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...

 

Sprayground

We took the kids to meet some friends at a "sprayground" in Colts Neck. The kids liked the spray park we visited last summer and Sean really liked getting wet at the Camden Children's Garden, so we had high hopes that the kids would have a ball here. At first, they seemed a little reluctant to go over to the water part of the playground, so they played at the regular playground for awhile:

We had a picnic lunch of sandwiches, fruit, and tomatoes - Sean showed me his "model face":

When lunch was done, we roamed around the grounds a little more, then we tested out the water park...

...and soon enough, both kids jumped right in!

When the kids were all done playing in the water, we changed them into dry clothes and got some ice cream!

We said "goodbye" to the spraygrounds and drove to Huber Woods Park. The grounds of the park were donated to Monmouth County by the Huber family (like J.M. Huber Corp.). The park has several hiking trails, as well as a kid-friendly Environmental Center and a reptile house.
At the Environmental Center, we saw many (stuffed) animals native to the area, learned about the Lenape Native Americans, and did a lot of hands-on activities.  Sean even put on a puppet show for Clare:

Clare looked for other birdies:

In the reptile house, we saw a black rat snake, a corn snake, and a few different turtles.  One of the snakes was even shedding!

After the reptile house, we set out on a little hike.  We had a little trouble with the map, we still got in a good long walk through woods, farmland, and some random person's driveway :-)

After the hike, we called it a day.  Sean said he had fun and asked if we can "do the spray park and the hiking again next time it's Saturday or Sunday, but we don't have to do the hiking part again."  After such a busy day, both kids quickly fell asleep in the car. Clare woke up happy and ready to play again before dinnertime, but Sean was not at all happy about being woken up.  We fixed that quickly with an episode of the Octonauts and a s'more - a raw s'more - since that's how Sean likes them:

Go bananas!

The kids enjoyed a sweet treat tonight - banana fro-yo. We cut up some very ripe bananas, froze them, and processed them until smooth - it turns out kind of like ice cream! Clare asked for sprinkles on her ice cream and Sean asked to have bananas on his. Sean asked that I take some pictures of them and Clare asked that I stand "RIGHT NEXT TO ME, MOMMY!" So, I did my best to make both kids happy:

Sean with his "light sword from Star Wars - Yoda gave this to me!"

Hugs on the stairs

A few snaps of the kids from our long weekend at the beach - here they are waiting so patiently on the stairs at Mom Mom Jackie and Pop Pop Pop's house before heading up to the beach. Sean used the time to bestow some love on his baby sister, who was trying to finish her peanut butter cookie: