Nadia in China – July 2007
June 2012
Oh sweet Nadia, what a delight you are! Five years ago you were placed in my arms and our lives have never been the same. God has blessed us so much by making you a part of our family. We love you so much!
Toy & Action Figure Museum 2012
On our way to China Camp this year we decided to stop once again in Paul’s Valley, Oklahoma to go to the Toy & Action Figure Museum. We started out in the costume section.
Spidey and Conflicted Wonder Woman/Vader.
Nadia was so serious and told Amelie not to block the light saber.
I was totally thrilled about this new exhibit! I had a nice little trip down memory lane and told Nadia all about the toys that I had as a kid. Good stuff.
The “Super Family” – this year made it a tradition to visit on the way to China Camp.
My Omni movie reviews
When we renewed our Fort Worth Science and History Museum membership last year they gave us 25 free Omni theater tickets. So here are my thoughts on the last four films we watched – they are all still showing at the Omni.
Born to be Wild
This was absolutely the girls favorite film we went to see. In truth it was mine too just because of the baby orangutans. The film is narrated by Morgan Freeman and documents the stories of orphaned orangutans and elephants. The film shows the rescue organizations that help to care for them and prepare them to live in the wild again. This is a sweet film with great footage of the baby animals. It’s cute to see the babies being fed with special bottles and the people in Borneo and Kenya caring for the animals. My favorite part was when they returned the elephants to the wild. I highly recommend this to kids of all ages – and their parents.
After seeing this film the girls started playing a game called Baby Monkeys. They collected up all their stuffed monkeys and pretend to care for them just like in the film. It’s now a favorite game and they use many different animals now.
Thrill Ride – The Science of Fun
The first thing to say about this film was that it is really loud! It was a bit much for Amelie and she ended up on my lap with me holding my hands over her ears. This film is from 1997 and was brought back to the Omni this year. It traces the history of thrill rides from the original wooden ones to the current motion simulator rides that are becoming more and more common. The museum has a warning on their site that if you experience motion sickness in the Omni theater you should avoid this show – and I agree. The clips are fast moving and meant to make you feel like you are riding a roller coaster. Amelie has mentioned roller coasters being fun quite a few times since we saw it. But Nadia seemed to like the popcorn and Superman sighting more than anything.
Coral Reef Adventure
This film was really interesting and the underwater photography was beautiful. The couple who made this film went on a 10 month adventure to document as many reefs as possible. The amazing thing about this film was the they were able to go 350′ down to see parts of the coral reef that no humans have ever seen. They also discovered some new species of fish and other creatures. From the website: “Found in more than 100 countries around the world, coral reefs comprise just one percent of the ocean yet nurture one quarter of all marine life.” The girls loved all the fish and other colorful creatures that live in the reefs. This film made me want to go to Fiji and lay on the beach because the photography was so beautiful. This film had a fair amount of environmentalist stuff in it, but it wasn’t over the top. Their basic message is that if the reefs continue to decline many parts of the world will be impacted. The soundtrack is done by Crosby Stills Nash and the girls were jamming out quite a bit during this film.
To the Arctic
This film was narrated by Meryl Streep and the photography is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! It follows a mother Polar Bear and her twin 7 month old cubs and their journey to live in the arctic and survive. Much of the soundtrack is sung by Paul McCartney. This girls really enjoyed this film and liked the bears. The only unfortunate thing about it is that they beat you over the head with the global warming is “all your fault” speech. Repeatedly you are told that it’s humans fault that this mother bear and all mother bears like her are suffering. I expect a certain amount of that in a nature film, but this is like a hammer to the head throughout the film. I think kids of all ages would enjoy this film and as I said the photography is positively wonderful, but be prepared to be told that if you just lived your life differently, then the polar bears would have a better life.
Homemade Silly Putty/Playdough
I have been telling Nadia for quite some time that we could make homemade silly putty and then you know, life happens and suddenly two months have passed. She mentioned it again last week and I thought it would be fun to do on a day when we had a free afternoon. I googled it and we prepped the ingredients. Are you ready? Two tablespoons of Elmer’s Glue All (not school glue) and one tablespoon of liquid starch.
Put the ingredients in a bowl and stir for 10 minutes.
Then knead and knead and knead. We didn’t have any regular food coloring so Nadia asked for glitter. Then I told her she had to knead and knead and knead some more until it felt like her other silly putty.
At this point the glitter was well mixed, but it needed some more kneading. Nadia did all of the stirring and kneading and it kept her very busy.
Then she made a snowman, but he “melted” because it’s not as firm as the factory made stuff. I thought this was adorable. The day she made this she played with it for at least an hour. She has played with it constantly and wants to make some in colors soon.
You know Amelie wanted to be in on the action so I put her in her chair because she still loves Playdoh and it kept her from grabbing at Nadia’s project. This is some that our friend Sarah gave her. It is the most wonderful playdoh!! I had to get the recipe from her and here it is. You should make it and then store it in a ziploc or other container. We have been playing with it for over a month.
1 1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup salt
2 teas cream of tarter
1 1/2 cup water
1 1/2 TBSP veg oil (or canola or something of the like)
Dump into a small/med sauce pan and heat on med and stir occasionally until it starts forming a dough-like mass – than stir so it doesn’t burn. Once it looks like it’s smoothing out and no liquid pools and it’s very thick, playdoh looking… take off heat – scrape out onto a plate or board and just let it sit until cooled a bit.
Add color while warm, just to mix it easier. I use old school food color droppers and add one color in the saucepan – less mess to get a nice bright base color than doing afterwards. Then I add some more color to sections to make more colors, if you wanted. I add the glitter after it’s cooled on the plate for around 10 minutes. it seems to last awhile! PS for really fun colors, I use a neon set of dye droppers, so fun!