The White House

On Saturday we had a very buggy experience at Insectopolis.  Who knew a bug museum could be so much fun.  I wish my father could have been there to share the experience with us and see how much his littlest grandson just loved everything bugs.

Interesting that this place is owned and run by a extermination company.  Curious.

The museum was just the right size and we were able to make it in and out of there in about an hour.   Long enough to make it worth our while but short enough that Quinn was enthusiastic the whole time.  There was a big selection of both live and dead insects.   Lots of live tarantulas and cockroaches.

I\’m still rocking my telephoto/macro lens and captured these macros.  Quinn knew the bugs were dead if they had a nail in them 🙂

There were two live bee hives set up with clear tubes connecting them to each other and also to a source of sugar.    We also noticed a tube that looked like it went outside.  On our way out we went around the back of the building and sure enough there were 3 tubes with lots of bees buzzing around.

Once an hour the museum entomologist pulls out some live creatures to learn about and touch.   Todays selection included a hissing cockroach, a scorpion, a millipede, and a tarantula.  Our young entomologist host reminded us that these were all his pets and none of these could hurt us in any way.  Honestly, I had no desire to touch these things but felt that I needed to put on my brave face so that Quinn wouldn\’t be fearful.  Although it took some coaxing, Quinn put at least a finger on all these creatures.  Sorry I don\’t have pictures but it was one of those experiences that I chose to participate in instead of photograph.

Then it was off for a new pair of sneakers, some lunch, and Sundance.   I\’ve been talking up his new teacher all summer so he was very excited to meet Ms. Kate and show her his new shoes.    His schedule is a little different every day with lots of time for indoor/outdoor play.  He also gets and hour for lunch and rest every day.  This year he will be learning language arts, math, science, art, computers (ha!), cooking, music, stage, and spanish.  Ms. Kate has warned us that the kids will become very independent this year so be prepared.

His class consists of all returning Sundance students — there are 5 kids from his class last year and one from his class the year before (the little blondie on Q\’s left).  He also has another set of twins in his class this year (the two behind Q in the bright red and blue shirt).  And that\’s Mr. Daniel in the back that does all the sport stuff with the kids.

Quinn was excited to be back at school and see alot of familiar faces.  We\’ll see how that goes Monday morning!

I somehow lost the Sundance magnet off my car which really bothered Quinn so Don gave me his magnet.  On the way back to the car, Quinn asked if we could get one for Don.  Always thinking of his dad.

Here\’s goes another year!

I love going to the beach off season.  The beach is empty and Quinn has free reign to roam.  I decided to take in a day at the beach before Quinn starts school on Monday.  You may remember last year we went to the beach club.  We visited again on Wednesday and had a very peaceful beach day.

My camera has a panorama function that will stitch images together.  As you can see, this function apparently doesn\’t work very well but here you go.   It was overcast but still warm and muggy enough to enjoy the beach and a brief dip in the pool.

The guys were ready to get going.  Beach, pool, beach, pool, beach, pool, etc, etc, etc.

Quinn loves little kids and always has a great time playing with Kaiden while Lucan goes off to find the big kids and all the action.

As you can see, it was just us and the seagulls.

Serenity now!