Nate's Tenth Birthday Adventures

Yesterday was our biggest little man's tenth birthday!

He woke up really slow, which was nice because I got snuggles! 10 year old boys still snuggle their mamas!!!!!

We had to have our propane shut of for a possible leak, but when someone wants blueberry pancakes for his birthday breakfast, you do whatever it takes to make them. Even if it means grilling them!!!! Our propane guy thought it was the best thing ever.

We had a fairly lazy day. The guys played a board game, and we watched Captain America: Civil War. Dinner was Five Guys! The kids had never been, and they loved it. They're anxious to go back and think they have the best burgers.

Pete's parents were able to join us for dinner, and they presented Nate with a new bookcase for his room at the new house. Well, it was just a picture; the bookcase is really heavy, so once we move he can get the real thing :)

Dessert was homemade brownies and then it was gift time! Ryan did some jobs around the house so he could get Nate a gift. He got him the Hubba Bubba bubble gum tape. Nate had never seen it before, but thinks it's amazing! Ryan was so proud and excited to give it to him!

We also got him a desk lamp for his new room...

...and an electronics kit!

I don't think he likes it, though.

And now it's prep time for more birthday fun at his family birthday party this weekend! Weather, please cooperate so we can swim at the party!

Spring Concert!

Paige and Nate had their Spring Concert on May 4th....and I am a slacker mom...I totally forgot to get a picture of them together before their concert!

We went out to dinner beforehand with my in-laws. We went to a diner a few minutes from the school, and the food is always amazing there. I think it might end up being dangerous for our budget and waist line living closer to it soon!

We wanted to make sure we beat the dinner rush, so we went early, and then ended up finishing waaaay before needing to be at the school. Sooooo we went to the frozen yogurt bar in Geneseo for a little treat!

Finally it was time to head over to the school. They did the concert a little different this time; they 3rd & 4th graders went first (like usual), but then there was an intermission before the 5th & 6th graders came on. This allowed for younger kids to go home, as well as a staggered seating time as the concerts are so well attended, there's not always enough room for everyone to be there the entire time. Even though we didn't have any kids in the first part of the concert, we still had to be there early as Paige was playing for part of the intermission.

Then was the elementary jazz band. Paige joined up after the winter concert, and absolutely loved it! They're always so cute, wearing sunglasses while they perform (even their conductor wears them!).

Next was the 5th & 6th grade chorus. Paige is about smack dab in the middle of the picture :)

And last but not least the 5th & 6th grade band. Nate, being a trombone player, is so hard to see, but you can just make him out in the middle of this picture...

Because it was May 4th, it was Star Wars Day! You know, May the FOURTH (force) be with you? Yeah, it's bad, but so funny :) The kid's band conductor said that they had to have the concert that night as she wanted to play the theme from Star Wars!

What was even more epic about this is that all the kids had to memorize the song so when it came time to play, all of the lights were turned out, and the only light was the 200 glow sticks that the kids had on stage as well as the lightsaber used for conducting! So. Amazing.

The kids showing off their glow sticks

It was such a great concert! We love the music program at this school, and the kids are really enjoying it. Next year Paige and Nate will be in separate concerts as Nate will be in the elementary concert still, but Paige will be in the middle school one. In three years, we'll be attending THREE different concerts!

Did you ever play an instrument? What was your favorite song you ever played? I played the flute, and one of my favorite pieces was the theme from Jurassic Park!

"Snow Day" Fun: Museum and Lunch

Last week the hubby and kiddos had Spring Break. We spent most of the week working on house hunting and projects, but squeezed some fun in as well. We also had a bonus vacation day: because the school only used 2 of their allotted snow days, everyone was given the Monday after Easter off as well! Woo hoo! After all of our hard work the previous week, we decided that we needed to have a family fun day.

We surprised the kids by taking them to the Buffalo Museum of Science. We have a membership, but hadn't used it here; Pete and I used it in New York City for our 10th anniversary in October at the Intrepid Air, Sea & Space museum, though! We had sooo much fun, and I took a bazillion pictures and movies. I'm trying to limit how many I share, so please bear with me if it seems overwhelming!

Me, being the nerd that I am, had to wear my super awesome space leggings:

We were greeted by this friendly guy!

The kids took turns trying to get the rocket to go all the way to the ceiling. They had to pull a lever back and forth to build up the pressure, and then there was a button to push to release the pressure and send the rocket up in the air. They never got it to ring, but they did get pretty close!

This guy cracked me up!

Mastodon!

My little paleontologists!

I'm such a goon. Like seriously, I was giggling forEVER because this sounded like one of the ridiculous names people call Benedict Cumberbatch!!!!

"Cumberland Monkeyface"

Me and my favorite kind of dino!

This thing is a fish skull! It is HUGE. Totally could have swallowed me up easily. It made us think about Jonah being swallowed up by a big fish!

Ry playing the world's largest playable guitar in the guitar exhibit:

Paigey practicing her surgeon skills! She had to control thread the rope through eyelets, and let me just tell you, it is NOT as easy as it looks!

This was really cool. You put your hands on the bar, and it would tell you your heart rate and then the glowing heart would light up, pulsing along with your heart!

I loved this little visual. Growing up I thought that there were little men operating an elevator, taking the food from your mouth to your stomach, so this just made me feel not as silly ;)

Building cars and racing them!

Paigey building towers, trying to see if they would withstand earthquake forces:

Daddy treated us to one of the 3D National Geographic movies! We saw "Asteriod", and it was pretty amazing what astronauts are working on now and in the future. Then we find out that a big asteroid was coming "close" to earth afterwards? It was so cool talking about what we had learned and why the astronauts weren't worried about it.

It was really nice that we went on a day where most kids were in school. The place was pretty deserted, so it felt like we had the place to ourselves most of the morning. We didn't mind that the kids would run off to explore as long as they were in the same room because it was so empty; that's one nice thing about them getting older, not having to watch them every single second!

There was sooo much else that we did, but I can't get the videos to play in here :( I may upload them all to YouTube and then do another blog post on it. We also weren't able to get to the fourth floor; they're working on putting in a new exhibit (all astronomy!), so we're definitely going to have to go back for that. 

After the museum, we went to Applebee's for lunch. Pete was given a gift card there from his swim team as a thank you for coaching them, so this was a really nice way to finish off our family fun time!

Ry and I played tic-tac-toe....

Nate loooved his chicken mac and cheese and steamed broccoli...

...and this was the "pretty" face I got from Paigey! She just wanted to get back to eating, silly girl!

It was a great way to end our vacation and celebrate all of our hard work. We are definitely looking forward to going back soon!

What is your favorite museum?