The Field Museum

Today, since it's Spring Break, we decided to take the kids up to The Field Museum.  We've never been there before, so we thought it might be a fun day trip for them.  It's not nearly as exciting as the Museum of Science and Industry, but we definitely had a good time. :-)

Of course, one of the first things you see when you enter is Sue, the T-Rex.  It's the most complete T-Rex in the world!  This, of course, made us want to see more dinosaurs, so we headed upstairs to check them out.

It was cool to go to the top floor and look down on the elephants and t-rex.  It's a beautiful museum.

Apparently, Sue's skull isn't on her body.  This is her actual skull.  Amazing to see those teeth up close, let me tell ya!

They had TONS of taxidermy animals here.  I really enjoyed getting to see them up close like that.  You can see what they look like a whole lot better this way than at the zoo.  You see the subtle differences in some of them and the bold colors that they have.  It was really cool - though I could've done without all the insects.  That part was super-gross!

To get to the dinosaurs, you have to walk through the entire evolutionary chain - according to them.  There was a lot about cells and what our world looked like at the beginning.  Not really interested in that myself, but Noah found the cells very engaging.  Livie just liked seeing the big squid above her head. ;-)

They also had lots of trilobites.  They look like bugs too, which was gross, but there were lots of different kinds and the kids (and Pete) found them very cool.

Livie fell in love with this giant/weird trilobite thingy.  She had to lay on him and get her picture taken. :-)

Finally we made it to my favorite part - the dinosaurs!!  I called this a Brachosaurus, but I know it wasn't actually that.  Guess we'll just call it a "long-neck"  Either way, it was still huge and was awesome to look at!  They had a stegosaurus and several others in this area, including three flying pterodactyls.

This duck-billed one had a noise maker that you could press down on to hear what it sounded like.  The kids liked that a lot.

Noah was fascinated with all the monkeys.  He had me take picture after picture of the monkeys.  I decided to post this one, because it was of a monkey skeleton, which was pretty neat.

This was a fossilized alligator/crocodile - one of them anyway.  We stood by it, so you could get an idea of how big it was!

The most amazing skeleton, to me, was this one of the giant sloth.  This thing was unbelievably huge!!!  I seriously can't imagine seeing one of those in real life.  I mean, look at the size of that thing!!

No visit would be complete without mammoth dung.  Yes, Noah is pointing that out in this picture. :-)

While Pete and Madie checked out the gems, Noah, Livie and I went for a little walk around the place.

We checked out this palm tree and looked at the DNA lab.  It was kinda fun.  Then we all joined back up together and went into a makeshift Egyptian tomb.  That was really neat and we walked down into it to come into the Egyptian displays.

Not sure what this was, but it was pretty cool!

They only had a couple exposed mummies for us to look at.  Almost all of them were still in their sarcophagus.  This little guy was a young boy, probably around 2-3 yrs old.  It's amazing to see them up close and realize that this was, at one time, a living, breathing boy all those years ago.

More sarcophaguses (is that the plural form of "sarcophagus"?).

Pete and the kids by the "Nile River".  Hmmm... maybe Moses was hidden in reeds like that!

They had this huge area just for animals that had been taxidermied.  I mentioned that before and it was fascinating for me to see them so up close like that.  Madie loves wolves, so she was thrilled to see this one.

I personally love Moose and, after having a close encounter with them in Colorado last summer, recognize the power and strength behind them.  You don't realize how big they are until you are standing that close to them!!

This whale skeleton was Ah-Mazing!  Look how big that thing is!!  It took us a minute to figure out what it was.  Just the coolest thing to see!

Madie took this picture of me and Pete by Sue, the T-Rex. :-)

We finished our time there by watching the 3-D movie about the Wooly Mammoth and the Ice Age.  Livie wanted her picture by the elephants, because they are so much like the Mammoth. :-)

We had a fun time at the Museum today.  Like I said, it can't compete with the Museum of Science and Industry, but it was a really neat place to visit.  But, we're definitely glad we went!

Madie is 13!

My Madie Moo is a teenager!  She turned 13 yesterday and, so far, we've handled the first day and a half of teenager-hood without any disruption. :-)  To prepare for this special day, Madie and I decided to work together to make her cupcakes.

I had bought zebra and pink decorations, so I bought zebra cupcakes to go along with it.

We had to layer the chocolate and vanilla, so they would bake into zebra-stripes and it totally worked!

I frosted them and she decorated them with pink sixlets and chocolate curls. :-)  They were delicious!!!

I didn't do a ton of decorating, because she wasn't really having a party.  But, still wanted to have something on the table, as is our tradition.

She had dance on Saturday morning, so we didn't have a lot of time before she left to do any celebrating, but she definitely had enough time to open the one present we got her, that had been sitting on the buffet for a week staring at her. :-)

We got her an electric fingernail dryer.  She is currently in her bedroom with her friend Ella and Livie using it right now in their "nail salon". :-)  We also got her a North Face jacket a few weeks ago.  It was the only thing she actually asked for.  She said all of her friends have one and she really wanted one too.  So, we got that for her a little early, so she could wear it.  Sadly, the zipper broke, so we are waiting for its replacement to come.  But, she was really happy to have the nail dryer to open on her actual birthday.

For her birthday, she wanted to take some friends and go shopping together.  So, I picked her up early from dance, so we could leave and get the girls and head up to a big mall about an hour north of here.  I had never been there, so I was just as excited as they were!

When I asked the girls where they wanted to eat, thinking they'd pick something yummy like Olive Garden or Applebees, they picked the ever-popular McDonalds! :-)  Guess kids don't want "fancy food".  They want the yummiest fries around for their lunch.  To give them their independence, I sat at another table, so they could enjoy chatting together and being "grown up".

I had to take a photo of them as soon as we walked in.  They were ready for some shopping!  None of them had been to this mall before and no one but Madie had ever been in a place with escalators!  So, this trip was quite an experience for them all!

They went into the very first store they came across, but thankfully only one girl bought anything there.  I tried to explain to them that we had 3 floors to explore and they wanted to spread their money out.  I gave each of them $20 to spend - Madie had $50 total (some from us and some from her papa), plus a $25 Justice gift card from my besties.  The second store they entered is where most of them spent their money.  They had some cute stuff there.  Madie walked away with a vest, dress, and a shirt.  They all tried on the shirts they liked and were so cute complimenting each other on how nice it looked.  They were so cute and so sweet!

We went up and down the escalators several times, since it was the first time they (except Madie and I) had been on one.  We went on the elevator a couple times too, which they thought was fun.  When you're from a small town, it doesn't take much to excite a person. ;-)

They had this big double-decker carousel and all the girls, but one, went on that.  They thought that was a lot of fun too.  We got ice cream for a couple of the girls while we were down in this area.

Madie was the only one that had ever been in Build-a-Bear, so we stopped in there to check it out.  We went to Justice, where Madie bought a few things with her gift card and the other girls spent most of the rest of their money. We stopped in the Disney store, where the "Let it Go" song was playing, so they were standing around listening and singing to that.

Of course, we hit Claires and then the candy store. I told the girls they could eat get a bag, but little did I know how BIG their bags would be!  $50-plus dollars later, we walked out of the store with 5 very happy girls and one very empty wallet. ;-)

They really wanted to do the photo booth and I'm so glad they did.  It was so funny!  Madie's friend Sarah bought the photos, since I didn't have a $5 on me and then shared them with Madie for her birthday.  Very sweet!  Because there was a screen on the outside of the booth, I could see everything they were doing.  They tried to make duck faces, which sent them into hysterics.  It was so, so funny!!

Here is the roll of photos.  Isn't that adorable?!

After the photos, we decided to leave the mall (all of the girls were out of money anyway) and head to Old Navy.  They were carrying lots of packages and big bags of candy, so they were pretty excited!  They told me over and over again how much fun they were having, and Madie made sure to let me know she had a great birthday!  We went to Old Navy for a little while and that's where I got to shop.  Next time we'll probably go there first, because the girls were lamenting the fact that they had no money left when we went there.

We got home about 6pm and I was glad to be home.  Madie had a great birthday with her friends and I was so glad we could make it special for her, but I was definitely tired.  Here's what she bought when we were up there.  She bought this dress and this vest.  They are separate things, but I had her wear them together for this picture.  The dress is a really soft cotton material.  She loved it!

Madie's candy bag is on the left.  Then she got that Ocelot from Minecraft, the "M" brush, and face buffer from Justice.  She bought the heart key ring from Claires.  The little "Happy Birthday" t-shirt she bought at Build-a-Bear to go on her Ocelot.  The bouncy ball was at Old Navy.

This is the T-Shirt she bought at Rue 21.  She picked that out herself and I think it's really cute!  It's fun to see her finally fit into some Jr. Sizes.

After she showed off all of her stuff to Pete, Noah, and Livie, we lit the candles and sang "Happy Birthday" to her.

She blew really hard and blew them all out!  So glad we were able to celebrate her birthday in such a fun way!  She's our first to reach teenager-hood, so it was definitely something to be excited about.  So proud of the young lady she is becoming and excited to see what these teenage years bring. :-)

Solo and Ensemble

On Saturday, Madie had her Solo and Ensemble Contest at a school in our area.  She had three performances that day, so we were there for most of the day.  She caught the bus by 8 am and had her first performance at 10.

Her first song was a quartet.  They did a wonderful job (you can see a snippet of their song below)!  They all have beautiful voices and sounded so pretty together.  They got a first place rating. :-)

We had an hour and a half between her first and second performances, so we decided to stick around and wait, instead of driving all the way home.  We hung out in the cafeteria and ate some yummy junk food while we waited.  This school is so tiny, just a little country school.  Several of Noah's buddies were there, because they were singing, so he sat and played on his ipod and talked with them while we waited.  He eventually wanted to leave and walk around with them, so we let him kind of have some freedom with that and he loved it!

Livie also had a great time hanging out with some friends.  She was unable to take a picture that wasn't totally silly that day.  She is my outgoing, social girl, so anytime she's able to be with people, she's excited and happy.

Here's Madie with some of her friends.  She tried to go see all of her friends' performances too, while she was there.  I loved seeing how many of these students went to see each other's performances.  They were so supportive of each other and gave each other pats on the back and would tell them what a great job they did.  I told her choir teacher how impressed I was by their encouragement of each other.  It was a really wonderful thing to see.  :-)

Seeing how many of Noah's friends were there performing made me wish Noah would perform too, but I think he's just too shy to want to do it.  He has a really great voice too, but I haven't been able to convince him of that yet.  We'll see if he changes his mind next year. :-)

More silliness before Madie's vocal solo.  She did a fantastic job on her vocal solo (again, you can see some of it below).  She has a beautiful voice and even the judge commented how well she did.

She had over 2 hours between her vocal solo and her flute solo, so we went home for lunch.  Pete's parents came out to hear her, so they arrived during that break and went back with us to hear Madie's flute solo.  She's so comfortable in front of people when she performs.  I don't know where she gets that, because I'm always a nervous wreck when I have to do that!  But, once again, she did a really great job and got another first place rating.  She was three for three with her first place finishes.

We were so proud of her and all the great stuff she did that day.  I can only hope she continues to sing and play as she gets into high school.  She definitely has a great talent!

Here she is showing her first place ratings.  So, it was a really fun day to see how her hard work and practicing paid off.  Definitely a whole lot better than her mother was at that age.  I remember a trumpet duet that went horribly wrong due to the giggles and a total lack of practicing. ;-)

Here is her ensemble performance.

Here is her vocal solo.

Here is her flute solo.  Enjoy!