A Museum and Crafts

Tuesday morning, we gave John and Kylie several options for our day's activities and asked them to rank their favorites.  The first choice was the Dinosaur Museum in Woodland Park--no brainer because John has been sleeping with toy dinosaurs for years.  We were a little surprised that it was Kylie's first choice, as well.  Maybe the fact that their dad is a middle school science teacher helps explain the interest.

The museum has several boxes where people can use small brushes to "uncover" dinosaur bones.  Kylie and John had to give that a try.

There were lots of skeletons hanging from the ceiling.  The museum sends out teams each year to collect fossil specimens.  They then make castings of what they find and create lightweight skeleton copies that they display and sell around the country.  They also have actual fossils with plaster replacing the original soil where they were found.  Both types of display make for interesting viewing.

From the museum, we moved to the gift shop.  That was just as popular as the museum exhibits!

Their second choice was to do some crafts with Nana and Papa.  John has learned how to use a pocket knife in Cub Scouts and he wanted to carve with Papa.  Kylie and I had already talked about my teaching her how to bead.

Kylie said she would like to make a beaded necklace.  I showed her several different ones I have made and she chose the type she wanted.  So I showed her all the different beads I have on hand.  She spent a long time choosing the ones she wanted to use and laying them out in the order they would go on the wire.  Then she strung the necklace.  When I used crimp beads to hold the beads  in place, her comment was, "That is the same thing we do to put feathers in our hair!"  How fun.

Here she is, modeling her necklace over her sweatshirt.

John II wanted to learn to carve.  Papa had a pattern for carving a Santa Face on a pencil.  He used a dowel stick, instead.  He carved the face first, then John copied the face right below Papa's.  Carving on a small round object like that takes lots of concentration for an 8-year-old.  The eye-hand coordination is really hard work.

John also wanted to show off his creation.

By then, the afternoon showers were coming in, so we put everything away and went inside. John and Kylie had lots of fun playing Old Maid, Go Fish and Slap Jack.

It was such a treat to have them with us for a couple of days.  We were impressed with how well they get along and with what interesting people they are to spend time with.  It was so fun.