Farm night

Daddy's been away on a business trip, so Mommy decided to mix things up a little after daycare tonight. We went to a nearby farm that has a market, hayrides, pick-your-own-produce, and most importantly, a pretty neat playground!

We started out taking turns "driving" this big ol' tractor:

Then we climbed and played on the slides:

We went over to the barnyard area and played in the sand and looked at the animals:

Then it was time for dinner - 80-something cent hot dogs, anyone?  It was pay-the-temperature night at the café - all hot dogs cost the current temperature in cents :-)

Cheese!

 

After dinner, we went over to the push-pedal go carts - Sean and Clare had a ball "racing" around the track while Mommy got her workout running around to help the kids race!

After a few laps around the track, we went over to the rock climbing area:

While Sean was climbing, Clare took off to play in the sand under the giant teepees:

It started to get dark which meant it was time to go - but not before having some ice cream.  It was pay-the-temperature night for ice cream, too!

Insectropolis

We took the kids to the Bugseum of New Jersey this weekend.  It's a neat place where we learned all about different kinds of bugs from butterflies to honeybees to scorpions. 

When we first walked in, we were greeted by a Bugseum Guide who gave us a short introduction to the museum and let us know that there would be a presentation in a little while during which we could touch a few different critters!

The first room introduced us to the science of Taxonomy and how different bugs are classified and the basic characteristics of bugs in general.

 

This exhibit highlighted bugs that are considered pests or worst - mosquitos, lice, ticks, etc.  But the ceiling of the room was decorated by this spider:

It kind of freaked the kids out :-)

Some of the live insects on display were tarantulas:

Cockroaches:

And honeybees! Their hive had a tube that led to the outside of the building so these busy bees could work work work!

Before we knew it, it was time for the touch presentation.  Our guide showed us a hissing cockroach, a millipede, a scorpion, and a tarantula.  Sean touched all of the bugs except the scorpion - it was a nonvenomous scorpion, but it was still pretty freaky looking.  Clare opted out of petting any of the bugs this time around :-)

The kids had a blast running and crawling around the termite exhibit - two tunnels built from plywood and carpet to mimic those built by termites in the mud - we should really build a couple of these for our house...

After we had our fill of the bug museum, the kids ran around a little bit in the sun while Mommy got their picnic snack ready.

Sean said the outing was "boring" but later on he told me that the museum was "really cool" and he told our neighbors all about the museum today and was very proud that he'd pet the tarantula!

Dawdling

When we got home from daycare today, we spotted our neighbors' cat: Ninja. Whenever we see Ninja, we must stop and say "hello" since he's our "best pal who is a cat and he is our neighbor so we are friendly to him," according to Sean. Tonight, Sean ran ahead inside the house to get his shoes off and go potty while Clare spent a minute with the Ninjacat: 

"Hi Inch-a! Hi! I see you eyes!"

Ninja had just stretched a very big cat stretch, so copycat Clare showed her best stretch, too.

Next, Ninja rolled around on the ground to scratch his back and Clare showed that she can "do twirling" too!

And then she decided to lay down just like Ninja, so I told her we needed to get inside to check on Seany.  Clare popped right up and headed toward our house, but got distracted again...

"Wait! Wait! I need pickin' flowers for Daddy and my Seanybrudder!"

You don't know who I am!

"I'm not Sean - I'm a little piglet!"

 

Randoms

The kids built their own teddy bears at daycare today! They both chose a green bear with multi-colored polka dots, so we've already had a couple of mix-ups as to which bear is Sean-Sean (Sean's bear) and which bear is Bear-Bear (Clare's bear).

This is Clare after we got home from ShopRite on Sunday.  She quickly perked up when she heard the groceries getting unpacked - she had a hankering for goldfish crackers.

Rice Krispie treats! Enough said.

A couple of weekends ago, we made garden stones with the kids' handprints and some pretty colors:

Two weekends ago, Sean decided that he no longer likes blueberries! He said the reason was that "they have little seeds in them and I don't like seeds!"  Oh no! What do we do?  Well, he had blueberries with his waffles this past weekend and ate almost half of a pint of blueberries this morning at breakfast, so I think he's okay with blueberries again.

Sean's been doing an awesome job with the summer reading program at the library! His latest prize was a bottle of shark bubbles!

Here's what Clare wore on our last trip to the Farmer's El - it's hard to say if the best part is the piggytails or the tutu...