Travel Pasta Keeps Dinner Moving!

Sometimes Aldi has some foods that get kids excited for dinner. In this case, our motor-lovin' boy thought it was fun to eat planes, trains and automobiles!

Our Easter Advent with Amon

Are you familiar with Arnold Ytreeide? He has written an outstanding Christmas advent book series for children that we love. He has written one Easter advent book entitled Amon's Adventure. Although we read the book a couple of years ago (and Emily has read it many times since then) we are re-reading in preparation for Easter. This piece of well-written historical fiction takes you back to the year 33 A.D. to experience the amazing events that changed the world! 

Each chapter ends with a scripture and personal reflection. It is so good to take time out of our busy weeks to reflect and remember!

Nashville Zoo at Grassmere

Who doesn't love the zoo? Finding ourselves in Nashville with a full day to fill we headed over to see what we could learn for the day. Fun, fun day, and an outstanding zoo with an amazing play place!

First we stopped by the Unseen New World. We had fun looking for camouflaged animals. Amazing how many creatures are hidden in our world. Next time we take a walk, I will be better tuned to how many "unseen" creatures are watching us.

Watching the bats feed on fruit was very entertaining. You can't appreciate form this short video clip, how active some of these bats were!

Matthew saw a documentary on this crazy-looking fish called the Indo-Pacific Lionfish. This fish is native to the Pacific Ocean. In its native habitat, the highly-venomous lionfish population is controlled by natural predators. In 1992, the lionfish was introduced to the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. In the absence of natural predators, the lionfish has thrived. Unfortunately, this has created a drastic decrease in fish native to the area and has threatened commercial fishing. Now scientists are trying to find a way to balance the ecosystem. Just one example of how perfectly balanced the food chain is, and how easily it can be disrupted.

Kangaroo Kickabout was my personal favorite attraction at the zoo because you are surrounded by kangaroos! No cages -- you are in with the famous fighting marsupials. We even spotted a few mama kangaroos with joeys in pouches! They were very entertaining! 

I apologize that I cannot turn the video. These guys were putting on a show for the crowd.

Their flamingos are a brilliant shade of orange! But, did you know that flamingos are white or light gray when they are born? Their color appears as they consume their food!

Eli's buddy!

Playful meerkats!

Beware of the stone hippo!

This zoo has an amazing jungle gym area -- three stories high! Lots of climbing. Lots of sliding. Lots of tired legs!

This guy reminds you that your winter dry skin could be worse!

Which way do we go? Which way do we go?

I always love these creatures. The beautiful markings, lanky limbs, enormous feet, funny horns and awkward lips. What's not to love?

There was a great padded pavilion for little ones to burn off energy. Eli must have done a hundred somersaults off this bench.

Shedd Aquarium

Jellyfish. Mesmerizing and beautiful!

That is one big fish! The last time we were at Shedd Aquarium, before Eli was born, we had our photo taken with this fish. It is fun to compare photos. http://butlersnapshots.blogspot.com/search?q=shedd+aquarium

Not a great photo, but the girls called this the "squarefish" instead of a starfish since it was missing an appendage. But, don't worry about this little guy. There is nothing wrong with it. Not all sea stars have five arms! And, sea stars can regenerate lost arms.

Sea stars do not have blood; instead they have a water vascular system. They have an eye on the end of each arm. And, as if these creatures were not unique enough, they eat with their stomachs on the outside of their bodies!

A favorite exhibit are the seahorses. Graceful and beautiful! Seahorses mate for life, and the males give birth. They are used for medicinal purposes in Asia. Can you imagine getting a prescription filled for seahorses?!?

The Field Museum

It is nice to live close enough to Chicago for a day trip. When the museums are having free days, it is worth the drive up! The Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium happened to be having the same free admission day, so that seemed like the perfect time to go up. It was nice to have a break from our normal routine! 

They don't look excited at all, do they?

The big attraction after you walk through the door is Sue, the T. Rex skeleton.

Here is Eli, trying to reconstruct Sue, piece by piece! Lot of fun exhibits and hands-on learning at the Field Museum. Honestly, if we didn't have an energetic 3-year-old with us, we would have slowed down and taken more time to read. You could spend all day there!

You won't need an introduction to these large cats if you have read The Man-eaters of Tsavo by John Henry Patterson or seen the movie The Ghost and the Darkness! Great movie (but may not be appropriate for your children depending on their ages). These are the great Man-Eaters of Tsavo. Find out more information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsavo_Man-Eaters

Can you identify the species?

And this guy was hanging from the ceiling also! 

Some bonus octopus facts:

Each Octopus has three hearts. Two of them allow the blood to circulate to the gills. The other is for the body to circulate the blood.

An Octopus has no skeleton. This is why it is able to get into very small spaces.

A female Octopus can lay up to 200,000 eggs at once depending on the species. Approximately 2/3 of the offspring will die within the first couple of weeks of life.

They have extremely good eyesight.

The largest species of Octopus is the North Pacific Giant Octopus. They can weigh about 100 pounds and have arms up to 14 feet long. The smallest species is the California Octopus. They are less than 1 inch in size.

Should an Octopus lose an arm it can grow another in its place.

None of the species of Octopus make any types of sounds for communication.
They don’t have the ability to hear.

A lot of people are fascinated with ancient Egypt. What a magnificent period in history! I think the girls enjoyed this exhibit more than in the past since we studied this in-depth last year.

I know, this may look gross to some, but I am fascinated with how well preserved the bodies were. The Egyptians took so much care when embalming, primarily because they believed in preparing for the afterlife. For more information on the embalming process, check out this site: http://www.angelfire.com/wi/egypt/mummy2.html

These are jars which held internal organs!

The Great Snow Ice Cream Taste Test

When snow falls, it is time to enjoy a cold treat from the freezer, right? Well, in our house, ice cream is a treat enjoyed year-round.

So, when we had our (hopefully) last snow of the season we gathered a few gallons of clean snow and made snow ice cream. There are several recipes floating around and we thought it would be fun to have a taste test.

Here is recipe 1, which created the ice cream on the left.

1 gallon snow  
1 cup white sugar  
1 tablespoon vanilla extract  
2 cups milk

Recipe 2 was used in the ice cream on the right of this photo.

1 gallon snow
1 (14 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk

We tasted. Once, twice, three times to make sure we made an educated decision on this ever-important matter. And the results:

Emily and Megan liked recipe 1 best (because it reminds them of Grandma's homemade ice cream).

Matthew and I preferred recipe 2. 

Eli ate it all, offering no biases. Apparently he is an equal-opportunity ice cream devour-er!