The Thinkery and Home Depot Kids Workshop

The Austin's Children's Museum recently moved and reopened as the Thinkery. When Boogs was younger, I used to purchase an annual membership to the Austin's Children's Museum. We were very curious to see how this new museum compared to the old one.

Boogs really enjoyed the outdoor playscape. It offered plenty of wonderful places to climb, play in a small pond/stream, and run. The museum was very crowded. There were some exhibits that Boogs decided he did not feel like waiting in line for. Out of the main floor exhibits, Boogs liked the simple machines wall best.

 

The Light Lab exhibit had many hands-on activities for exploring light. We waited in line for about 10 minutes for Boogs to take a picture of his frozen shadow. He thought it was very neat that the camera was able to only capture a shadow image and not a full person image. In the En Mi Familia exhibit, Boogs made sure he sat in the wishing chair. He never told me what he wished.

Boogs two favorite indoor areas were the Currents water exhibit and the Let's Grow farmer's market exhibit. There is a sign at the Currents entrance warning parents that there kids WILL get wet. Boogs spent quite a while with a drum set played by falling water drops. He also enjoyed turning a crank that made water shoot out all over him. The Chicken Coop and cooking area in the Let's Grow exhibit were a definite hit. Boogs kept gathering different ingredients to cook and serve me different types of omelets. Some of the omelets had interesting ingredients like lemon zest.

Boogs had fun at the Thinkery, but I believe he is right on the edge of being too old to truly appreciate all of it. We will probably go a couple of times this year, but are not going to get an annual membership.


Last Saturday, we actually remembered it was a Home Depot Kids Workshop weekend. Boogs is always happy when we get to go work on a new project. This month's project was to make a desktop calendar.

 

I love watching Boogs work on these type of projects. He is very careful about following the instructions exactly. He built the calendar and painted it at Home Depot. We had to wait until the next morning to put the number and month stickers on it. For the past week, Boogs has been using the calendar and changing the date each morning.

Next month's project is to build a race car. We have already done that project and Boogs is not interested in making another car. Maybe I can talk Boogs into working on one of the projects in the woodworking kit he got last year for Christmas (2012). For some reason, he prefers to make these kinds of project at Home Depot rather than at home.

Boogs' Projects

Boogs always reminds me when the first Saturday of the month is coming up. He loves going to Home Depot for their Kids Workshop. This month, the project was to build a Valentine box.

Boogs is starting to read the directions on his own.

We are still working on figuring out the right amount of wood glue.

Yay! He didn't hit my finger this time.

He was very proud of his building skills.

Boogs said, "I will paint the heart red but then I am not going to use any other girly color!"

Tada!

Our public library has a wonderful weekly program for elementary kids called Explorers Club. We love the library!

Ms. Kit read a few stories about birthdays and then gave the kids the supplies to make a pretend cupcake. These were so cute that I thought about making them for Valentine's treat boxes for Boogs' class. Boogs asked for Star Wars Valentines.

Once a month, the Explorer's Club has Lego Lab. Boogs loves to go to Lego Lab. After you build your Lego creation, you write a name for it on a small plaque so that it can be displayed in the children's area until the next month's Lego Lab.

Be sure to check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar. I linked up to Highhill's Hobbies and Handicrafts Linky.

Easter Saturday

Boogs and his cousin Little J went to the Home Depot Kids Workshop to make birdfeeders. Little J spent the night and was not very enthusiastic about going to the workshop. Once he started building, he really enjoyed himself. The boys lucked into an Easter egg hunt after the workshop. I don't think the hunt was advertised anywhere, only about 12 kids participated. Boogs and Little J were thrilled to hunt eggs with candy in them.

Saturday afternoon, the whole family celebrated Easter at my parent's house. My nieces and nephews are almost all past wanting to hunt eggs. My brother's grandkids are just getting to an age to begin hunting eggs. Boogs loves to hunt eggs especially since we do not put candy in them, we put quarters in most of the eggs and $1 bills in a few special ones.

The cousins are ready to hunt. Too
bad I left Boogs' basket at home.

Found the one hiding in the tree.

Very excited to see what's inside.

Great money counting activity.

My brother brought 4 dozen cascarones.

My sister's oldest boys.

The cascarones were filled with confetti,
flour, and glitter.

What a fun mess!

My great-nephew getting his grandpa.

Glitter was everywhere! I
gave Boogs a quick shower
and only some of the glitter
came off.

Boogs was exhausted by the
end of the day.

I hid out in the house and took pictures from the doorway while everyone else was getting cascarones cracked on their heads. That did not stop my brother. He got me about an hour later with an egg in the kitchen. Then my niece got me a second time while I was shaking the confetti out of my hair.