Field Trippin!

The last day of school before Thanksgiving the 2nd grade went on their field trip!

We went to The Science Place and the Natural History Museum in Downtown Dallas.

He got his birthday sticker early since it was on the friday after Thanksgiving this year.

We were met with this demonstration about SHARKS......

His favorite part of the day: Digging in the gravel for dinosaur bones! See all the dust in the air?? This was indoors in a separate room......

This is Sonshine and his girlfried standing by a giant nose......that SNEEZED!!

His second favorite part was the thermal camera. We found that if I put my hand on his head for a moment, when I took it off I left a red handprint on his head.....this was repeated repeatedly.

A buddy from class.

We were there the day they put the first sharks in the tanks for their new shark exhibit! See the camera crews?? As soon as the first shark went in Sonshine says "That was So AWESOME!!".....

putting in the second shark. They put 1 in each tank, as time goes on they will introduce more sharks, one at a time to the tanks.
That's Mrs Green, Sonshine's teacher showing the kids the new shark.

Sonshine and girlfriend hahahahahahahaaaaa!!!

Next it was over to the Natural History Museum.

looong dinosaur, it was the best I could do to get the whole thing in the shot.

While I thought the mineral exhibit was pretty cool...Sonshine did not.

He wasn't impressed with all the animals on exhibit either. He did, however, make a point of showing me every cactus that was in each vignette...totally oblivious to the jaguar, grizzly bear, or vulture that was also there!

His favorite part of the Natural History Museum was their mock cave.....

just a little spot for our picnic before we headed back to school......
We had a great time. Every channel recorded the shark drop. Many of the kids, including mine, were shown on the news. But I can't find him online anywhere and the network I contacted said that they don't put everything from the broadcast online, nor do they keep copies anymore. So I didn't get to see it.

A fun place to visit if you're around Dallas with kids!

VBS!!!

The kids had a great time this week at VBS!!

The teachers and aides and teens all did a fabulous job. I think science was their favorite part every day! They made volcanos, lava lamps, sand art cross necklaces, water thermometers, and boats. They painted and drew and sang and danced and otherwise enjoyed themselves.

The best part is that for 5 days straight we had a quiet house in the mornings!!!

Sonshine's class:

Gator's class:

Sugars' class:

Awesome SonSurf VBS 2011 Video from Allison St. Claire on Vimeo.

Now doesn't that look like a fun Adventure??

This post is part of Cathy's Wednesday Adventure Tours Express. Click on the picture to go to her blog A Bit of the Blarney and enjoy other fun adventures.

first outing of the summer!

This post is part of Cathy's Wednesday Adventure Tours Express. Click on the picture to go to her blog A Bit of the Blarney and enjoy other fun adventures.



On Saturday the Dallas Museum of Art celebrated Autism Awareness Day!

To celebrate they opened 2 hours early for families of children on the spectrum to enjoy a FREE day of fun activities at the museum. In addition to the special activities planned each family was invited to stay after the exhibits opened and enjoy the rest of the museum and we also received a family pass to come again. All for the (discounted) price of parking, $5. It was truly a fun and exciting trip for my Hooligan Clan.

The theme this year was Movement.

Here are my mom and kids posing with Arturo, the museum mascot at the paper sculpture station. Sonshine drew a rendition of the large totem pole that's next to the entrance.

This area talked about spatial relations in art and the kids were given a clipboard with pictures to finish.

This area had a lot of fun places to explore:

Lego walls,

magnetic shapes,

fun walls!!

adding your touches to famous art.

Then we headed out to the courtyard where there were several fun things set up.

Like this water painting set. The "canvas" is some kind of grey material that turns black when wet so they could "paint" with water, then when it dried start all over! It was a big hit with 2 of my kids......who wants to guess which two??

Next the boys found the sailing car races....

Sugars, however was working hard on her masterpiece.....

There's Subvet helping Sonshine put an index card sail on his car

Then you wait for the wind to blow....

Once the breeze picks up, the race is on!!

Undeterred by wind, sail races or hula hoops she's still painting...

Quite the artiste!

Next it was time for an interactive music performance by a Music Therapist. This was a lot of fun! So much fun I didn't remember to take pictures till the end!

We visited "Arturo's Nest" which is a play room for the 4 and under crowd.....not that my kids are ever deterred by age limits!!

Then we headed over to the obstacle course to burn off the last bit of steam.

We zigzagged, hopscotched, threw bean bags, jumped up the wall, and crawled through the tunnel!

By the time the regular museum opened Mightymom (who'd worked all night the night before) was bushed and called it quits. We'll have to go back at another time (with our family pass! thanks) to enjoy the exhibits....

Guess I wasn't the only one worn out when we left.....

I'm always impressed when a company will do special things like this for our special kids and especially when they make them free. Subvet and I would never have attempted to take our 2 Autistic boys and Miss Prissy to the Art Museum, a place where noise and exuberance are generally discouraged. We are grateful to the Dallas Art Museum for allowing us this opportunity to introduce our kids to art in this fun and totally appropriate manner! The volunteers and security staff at the museum were fantastic keeping the kids reminded of what they could and couldn't touch in a caring and friendly way. The set up and execution of the different areas was very well done. Every detail was attended to, even to the extent of emailing us a pictorial social story written specifically for this event ahead of time.

Needless to say we had a terrific time! Well Done Dallas Museum of Art!