Going on a Mommy Date

Dear Bugaboo...Last week, we went on a mommy date to the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. We road the train downtown, and when we got there we were happy to find that there were lots of fun activities for four-year-olds to do there! There was so much to see that it kept us busy all day!

Here you are playing with the cutest robot ever! It spelled out words using little toy blocks with a big robotic hand that picked them up and put them back down again. All we had to do was type in a word, and it would move the blocks around. You played with it again and again, and it even spelled out your name for you! 

Playing chase is one of your favorite games, and you loved the next exhibit the best! When you walked on the floor, colored dots would appear, and followed you around wherever you went! You had a blast running back and forth, and trying to outrun the dots that chased you!

 Here you are building with life sized blocks, and stacking magnetic tubes together. 

At the end of the day, we visited the gift shop and bought you the cutest little stuffed animal whale. You held it close to you all the way home, and you even wanted to sleep with it that night. : )

Thanks for our Mommy date, big guy!!  I had such a nice time with you today!

All of our love to you, always and forever,

Mommy & Daddy

xxxooo

A Family Day at the San Jose History Park

Dear Bugaboo...Last Saturday we visited the San Jose History Park, a wonderful place for children and grown-ups to learn about our local history!  There is a cute little old-fashioned soda fountain shop with ice cream and candy, an early century print shop, Portugeese, Greek and Chinese museums, an old-fashioned gas station, an heirloom garden with an old water pump, a train museum with a working trolley, and a covered wagon, just to name a few of the many sites to see.  Since you are so crazy about trains, we couldn't miss out on the train museum!  Our other favorite was the covered wagon, and once you discovered what wagon trains were, you were all ears! We discussed the similarities and differences between steam trains and wagon trains, and talked about how on steam trains there were train engineers and motormen, and on covered wagon trains there were pioneers. We talked about how trains have an engine and how covered wagon trains were pulled by oxen. And, we checked out a wonderful book from the library called "Covered Wagons, Bumpy Trails" to learn even more about covered wagons.  

We had lots of fun playing and pretending! You kept on asking your daddy to come with you to check to see if there was enough food and water to feed the pretend horses. And, you wanted me to stay behind in the wagon to watch over them to make sure that they stayed safe.  : ) 

Of course, we couldn't miss the train museum with its cable cars, trolley cars, streetcars and steam locomotives. You thought this was just great and wanted to spend most of your time here!

Little Buttercup was our favorite train, even though there is nothing little about it!  It is a beautiful piece of machinery, a truly majestic steam locomotive. 

There is something so amazing about standing in front of a gigantic steam locomotive!

You loved this little model train (on the left) and I took a picture of this huge drill for Grandpa Dibble (on the right.)  He has a similar, smaller one in his garage, and so I thought that he would enjoy seeing it!  

Here you are ringing the bell on a pretend trolley, and then boarding a real life one!

We are so excited to ride!  

Waiting patiently...

Ding-ding!  

The motorman was so kind!  He even took some extra time to take a few pictures with us.

He gave you a special riding tolken

You were mesmerized by his every word

Here we are in the old fashioned print shop learning about how advertisements and newspapers were once made. 

You said that this old beat up pick-up truck looked just like Mater from the movie "Cars."  

We had such a fun family day, and it was very educational, too.  We will definitely be back to the History Park, a hidden gem here in San Jose!

All of our love to you always an forever,

Mommy & Daddy

xxxooo

Hidden Talent Art Studio

Dear Buggy...Every Wednesday morning we go to the Hidden Talent Art Studio to make fun art projects and to play with your friends. Your art teachers have lots of different stations set up, such as a sensory station, a painting station, a craft station, etc. You absolutely LOVE the sensory station and you usually spend most of your time there! I love that it is a family class, and that I get to be in on the fun, too! : )  

Your art teacher let you discover what would happen if you mixed the blue and red paint together. You painted the paper, and then your fingers and then your hands and then your arms!  I had to laugh because you needed a bath! And, you soon found out that red and blue make purple!  

One of our favorite projects that you made was a leprechaun trap for St. Patrick's Day!  You painted it green and decorated it with confetti, gold coins, stickers and glitter glue. It turned out so cute that on St. Patrick's Day we set it out to try to catch a leprechaun!  Legend has it that if you catch a leprechaun, he has to give you his pot of gold. Well, it turns out that we didn't catch a leprochaun, but he did steel our coins and left you some toys! : ) : ) : ) 

Building with blocks

Decorating a tiny leprechaun hat

Painting a pet rock 

Playing in the shaving cream with a little help from Grandma : ) 

You have always loved the water, and I was happy to see you create a new art medium in our own backyard! You turned on the garden hose and used chalk to paint the sidewalk. The chalk and water  blended together and was absolutely beautiful!  

You were so focused on creating your watercolor that you didn't even notice me taking your pictures. And, then to my delight and surprise, you started to use a broom as your very large paintbrush!

What you don't see in all of these still pictures is how the chalk swirled around in the water. It was like a living painting, and as the sky reflected down, it looked like a rainbow!  

I hope that you always have fun playing, painting, creating! 

All of our love to you, always and forever,

Mommy & Daddy

xxxooo