Animals, and Ice, and Fun, Oh My!

We squeezed in the Littles' date on the last day of the month.  BB and Little Guy wanted to have their date together again.  Little Guy chose the Zoo and BB chose I Am for dessert.  These two are pretty hilarious to listen to.  They giggled and joked around the entire car ride to the Zoo.  They are so silly and goofy, and there is some definite Little Guy hero worship of his older brother.  He pretty much parrots what BB likes and says. 

They wanted to head to Africa.  I think at least half the animals were not on display, but they didn't seem to mind.  They had a great time.

They particularly loved the carousel and train ride.  

Their Strawberry Limeade Ice was delightful.  (Of course, Little Guy chose the same thing as his brother.  He always waits to see what BB will choose and then he copies it).  These two are so much fun together and have so much energy!  They are quintessential boy!!

Adding a Bow

 It's fun to see Little Guy start to use the bow on his violin.  It also turns out the cats like all instrument cases no matter the size.

Spring Recital

The kiddos had such a lovely recital.  I was a bit nervous, because I had a lot of students performing.  I always get a bit anxious on their behalf, but everyone did great.  Little Lady sang and played the piano.

Scott added a second song for Little Guy.  They played it as a duet and it was really nice.  This was BB's first time singing in a recital and he sang in German.  He did such a good job!

Little Man has been working really hard on the 1st movement of the Moonlight Sonata.  He had such lovely dynamics, and he closed out the recital.  It was a great finale.

We had our traditional post-recital dinner at El Salvadoreño.  We love the papusas.  Any questions as to whether my oldest is a preteen?  Just look at the photographic evidence. 

Dinosaur Week

 D is for Dinosaur.  I'm not sure it could get any better than this for a little boy in preschool.

In Person

 For the first time in over a year Little Lady was able to meet in person with the other girls from church for an activity.  She was over the moon with excitement!  They made sock bunnies.  I found this on my bedside table when I got home from work that evening.

Star of the Week

When your last name begins with T you have to wait for a while to be the Star of the Week.  Little Guy is ecstatic it's finally his turn.  Pre-Covid the Brave Bears class got to take home the "Brave Bear" for a week, take pictures with him while having adventures, and then bring it back.  Since a stuffed animal is basically a germ infested piece of fluff, the kiddos get their own Brave Bear to keep this year instead of passing it around.  Little Guy took him to Legoland Discovery and the Aquarium for the photo ops, and then he remained in my pocket the rest of the time, so that we didn't lose him.  Brave Bear has also been sleeping with Little Guy every night.

Some of Little Guy's answers surprised me.  He didn't hesitate on any of them either.  He was emphatic about each of his favorites. 

Volleyball Time!

 Little Lady got to participate in a two day clinic for volleyball this week.  Her Spring season starts next week, so the timing is perfect.  She came home talking about two new friends she made.  I'm grateful that she had the opportunity to socialize, because it's something that she has really missed over the last year.

National World War I Museum & Memorial

 

The absolute best museum in Kansas City is the National World War I Museum and Memorial.  It's nationally ranked and there's definitely a reason.  We've wanted to go to this museum for a long time, and we finally got to go today.  It did not disappoint.  The introductory film does a great job of giving the background of all the complex factors that led to the set up of World War I.  From there you travel through the whole progression of the war:  One half of the museum is 1914-1917, and the other half is factors leading up to the American entrance into the war until the Treaty of Versailles.  

The kiddos worked on a fairly difficult scavenger hunt of images and questions to be answered.  It took us two hours to find everything. 

They recreated the size of a crater caused by bombing.  It was eery.

The kiddos learned all about trench warfare.  We also learned a lot of startling facts like 1 in 3 French males from ages 18-30 died during the War!

Here's a copy of Darwin's Origin of Species: It was showcased with an area about Imperialism in the room that explains factors that culminated together to lead to the War. 

We definitely learned quite a bit, and I would recommend this museum to anyone who visits Kansas City.  We finished up our trip downtown with a late lunch at Q39.  Kansas City is known for its barbecue, and it definitely lived up to the hype.  Yum! 

Toys, Glorious Toys!

Today's adventure took us to UMKC campus.  It's home of the National Toy and Miniature Museum.  This place is awesome!  The first floor is all things miniature, and the second floor is all things toys.  The kiddos worked on a scavenger hunt throughout the museum that was actually fairly challenging.  We started on the second floor, and the dollhouses were insane!

They have a Hallway of Iconic Toys, and it was a trip down memory lane.   

We got to learn how they used to make toys down an assembly line.  The jack-in-the-box and toy cars were definitely the most fascinating, but Little Guy did say that watching the assembly line of doll heads for Betsy Wetsys was both interesting and a little bit creepy.  

The first floor miniatures were awe inspiring.  The amount of detail was absolutely incredible!

This is a mini of Miss Marple's house:

We really loved this museum!