Port Discovery membership is awesome!
We have had a busy few days. Thursday we went to Great Country Farms and picked 12 pounds of strawberries. YEs, that's 12 lbs!! The kids loved picking, were a huge help. I am still glad we didn't go with the CSA this year as it took over an hour to get out there and, as it did last year, eventually weekly Upick (esp in hot weather) loses its luster.
Friday we had a sort of downday. We stayed home, but were busy. I have been trying to work in classes and studying and it's tough that first week in classes. I'm not used to the time spent studying, the kids aren't used to me being unavailable (it's amazing how a couple weeks reverts them back to "Mommy is always available to indulge our every whim"). So Friday was busy and stressful simply due to fitting in everything. I had tons of food related things to do, too. The strawberries were not going to last so the kids and I cleaned and prepared the 12 lbs of strawberries for the freezer, and some for a big bowl in the fridge for grazing on. I baked bread and also cooked potatoes for the salmon patties and the potato soup this week. I also made cabbage/feta slaw (ala Zoe's). I spent lots of time in the kitchen and cleaning up after my messy self. I found time for homeschooling the kids, and studying two of my three courses. By the evening I was beat and didn't study English like I needed to.
Saturday we had reservations at Port Discovery in Baltimore to see the opening of the robots exhibit. The member's only preview is at 9am. We managed to only be 30 minutes late and it was lots of fun. Then we meandered PD a bit and played, we ate our packed picnic lunch there, meandered a bit more and then left to walk around Baltimore's inner Harbour area. It was a gorgeous day! We walked down and looked at the boats and ended up at the MD science center where the Bodies Exhibit is going on. Ray and I went in Vegas and it was sooooooo cool. I wanted to take the kids in (mostly Trevor) so we decided to see if maybe my Smithsonian membership would give us a decent discount. No, no discount and it was too expensive for us to take everyone in (though cheaper than Vegas, were it cost like 80 bucks just for Ray and I to get in). BUT-- we found out that our PD membership, which has already paid for itself in visits to PD, also gets us into the science museum for FREE! So we went to see two museums, (about 100 bucks in tickets total) for free! OMG! We were so thrilled. The science center was cooler than PD. It had lots of hands on things and studd for kids to explore and touch. We were there for hours and still didn't see everything and we ALL had fun. We'll definitely be going back. By the time we got out of the museum, we realized it was 4pm and we wandered back and watched a street performer on a unicycle. Then decided to eat an early dinner in Baltimore before heading home. Though dinner cost us 50 bucks, it was a cheap day, considering parking only cost 5 dollars (validations!), the museums were free and we only paid for some fudge and dinner. The gas to get out there is worth it for a whole day of doing stuff. We came home, rented Robots for the kids (the PD exhibit featured the robots from the movie), watched the movie and then, I am embarrassed to admit, I went to bed with the kids at 8:30pm! OK, I stayed in bed and checked email until 9:30, when I fell asleep.
Today we are low key. Ray is out with the kids, I already got reading down for SPD, now I am going to continue reading chapter one in my psychology course. We will probably bike today as it's supposed to be SUNNY SUNNY and close to 80 degrees.
Friday we had a sort of downday. We stayed home, but were busy. I have been trying to work in classes and studying and it's tough that first week in classes. I'm not used to the time spent studying, the kids aren't used to me being unavailable (it's amazing how a couple weeks reverts them back to "Mommy is always available to indulge our every whim"). So Friday was busy and stressful simply due to fitting in everything. I had tons of food related things to do, too. The strawberries were not going to last so the kids and I cleaned and prepared the 12 lbs of strawberries for the freezer, and some for a big bowl in the fridge for grazing on. I baked bread and also cooked potatoes for the salmon patties and the potato soup this week. I also made cabbage/feta slaw (ala Zoe's). I spent lots of time in the kitchen and cleaning up after my messy self. I found time for homeschooling the kids, and studying two of my three courses. By the evening I was beat and didn't study English like I needed to.
Saturday we had reservations at Port Discovery in Baltimore to see the opening of the robots exhibit. The member's only preview is at 9am. We managed to only be 30 minutes late and it was lots of fun. Then we meandered PD a bit and played, we ate our packed picnic lunch there, meandered a bit more and then left to walk around Baltimore's inner Harbour area. It was a gorgeous day! We walked down and looked at the boats and ended up at the MD science center where the Bodies Exhibit is going on. Ray and I went in Vegas and it was sooooooo cool. I wanted to take the kids in (mostly Trevor) so we decided to see if maybe my Smithsonian membership would give us a decent discount. No, no discount and it was too expensive for us to take everyone in (though cheaper than Vegas, were it cost like 80 bucks just for Ray and I to get in). BUT-- we found out that our PD membership, which has already paid for itself in visits to PD, also gets us into the science museum for FREE! So we went to see two museums, (about 100 bucks in tickets total) for free! OMG! We were so thrilled. The science center was cooler than PD. It had lots of hands on things and studd for kids to explore and touch. We were there for hours and still didn't see everything and we ALL had fun. We'll definitely be going back. By the time we got out of the museum, we realized it was 4pm and we wandered back and watched a street performer on a unicycle. Then decided to eat an early dinner in Baltimore before heading home. Though dinner cost us 50 bucks, it was a cheap day, considering parking only cost 5 dollars (validations!), the museums were free and we only paid for some fudge and dinner. The gas to get out there is worth it for a whole day of doing stuff. We came home, rented Robots for the kids (the PD exhibit featured the robots from the movie), watched the movie and then, I am embarrassed to admit, I went to bed with the kids at 8:30pm! OK, I stayed in bed and checked email until 9:30, when I fell asleep.
Today we are low key. Ray is out with the kids, I already got reading down for SPD, now I am going to continue reading chapter one in my psychology course. We will probably bike today as it's supposed to be SUNNY SUNNY and close to 80 degrees.