Mystic Aquarium

Since we're moving this summer we aren't taking a "real" summer vacation. Instead I planned a few weekend trips for our family close to home. One of our favorite aquariums is the one in Mystic, CT because they have Beluga's!

It's a great size - perfect to fill one day. They have the Beluga's (for Em) and a Ray touching pool that Jacob could spend hours hanging over. Actually, his fingers are usually all "pruny" by the time we drag him away from there! We often use this aquarium as a stopping point when we drive to Bar Harbor. We leave early in the morning - spend the day at the aquarium, have dinner in town (often at Mystic Pizza) and then let the kids sleep for a bit in the car until we got to Boston, where we spend the night. The next day the rest of the trip to Maine isn't so long. I guess once we move it won't really be worth doing that any more - but we'll still take trips to the Aquarium because we love it so much.

Emily has loved Beluga's since before she could walk! They used to have some at the Brooklyn Aquarium but they sent them down to Georgia for a breeding program a bunch of years ago. Belugas take a long time to be accepted into the pod, so they pretty much will never come back. Probably better for them, because they had a very boring tank in Brooklyn.

See. Just a big circle. Boring.

 

 These pictures are of Emily & Maya in 2005. Seriously, I can't believe it was that long ago - seems like just last week.

The set up at Mystic is pretty nice.

I was happy to cram a few last "family road trips" in before Rebekah left for BYU.  I know the kids complain about them sometimes (especially that teenager) but I also know that the time we spend as a family alone - without the interruptions of friends, team sports, practices and routines are the times that build memories and cement our hearts together - they are the times that carry them through when we aren't together.

Jake is the reason we make a bee-line for the touch pool but we all get a huge kick out of feeling the velvety soft rays and having them slurp those little fish out of our hands.

After lunch we let them have a turn driving the boats - which meant nothing more than trying to ram each others boats :)

Then we headed over to the penguins and had fun finding the camouflaged frogs (or are they toads, I can never tell) and spotting giant tadpoles in the pond.

Jane got to see her beloved "Pwengwins."

Then we went over the the "Australian" exhibit there - we couldn't miss that!

I used to see big flocks of yellow and green Budgies and distinctive Galah's flying in the fields behind our house when I was growing up. Their noisy song would wake me up in the summer. We'd go on hikes and see Rosella's ....

Seeing these birds and my children enjoying them made me so happy. Like bringing a piece of my childhood to them. Almost.

Back to another touch tank for crabs and sea stars.

And one last visit back to the ray touching pool (I think our 3rd for the day.)

After the aquarium we headed into town for a little while to get ice cream at our favorite spot on the water and let the kids browse though "Mystical Toys" - they have lots of Playmobil, so they always like to explore there (even Bek)!

Then headed south and had dinner at a great spot in New Haven and then to the hotel to sleep soundly!

Butterflies

We have had caterpillars & watched them grow into butterflies each spring for years. I think Bek was only 4 when we started doing it.

I usually like to time it so that we release them at the end of May. The weather is usually nice then and it often coincides with them talking about them in pre-school or school. This year we were late. Mostly because I was putting the house on the market and didn't think a couple tubs of caterpillars on the mantle created the best aesthetic ... but really also I was just super busy with all the usual end of the school year stuff AND putting the house on the market & kept forgetting to order them!

I finally got around to it just before school ended & the kids were delighted when the 2 tubs of very tiny caterpillars arrived. One of them was a lot smaller than the rest. He / she also grew much more slowly than the others, in fact several times we thought it might be dead but it eventually also made a chrysalis.

On Sunday Rick was leaving for a trip, so even though that last little guy was still in his chrysalis we decided to release the other 9 so Rick could be there.

Rebekah was in charge of making sure the net didn't collapse on them.

Rick was the "butterfly getter".

Emily went first. This one crawled on her hand for a while.

Then Jake. I think we went though a few trying to get one to stay on his hand. There was a slight breeze & most of them flew away the second they hit air. It's why I order 2 tubs.

Then Jane. I think several also flew before touching her hand too.

OK, confession time.  Remember the Ladybug Massacre? Well now I am also a butterfly maim-er.

All but that one small guy had made a chrysalis. I thought I really should take the one tub of five & transfer it to the net while waiting for the last one in the other tub .... but just didn't get around to it. Then one night I woke up at 2am from a dream that they were hatching out in the tub & suffocating. I pondered getting up right them to move them ... but it was 2am & I was tired and the net is in the storage room in the attic. I thought I'd do it first thing in the morning .... and I did but I was too late. One butterfly had emerged and hadn't been able to spread its wings to let them dry properly, so one wing was kind of bent. I looked like it hadn't been out long and I felt really guilty. Maybe if I'd got up and moved them in the night it would have been OK. Every time the kids would "aw" over him and say how sad they were that it's wing didn't flutter properly it added to my guilt!

After we had released all the others the injured one was the last one. Once before, we had one that hatched out with a bad wing (that one was just nature & not my fault at all.) We had just put it on a flower in the garden and hoped for the best for it. We decided to do that with this one.

But first I let the kids all hold it.

Was it wrong to take advantage of my negligence?

Next year I promise to put them into the net the minute all of them have formed their chrysalis!

Tonights Dishes

{iPhone photo}

Can you tell we've had some sick kids around here?

Egg Dying

The kids were so excited to color eggs at Easter time. We LOVE coloring eggs.

I had intended to also do a batch of "natural" dyes (red cabbage, onion skins, turmeric, etc) later in the week - the natural one's give such beautiful colors and are definitely my favorite. The week got away from us and these ended up being the only one's we did. I had also dyed eggs with Jacob's kindergarten class and I guess after doing it with 22 kids I was a little less enthusiastic about a second round for us!

Oh well, next year.

It had been a cold & rainy day & the sun came out just as we did these. Made the yellow of Jake's seem happier!

  

I love the colored tubs of liquid & seeing those eggs bob in them.

Jacob really liked mixing colors.

We like to write or draw in them in white or yellow crayon. The dye won't stick where the crayon went. I loved this wave of Bek's.

Emily did some lovely two toned eggs - dipping 1/2 the egg into 2 different colors.

Jane was so proud of the one's she'd drawn on crayon with.

The one in Jacobs' hand was drawn on & then dipped in every color! It turned out to be a great green color.

Happy Easter!

Valentine's Dinner

I like to make Sunday dinners special. Rick doesn't eat with us through the week and Rebekah is often not home by dinner time on weekday evenings, so on the weekend I love having the whole family together for dinner. Saturday is usually more casual and so busy with all the kids sports that we often go out - so on Sundays I really like to have a nice sit down, whole family meal.

Since the day before Valentine's Day was a Sunday I decided to add a few extra touches to dinner. We had a Family Home Evening lesson in the afternoon - it's the one we traditionally have right before Valentine's Day about the Good Samaritan and loving our neighbors. We decorated heart shaped sugar cookies and then Rick took the kids to deliver them & while they were out I sprung into action!

Really, I only did a few extra things...
I had made little place cards and put them on the plates, I used goblets instead of glasses and we had sparkling pink lemonade. I lit candles in the middle of the table.

When the kids came home it was all set up. Emily walked into the dining room and I saw her notice the table .... it was delightful to watch her face as she saw the candles, drinks and place cards. First she looked a little puzzled and then a slow smile spread across her face as she recognized that something special was going on.

I didn't really do anything different for dinner. We usually have something nicer on Sundays anyway. We had Honey Baked Chicken (they all love that) green beans, and rice pilaf.

For dessert I did make Creme Brulee. I love Creme Brulee, it's my favorite dessert! I haven't made it in forever and I don't think the younger kids have ever had it before. They were fascinated with the blow torch and all really liked it.

Mmmmmmm!

I had leftover custard, so I made an extra in this small pyrex dish (and it became my "bonus" dessert!) Like I said - I LOVE Creme Brulee!!

I had cut out a bunch of card stock hearts and after dinner we all wrote out hearts to each other. We each took 5 hearts and made one for each other member of the family - writing something you loved about them, or a talent or quality you thought they had.

I loved seeing them put a lot of thought into what they would write about each other.

Rick helped Jane with some of hers, giving her some spelling tips!

This one had to be one of my favorites.

I love snuggling you to Janie!

We all had a great dinner and it was a good reminder to me that it doesn't require much to make a family memory. I am so lucky to have this family, I sure love you guys!