Bugs, Bugs and more Bugs!

Our local mall offers a free program twice a month for children. They bring in speakers, entertainers, museums, etc. It is always a great time and lots of fun.

This past time, they brought in "The Insectarium," the insect museum in Philadelphia. I believe it is the largest museum of its type in North America.

Kiddo #3, along with most of the other children was enthralled! There were bugs larger than I could have imagined that actually exist in the world today.
The kids eagerly touched millipedes and other bugs whose names I have conveniently wiped from my memory :-) and saw up close and personal insects such as scorpions and tarantulas. On display were deceased (thank goodness) insects of a multitude of (very large!) species from around the world.

The moms all cringed almost in unison as the bugs were brought around and one could hear a chorus of polite, but apprehensive "no, thank yous" as it was offered for us to touch the live specimen, as well. Some dads grinned and eagerly lined up to "pet" them with their children.

Kiddo #3's favorite specimen was that of the "Elephant Dung Beetle," since he is an elephant "expert." :-) You can see how thrilled he was to find that particular bug among the group by his huge smile in the photo.

We are looking forward to the next "Tuesday surprise" at the mall!

Halloween

Although all completely exhausted from our day at the parade (did I mention that there was a 2 hour backup on the trains coming home and I had to call my dad to come rescue 9 of us in his van?), the kids were determined to make it out for trick or treating after some pizza and fries and a quick review of the tape to try to find ourselves on TV. :-)

Kiddo #3 konked out after 2 blocks, the others not far behind at 3 blocks. Nevertheless, they still had practically a full bag of candy (people were especially generous since there were so many less kids. Maybe everyone else was still stuck in the city!) to dive into when they got home.

Kiddo #1, very predictably, was an Air Force pilot (Thunderbirds, specifically). :-) For those of you who don't have the pleasure of knowing kiddo #1 in person, he is bonkers about anything that flies. So much so, that he can identify planes by your descriptions to him of what you happened to see flying above you on any given day. He can easily differentiate between civilian and military aircraft and describe parts, engines, nicknames, etc.




Kiddo #2 was David Akers of the Philadelphia Eagles. Kiddo #2, who is bonkers about math and reading, has become enamored with the National Football League. He knows all of the teams and what city and state they are from. He can quote player statistics and knows the names of most of the commentators. Of course, he was quite pleased with the Eagles win this past weekend. :-)




Kiddo #3, our animal expert, was a polar bear for a Halloween party last week but decided on his elephant costume for the actual day. No surprise there. He is bonkers over anything elephant. As like with his brothers with their "areas of expertise"(except he with elephants), he can tell you the average weight of elephants, where they live, what they consume, how long they sleep and how much they relieve themselves every day, etc. :-)




Kiddo #4 was the shocker this year. She is the "princess" of the house and she very eagerly would tell you so. She has dress-up outfits of her favorite princess, Snow White, and others, which we were sure she was going to choose. Instead, she wanted to be an astronaut! She was a bit skeptical of her choice, at first, wondering if there were any "girl astronauts" in real life. After I told her of Sally Ride and the many others who have gone into space, she was quite pleased with her choice and she actually got many compliments while trick or treating on her choice and accolades of "you, go girl," etc. :-)

Us Among the Millions-The Phillies Celebration

Yes, we went. The kiddos happily played hooky from school (along with about every other kid in this tri-state area)and we boarded a train bright and early and headed into the city. We made it onto the 8:15AM train. We arrived at the ballpark at 9AM. The parade wasn't scheduled to arrive there until 2PM. It arrived at 3:30!


Although waiting 6 hours for a minute or two glance of your world-championship team may seem silly, it was so worth it! The kiddos will have those memories for the rest of their lives. They met other kids and played with them all day in the closed-off street in downtown Philadelphia. They played football, tag and the two younger kiddos were even finding and feeding bugs with some of their new friends. :-) The bonding with total strangers over an event that brought us all together is truly the highlight. Everyone was friendly, everyone shared tidbits, memories, joy and even some entertainment (footballs, baseballs, etc.)

It is something that the kiddos still are talking about. I still fondly remember watching the parade go by the last time the Phillies won 28 years ago when I was 12 years old. I hope that my kiddos will be sharing these memories with their children someday. So, if you saw the footage, there we were- a few specks among the 3 million cheering with the best of them! (some of kiddo #1's friends who actually went to school saw him on TV! We were lucky enough to have a news van a few feet away) :-)



Thanks again, Phillies and we love you!

All Saints' Day Celebration

Kiddos #3 and #4 attended an All Saints' Day Celebration on Thursday 10/30. It was held at an infirmary for aged and ill priests.

The priests were so appreciative and happy to see the children who marched around as their saint, told a story or facts about their saint (or their moms told it for them) and sang some songs. The program ended with some refreshments.



St. Matthew and St. Katharine Drexel were portrayed very well by the kiddos. Kiddo #4 stayed in her costume literally all day and took it off only to go to sleep. She kept looking at herself in the mirror and saying, "I really look like St. Katharine, mommy!"

PHINALLY!!!!!!

Wow! More than 12 hours after the fact, it still isn't quite sinking in. World Series Champions.

Elation, relief, celebration. This town hasn't seen the likes of this in a long time-- a very, long time. I was 12 the last time there was a Phillies parade down Broad Street. And, now at 40, I will happily attend this one with my 4 children in tow.

What really impressed me was this team. They were not boastful or egotistical like many other athletes in other sports. These guys were a team- a textbook definition of one. They worked together, supported each other and were always thanking each other even for their own accomplishments. They were each so humble in their remarks and all thanked the Philadelphia fans. It made a lot of us cry-- not only for the magnitude of their accomplishments, but for the way in which they accomplished it. They are an incredible group of guys and we will never forget them. Thank you, Phillies, for bringing a championship back to this town. Thank you for making us proud again. Thank you for giving us something to celebrate in these troubled times.

We Philadelphia fans are a special breed. We love our teams with a passion that cannot be duplicated in any other city. That enthuiaism will again be on center stage at the parade tomorrow for the whole world to see.

Yo, Adrian! We did it!!!

Turning 40

On September 17th, I hit the "milestone." 40. It didn't seem to hit me, at first, as I have always considered myself a kid at heart. However, some things started to come into focus and I realized that I am indeed, if not old, certainly getting older.


You know you are getting old when your doctors/surgeons are younger than you are! I guess that was really what hit me lately. My husband's kidney surgeon, who operated on him for 5 hours on Monday, is younger than me. He was only graduating from medical school when I preparing to have our second child. Oh well, I guess there are certainly advantages to having a younger doctor, but I won't say that it didn't get to me, even just a little bit. :-)

You also know that you are getting old when most players on your baseball team, which has finally reached the World Series (after a whole lot of years!)(GO PHILLIES!) are more than half of your age! Most of them were not even born when I stood on Broad Street and celebrated the first and only Phillies World series victory 28 years ago with the rest of Philadelphia.

You know you are getting old when you go into a sporting goods store to buy a t-shirt commemorating said Phillies entry into the World Series and the salesman tells you that he was born in 1989, so he has no recollection of the World Series loss in 1993 and his parents weren't even married yet when the Phils won in 1980. yegads!

Even though my birthday was last month, we had a big celebration this past Sunday. It was a wonderful time! We actually rented a place called TNT amusements, that has a gazillion (ok, not a gazillion, but a lot) of video and arcade games. My family and friends got to play to our hearts' content for 2 hours.
My children were amazed at our favorite games like "Centipede," "Ms. PacMan," "Frogger" and "Space Invaders." It was fun feeling like a kid again, even with our primitive graphics. :-)
We went back to the house afterwards for some of mom's homemade cooking and my baking and a really good time was had by all. The nicest thing, though, was actually seeing everyone relaxing and playing and if even for the shortest time, not having a care in the world. :-)

Four Generations!!!

This morning, my aunt and 91-year old grandmother left after spending a wonderful 2 weeks with us. It flew by too fast! It seems like you always wish you had more time to talk, share, and hear some of the "old" stories just one more time. :-)

I also wish I would have taken more photos, but this one is of four generations- my grandmother, dad, me and my four children. I'm going to quote the MasterCard commercial and say that this photo is, beyond any doubt, "priceless."

This next photo is with my aunt in it, as well. P.S. Don't you love all of our shirts? GO PHILLIES!!!