Ice!

 Like just about everyone else in America, we are having crazy cold weather.  All the schools around here were out today, but we still started back.  We did take a break for Jack's idea, though.  Last night he asked if he could put some water balloons outside to freeze.

 We brought them in and peeled off the balloons.

 Giant ice balls!  The kids played with them while I read a couple of chapters of our new read aloud.

 They had a lot of fun melting holes into the ice!

Jack spent much of the rest of the day engrossed in Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and we started a new artist study (Calder) and baked cookies.  It was a nice, relaxing start back but tomorrow we are back to our outside activities and the cold!

The First Road Trip of the Year

 It was an early morning after a late night of football.  We left the house a little after 7:00 and headed to Enid.

 

 Our first stop was the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center.  This is a really nice museum!

 They have a little village of several restored original buildings you can tour, too.

 These were the markers that they would have at the corners of every claim.  The notches meant certain things (township, plot, etc.) depending on which corner they were on.  You had to register for the run, run and find the marker, then run to register the marker.  Only someone else might register the same marker at another office, and since there were no computers and the plots were 160 acres, it might be a while before anyone realized it.  The land run was in 1893 and the land offices stayed open until 1905 resolving disputes.  Kind of makes driving around town looking for land seem not so bad.

 After lunch, we tried out a park in town.  It was fun, but it was so cold!

 Then we headed to the Railroad Museum of Oklahoma.  They have tons of things there!  The kids got to talk to each other on old-fashioned phones.  (Alice is so close up because I had to hold her so she could reach the mouthpiece.)

 One of the many model trains.

 They have quite a few cabooses and the kids sat in the cupola of every. single. one.  They thought it was the best thing ever.

 They also got to try working a hand car that was built off the plans of an 1892 model.  They did a good job!

Next we went to Simpson's Old Time Museum.  This place backs up to the Leonardo's playground and somehow I've never realized what it was.  It has a bit of everything, including movie sets!

 

 Jack trying out a trick rope!

 We finished up the day at Leonardo's.

 Alice loved the building sets.

(And the play kitchen, of course!)

We had a great time, but after 12.5 hours away and 286.9 miles (I'm thinking of keeping track of how far we travel each year...if I don't forget!), we were glad to get home!

Happy 2014!

 We kicked off our New Year's Eve bags at 5:00!

 Silly String!  The kids were really excited about this.  They saw it for the first time at a friend's birthday party in October and thought it was amazing stuff.

 Even though it was really cold they stayed outside for about 45 minutes chasing each other.

 The 6:00 bag had New Year's Eve interviews (you can get them at HSS).

 It was also time for dinner (make your own calzones) and dessert (countdown cupcakes).

 The 6:00 bag also had 2014 glasses!

 7:00 was face painting.

 Alice wanted to be a fairy!  (You'll see Jack's monster face in some of the upcoming pictures.)

 8:00 was Pop the Pig!

 Jack opened the 9:00 bag and found pantyhose and tennis balls.

 We tried several of the Minute to Win It games from this blog and had a great time!

 Cup stacking

 You had to wear the pantyhose on your head and try to knock over the water bottles with the tennis balls, which are in one of the legs.  Alice was able to do it pretty well.

 Jack had a harder time because when it was his turn the hose had stretched and it was hard to get the tennis balls off the ground.  I don't have any clear pictures because I was laughing too hard.

 At 10:00 we got some new glow in the dark perler beads to make signs.

 Jack's looks like his shirt!

 Around 10:30 Alice was done.  I was surprised she lasted that long since we had had a long day out!

 11:00 was a new G.I. Joe figure and Jay and Jack watched some of the show.

 12:00!  Jack opened our new kitchen calendar--Awkward Family Photos, which he loves.

There were also poppers in the 12:00 bag!

We had a great time, but I was worn out!  Happy 2014!

Noon Year's Eve

 This morning we went to a favorite place for a little something special.  The Discovery Lab had a Noon Year's Eve party!

 They had a hat-making contest and both of the kids worked hard on their creations.

 The finished products!

 They also had a noisemaker competition.  It was really loud in there.  I think I'm still on sensory overload.

 At noon there was a big balloon drop!

 It was pretty chaotic!

 The kids all thought it was great, though!

 This is what I would do if there were a lot of balloons: See how many I could gather up.  But it turns out that lots of kids like to pop them.  They should have given out Excedrin to the parents!

 We had a really fun time!

Now we are almost ready for our annual New Year's Eve bag party.  I got up at 5:00 this morning, so I'm hoping I can make it to midnight!