hawk in a nearby tree ("hawkspotting")
- watched lots of new-to-us "Phineas and Ferb" episodes, including the three-part rollercoaster arc (the original first episode, the time traveling Quantum Bugaloo, and the "Rollercoaster, The Musical.")
- visited the Discovery Museum in Bridgeport (the kids had fun but, frankly, it was awful--very poor didactics when they existed at all because they didn't give kids the info they needed to appreciate the topic at hand or answer their poorly-worded, not-open-ended questions; dirty and broken exhibits (piles of used paper, broken pens, missing stars for constellations, and numerous broken electronics); mediocre aesthetics--poorly designed and hung didactic panels in various fonts on small sheets of paper, chipped paint, dirt; lack of basic instructions or clearly intuitive procedures for hands-on activities. All around CRAP. The only good parts were the hands-on activities in the "My House, Your House" exhibition, with the build-your-own cabin, walk-in Mongolian ger, and the Fiji fire pit.)
- eaten lunch at Bloodroot--peanut and mustard greens soup, tofu salad with sesame oil dressing, grilled Swiss cheese, Bloodroot "burger," cheese omelet, oatmeal bread, chocolate devastation cake, brown rice pudding, and lemon-lavender posset in a china cup. MMMMMMmmmm! The posset might be the best dessert I've ever had there, better than the pumpkin or blueberry tofu mousses or the cranberry kissel (tied, perhaps, with brandied fruit over ice cream!). Sis thought so, too. But, otherwise, the kids didn't like it at all. Which has me considering a vegetarian month here at home to break the must-have-meat/not natural foods habit.
- gardened, after a trip to the garden store--Sis got red, orange, yellow, and purple pansies plus some trailing verbena with red flowers. We also have some sweet basil and new pink phlox for the rock wall (since the old phlox is creeping into crevices beautifully). We spent time outside planting and watering all of these.
- played a new game called Yoome, which requires not only the game but also an iPad app. It's hard to explain but it's basically a get-to-know-you game with dualistic (is that a word?) questions (ketchup or mustard? winter or summer?) that one player answers secretly and the others try to guess; best guesser wins.
- read more poetry before bed, including the perfect spring poem for today:
"Maytime Magic" by Mabel Watts
A little seedFor me to sow...A little earthTo make it grow...A little hole,A little pat...A little wish,And that's that.A little sun,A little shower...A little while,And then--a flower!
I do not understand, either the museum was all round crap or it was not. You said it had a good part. Or am I a victim of not knowing Texan English? Signed Pedant.
ReplyDeleteBut sorry to hear you may have flu in the house again. How does the kids sickness record compare with their class mates?
Spring, having sprung, has bounced away, we are expecting a load of Polar weather very soon.
In 1947, when I was at school, there was a shortage of fuel and the buildings were not heated between 9am and 12, then again unheated 2pm to 4pm. That lasted for 4 or 5 weeks, it was cold outside and none too warm inside but we were told later that there had been less sickness during the heating cut weeks than normal. From that time on I have tried to keep the house just warm enough, I also found that I was much healthier once I stopped using public transport. Is the school too hot?