Clark Planetarium, Making a Blizzard and IT'S 2AM!!

To keep Sarah contained at bedtime we had to put a child door knob cover on the inside of her room when we put her to bed to keep her in her room. When Aaron and I go to bed a couple hours later we open up her door so I can hear her throughout the night if there is a problem. I was awakened the other morning at 2 am by Sarah turning her light on. Aaron got up to find her standing on her toy box so she could reach her light. He went in and turned off her light and tucked her back in bed. By the time he was out of her room, she was already out of bed heading to turn her light on again. However, this time she shut her door so we wouldn't know she had her light on. She was still awake at 5 am when Aaron got up to go to work. She was sure "Chuckles" the next day. The next night I was thinking ahead and took the toy box out of her room for nighttime. That night we were awakened at 2 am by her out in the hallway scooting the toy box back into her room. 2 am must be the bewitching hour!! Anyway, she did get the toy box in and turned her light on. Aaron got up tucked her back in bed, turned her light out and took the toy box out of her room and shut her door so she couldn't get it again. She was pretty ingenious. She went over to the other side of her room and got her rocking horse and scooted that all the way over to her light switch, climbed on and turned the light back on. At this point we just said, "Uncle" and let her have her stupid light on--we just made sure her door was shut so we didn't have to "enjoy" her light on at 2 am since her room is just across the hallway and her light floods into our room.

Today we headed down to the Clark Planetarium for a visit. For our trip to Texas this last summer we joined an association of museums to get in to bunch a different places while we were there. That yearlong membership also includes the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake. The kids loved going to seeing all the displays. Daniel didn't let his broken foot slow him down too much. He did have to be carried over the snowy ground so his splint wouldn't get soggy, though. Here they are walking on the moon:

Here's Mars and Sarah was all about climbing on and over any rock. I am afraid she is a little bit of a Tomboy. Watching the balls going around the ball roller coaster:Looking through the telescope at Saturn: Watching the pendulum:We also took in a movie in the IMAX theater. It was the show The Lights Before Christmas. With our membership we got free popcorn for everyone. Poor Daniel wasn't able to have any popcorn since it was butter laden. However, I keep Daniel friendly treats in the car for emergencies such as this. He was able to enjoy some candy and fruit roll ups during the movie.Sarah was in heaven.Matthew was in heaven, too, because he finished his bowl, the rest of Aaron and my bowl and part of Sarah's that was left over. For some reason he wasn't too hungry for lunch afterward.

Yesterday we finally got around to pulling out Josh's Christmas present--The Blizzard Maker. I must say this contraption is the biggest waste of money!! This is the only thing Josh ever asked Santa for all year long!! Good thing Santa brought it because I don't think Josh would have gotten it otherwise. It is an ice cream mixer, however you have to provide your own ice, rock salt and milk to make it work. Interestingly enough the ice cream mix that came with it was dairy and egg free so Daniel got to try some. Everyone took turns turning the hand crank for 10 minutes until the ice cream was frozen.

When it was frozen, you only got about 1/2 cup total of ice cream. Well obviously that wouldn't be enough to go around these four hungry kids. Good thing I had a stash of other ice cream in the freezer. Josh and Daniel split the original blizzard maker mix and then after their two bites of ice cream were gone they got their bowls replenished from the freezer ice cream stash. I must say the kids had fun making it even though the actual blizzard results didn't go very far--maybe two bites a piece for Daniel and Josh and that's being really generous!!