Hail to the Prophet

"President Gordon B. Hinckley, who led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through twelve years of global expansion, has died at the age of 97.

President Hinckley was the 15th president in the 177-year history of the Church and had served as its president since 12 March 1995.

The Church president died at his apartment in downtown Salt Lake City at 7:00 p.m. Sunday night from causes incident to age. Members of his family were at his bedside. A successor is not expected to be formally chosen by the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles until after President Hinckley’s funeral within the next few days." (LDS.org newsroom)

My sister-in-law called to let us know that the prophet had passed away. Despite his age it was unexpected. I hoped to see him make it to 100. After the shock I wept openly. I know he's been re-united with his dear sweetheart on the other side, but the loss of such a great man in not felt without great sorrow.

Elle's happy Birthday trip

The Princess is TWO today! Hurray! She's getting so big! It was also Martin Luther King Day, so we made a trip down to the San Jose Children's Discovery Museum .

I was SOO impressed. We've never been there before, but our neighbor said it was better than Disneyland. Well, that'll get your attention! I was not disappointed.



Elle sized table and play food. She loves to play Mommy!















Painting wall. They have one at Habitot, but this one was much better contained and didn't have the 3 inch thick old paint layers at the edges.




















Ethan got to participate in the music theatre















The sand experiment table complete with beakers, test tubes, balances and scales.
















Water play. This portion was completely AWESOME. Most children's museums have a water table but this wins hands down!














Kid sized Pizza parlor. The kids got to top their own pretend pizzas, serve it, ring it up, and put it in a life-like brick oven. Just as an sideline observer it looked something like a bustling hobbit pizzeria. They all tried so hard to be grown-up!

















This was an entire room dedicated to the ebb and flow off tennis balls and getting them to move through this system of wires, boxes, air blowers, centrifuges and tubes. It was a great experiment in physics.
















Pin wall. They have a horizontal one at the Exploritorium, but this one goes through both sides with a warning not to put your face up to it otherwise you might get an eye-full of pins. Yikes! One side was blue and the other red. Depending on which side was depressed you could make hand prints. The kids got a little exuberant and pins could come flying out at you surprisingly fast.
















The inside of a real ambulance that had been donated and child-proofed for the museum.














This is one portion of an entire bubble room. The floor was a mesh not suitable for high heels, but allowed any spilled bubble solution to drain without a slippery surface inviting accidents.














This must have been a replica. I can't imagine that they would have let an historical artifact experience the exuberance of childhood.

Tiger Scouts to the Firehouse

Ethan's Tiger Scout pack went to the local Firehouse for an activity. Doesn't he look precious in his little uniform?!?!

Already Famous and out on the Town

Elle is already making headlines on the hottest blogs. Check it out!

In previously unreported news, last week Elle and Grandma made a trek to the Stockton Children's Museum and made a day of it.

Grandma was interested in getting a Children's Museum pass that would work for all the local children's museums here, but in order to get them to work you have to buy your membership 50+ miles away from the ones you're going to be visiting most often. Its a crazy system, but you do what works, right? Six months ago I tried to buy a Children's Museum membership from a place in Washington DC. Nothing came of it so I figured they weren't going to let me participate seeing as how I'm in a different state and obviously trying to circumvent their clever little system. So, here we are months and months later and the day we get the new Children's Museum membership the one from DC shows up. WHAT!?!?!

Exploratorium

We went to the Exploratorium today as one of our regular outings. When we got there there were school buses filling the parking lot and big kids running all over the place. I wonder if one of the schools was from the inner city or perhaps a rougher neighborhood. The students were....rough around the edges...? By comparison, my three children were so small and very intimidated by the bigger kids. More than once a group of students would go blasting past where we were and nearly knock Elle down. I made sure to stand right by her as much as possible. Hunter and Ethan wore their beeper bears, which...I might add...have been absolutely WONDERFUL! Hunter knows that when I beep him he is to stop and find me immediately. Every time we've used them out, parents are asking me where to get them.

ANYWAY... We passed by the dissection table just in time to see the cow eyeball get started. The children were fascinated. I don't remember doing an eyeball when I was in school. Perhaps that's something we can do together once Ethan is a little older and better equipped to handle a knife.

I forgot to bring in water with our lunches, so we splurged and bought a milk for everyone. I helped Elle get her first drink, but when I offered her another drink she did not want any. I looked in the container and the milk was chunky and smelled just awful. AUGH!!!! I took it back up to the cashier who pointed out that the expiration was not past. "Just smell it" He didn't want to do that, so he let me get another milk. No sooner had I gotten back to the table than Ethan said he didn't like his milk either. Oh no.... I picked it up and he had already drunk half of it. It wasn't chunky like Elle's but it smelled rank. I took it back too and then pulled a new one out of the far back, just to be sure. I was crossing my fingers the rest of the time that nobody would throw up.

I was really excited to go today because the last time we were at the Exploritorium they had an entire section in the back cleared out for some new exhibits. I was so jazzed to see what new stuff they had, but as it turned out they just rearranged the existing exhibits and added only one or two new things. It was still all great stuff, and all of the children's favorites were still there....including the toilet drinking fountain. They think that is the funniest thing ever! One of my favorites is where you get a straw and put it over a metal rod to bite down on. Then when you plug your ears you can hear music. It's WILD! The bar is vibrating and when you bite down on it the vibration carries to your ear bones and tricks you into hearing something that's not really there.

Cookie in the oven

Just as an official announcement to everyone who may not know, Michael and I are expecting our fourth baby. He/She is due July 9th. We expect blond curls (who would have guessed, right?)... but you never know with the rolling of the genetic dice what will turn up. Any suggestions on names with the initials H.M. will be duly considered.

All quiet on the munchkin front?

As you may have noticed...I haven't posted in a while. It's not for lack of material, mind you....but I tend to like posting pictures of certain events and lose my motivation when I can't access the pictures.

I couldn't figure out why the camera wouldn't connect to the computer. I figured it was just a glitch that would work out if I rebooted. However, as it was pointed out to me at Fry's the camera cord got wet and rusted. Hmm.... sounds like baby drool to me.

So as a brief recap:

Elle really likes being a helper














Ethan lost his first tooth















The children got ahold of my camera...unbeknownst to me until I found a few of these.