Yay! Field trip day!!

We recently took a trip to the Ecotarium. We had such a good time! The last time we were there Francesca was only two and afraid of everything, so it was fun to watch her explore and enjoy herself.

Here she is playing with the tornadoes. This picture doesn't really do them justice, but they were so cool! There was a wheel that you used to control the direction of the tornado...we were really amused.

This was Sam's favorite part of the day. Making music with a tuning fork. And I use the term "music" loosely. It's more like making really, really loud obnoxious noises to make mommy's head explode. Seriously, the first ten or fifteen minutes it was educational and entertaining and all. But when she discovered that moving her hand up and down over the holes controlled the volume-and that she preferred the sounds it made at full tilt-let's just say she was lucky to get a ride home that day.

This was a really great magnet exhibit. There was a magnet on the end of the pole and you could make it move around using the magnets underneath. Since Katie studied magnets in science we thought she'd be really into this. After about three minutes she stood up and tried to swing on the pole. Guess we were more interested in magnets than she was...

Francesca discovered this about thirty seconds after entering the building, and had to pried away twenty minutes later. If she had it her way, she would've stripped down and jumped right in. Must be her inner mermaid.

Ahh. Here we are at the tornado again. I told you we were amused! We couldn't stay away...

Here's auntie, our faithful field trip companion. (Ilu, B! I totally wouldn't advertise that you need a nice Christian husband on my blog!!)

There was a room that was dark and you could push a button to light up each animal. It was so dark, in fact, that I had to use the flash to take this picture. As I was taking this picture, I heard a little voice behind me saying "I don't like it in here, I don't like it in here, I don't like it in here..." I turned around and saw this:

I immediately turned the flash on and snapped another quick picture put the camera down and comforted her. Poor thing is scared of the dark! (and bugs, and the toilet flushing, and the sound of cars driving by our house) It really is a good thing she's not afraid of everything anymore! 

Sam got to check out some interesting bugs under the microscope...

and under these doors were more bugs and things found in a tree limb. Notice my fearless warrior standing a foot behind her sister?

Speaking of fearless warriors, my clan just returned from their hike. I must go and administer band-aids now.