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King Tut with and without kids

25 May

We were invited to a member’s opening for King Tut at the Pacific Science Center and I was totally excited.  I talked the kids up: I pointed out the posters all over Seattle.  I told them all about King Tut’s sparkly gold.  I thought it would be as magical for them as Gaugain at the Seattle Art Museum.  What I forgot to do was my kid-friendly research: tombs are dark places and there was a little movie (1 minute tops!) in the darkened beginning of the entry room.  This did not bode well for the kid who hates movies/darkness/confined spaces and when the door closed it was game over.  I didn’t want to make a scene so I decided that was enough of King Tut for that day and came back today with the hubby. (PS I found a great babysitter on Urbansitter a new site for finding/scheduling sitters and she was a life-saver!  This might be my new go-to find a sitter in a pinch site.)

I’m so glad we went without my guys because now I know what to show them when we do take them although I think they might still be a little young. (We have had a lot of circle of life questions since we went fishing a couple weeks ago and this would probably put them over the top.  I think King Tut might be more of a 5 and up type of exhibit.)   It was nice to get to see everything and actually read and take it all in without having to translate, explain or stop little hands from trying to grab things.  The movie clips and explanations scattered throughout the exhibit were entertaining and informative as well-we took a lot longer going through than I thought we would.  (I studied a lot about ancient Egypt when I was teaching so I found it so amazing seeing all these artifacts in real life!  And in my city! I was in my nerd element.)


Of course, the things I found most interesting were the necklaces and jewellery:

They remind me of some jewels I’ve had my eyes on from Baublebar.  (I can’t wait till they’re back in stock)

And these too!

And I couldn’t help but giggle over the ancient potty.

But I won’t spoil the exhibit with anymore pics.  I think you need to see it for yourself if you’re in Seattle and if you set the scene right for your little ones, (maybe this book will help?) they will probably find it entertaining too.  I’m still in awe of how lucky we are to have such beautiful ancient artifacts visiting us for a little while.  (King Tut will be here until January 6th.  Maybe by then we’ll be able to convince the scared one this is something very cool he might want to see.)

A reason to stop using plastic bags

21 May

Every time we go to the Pacific Science Center I can’t help but stop at this exhibit.  All this  trash was found in the stomach of a whale and it makes me feel a little sick to just think about it.  Poor poor whale.

I’m doing my best not to use plastic bags anymore.  Hopefully every little bit counts.

A winning travel craft kit

21 May

I’m not sure who first told me about this, (I think I might have seen it in a tweet from “Apartment_mama” in Vancouver ages ago), but it sounded so cool that when I saw the Alex Toys’ My Collage Farm on sale at Barnes and Noble for under 10 dollars I totally bought it.

It turns out that this is the perfect craft kit for a car trip travel adventure because it came with all the pieces, the glue, and crayons to make 4 animal crafts.  There were no scissors but for most 3-year-olds (like mine), this type of craft doesn’t really need that kind of precision.  When my guys woke up at 6am on a recent adventure I was thankful I brought it along: we were all entertained for at least 30 minutes after which the guys incorporated their creations into some kind of make-believe-game and left me alone to make coffee.

(PS. You could also make something like this yourself by getting a big ziplock bag, print out some animal pictures on card stock, throw in stickers, feathers, crayons, googly eyes and a glue stick but that would take a little more pre-planning.)

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