Boston Museum of Science

On Saturday, we spent our first day in Boston at the Museum of Science. I hadn't been to this museum on any of our previous trips, and my sister in law Amanda was able to get us coupons for discounted admission, which was great! We all had a blast there, checking out the various things at the museum. The first thing that we saw was this fantastic Rube Goldberg-ian structure. 

 Henry had seen the dinosaurs on our way in (there was a window overlooking the exhibit) so we had to head there first. Very cool triceratops skeleton!

 The kids enjoyed comparing their hands to the T-rex "footprint" (yes they were allowed to touch it).

 Loved the giant T-rex model!

 

We then moved on to various other things around the museum. Henry enjoyed spinning this engine to simulate wind through the turbine.

 We watched an IMAX movie on Humpback Whales; this was the coolest IMAX screen ever! It actually extended all the way up and around, over 180 degrees. We were near the front, but laid back in our seat to watch some of the movie on the screen above us! It was very cool and the kids loved it. I couldn't get a good picture of the theater, but grabbed this one of Natalie talking to Amanda and Scott after the movie.

 Outside of the IMAX theater was the Heyden Planetarium. We didn't go to a show there, but we had a great time checking out all of the information on the planets, solar system, and more! Very great interactive displays.

 There were a few random things that caught the kids' attention, such as the giant grasshopper model (the science museum was very big on models and scale) on the left. I asked Natalie to take a photo inside of the picture frame on the right (Henry wouldn't cooperate).

 

Amanda and I then took the kids to the butterfly garden. Henry didn't enjoy it as much as we did (mostly Natalie and I), so Amanda took him out after a bit. Natalie and I loved seeing all of the butterflies! I posted a bunch of my favorite butterfly photos on the photography blog; this photo isn't the best, as the butterfly was moving too quickly, but how beautiful is this one?!

 We then spent some time in the kids "playground" area. There, they use various things such as swings, pulleys, balances, etc to teach the kids about physics. Here we are learning about balance.

 And Henry is using centripetal force to make himself go faster and slower as he spins around.

 I enjoyed taking photos in the various mirrors they had in one part of the museum. Mirrors and camera = fun!

 This one is my favorite!

 The Museum of Science is very cool! I definitely recommend if you're in Boston. The kids loved it, we had a good time, and despite the crazy crowds it was a lot of fun. So glad we got to go!

Little choreographers

It's been so nice that on at least 3 of the many snow days we've had this winter, Natalie has been able to go to her friend Sara's house to play. It makes it so much easier on Evan, particularly when the snow days happen while I'm traveling, and Natalie has far more fun playing with her friend than she would either at home alone, or even at daycare with the little kids. And Sara's mom is so nice about having her over! I've already shared the snow day photos of the girls sledding; this is a little bit different. Turns out the girls are quite the little choreographers (which we already had an idea of, including from this performance I already posted). And not only dancing on this one; they also created their own music!

Unfortunately I couldn't get the video to embed here (I'm not really sure why Google Drive isn't giving me access to HTML code right now). So you'll need to click on the link below and you can view the girls there!

Natalie & Sara: Choreographers

Roller Skating Fun!

My friend Kelly and I discovered that due to scheduling conflicts, we weren't going to be able to bring our girls to each other's birthday parties (December and January). So instead, we got together for an afternoon of lunch and roller skating early in January, to celebrate just the 4 of us! I had told Kelly about the roller skating rink out in Purcellville, and she knew that her daughter would be very excited to go. In fact, both of our girls have their own skates! So we headed out, had some lunch at a delicious burger place in Purcellville (yes, I ate a veggie burger!), and then went over to Skate.

I absolutely adore this skating rink. It totally reminds me of the places I went in middle school - it's like it's stuck in 1992. It's fantastic, and cheap. So how can you beat that?

 I know it looks like the place was empty except for us - it really wasn't. Going on the weekend means 2 birthday parties happening at the same time, as well as anyone else who just came to skate, like us. However, when the birthday party guests all needed to go eat...that meant we almost did have the rink to ourselves!

 

They of course did the limbo; Natalie and Sydney were very excited to make their way under the limbo stick. Natalie went through mostly by ducking (she was nervous to try to bend backwards, for which I can't blame her!). That's her on the left. On the right is Sydney - she did try to bend back, and just about made it. I snapped this photo just before Sydney landed on her buns! She was a good sport about it though.

The afternoon was so much fun; can't wait to go back again! Natalie spent over an hour just yesterday outside in her skates; she loves it, and I'm happy to reinforce this activity. I'm also thinking that it may be time to let Henry try skating; I think with the helper "rollers" to hold onto he could do quite well. Hopefully we can get back there soon!
And of course we love hanging out with the Parsons family - check out my previous post from our afternoon visiting with them, and the fun the kids had doing their performance!

It's a dance party!

About a week and a half ago, we headed up to Maryland to hang out with our friends Kelly and Chris and their kids for the afternoon. We try to get together fairly often, but sometimes schedule doesn't allow it, so I'm glad that we were able to do it. The kids played for a while while the adults hung out (it's so nice that we've finally reached that point!), and Kelly made a delicious dinner. 

It turned out that the big thing the kids were doing was practicing a dance routine to show us. I think they did a great job of incorporating all 5 of them (including Henry who was being a little bit standoff-ish, as he typically is, but he got to join in by being "the bad guy"). And it's pretty darn well choreographed too!

In other news, I finally got my laptop back (woohoo!). It's been in the shop for the past week, as the computer repair guy attempted to fix the issue of the power cable not being recognized, and therefore not charging the battery. After ruling out a lot of other things, it turns out the problem is with the mother board (sigh). And of course Dell wouldn't cover it, despite the computer only being 2 weeks out of warranty. The biggest issue is not the battery being low (I'm ok with it needing to be on a charger), but that it made the computer soooooo slow. Luckily he was able to find some things to up the speed (it's still not 100%, but it's definitely better), so it's usable again (particularly for photo editing). Huzzah!

And in still other news, the past few days have been very windy. So windy that we lost some siding off of the side of our house (feh). Last night the wind picked back up, which Henry really doesn't like. Evan and I were in our room, as I finished packing for my trip (I'm heading up to Philadelphia today through Saturday), and Henry came stumbling in half asleep, scared from the wind. I picked him up and laid him in my bed next to me. He immediately turned towards me, cuddling into my arms/chest, and fell asleep. I laid there with him for about 10 minutes, just rubbing his back and enjoying him sleeping next to me. It was so sweet...and something that I badly needed. If I'd been ready for bed I would have just let him sleep there. But after a bit Evan picked him up and put him in his bed, where he went right back to sleep. I had recently been feeling nostalgic for the baby years, when they would just curl up on me and sleep...it's nice to know that I can still get that, even at this age.

Natalie loves sledding!

This year was a weird one for snow and sledding. Based on when the snow fell, and our schedules, we were really only able to take the kids sledding once at our house. Evan took them, and it wasn't the best experience - it was windy, and still snowing a bit, so Henry wasn't very happy with snow blowing in his face!

But Natalie was able to go twice with her good friend Sara, by spending a couple of snow days at Sara's house. The first was in early January, during a very cold week, and then this second was from last week, when we yet again had many snow days! Kind of amazing to think, when this week it got up into the 50s and the snow is pretty much gone. So before it gets too much warmer...here's Natalie enjoying the sledding!

You can see on her face how much she is loving flying down the hill!

Natalie, her friend Sara, and Sara's little brother.

Henry the photographer: January 2015

And now: my favorite photos taken by Henry in January! He was using my older point-and-shoot (the one that he's mostly used, and has dinged up quite a bit by dropping it on and off over the years). He grabbed some pretty great shots too, I think! One thing I notice while looking through these photos is how minimalist many of his photos are; he knows how to choose a focus object! Here's a perfect example; other examples are below.

Check out the symmetry in these cereal boxes.

 Of course, the ubiquitous foot shot.

 Another minimalist shot of the front of my chest of drawers.

 Once again, he lines up the objects in the shot nicely.

 And, like his sister, another adorable photo of Calla! This one is even cuter. Or maybe I'm just biased towards photos of Calla all curled up.

 One evening in January, it was relatively warm outside, and I wanted to take some photos in  downtown Leesburg. We all grabbed our cameras, and the kids snapped photos while I was capturing these architecture photos. Unfortunately many of Natalie's didn't turn out great, as we were still figuring out the settings on the little camera, but Henry got a few that were really great, including this one of Evan and I, which I didn't even know he was taking!

 Again, nice lines and symmetry! I'm starting to think he actually has an eye for this, and it's not just random chance.

 See? How nicely composed is this photo?! Well done, Henry.

Natalie the photographer: January 2015

Remember how I've previously posted some of the photos that the  kids have taken? Looks like the last time was from an outing we did in September 2014...since then, we've had so much going on that I haven't really given the kids a chance to take photos themselves. Recently I picked up a little Canon point and shoot (it's pink!) for $10, so Natalie was very taken with it. She collected quite a few photos over the month of January (I apologize for the date/time stamp on them; I had to figure out how to get that off, and that took a little while - I was able to figure it out, eventually). I'm posting my favorites here, which was hard cause there are a lot!

Again, it's just really fun to see how she views things. I especially like when she sets up photos, like in these first two.

 Gotta get the foot shot!

 Love how the reflection of the flash came out in the mirror.

 And of course Calla makes an adorable subject.

 Gotta grab a close-up shot of her little brother!

 One of the things she really likes to photograph are the photos/artwork around the house (and also whatever is playing on TV at the time). I like this shot of our mantelpiece photo.

 Then, of course, the selfies! We can't not have selfies. She turned the camera around, held it out, and snapped away.

Up next: Henry's photos from January!

A January day in DC

Back in January I had to go into DC for the day to meet with a couple of clients. On my drive home, I was on Constitution, passing the National Mall, and there were actually a few parking spots available on the street. So, spur of the moment, I pulled over and walked around for about 20 minutes, taking a few photos with my phone. There weren't a lot of people around, the weather wasn't terrible, and it was actually rather pretty, in that stark way that winter has.

These are iPhone photos, and I tweaked them a bit in Picasa to make the colors pop.

 

(love that I caught the gull flying in on the photo on the right!)