field trip: national scouting museum...

Last week the kids and I made our way down to the National Scouting Museum and spent a couple hours roaming around touching anything and EVERYTHING that could be touched. The germ-a-phobe in me was on tilt...one round of stomach bugs is enough for me, thank you very much...but the boys were in heaven.

I was very impressed with the layout of the museum as well as the kiddo friendliness. The size of the museum is just right for younger kids...neither of the boys complained about their legs being tired and they never became bored! This is a major thumbs up as far as I'm concerned...we were there for more than two hours! And really, Free Funday Monday didn't hurt in winning me over either.

The collections were all exactly what one might expect to find in a museum dedicated to scouting: uniforms, badges, tools, books, etc. Logan was completely impressed with sheer quantity of badges, patches and pins a scout can earn. Both boys were very impressed with the pocket knives in the collection...they were both positive Grumpa Ric has at least one of but probably a bunch of the same kinds of knives and hatchets at his house and discussed at great length which ones they might be.

I think the best part of the museum for Logan was the laser shooting range and for Caleb it was the Pinewood Derby track. Molly was really unimpressed with all of it.



Logan also like the virtual bike racing game and given his penchant for video games he would've stayed there all day if I'd let him. Caleb was too small for the bike and was therefore uninterested. Molly was determined to climb off the platform as quickly as possible.



My favorite part of the museum was the Norman Rockwell Gallery. I'm pretty sure these were the first Norman Rockwells I've actually seen in person and honestly, each one of them was amazing to look at...not necessarily the subjects (I mean, I have great respect for the Scouts and all...) but the skill and technique of the paintings is mind boggling to me.

All in all we had a really good time and will certainly go back another time. Now that we know there is such a thing we can check for special programs and events. And of course once summer rolls around we will definitely spend a Monday or two brushing up on our knot tying skills and laser shooting range accuracy too.

flickr pics time capsule...

Photojojo.com via StumbleUpon.

Here's my "sample" time capsule: February 19th through March 5th, 2007.

helloooooo...

We're all still alive and kicking over here at the Lyons' Den...we all had our fair share of stomach viruses week before last. Lucky me, my turn to have it was on Valentine's Day! Valentine's Day is evidently NOT my holiday. Flashback to V-day three years ago...fun times. Meh. Aside from all that excitement, we've just been busy with every day stuff: soccer practice, cub scouts, soccer practice, school holidays, soccer games, etc. Caleb's first soccer game was Saturday and it was adorable. I have pictures...they're just still in the camera and the camera is currently all the way downstairs and I am currently tired and lazy :).

Check back tomorrow for pictures from our trip to the National Scouting Museum. What a blast that was! The boys had no school on the 18th and Logan needed to visit a museum for his Collecting belt loop so I googled area museums and it popped up right at the top of the search...didn't even know it existed (way to promote there Scout leaders). On top of that Mondays are FREE. Score!

getting back to business...

I've caught a bug and the only way to get rid of it is to make hairclips for my little girl...

Also? All the ornaments were dropped at the post office this afternoon! Hooray!! Again, to all my swappers, I cannot apologize enough and thank you all from the bottom of my heart for being SO patient and understanding.

And another thing...new goodies available over on Zazzle too.

this is awesome...

All I can say is high-fives to this momma, her little girl and the rest of their family! You should go buy some stuff from them right now, I just did :).