My Kind of Fun...

I was so impressed with an exhibit at the Houston Rodeo this year!  The kids entered a "farm" by walking through a silo and were given a bucket to fill with goods while they worked the farm.  Hay bales guided their way through the chicken coop, cow barn, and sheep barn which had live animals attached to them and pretend animals inside where they could milk, sheer, and collect eggs.  There was an orchard of wooden kid sized trees where they picked fruit, a garden where they planted seeds in the dirt and collect vegetables.  At each station they collected something...an egg, milk carton, sheeps wool, fruits, vegetables...and put it in their basket.  They took their basket to the market where they deposited their goods in baskets to sell and were given money for their hard work.  The last stop on the trail was the general store where they went inside and chose a treat from a barrel to buy with the money they had earned!  I loved it!!  The boys did too. :)  There was a lot of work that went into that exhibit but I was so grateful for it!  Very well done.  I only took a couple pictures but this was a corn box to play in near the vegetable garden.  

And Benson rode this tractor before heading to the market to sell his goods.

 I was having too much fun playing at the rodeo that I didn't take many pictures.  So on our way out I made the boys stop by a tractor for a picture.  Proof we were there...maybe I'm in the reflection?

 I love how the simplest things in life bring so much excitement to these boys!  Green milk and lucky charms brought hours of fun on St. Patrick's day but then days of fun talking about those silly leprechauns.

 And one of my new favorite places in Houston...the Downtown Children's Museum.  I had heard it was great for older kids but wasn't worth it for the younger.  But decided to try it out with the boys thanks to Groupon.  We came home and couldn't stop talking about it.  The boys spent several hours there and didn't think twice about lunch when the time came and went...they were so enthralled with it all!  So, we've been back several times since then and this last time we finally brought Dan to see all the hype.  He had more fun than the boys!  I love these kinds of places...educational, entertaining, and just fun!

We made rockets very quickly and spend a lot of time launching them!  I wish I had a good shot of Spencer launching his rockets.  I eventually had to pull him away kicking and screaming!

 Their little engineering minds at work.  They made lego cars to race down big tracks and figured out which models survive the big drop and which don't.

 The boys did some fishing on a boat in an old village.

 Benson explored the science of balance with several challenges.

 This part made me laugh because my boys love bathtime and playing with water.  This was right up their ally and they spent lots of time running boats down the streams, turning on and off water valves, and connecting pipes to fountains.  But the child I could not pull away was Daniel.  It was ridiculous!  I can see why he chose engineering.

Anyway, we love the Children's Museum!  I know it's on Benson's mind a lot because he'll randomly reassures me that "The museum is closed so we can't go there today but we'll go another day."  He's repeating verbatim the words he's heard me say countless times.

I'm so grateful for people who give their time, energy, and resources to create wholesome places like this for  us to explore!  Thank you, thank you!