A Day at the Museum of Transportation

In another outing with the babies and my folks, we went to a St. Louis attraction that I haven’t been to in decades (so sad!). 

 

 

The Transportation Museum is a little boy’s dream trip (and many a little girl’s too). 

 

 

It mainly consists of train exhibits of all sorts.  Love this photo mosaic!  

 

 

The lower level building houses some old fire engines.

 

 

 

An early railroad car…converted from a stage coach!

 

 

The carved circus train fascinated the kids.  Unfortunately the barriers were very flimsy and open in the back… which caused the security people to be barking at anyone who leaned in for a good look.  The babies’ attention was quite unwelcome.  This is a shame because it was one of their favorite things.

 

Transportation museum… get a better protective case so the kids can enjoy it too!

 

 

It’s really a beautiful piece of workmanship.

 

 

Look at those details.

 

 

The protective case was even worse around the model train table.  Plexiglas panels set in a grove in the table top…joined together at the top with BINDER CLIPS!  Seriously.  There was no one there to run the train either.  So disappointing for the kids.

 

 

However, they did enjoy a ride on the mini train.

 

 

The engine is gorgeous! 

 

 

All aboard!

 

 

Little Hoss waiting with his grandpa for the ride to start.

 

 

The engineer.

 

 

The Didia 150…formerly owned by Bobby Darrin.

 

 

 

 

Strange looking car…

 

 

Another strange car…

 

 

 

The “Stanley Steamer”.

 

 

Little Bird really liked this car. 

 

 

As we approached this truck, Little Hoss said it was a dump truck.  I said it was a type of pick up. 

 

The 3 year old was right!

 

He enjoyed that…

 

 

Love the detail on the glass!

 

 

Now up to the train yard…

 

…where the big engines are.

 

 

Where all sorts of ‘big’ is…

 

 

Some of the cars are open for exploring.  The kids loved this tanker.

 

 

We had a grand time ‘choo-chooing’ and making noise for the echoes.  I think Mom pretended she didn’t know us!  LOL

 

 

Little Hoss was fascinated with UNDER the trains. 

 

 

He checked everything out.

 

 

Little Bird liked going up IN the displays.  Here she is climbing up into a caboose.

 

 

Ladders must be climbed…right?

 

 

And if it has a wheel…

 

 

 

 

…Little Hoss is going to turn it!! 

 

 

This bell had a rope attached so the kids could ring it.

 

 

Love the detail of this screen in one of the old passenger cars.

 

 

There are all sorts of great photo ops to be had.

 

It was a good trip.  Himself and I will be going this fall with the kids to see more.

Summer Plans: Week 5

Week 3 plans were delightfully accomplished… play with the babies, play with the babies, and play with the babies!  Although at 3 and almost 4 maybe it’s time to stop calling them “the babies”.

Naw…

They’re my babies!!!

Anyway, there was a shift in plans during June due to allergies and rain.  Himself’s ‘study’ was done with no problems.  But we got a LOT of rain at the beginning of the week and the ground was so muddy during the time I had to work out there.  So I really didn’t get much done outside in week 2.

And the plan shift in the studio was because my allergies flared up (from the rain I suppose).  But there was no way I could paint, which gets to my sinuses too.  So I worked on other things in there and did a bit of neatening in the garage. 

So my summer plans for week 4 were:

The room of the week was the dining room.  This was an easy one!  I have a tiny little dining room without much in it. 

In my studio I worked in the lounge area.  Moved things around and brought in furniture I stored out in the shed.

And outside I finished up mulching my herb garden and sprucing up the front porch (so many cob webs!). 

And now for week 5 I’m back on target.  The plans are:

The room of the week to organize is the kitchen.  It’s not too bad… but the pantry and broom closet do need some work.

Studio… set up the shelves in the workshop area.  Then start moving things in! 

Outside I’m going to work on the area around my garage doors.  Looking kind of sad out there…

Almost Half a Foot of Rain

 

That is 3.93 inches of rain from yesterday morning to 7:30am this morning!  Combined with what we had on the previous two days... we've had 5.68 inches of rain!  And it's supposed to rain all day today.

 

My garden is thoroughly watered...

Creative Friday

Been busy traveling and working around the house, so my creative projects have mainly been done as part of the Index Card A Day challenge, sometimes combined with other blog’s creative challenges.

 

ICAD Week 2

Top Row:

 

My first attempt at a ‘paisley’ design.

 

A sketch of a still life I arranged and photographed. 

 

Middle Row:

 

A Zen tangle pattern ‘quilt’.  Practicing my doodles!

 

My response to the prompt “junk mail”.  I made a ‘snail mail’ inspired by the junk mailbox in my email.

 

Bottom Row:

 

For the “Summer of Color” prompt ‘Citron and Turquoise’.  It’s pieced together using paint chips and detailed with a Sharpie pen.

 

For the prompts “Favorite Things List” and “Vines”.

 

The prompt was “bizarre”.  The background is basket woven strips of paper from a magazine. 

 

ICAD Week 3

 Top Row:

 

The prompt for this one was “Poem”.  So I wrote my own haiku inspired by this picture.

 

Prompt was “postage stamp”. 

 

I sketched this picture of Himself’s ship while watching “The Deadliest Catch”.  Would have been better if I wasn’t doing it during the commercials!

 

Middle Row:

 

My multi-talented butterfly!  It was made for the Summer of Color combo ‘hot pink and orange’, plus prompts from 2 other blogs ‘winged’ and ‘polka dot’. 

 

Bottom Row:

 

For the prompt “Italy”.

 

Cityscape collage.  This is my first attempt.  I’ve seen some really cute ones so I’ll keep working on the idea.

 

Notes from my Sunday School class using doodles with Zen tangle patterns.

 

ICAD Week 4

 Top Row:

 

Just a ‘string’ doodle.

 

For the prompt “faux stitching”.

 

Prompt of “lizard”.  I did a SW deco lizard with a kokopelli on his back. 

 

Middle Row:

 

Zen tangle pattern “Hurry”. 

 

Bottom Row:

 

A collage from papers I picked up on our trip to the Butterfly House.  For this I used the brochure for the 'title', the shop's bag for the body (it had the print already on it), and I cut up a post card of a butterfly to make wings for "Madam Butterfly".  

 

A quick sketch inspired by Little Hoss’ birthday cake.

 

Another collage from our trip to the MO Botanical Gardens.  I used a brochure that Little Bird gave me.

 

 

 

This photo of a passion flower was taken in response to the Summer of Color prompt “Lime Green and Purple”.

 

 

I digitally altered a photo I took in Kenya for a response to the Summer of Color prompt “charcoal grey and pink”.   

 

 

God Bless America

 

"When we view the blessings with which our country has been favored, those which we now enjoy, and the means which we possess of handing them down unimpaired to our latest posterity, our attention is irresistibly drawn to the source from whence they flow. Let us then, unite in offering our most grateful acknowledgments for these blessings to the Divine Author of All Good."

 

~~ Pres. James Monroe

Little Hoss Turns 3!

Just back from a week in MO… it was time to celebrate the 3^rd birthday of Little Hoss!  (For privacy reasons I have digitally removed his name from his cake and the cute shirt he wore on his party.)

 

 

As usual, we had two celebrations.  The first was on his actual birthday.  We had a family dinner at my parent’s home.  Of course there was a cake…

 

 

…with candles to blow out.  

 

 

On the 29^th we had the party celebration.  The birthday boy was beside himself with excitement waiting for it to start!

 

 

Sis had a nice lunch spread.  Burgers (beef and turkey) grilled by his Dad, a wild rice salad, a grilled corn-avocado-tomato salad, fruit salad (all made by his grandma), potato salad (made by his great-grandmother), and chips.

 

 

Three different things to drink… ice tea, strawberry lemonade, and punch that Sis was still making when I shot this photo.

 

 

His cake was cupcakes…home made by his Dad. 

 

 

The party theme was ‘tractors/construction’.  I found this John Deere fabric for his birthday banner.

 

 

Birthday boy and me!  He’s supposed to be holding up three fingers!  LOL 

 

 

This year his “Sissy” Little Bird picked out his present all on her own. 

 

 

She was sooo excited for him to open it.

 

 

Concentration…

 

 

Reaching in deep!

 

 

Oh boy!  A dump truck!! 

 

 

Of course the bags are fun too…

 

 

Then it was time to light the candles and sing “Happy Birthday”.

 

 

Blowing out the candles with a bit of help from Little Bird.

 

 

Time to munch!!

 

 

They were delicious!