STEM night

Last week, Gavin's school had their annual STEM night. It was super cold (about minus 4) and that kept a lot of families away. While it was nice to not have to wait in line to see exhibits, it is also nice to see the school have a good turn out.

Gavin and a lot of friends loved riding this hovercraft down the hallway. High school students from Matea Valley (where all the Brookdale kids will go) assisted. It was loud but fun!

Gavin loved the "Mad Science" room, especially the dry ice and the static electricity:

The kids put their hands on this ball, and their hair would stand up. I included the whole sequence of photos so you can see Gavin's hair getting wilder. (I also think the expression on the face of the girl beside him are priceless).

Next we got to see (and experiment) with how DNA is extracted from fruit. We used strawberries.

 


Gavin loved that he got to keep the results in this "beaker." He calls it "his first science experiment that he got to keep." :)

Enchanted Railroad

We went to the Enchanted Railroad at Morton Arboretum last weekend. This year the theme was "the four seasons" and Gavin loved it!

This guy was one of the "engineers" and he explained how he switches the trains.

He let Gavin push the buttons on the remote control, which activated some of the lights and sounds:

This green button was a hit. If the kids pushed it, it activated an Oscar Meyer train car. 

Ready for the Super Bowl

We are all ready to cheer for Seattle in tomorrow's game! Skittles and Marshawn Lynch shirt - check!!

Lucky Saturday

Saturday was a great day for Gavin! He got the last paw he needed to complete Level 5 in swimming! This last one was the butterfly stroke and he has been working hard on it. When we got home I pulled out my sewing machine and added the paws for this level (they are the ones rimmed in light blue on the right-hand side of the towel. The rest are patches for all the other levels he has completed)!

Right after swimming we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch and for their play area. We've been there several times and this was the first time we saw "the cow" in the store!! We used to see it standing out on the side of the road, waving to people to go into the restaurant.

Anyway, all the kids were thrilled and wanted to pose with her. (Her apron says "Good Kidz Eat Chikin.")

Party Time!

Gavin was invited to a birthday party at DuPage Swim School this weekend. The party was for his friend Cassie and it looks like most of their class was there! We had never been to this particular swim school but all the kids had a great time. They got to play around in the water for an hour before they ate pizza and cake.

The pool had these little sprays of water that shot up periodically (not the whole time).

And they had plenty of pool toys:

At some point Gavin and his friends decided they needed to "save the ducklings."

The whole gang (Gavin is near the middle with a red kick board in front of him):

In the party room. The birthday girl is holding balloons and Gavin is goofing off with a party favor (big surprise).

Shedd Aquarium

We had been wanting to take Gavin to the rest of Chicago's museums (we have been to the Adler Planetarium and the Museum of Science and Industry). The ones we hadn't covered were the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum. We told Gavin to pick one for winter break and he chose the Shedd. 

First stop: the huge circular tank called "Caribbean Reef."

Next we saw the penguins...although somehow, the play area next to them proved to be more interesting than the birds themselves:

Wearing a penguin costume:

Next, we really wanted to see the sharks:

 We learned this big guy is a sandbar shark. Gavin kept exclaiming that it was a great white, but I told him no aquarium can hold one of those guys!

Next we saw the aquatic show. We were lucky enough to see both the beluga whales and the Pacific white-sided dolphins perform (it's different every time). The amphitheatre was really cool with the big glass windows at the back and Lake Michigan outside!

The beluga whales underwater viewing:

The other thing Gavin loved was this play submarine. He was working all the controls, avoiding icebergs and steering...well, anywhere he imagined!

The next big downtown trip we take will be to the Field Museum. But Gavin does want to return the the Shedd one day. And this time, I'll have a better idea of where we are going (it's very confusing in there and we spent a lot of time trying to navigate through the different elevators and exhibits).

Brookfield Zoo Part 2

Cold, or cold(s) wouldn't stop Gavin from returning to Hamill Family Play Zoo to "take care of his animals." He immediately bee-lined for the vet clinic: 

Next, he pretended to be in charge of the zoo:

Next, we got to pet some of the domestic animals there, like a rabbit and a guinea pig. Gavin was very gentle and took it upon himself to repeat the handler's exact words to every other kid who wanted to touch the animals ("use two finger to pet, be gentle, etc.").

Hamill has a big green house where kids can run around spraying plants. It kept him occupied for a while!

After three hours in Hamill, our time was winding down. The only other building we went into was Tropic World. The gorillas are always entertaining. Below, we were watching the orangutans because we thought we'd spotted baby Kecil and his adoptive mom, Maggie. We watch their video on You Tube all the time!