Good Morning Eastern Oklahoma

Got up this morning to go for my walk and had 2 tag-alongs with me.  Squirrel and Annie decided they wanted to go for a walk too.  It was the first time for both.  They both did well except for when Annie decided to chase EVERY bird she saw.  Poor Squirrel ended up with rope burns behind his knees thanks to Annie and her leash.

Squirrel took this pic of our beautiful sunrise...



Then when we got back home, Squirrel checked for eggs.  We haven't had very many lately due to the 105+ heat. It stresses the chickens out and they just don't lay.  BUT we had a nice storm 3 days ago so I think the chickens considered that as a visit to the spa cause they cranked out some eggs for us.

9 of our 11 chickens layed an egg.  We have only been getting 2-3 a day.


Guess what we had for breakfast...fried eggs.

Just a reminder . . .

I also have a "foodie" blog where I post recipes and such.  Some of the posts on that blog are the same as this but only a few.  So go check it out at Ten Thumbs Up.

National Cowboy Museum

Can you guess why we chose to go to the National Cowboy Museum?  Was it the art gallery, firearms, rodeo history, pioneer living or western movies exhibits?  If you guessed all of the above, then you would be correct.  We (Kyle and I) enjoyed it much more than the kids but they did great going thru all the galleries and exhibits.  I think their favorite parts were the rodeo history, western movies exhibit and Prosperity Junction which is a life size western town.  The kids were excited to see stuff on John Wayne since we like to watch his cowboy movies too.

I suggest that if you take children to the museum, have them check out the museum on their website.  They actually have a children's site that gives online tours, songs, games, characters, printables, etc.  Check it out at the Diamond R Ranch.

We spent 3 hrs here and had a great time.  It was the kid's first art museum and I was very proud of them.  They were really interested in the artwork which again surprised me.

Jailbirds

We are HUGE readers in our family so seeing this
 great display of children's books in their gift
shop was awesome!

                                                   

Science Museum Oklahoma

The third museum on our OKC museum tour was the Science Museum Oklahoma.  It is right next to the OKC Zoo.  We considered going to the zoo also but when it is 105 degrees outside, it was a no-brainer to just stay inside the air-conditioned museum.  We actually ended up spending 6 hours at this museum!  But I do not have the pics to show for it because the museum is totally hands-on so I had my camera in my pocket pretty much the entire time.  Since Kyle is an engineer, he was in "hog heaven" with all the physics displays and surprising enough the kids loved them too.

I think our favorite part of Science Museum Oklahoma was the Segway Track.  The kids could not get enough of it and YES they begged to have one when it was all over.  I told them that if they wanted one, they needed to become a mall cop.  Our other favorite part was the planetarium.  We all learned a lot about the Oklahoma night sky.


Other parts we enjoyed were the aircraft display, flight simulator, working train track, huge tree house to climb on, Science Live show, earthquake simulator, magnets and optical illusions.  Speaking of the Science Live show, Kyle was called up to the stage to help to a science experiment.  It was HYSTERICAL cause he does not like doing things like that in front of a LARGE group of people but he endured it.

Playing with magnets

Experimenting with air

Flight simulator

Optical illusion

Kitchen Re-do: My RED Kitchen

I am HAPPY to announce that we FINALLY finished our kitchen re-do project.  It only took us 1 1/2 years but who is counting?

We scraped and peeled wallpaper, floated the walls, painted the walls and ceiling, painted the island and decorated.  Yes, all that took 1 1/2 years but again, who is counting?

So here is the before pic.  It was actually the pic that was online when it was on the market.  Note the country blue wallpaper (and it had the 80's goose border too).  Lovely, huh?

And here is the "almost" final product!  We have added some things on the top of the cabinets since I took this pic but for the most part this is it!  It was a big commitment painting it red (I know) but I have wanted a RED kitchen for a long time and I had bought a lot of the red things a long time ago and just waiting for my red kitchen to come along.

Next phase will be the big guns phase.  We are going to move appliances around, have a new island built, new flooring and paint the cabinets.  We are also wanting to build false beams for more lighting and then possibly hang a pot rack from them over the island.  All this will come when the income tax refund arrives next year but until then, I LOVE MY RED KITCHEN.

Museum of Osteology in OKC

On Sunday mornings we usually let the kids watch Outdoor Oklahoma if and only if they are dressed, fed and have brushed teeth before it comes on at 8am on OETA.  Recently when we were watching, they were touring the Museum of Osteology (skeletons) in OKC. My kids were GLUED to the television and in total awe so we decided to add the museum to our "museum tour".

The story behind the museum is just as interesting as the museum itself and it all started with a 6th grader's collection for a science fair.

I have to say that it was just as cool on television as it was in person.  To say we loved it is a total understatement.  There were so many different varieties of animal skeletons that you literally have to sit down to look at each display and really examine them.  I took more pics than I probably should have but seeing all the different skeletons was just so fascinating.  The pics I am posting are those animals that you see in Okie Land.  Also to see all the teeny tiny bones of a mouse or a hummingbird then to turn and see the skeleton of a humpback whale and a giraffe is just crazy.  We are so glad we went there and plan on taking the kids again especially when they are older.  This would be a great place for a science field trip.

Mouse

Turtle

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Raccoon eating Milk Duds...so true

Hummingbird in flight

Hummingbird & nest

Jasmine Moran Children's Museum in Seminole

HUGE maze

Dragon-like thing to climb on

On our mini-vacation we went to Oklahoma City for 3 days and visited 4 very different museums while we were there.  The first one we went to was the Jasmine Moran Children's Museum in Seminole which is just outside OKC.  We have never been there before but last year the first grade at the kids' school went there for a field trip and the teachers, students and parents raved about it so we thought we would give it a try.

Let's just say, my kids were is HEAVEN. When we got there we checked out their outdoor activities first before the heat set in.  They have a train you can walk thru and a train to ride.  They also had this really cool maze that was huge.  We all loved running thru it scaring each other.  Then the inside of the museum was separated into play areas like construction, school, courtroom, grocery store, fire station, hospital, mechanics, and science and art areas.  They also had a large aquarium, place where you could dig for dinosaur bones, they could be a surgeon operating, an airplane cockpit and ambulance that they could play in.  They even had a HUGE dragon-like climbing thing that the kids could not get enough of.  Our favorite part was the bubbles area and then this room that had a glowing wall.

Don't tell anyone . . . but I hope the first grade goes back again this next school year.  I will be going as a sponsor with my 2 first graders and will be taking my big kid too.
.

Future mechanic?

Or maybe a pilot with his crew

Making a big bubble wall around them

The engineer playing

Grocery shopping