Wednesday, 30 November 2005
Diane's church on Wednesday nights has a short service where their organist plays for about an hour in the chapel. He is very good and has taken a new position and will be leaving at the end of the year, and Diane invited us to hear him play before he left.
Since her church is downtown, I decided to take the kids early so we could do some window shopping - something they love to do - and pick out some new Christmas ornaments for the tree. The store we went to with all the incredible ornaments is one where you take a deep breath and pray no one sneezes. They did an awesome job of picking out their ornaments and not touching anything they weren't suppose to.
We spent quite a bit of time just looking in their shop window. They have a small santa's train that moves which Sam and the girls could sit and watch for hours.
We still had time before the performance, so we went into the children's toy store and boy did we find some fun things! We played with three or four different displays for a good 30 minutes before walking over to the church. I am hoping GR and I can get over there together sometime next week to do some Christmas shopping. They have amazing things that you simply don't find anywhere else.
Friday 25 November 2005
We have rediscovered a favorite St. Louis location. Although it was a popular site for the day after Thanksgiving everyone really enjoyed themselves. This was a trip best described in pictures - not words, although I've used some. They are bringing Clifford the Big Red Dog in January - May, we will definitely be coming back at some point during that time to experience it again with our favorite PBS/Scholastic character.
This is one of the first "exhibits" you come to... most people were doing hand prints. But GR and Becca decided to do their face prints.
They have an entire area for little kids 5 and under with slides, two different sand play stations and a water station. Here Sam is playing in sand that isn't gritty or fine (that's a station all it's own) - you can mold it and sculpt it, but it doesn't seem to dry out like wet beach sand.
Here's the water station. The water flows down a series of ramps. The children can experiment with diverting or damming the water to change the flow, or create water falls, and pools. We spent quite a bit of time in this area.
There is a small fishing pond - Suzanne is helping Emily fish - the poll has a magnet on the end of the string and the fish are metal tipped. When you catch a fish you can either release it back into the pond, or you can take it somewhere else and release it. Then you can watch your fish make it's way back to the pond through a Plexiglas glass covered "under floor" stream that feeds into the pond. This was quite popular and it took Sam quite a while to finally get his turn to fish. I should have adapted the Lebanese concept of 'waiting' in line.
They have an entire town set up in kid size ... A house, a bank, library (below Emily is the librarian, checking books in and out using the computer system and stamping cards), TV station, grocery store, etc.
This portion of the Magic House dealt with moving air and air pressure and the effects it has on objects. I loved watching toddlers reaction to the floating balls. They stood in stared, looks of confusing and wonder on their faces, as they tried to figure out why the balls were floating in air. They also had air compressors set up with empty water bottles on strings to create "bottle rockets." You filled the water bottle with air and then released it to see how far up the string it would go. Very cool!
The electrostatic Ball is one of the things the Magic House is famous for. Suzanne and I both gave it a whirl. The trick is to move/shake your head around a lot - but your can't touch your hair or help it lift with your hands. Suz's hair really performed well - mine might have done better if I could have waited an additional 5+ minutes for it to collect enough static charge. Unfortunately the kids wouldn't try it - I'm thinking next time they might be brave enough to try it.
