Surprise Birthday Party

Today we had a surprise birthday party for my grandma, my dad's mom. She turned 88 years young on Friday. My uncle Greg put together a tribute/family history video, all the family members had contributed video for the project. Then they rented out the movie theatre and everyone went there to watch the video. My grandma knew nothing of what was going on, they had to trick her to get her to go the the movie. When she came in, it was dark so she couldn't see all the family and friends that had come before her. I don't think she even realized while the video was playing that the theatre was filled with people she knew. They told her at the end then the lights came on, and everyone sang happy birthday to her. We each got a copy of the video. That, no doubt, will be a treasured keepsake. My kids had been looking forward to seeing the video on the big screen, because three of them starred in a segment of it. (If I am able to crop it out of the movie, I will add it here.) They consider themselves movie stars now, and already had to sign autographs. Nothing like making their heads swell. Anyway, many antics of all my dad's siblings were aired. Wow, I thought my kids were bad. Nope, my kids are a walk in the park compared to my aunts and uncles. Maybe I should just be quiet now because my kids are still young. I just hope I'm able to keep laughing at the crazy things my kids will no doubt end up doing.

So, we had a wonderful day visiting with relatives. It was a very rare occurrence to have every one of my grandma's children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren all in one place at the same time.

I will get a couple family pictures up when I get them loaded into the computer.

 

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This past Wednesday we journeyed to St. Paul to go to the Science Museum of Minnesota to see the Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit. We did our part to stimulate the economy going there. It was $24 per child (Emma and Anna were free) and $27 per adult (Alex was an "adult" at 13) That includes getting into the museum, the Star Wars exhibit, the Omnitheater show Special Effects, and the $3 per person service fee for buying the tickets on line.  This is the reason we don't get out much and do things. Unless it's free or near free.

The kids did enjoy the museum though. They would love to go back and see more of it, since they only got a glimpse of the other exhibits that were there. Not enough hours in the day. We first saw the Special Effects movie in the Omnitheater. That was really interesting, they showed how they do many of the special effects in different movies. Anna was a trooper and lasted most of the movie, but about the last 5 minutes or so she started yelling so Brent took her out. Then, the kids quickly went through the human body exhibit. That interested them, they said they would like to go back to see more of that.

 

 

 

 

 

Then, the rest of the time was spent in the Star Wars exhibit. It was mostly a display of costumes and props.

One little "science" center in there that had all the kids intrigued was  on electro-magnetic vehicles. They had to build magnetic "train cars" out of Legos, then they learned what makes them float above the track and how they move.  After all that then of course they had to get the souvenir photos. Those turned out really cute. (Wouldn't want to get myself into trouble by posting them here, so I'll show them by other means)

Oh, then there was another extra deal for $3 a person you could go into a replica of the Millennium Falcon and "experience the jump to light speed" while they talk about our solar system. Emma wanted to go in, but when she went in she heard they were going to go for a ride far away in space. She had enough right then and Grandpa (Yes, Grandma and Grandpa came with to the museum for the Star Wars experience too!) had to leave the ship with her. (No refunds for that non-ride... bummer)

It was an expensive day, but the kids really enjoyed it, and have all said they would like to go back.

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