So, What Did You Do This Weekend?

So what did you do this weekend with the kids? Was it life as normal or did you get out and do something special since it was officially a holiday weekend?

I soooo wanted to do life as normal. I've had an insanely busy few weeks and I just want to get back to my normal busy life. But I can't turn down free or nearly free opportunities for fun out in the community either. So that's what we did.

Saturday we had my daughter's birthday party. She turned 8 last Tuesday but we waited until the weekend after to celebrate because I couldn't pull it together last weekend. My dad came up for it and was still here the next day so we stayed home Sunday. I was finally able to cooked the lasagna I'd been promising my daughter too. Boy was it good too!

Yesterday we woke up to gorgeous blue skies. We just don't get to see blue skies all that often during the winter here in the Pacific Northwest so it was quite a treat. I wanted to be out and absorb the sunshine I so desperately need to feel alive. I was considering going to NW Trek to take advantage of the free kiddos and the sunshine. But it was so cold and Josh was still recovering from a cold so we opted to go to the Washington State History Museum instead.

After the kids finished up their basic school work (language arts and math), we headed downtown. We parked at the Tacoma Dome Station parking garage and headed across the street to Freighthouse Square. We wanted to stop by City Blocks to check out Dan Parker's studio. He is a certified Lego Professional (one of only three in the US). He's got some neat finished projects lying around to look at (a small Statue of Liberty, a large Statue of Liberty, an Empire State Building, a Space Needle, a Star Wars battle cruiser, and a Christmas village to name a few). He also had a table of Duplos and a table of Legos set up for the kids. When we were finished there, we headed out to the museum.

Upon arriving to the museum, he headed upstairs to the History Lab, a place for kids to do some hands on exploring. We found out that they have a puzzle activity for the kids. They give you a question about a historical person and you have to find the correct answer. To do so, you go from station to station finding the answers to various questions. Within the answers are circled letters which, when put together, spell out the mystery person's name. Just ask for the sheet at the entry desk. Our mystery person was Bertha K. Landes, Seattle's first woman mayor. She was mayor in the 1920s.

We headed across the street to Starbucks for lunch. There's no place to eat at the museum itself and we wanted to escape the too loud hip hop concert playing in the lobby (a MLK special event). The kids enjoyed chocolate donuts and hot chocolate with their lunch.



After lunch we headed into the Great Hall of Washington History. This is my favorite part of the museum. Rather than reading about each exhibit, they have scenes set up with these beautiful monochromatic statues who talk to each other. It's like you are fly on the wall in an historic scene. It's really a cool place and my kids enjoy running from place to place exploring all there is to see. Exploring this hall in detail takes more than a day. The front desk has a scavenger hunt for this part of the museum for the kids as well. We hunted for an hour and didn't find four of the items. A nice gentleman working there helped us locate what we were missing and the front desk awarded each kid with a cool pencil made from a tree branch. Sammy is using his for school work today.

Who says history is boring? See how much fun it can be by checking out the Washington State History Museum sometime. It is free the third Thursday of every month from 5pm to 8pm. For easy and free parking, park at the Tacoma Dome Station and take the light rail two stops to the museum.

P.S. I wish I could post a ton of photos for this trip but there is no flash photography allowed and the lighting is low so I didn't bother dragging the camera along.