Surviving and thriving

Scott had a radiology conference in Chicago so we survived and possibly thrived through this week. We headed to the Children's Museum...

...where we blew bubbles, watched turtles...

...and played with golf balls and gravity.

These pictures are out of order and I'm blogging from my phone so am not willing to fix this, but here is Thanksgiving before Scott left. We had a quiet meal with just the five of us after the family we invited got sick the night before. We ate delicious food and enjoyed some quality family time along with a cross country turkey trot that morning. 

On Black Friday we avoided shopping and went to the Museum of Science instead. We walked and biked there...

...and then played and played.

We stayed for almost five hours and still didn't see the whole museum. Afterward, we headed to North Point Park to play outside (the weather was beautiful!) and then took the train back to Central Square...

...to visit these guys.

Ok, back to the Scott-less week: I attended our church's annual wreath making party. Phoebe's kindergarten teacher babysat the kids so I could go make a wreath, eat some treats, and chat with ladies. 

And now for something completely different.

 Last week after the marathon, Scott took Bruce and the camera and headed to Washington D.C. Thus, I did not get to download photos until today, so here is the random photo dump from the last few weeks. Above is Phoebe with her "joy school" class. Two moms and I took turns teaching these awesome kids twice a week from September through March. We started off using the values-based Joy School curriculum, but the lesson plans hadn't been updated for a few decades so we switched to another slightly more academic curriculum. In March, one kid moved and the other family decided to home-school their other children, so we had a little graduation and called it a school-year. Phoebe already misses her buddies and is going to be a bit socially deprived this summer.

 Phoebe has been asking to go to a museum for awhile, so we waited until Bruce had a day off school and then spent the entire day at the Museum of Science. We went to an IMAX film about caves and canyons, learned about hurricanes, and pushed every button and joystick we walked by.

 Scott took Phoebe on a daddy-daughter date to the Boston Ballet. They dressed up all fancy, took the train downtown to the opera house, and saw "Sleeping Beauty." Phoebe is really into ballet, ballerinas, all things colored pink, etc - so this was right up her alley. Lest you think Bruce is getting ignored, his father-son adventure was next; Scott and Bruce went to Philadelphia and Washington D.C. for five days. Scott had a few days off of work (he gets a few vacation days, but they have to be during specified dates so he had to use them or lose them), so he spoiled me and the kids as much as possible.

And finally, here is the most telling photo of Marathon Monday. This is about what we did on the sidelines, which is why I was sulky and depressed.

School Vacation Week

Sorry for the lack of blog updates, but it isn't because of a lack of interesting things going on. This week is February Vacation, perhaps something that only schools in Massachusetts celebrate. As you can see, we've been playing to the point of exhaustion. The above picture was taken yesterday after an outing to a park, a McDonald's Play Place, and a gymnastics gym.
On Monday, we went to the Museum of Science. On Tuesday, we went to the Children's Museum. On Wednesday, we went to the Museum of Fine Arts. On Thursday, we hit up the gymnastics gym. And today, we went to the library and watched Shaun the Sheep episodes on this lovely rainy day.
I have a bunch of pictures and videos, which I will add later. These photos are from the Children's Museum.
Here's Phoebe in a refugee exhibit. The kids thought it was a fun exhibit. I thought it was a little weird - I mean, kids shouldn't think being a refugee is fun, right?

Science!

After this little trip to the Museum, Bruce told me he wants to be a scientist instead of an engineer when he grows up.