Friday was the last day of school for the O'Hara three that attend public school. Declan finished his home school program through Connections Academy this week as well. We here at the Richards' household, also considered this week our ending of regular school. Test results were returned to us, and we found that both kids are at, or above their grade levels they completed this year(both exceptionally high in reading and comprehension!!), so we will slow for the summer, and just do some grammar, reading & keep a slow pace on math. SO...it was a day to celebrate.
Ryan & I put the new seat in the back of the Suburban....(Bill put my new mirror on a few nights ago after my hawk incident) and we were ready to seat 9 people!! It would be like a dry run for our Canada trip coming up in about 3 weeks
We picked up Tracey, Declan & Kim at 11:15, headed to the JR high to get Alyona, then headed to the Elementary school to pick up Tanya & Alexis . Once we were all in the car, we headed off to AC Gilbert House in Salem. It's a great Children's Science Center, with an awesome outdoor play structure. We arrived around 1:00, and the kids piled out of the car, and our first destination was the play structure. It is huge, with many slides, lots of bridges, a maze, and so many fun things it's hard to explain without seeing it. It's every kids dream of a play structure.
After about 45 minutes, the kids wanted to head into the building to do the exhibits. The bubble room is always a hit. You can tell by the pictures that it is great fun. We went through the "digestion" exhibit. You can enter the mouth, go over the tongue, hit the epiglottis, and head into the stomach.....lots of fun for the kids. They also had healthy & smoker lungs that the kids could inflate, and a fun guy that made almost every noise the human body makes. Ryan was disappointed that it did not pass gas!!
After the downstairs exhibits, we headed upstairs to the play room. The kids (all but Declan & Ryan) put on a play for us. Very fun and imaginative. We then headed to the "recycle" crafting room where the girls put together fun things from "junk". Alexis made a butterfly out of an old clothespin, some pieces of paper, some string and a straw. Alyona made a pump bottle out of a bunch of containers and a series of holes, and an old pump. Kristin made a neat container, Kim a kleenex box bottle holder, and Tanya a caterpillar out of an old egg carton. It was fun.
We also explored the undersea room, and a story room, before heading back out to the play structure to play for awhile before heading home.
Around 4:15, we decided it was time to load up, but not before taking some pictures in the big rocking chair and exploring a building I had never seen before, a gift shop with a Panda exhibit, as well as a water power exhibit. It was fun, and we were on the road to home by almost 5:00.
It was a beautiful sunny day...filled with lots of giggles, running, fun, and learning. Next week we will hit OMSI again before our Science passes expire at the end of this month.
As for the dry run...Tracey & I are pleading with Sean & Bill to install plexiglass between the drivers area and the back of the bus!! HAHA....just kidding. We will be sure to post a "NO ASKING 'HOW LONG' SIGN"!!
Enjoy the pictures!
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