In the Wilds of Nebraska

We are still in Nebraska and having the most fabulous time!  Tiffany’s mum is here from England and this is the first time we’ve gotten to meet Jennie.  It’s been a treat to get to know her and hear all of her thoughts on England and America.

We’ve done lots of fabulous things, as always.  Here’s a bit…

• We went to Morrow Hall, the university’s museum.  It’s three floors of marvelous, hands-on science and amazing displays.  There are truly mammoth mammoths, skeletons of all sorts of amazing critters, a dinosaur in glass below and so much more.  We love that site, and since we are members of Sioux Falls’ science museum and Morrow Hall is in the reciprocal museum list, we get to visit for free.  I highly recommend memberships to local zoos and science museums for the fabulous other places you can get into when you travel!
• Family friend Jay came over and gave the kids (and parents!) a presentation about this amazing (heavy!) meteorite that he found in Arizona.  We learned so much about meteorites and he gave each child a tiny bit of a meteorite to take home.
• We watched “Night at the Museum” (twice!) since Tiffany’s Jack kept escaping at the museum in order to hide and spend the night!
• We hit bucket loads of garage sales and got all sorts of fabulous nifties — an art pad, nice teenage clothes, table cloths and fancy placemats, Littlest Pet Shop playsets (a dollar each, for my boys who always wanted to play with Anna’s!) and lots of other treasures.
• Tiffany and I got to escape and go shopping for her mum’s birthday, and have lunch at Panerra.  I live such a sheltered life I’d never been to one and it was fabulous!  I’m so easy to impress.  😉  I also got two gorgeous dresses on clearance that make me feel considerably less frumpy than usual (woot!).
• The kids made lapbooks to go along with their meteorite lessons, plus drew meteorites and meteors.
• We looked at dead horseflies and cicadas with a lighted magnifier.  Horsefly mouths (which look like beaks!) are so massive it’s no wonder they hurt so much when they bite!
• We went on many walks and tried to walk off many fattening meals.
• The kids have been swimming and swimming in the back yard.  Jack learned to swim underwater!
• We’ve taste tested oodles of English chocolates again.  Yum!
• The kids have been reading lots of books.  The girls have finished Nancy Drew, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter and other books from Jessie’s pile.  Jack has been reading lots of picture books and Calvin and Hobbes.
• Daryl has been teaching Tiffany’s mum and the kids how to play instruments — most notably the guitar and the spoons.
• Tiffany got a telescope at a garage sale and Daryl taught us how it works.
• Alex gathered as many cicada shells as he could and inadvertently scattered their tiny legs throughout the house.  😉
• Tiffany taught the girls how to slice avocado pits and carve them into pendants.  They’re addicted!  You should see the pendants.  They’re really neat.  I’ll try to blog a how-to.

That’s just a bit of the fun and chaos.  It’s wonderful, as always.  I do love to come down here.  I’m already looking forward to when we get to come again!