Henry Ford Museum

My friend, Jenny, took us to The Henry Ford Museum two weekends ago with her summer pass. Boy, this place is amazing! It just kept going and going. First we saw all the presidential cars and read the plaques about the special features built into them, and then there were a whole bunch of real trains exhibited. There was one called the Allegheny, and it was massive. Benjamin and I are standing in front of it - and you can make out the monstrous wheels behind us. That's just the wheels, and it goes UP from there - the train was enormous! There's also a picture of Benjamin standing by a train with a snow plow at the front. Isn't it huge? After the trains, there were lots of carriages, and then we saw a whole exhibit about airplanes, and the history of flying. There was tons of information on the plaques - and it was all interesting. It killed me that we had to move along so fast - you could spend days here. And then there was a display about the progressive changes in America in locomotion and inventions. Every now and then they had kid-friendly play centers that related to the exhibit - and at this one they had building blocks for making cars, and then they had ramps to race them down. I'm not describing it well at all, just check out the picture. :)

Let's see, then there was an incredible section of the museum dedicated to the history of The Unites States of America - including the Revolutionary War and the founding fathers, the slave trade, the KKK, the African American fight for equal rights. They even had the actual bus exhibited (and you could sit in it and listen to an audio recording about the events that transpired on it) that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. Then the history continued on, and then there was a section on the different generations. First there was the "War Generation", then the "Baby Boomers" (and it gave the years that included each generation), "Generation X", and "The Next Generation." It said on the Baby Boomer plaque that "You know you are a baby boomer if... you knew someone who left mainstream society to join a commune" - I've been meaning to ask my mom if she had an interesting story to tell me about this! "Generation X" was the most fun - the last year included was '79 so I didn't really connect with some of the stuff they had on exhibit, but part of it was totally 80s - they had a typical teenager bedroom exhibit, and there was a big "Depeche Mode" poster on the wall, and a clear telephone (where you can see blinking lights and neon wires - my sister and I had one of those - our brother Matt gave it to us! I remember thinking I was SO COOL), tons of 80s-ish clothes in the closet, and a miniscule Macintosh computer on the desk. There was a TV playing 80ish music videos and you could dance along with it and see yourself IN the music video too. The "next generation" which is me, was kind of dissappointing - they said in essence "what will you make it?" Bummer - I wanted to see all the things that I grew up with! We didn't have any more time to explore the museum, but there were exhibits on firearms, and the progression of steam engines (they were ENORMOUS, but they were still able to display them all under one roof). Oh man, I could go on and on. This museum was so cool! Next time either of our parents come visit us, we're taking them to see it. I just know my parents would like it. Even my dad!
ANYWAY, after the museum we had a little picnic on the grounds. This place is beautiful. There were tons of geese on the lawns and it was fun to watch them. Then we went to Greenfield Village, which I've blogged about already. We saw a ton of new stuff this time, and we stayed for quite awhile even though we were only planning on taking a stroll. We got a ride in a Model T car. The driver was so cute to the two boys, who got to sit next to him.

Benjamin's hand is on the driver's knee. Isn't that cute? And you can't really see Eliza in the picture, but she looks so sweet. (You can click on it to see it big, and then hit the browser's back button after - don't "x" out of the screen.) She isn't respresented very well in the pictures from any of our excursions - she just sits happily and serenly in her infant carrier in the stroller. She's a good little companion.

There is a big lake in the corner of Greenfield Village (the place is huge - like a real village!) that had tons of geese and some ducks in it. They were pretty tame, and Benjamin was trying to touch them.... :) Oh, so close!

Anyway, we had such a fun day. I can say for myself that I was absolutely EXHAUSTED by the time we got home! The Henry Ford is a really neat place.

Jed's home! Let's go play!

Jed has been doing an 'out' rotation this month at an E.R. in another city. So he's been staying during the week at a friend's house in that city. And then he comes home for the weekend. Last week when he got home, we headed out to spent some family time at the beach at Lake Erie. It's only about 5 minutes away. As you can see, Benjamin and Jed thew rocks in the water. Like father, like son. Now we all know where Ben gets his infatuation with rocks and water... :)

We had fun being together again, enjoying carefree time away from the distractions of home.
What do you think of Benjamin's new haircut? Yeah, I was giving him a haircut last Monday and I accidentally made it look kind of uneven, so I just buzzed it off. So Benjamin got a spur-of-the-moment buzz, and when Jed got home on Thursday he was pretty surprised to see him! Can you also see the remains of Benjamin's black eye? He got it about a week ago when he fell on the corner of some piece of furniture.

This is the funniest picture of Eliza. She's trying to reach the camera, but the sun was in her face...

Detroit Childrens Museum

Last weekend I planned an outing with a bunch of friends to visit the Detroit Children's Museum downtown. It was a fun little place. They had a whole bunch of interactive toys. It was perfectly geared toward Benjamin's age.
And nextdoor to it was the Firestation. The firemen were very sweet to show us their firetruck. They turned the lights on for us, and showed us the cab, etc. A very fun day.

First day of Preschool!

Benjamin started preschool today! I can't believe how big he is. What a handsome sweet kid he's become. When I interact with him during the day I always think of him as being so big and grown up. But every now and then I look at him objectively and realize that he's still pretty little - I mean, he's just three! I know that a few years from now I'll be looking back on these pictures and thinking he was such a little guy. I hope I'm cherishing every minute with him...

Look at those three handsome boys! And their first-day-of-school excitement.

My two friends and I are doing a rotating home preschool. We hold it once a week for two hours and take turns having it at our own homes. We have a little curriculum we're following and a schedule of what we're doing during the 2 hours. Today was at our house.

We start with an opening, which includes a prayer, discussing what day it is, going outside and checking and reporting on the weather, and reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag (we have one by our front door, which is convenient). That was an especially cute part of our preschool experience today. Three little boys and I facing our big flag waving by the front porch, and having them recite the words of the pledge of allegiance after me. How darling!

Our lesson today was "My Name and Age." We talked about birthdays and looked at pictures at each of them when they were babies and at each

of their birthdays. We practiced tracing their names. Benjamin is at a disadvantage since he has a super long name. :) Abram was done with all six of his names when Benjamin had only completed two. Luckily he doesn't recognize the injustice yet. :) Don't worry - I didn't make him finish them all. :)

The funnest part of our day was the activity - making their initials out of pretzel dough! They actually helped me make the dough (pretzel dough is the easiest dough in the world) and then we had fun shaping it. Then they got to 'paint' the dough with the egg-wash before we popped the pan in the oven to bake. Pretty exciting. :)

Anyway, we had a fun day. All three of the boys had a blast showing each other the contents of their pencil boxes. They each compared scissors, enjoyed their personal box of crayons, and revelled in stuffing their papers into their treasured backpacks. Oh the backpacks. They were darling when it came to their backpacks! We couldn't move rooms or do anything without them strapping on their backpack. Even while we were mixing the pretzel dough, they were all either wearing their backpack or trying to put it on. What cuties!

ELIZA CAN CRAWL!!

...army crawl, that is. :) She is so cute when she gets around. I'm so proud of her! She mastered this in the past 1 to 1 1/2 weeks, just before she turned 8 months old.

Unfortunately this is taken with my camera instead of our video camera, and so the quality isn't very good, and the poor lighting doesn't help. But anyway, you get the idea. I could have cut the end of the video off, once she was done crawling, but I thought I would leave it long for the Grandma's benefit. I knew her Grandmas would want to see every minute of it - Grandmas don't think stuff like this is boring.... RIGHT, Mom and Michel?! :)

And Benjamin got a very wonderful surprise last Saturday.... A WOODEN TRAIN SET! I bought this huge train set and table at a garage sale for $50 - a steal of a deal. And the fact that I knew he would LOVE it made it an even better deal. Jed and I decided to give it to him last Saturday, so the week leading up to it we got him really excited about a special surprise we were giving him. The morning we gave it to him we all played with it for a long time together.

Look at this - I didn't clean up his train set before bedtime, and when I went to go tuck him in this is how I found him. I don't think he was actually playing with it instead of sleeping; he often gets out of bed and lays on the ground while he's asleep. Doesn't that look comfy? I bet he's having some sweet dreams... Chugga chugga, CHOO CHOO!