Museum of Life & Science in North Carolina

On a recent trip to North Carolina, we took the children to the Museum of Life & Science in Durham, North Carolina.  Although we went on a holiday, it wasn't terribly crowded and the staff was friendly.  The kids had a great time checking out all of the hands-on exhibits.

On of the first exhibits we went through was one about weather and weather formations.
Pixie was particularly captivated by the one on cloud formation.

Other exhibits we enjoyed were:

Contraptions room - the kids didn't want to leave!

Carolina Wildlife - We saw our first woodchuck and he was quite a ham!

Flip it & fold it- a great exhibit for showing how math can be fun and is found in everything!

Many beautiful, unusual and frightening things were seen at the  Butterfly house and the insectarium. 

We have plans to go back this summer and spend more time visiting the museum and taking in all of the outdoor exhibits. Unfortunately we skipped a lot of the outdoor exhibits because we couldn't handle the cold weather---which for us, is anything below 68 degrees!

Review: Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel

I've recently started to embrace sharing audio books with my children.  Although I will always be a fan of reading aloud to children (especially when they can read on their own), sometimes Moms need a break and that is when a good audio book can make a huge difference.  Audio books have come in handy for me when I'm cooking dinner or when I need a night off from reading 5 different bedtime stories to my children.

The latest edition to our library is Bad Kitty, by Nick Bruel, and read by Vanessa Williams. 


In addition to an entertaining story, what makes a picture book,  is of course, the illustrations...and what makes an audio picture book special is a fantastically entertaining reading with appropriate sound effects. Bad Kitty has all of the above!


The book takes the child through the alphabet and back----four times!  However this book is not your typical "alphabet" book.  My girls learned about new vegetables and added quite a few words to their vocabulary thanks to a "variety of vultures" , "an assortment of anchovies", and a "tormented little mouse".

Disclaimer:

A complimentary review copy of Bad Kitty was provided by the Publisher.  As always, all opinions are my own.

Petting a lion cub

Pumpkin with a real lion cub

It's not every day that you get to pet and play with a REAL lion cub.  Especially, on a school day.  

Well, unless you're homeschooled that is.

Field Trip: Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam, once known as one of the 7 wonders of the world,  was a government sponsored project that was completed 2 years AHEAD of schedule, came in UNDER budget and paid for itself and then some!  Can you imagine the likelihood of that happening again?

If you look behind us you can see where the waterline used to be on the mountains (the white border).  Truthfully, the children weren't that impressed with our Hoover Dam visit,  but they were happy to know that they've visited a National Landmark and could cross it of their lifetime bucket list!