Philadelphia Trip - Part Two

For our second day in Philadelphia, we had three main activities planned:  the Philadelphia Zoo, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and a Phillies game at Citizens Bank Park. 

Philadelphia Zoo

I'm sure some people think it's kind of weird to go to a zoo without your kids (and maybe it is), but Daniel and I like zoos a lot and we were excited - we had looked it up before our trip as a possible activity, and found out that it was the first zoo in the United States, so what's not exciting about that? It was actually really nice to be able to walk around at our own pace and not have to worry about little people getting tired/hungry/lost, etc. (not that we didn't keep thinking about them and how much they would love it there.  And maybe we called them a few times to tell them about neat animals we saw).

We didn't have a car, so we took a bus north to the stop nearest the zoo, and then walked the rest of the way (it was the start to another big walking day).

The weather was gorgeous (it was perfect the whole trip) and we had a lot of fun walking around and seeing all the cool animals. 

This little Asiatic bear was so funny - it kept running around the bush really fast, over and over again, stopping in between to show off to all the people watching it.  Plus, it had the craziest hair of any bear I've seen.

I think our favorite animals were the giant otters, though.  They were so fun!  There were about 10-12 in an enclosed swimming area with rocks, waterfalls, and slides, and they were chasing each other all over the place.  They kept wrestling, dunking each other, diving off rocks, etc.  We sat and watched them for a long time.  I have a video clip of some of the otter action that the kids love watching, and I thought about posting it, but then I thought better of it (because unless my blog readers are beween the ages of 1 and 9 it might not be appreciated).  So here's just a little picture of one of the otters swimming and you can just skip right over it if otters are not interesting to you:

Another awesome thing about the Philadelphia Zoo were exhibits like this:

Can you tell those monkeys are all made out of Legos?

It really was amazing.  I thought of Oliver right away, because he is always making up random animals out of Legos.  I guess the zoo has connections with a Lego Artist (I had no idea such a career existed; we found out there are only 9 certified Lego Professionals in the world).  He has made several Lego creations of endangered animals for the zoo.

This polar bear is life-sized and took over 1000 hours to build.  I wonder how many Legos he used.

Here we are after spending about 3 hours walking around the whole zoo. 

Philadelphia Museum of Art

When we were done with the zoo, we walked along the Schuylkill River down to the art museum, which was about 1.5-2 miles away.  This was the view before we started our walk, looking down toward the city:

When we got to the museum we walked out to a little overlook place they had outside:

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is huge!  It took us 3 hours to walk through and see everything, and we were going as fast as we could, and not even stopping to read all of the descriptions or anything (unfortunately, "as fast as we could" by this time was kind of a slow and painful waddle, because we were so sore from all of our walking.  At one point while we were walking through, Daniel started singing "Pioneer children sang as they walked, and walked, and walked" under his breath.  I promise, it was very funny.  We really did enjoy all of the art, but there was also an "endure to the end" feeling to it. 

They had a big Picasso exhibit going on, so we were able to see that while we were there. 

One of our favorite exhibits was one that had tons of authentic Medieval armor and weaponry.  We took lots of pictures to show Tristan and Oliver when we got home - they love drawing knights with crazy weapons and stuff, so this was right up their alley.

Some of the art they had displayed was just crazy.  Our kids could not believe it when we showed them pictures (sorry if this is your favorite style):

Awesome view of the city from outside the museum:

I didn't know before that the Philadelphia Museum of Art is where the Rocky steps are.  They even have his footprints at the top and everything.

Baseball Game

The next thing on our agenda was the Phillies game.  It didn't start until 7:00, but we wanted to get there early for batting practice, and we didn't have anywhere else to be, so we took a taxi straight from the art museum (no more walking for us - it was 30 minutes away on the other side of town).

I love the way baseball fields look.

Here's Daniel eating an authentic Philly cheesesteak (from Tony Luke's, even - another Man v. Food challenge spot!).

We had great seats on the 10th row, and I couldn't believe what a difference it made to be so close to all the action.

Actually, the thing that made the game the most exciting for me is kind of embarrassing to admit; Daniel introduced me to scoring cards!  He had a feeling that would be the kind of thing I would like (I guess after 10+ years he thinks he knows me pretty well), so he bought a program and then explained how to keep track of every play. I had no idea such a fabulous/complex system existed.  I dutifully kept track the whole nine innings (I know, I'm such a nerd!):

As you can see, the Phillies lost, but we weren't too concerned with the outcome, so it was okay.  The game didn't get over until pretty late, so we walked to the subway station and took the subway back to our hotel.

End of day two - we were worn out, but having a great time.

So much like a butterfly (except you don't have wings)

Happy Mother's Day to everyone yesterday (I'm still planning on finishing the Philly posts, but I thought I should do this one as close to Mother's Day as I could).

I was greeted nice and early yesterday morning by a bunch of pirates bursting into my room and yelling "Happy Mother's Day!" to me. I'm not sure whose idea it was to dress up before giving me the nice greeting, but it was a nice surprise.  They looked wonderful.

Right after church we managed to get some non-pirate Mother's Day pictures taken before everyone changed out of their church clothes.  I think everyone is in the middle of saying "Happy Mother's Day!" in this picture, which is why they're all making funny faces instead of smiling.

Then of course we had to do the intentional silly picture (because we didn't know that most of our attempts at serious ones had turned out silly).

One of my biggest surprises this year was the beautiful cake that Tristan and Oliver brought me home from school on Friday.  They were so proud of it!  I guess the school was doing a fund-raiser, and after getting Daniel's permission, the boys took some of their own money and bought and decorated a cake for me. They've been waiting for weeks and almost couldn't contain their excitement for the "mystery present" they had gotten me.  They were also relieved that I decided to share it with everyone, although they said they had guessed that I would. 

I also got several cards.  My favorite one from Tristan was this math worksheet that he gave me - he had made up lots of tricky math problems that I had to solve without using a calculator in order to crack the code.  Very fun!

Oliver (inspired by all of the butterflies that have been hanging around on the bushes by our house lately) drew me a beautiful butterfly card.  I love his self-taught cursive on the front:

But I mostly love the message he wrote inside:

All the kids (except Henry) sang a special Mother's Day song in church, but I didn't get to see them because I was accompanying them on the piano and behind all the kids (I'm the primary pianist).  When we got home I had them sing it again for the camera (this unfortunately was after they had changed out of their church clothes and were dressed in all sorts of random things, but at least not pirate gear.  Although now that I think of it, pirates singing a Mother's Day song would be pretty cute).  Anyway, we were planning on sending the video clip to grandmas, so that's why they changed the words at the end to "Grandma dear" instead of "Mother dear."

I love my kids, and I'm so thankful that I get to be their mom.  I was thinking yesterday that it's always extra fun to be pregnant on Mother's Day, and then I figured out that of the eleven Mother's Days since I got married, I have been pregnant for six of them.  Kind of funny.

Philadelphia Trip - Part One

Daniel and I just got back from a trip to Philadelphia - completing our third annual trip with just the two of us and no kids. I love this tradition.  The first year we went to New Orleans, and last year we went to Boston.  We flew my mom out to watch the kids (which they loved). 

It was fun to do Philly right after Boston because of the historical timeline - after things got going with the revolution in Boston (Paul Revere, Lexington & Concord, etc.) all the action moved to Philadelphia (Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, etc.). 

(Embarrassingly, I had not remembered any of this before these two trips.  I know I learned it at one point, but it turns out I have not retained any of my high school education.  Tristan (3rd grade) might actually know more than I do - when we told him we were going to Philadelphia, he said, "Oh, that was the nation's first capital.")

Anyway, because of all the historical significance of Philadelphia, we decided to spend the whole first day just walking around the Old City and hitting all of the historical sites.

Our hotel was in downtown Philadelphia, and just a short walk away from the Old City.  We started out by going to the Philadelphia Mint to see how coins are made.  It's an actual working mint (they can make up to a million coins in 30 minutes), but they have it set up so you can take a tour through the building and look down and see all the coins getting made.  It was pretty cool.  I think they should give away a brand new penny as a little souvenir to everyone who goes through.  I wonder how much that would cost them?  Or they could charge a nickel for a brand new penny, and then they'd make money!  I would have paid, and I don't even like pennies - I just have never seen pennies so clean and shiny.  We weren't allowed to take pictures, though.

After going through the Mint, we walked to the Christ Church burial ground, where Benjamin Franklin and four other signers of the Declaration of Independence were buried.  We also stopped by the Betsy Ross house, where the first flag was made.

Then we walked down Elfreth's Alley, one of the oldest residential streets in America.  It's been around since the 1700s, and people still live there.  We thought it would be a fun little place to live.  Probably not room for 5 (soon to be 6) kids, though.

We visited the Christ Church, where both Benjamin Franklin and George Washington attended church.  Here's Daniel sitting in the exact pew that they used.  I wish our church had pews like this - I can easily picture our little family sitting reverently (or playing on the floor) in there.  One weird thing about this church is that they buried people right inside - I guess the floor used to be gravel, and they would just dig it up, bury someone, and cover it all up.  You couldn't walk down the aisle without stepping on someone's grave.  I don't know if that's worth the fancy pews.

Then we walked down to Penn's Landing on the Delaware River.  Right across the river is New Jersey.  We were a little worn out from all our walking.

At lunch we went to the famous Franklin Fountain for ice-cream, where Man vs. Food visited in the Philadelpha episode (I know his name is really Adam Richman, but at our house he is just called "Man versus Food".  Has anyone else even seen that show?).  We even ordered one of the exact dishes that he got - the Franklin Mint.  It was awesome.

Here's me in front of Franklin Court, where Benjamin Frankln's house was.  I'd like to learn more about him someday - from what we saw in Philadelphia, he seems like a fascinating guy.

One of the neatest places we visited on the first day was Independence Hall, where both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed.  We got to go inside and see the actual room, and learn more about the whole process (again, I know I've learned all this before, but it seemed much more exciting and important this time around - probably a combination of being at the actual locations and also not being a teenager anymore).

After that we walked over to see the Liberty Bell.  I couldn't help but think of the movie National Treasure, and it was making me laugh because Nicolas Cage's character is supposed to be some major history wiz, and he's looking for a clue or something at the Liberty Bell, and he climbs to the top of Independence Hall (where it used to be), and then acts like because he's such a historical genius he suddenly remembers the little known fact that the actual Liberty Bell is no longer being used, and in fact is across the street.  It was just funny, because it is so obvious to any tourist in Philadelphia where the Liberty Bell is, becaue they have a big museum specifically for it, with signs, etc. leading right to it.  So you can't really miss it.  C'mon, Nicolas Cage.

By then we were pretty much done with the historical stuff, so we walked down to the other side of Philly, by City Hall.  We spotted the love statue and hung out by the fountain for a little while.

For dinner we went to Reading Terminal Market, a huge indoor marketplace right by our hotel.  I love markets!  Daniel tried out the pork sandwich at DiNic's (another Man v. Food recommended stop).  We took a picture so the kids could see how cool we were being by hitting all the Man v. Food places. 

That evening we just walked around Philly, trying to see if there was anything to do.  We noticed that most places closed really early, so we're not really sure what people do at night there.  It seemed like a lot of people were going out to restaurants for late dinners, but we had already eaten.  We were pretty tired from all our walking, though, so we didn't mind not staying up too late.  It was a good first day.

Noah's Ark: The Opera

Last night Tristan and Oliver both had baseball games, so Daniel was gone with them and I was at home with the younger three.

I gave them all baths, and then sent Rachel and Elizabeth upstairs with the standard "brush teeth, go to the bathroom, get in jammies, and get in bed with a book" instructions. I told them as soon as I read to Henry and got him to bed, I would come upstairs and read to them (I used to just read to them all together, but now I like to do it separately so I can read chapter books to the girls, and dinosaur/dump truck books to Henry. Plus, I like spending reading time with the girls without Henry climbing all over and demanding everyone's attention. And Henry loves his own special time with me, so everyone wins.)

Anyway, after Henry was in bed, I went upstairs, expecting to find the girls in their separate beds - Rachel with a Boxcar children book, and Lizza with a stack of picture books - but instead, I saw that they were both up in Rachel's bed. Rachel was reading a big Noah's Ark board book aloud to Elizabeth. It was a cute little scene, but not one that would have seemed that out of the ordinary except that Rachel was singing the whole book, instead of reading it.

I went back downstairs, grabbed my camera, and snuck back into their room to take a picture, but when I saw that the singing was still going strong, I decided to start recording it. I didn't think I'd be able to record very much (I thought either my memory card would get full or Rachel would notice me and stop), but I got at least 4 minutes of quality sing-reading. She even finished the book and had started over before she noticed me (Lizza sat up and saw me about halfway through, but to her credit, she just laid right back down and didn't say a word).

Here's the full four minutes and twenty seconds of it. Some parts might not make sense until you read the explanations below the clip:

I loved it when they would stop to chat every once in a while.

At minute 1:07, Elizabeth wanted to try making a fancy little noise whenever it was time to turn the page.

E: Rach, when I say "ding-dong" that means stop. "DING-DONG! tongue-click".

R: No, cause. . . No, cause that's kind of boring.

E (next time it's time to turn the page): "tongue click"

At minute 2:03, Lizza took a moment to point out the picture of all the houses and trees under water (she loves that page).

E: Rachel - the houses are under there. And the trees.

R: Um-hmm.

E: Because them didn't obey!

And my favorite was on the last page (minute 3:06), after Noah and his family found land (you can see the rainbow picture briefly). I noticed that the way Rachel sang some of the lines didn't make sense, like she was skipping words or something (" Noah and his family gave thanks to ___ and ___ made a rainbow in the sky.") I couldn't figure out why, but then she stopped to explain to Lizza, and it all became clear.

R: Guess why I didn't say those? (pointing to some of the words)

E: Why?

R: We're not supposed to say it. (I knew as soon as I heard this that she had been skipping the word "God" any time it showed up in the book. I had to try so hard not to laugh out loud!!)

E: But one time I said it.*

R: When?

R (not waiting for an answer): Should I read it again?!

*This is true. Lizza says "oh, my gosh" a lot, and it wasn't always clear exactly how she was ending that phrase, so we had a little talk about not taking the name of the Lord in vain, and I guess Rachel took it very seriously.

I also love the last 20 seconds or so of the clip -Rachel continues skipping any mention of God ("____ told Noah to build an ark"), and then dabbles in a little bit of opera before finally noticing me (because I climbed up on their bed).

Her opera plus shocked expression at the end just kill me. I love this girl.

March Madness

I know it's not March anymore, and also, this post isn't even about basketball (although it was fun to watch BYU advance to a second game), but our March was pretty crazy, and "March Madness" sounded better than "Stuff we did in March", which is what I had first.

I've kind of been out of the blogging world for awhile.  Henry and I went out of town at the beginning of April for my little brother's wedding, so while I'm waiting to get pictures back from people I decided to get caught up and post pictures from March.  I think I'm getting tired of blogging, because I feel like all I do is post pictures now.  I don't know if it's because I've been extra busy, or just because I'm pregnant with #6 and have no extra energy for writing funny stuff down (how's that for a sneaky announcement?  13 weeks today!).

So for now, pictures is all I've got. 

Rachel has fallen in love with chapter books, and is now on her fifth Boxcar Children book.  I love those books. 

Oliver working on his balance.  He can count to 100 while standing on Daniel's hands.

A good napping spot for Henry.

When he's not napping in the cupboard, one of his favorite things to do is look up sharks and helicoptors online.  He used to just look at pictures, but then he discovered youtube (motorcycle stunts! shark attacks! helicoptors flying around and around in circles!).  I never thought I'd have to put a limit to my 1-year old's computer use.  Also, he picked that outfit out himself, in case you were wondering.  He doesn't usually care what he wears, but that vest has dogs on it, and Henry insisted.  He walked around all day patting his vest and proclaiming "Like it!  Like it!"

Baseball season started.  This might be another reason why things have been busy.

Ollie and Henry coloring together.  Henry loves it when he can get one of the older kids to draw him a tiger/dinosaur/helicoptor/big truck to color in.  He is lucky to have lots of nice older siblings.  I'm lucky that he has lots of nice older siblings, too - they take such good care of him.

The "tackle Daniel as soon as he gets home from work" game.  You can't see him, but Oliver is under that pile, too.

Henry climbs everything.  One time I got a phone call and the number on my caller ID showed my cell-phone.  I couldn't figure out how that could be right (I thought maybe Daniel had taken my phone to work on accident), but when I answered I heard giggling that sounded suspiciously like Henry.  He had somehow climbed up onto the counter and then managed to call the house from my cell-phone that was charging there.  He was so proud of himself. 

The main reason March was crazy was because we finally put together/decorated the kids' bedrooms upstairs.  Even though we've lived here almost 4 years now, I'd never done anything up there, and they were pretty bad - no bedspreads, dressers, curtains, pictures, etc., and Lizza was still in a crib and Rachel was in a little tiny toddler bed.  Embarrassing!  I guess the nice thing about how bad the rooms were before is that after the big changes (a bunkbed for the girls, and a new bunkbed for the boys, plus comforters, new pillows, and dressers) I only had to add a few finishing touches, and they were thilled.

I loved these pictures that I found to go above the girls' dressers.

Elizabeth loves her new bed!

I don't have any final pictures of the boys' room from after it was all done (I still have to move some pictures around), but here are some "during" pictures:

Henry loves the little bed we moved into Tristan and Oliver's room for him (I probably shouldn't even admit that this is the little bed Rachel has been sleeping on).  I haven't let Henry move up to sleep with the boys yet, so he's still downstairs with us now, but the plan is maybe sometime this summer.  We'll see how that goes. 

I hung some animal prints above it and added a Noah's ark quilt - he loves sitting in there and naming all the animals. 

I also hung some of my James Christensen prints in their room (I need to lower the one on the left - I just haven't gotten around to it yet -can you see why these rooms took so long to get done?). 

A glimpse of the boys' new bed and comforters.  Also, I moved my giraffe that is usually downstairs on my mantle up to their room, because it fit with their other stuff.  It might just be a temporary visit, though, because I kind of miss having it downstairs (Anita and Gretchen - do you remember when I got that?). 

Henry helping himself to an extra bowl of cereal after I accidentally left the breakfast out.

Oliver and Henry enjoying some Planet Earth.  The "animal movies", as he calls them, have become Henry's favorites.  He is always trying to re-enact the "crocodile getting the wildebeest" and the "shark getting the seal" scenes.

Lizza tucking in some of her magnet dolls for a good night's sleep.  Their outfits for the next day have been carefully chosen and set up in their little stands.

Oliver reading to Henry.  Henry loves being read to!  Once again, it's nice to have such nice older siblings.

So, that was pretty much our March (plus the St. Patrick's day fun from the post before). 

This was probably the most randomly illustrated pregnancy announcement ever.