Birthdays and field trips

Yesterday was Columbus Day -- one of those weird holidays that banks and feds get but very few others. But, lo and behold, this year dh got Columbus Day off. But, even better, it was dh's BIRTHDAY so we were able to celebrate in real style ....

First, early morning tea/coffee for my dh and I ... followed by presents from the littles. I had taken them to the dollar store and they each picked out something that linked with Dad:

• Bam-Bam got him a set of metal cars so when they have car races, Dad has his own cars


• String Bean got him a 250 piece jigsaw puzzle that shows a little girl harvesting from a garden (something SB LOVES to do with Dad!)


• LegoManiac got him Peeps -- my dh, who has done lots of food science coursework, think Peeps are second only to chocolate as the best candy. And they're wonderful for Peep-wars!

We then walked to daily Mass. When we got back, we had to do a few car races and Peep-wars (while I cleaned up and did some laundry) than it was off for a day of adventure with Dad.

We went to the Denver Zoo -- which is a great zoo (if you can ignore the totally non-scientific "evolution is fact" signs scattered throughout the primate area. Dh and kids went on Friday and bought a season pass ... with the size of the zoo this makes great sense as you just can't do it all in one day. We rode the carousel and zoo train, saw the elephants and coatis and just generally had a grand time (even if they weren't selling any kettle corn for us to eat!).

We then popped over to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (which is basically next door) and had some lunch and then checked out the Native American and Egyptian exhibits. BTW, dh was impressed by the kids' knowledge of egyptology (we've been studying ancient Egypt this year). Another exhibit that dh hadn't seen is the "Russian Gem Sculptures" -- about 20 sculptures carved by Russian emigre Vasily Konovalenko, depicting Russian folk life. Very cool and easily missed as it's tucked away on the 3rd floor of the museum -- but definitely worth the hunt to find!

We ended the day with dinner and chocolate cake -- and finished watching the movie, Saint John Bosco. This is an Italian dramatization of the "apostle of the youth's" life story -- and had the family enthralled througout the 200 minutes running time! It's dubbed into English so we didn't have to "mess with" subtitles. Definitely a great family video.

Just all and all a wonderful real learning day to celebrate dad's day-off and his birthday!