Birthday Celebration!

Since Gavin was turning the old age of eight, we decided he could chose how to celebrate his birthday. He chose between a kid party with friends here at home, or he could bring a couple of friends somewhere special. The wise one he is, he chose going somewhere with a couple of friends. In July, I found out about a great exhibit at the Minnesota Science Museum- Star Wars!! As you have noticed in past postings, Gavin and Garek love star wars (recall the Darth Vader limerick?) So he chose a couple of friends (Avery and Isaac)who also really like Star Wars to go with us.

There were really cool activities to do in the exhibit. The boys made flying cars by using magnetic forces, they saw a robot show, built star wars cities, drove a hover craft, saw many displays about aircraft/spacecraft, scenery and costumes from the movies, and they also built a little robot and even programmed it with simple commands. All in all it was great fun!!

Garek demonstrated his engineering future while he was building a robot...he really likes to know how things work and he takes things apart to figure it out! This hands on approach to star wars was right up his alley!!

After we finished going through the star wars exhibit, it was time to find lunch. Matt and I had previously figured out that there was a McDonald's only a few blocks away, and right now they are giving out star wars toys in the happy meals- so that is where we went to eat lunch. We tried getting the boys' picture next to Ronald McDonald, but as you can see they were busy climbing all over him.

After lunch, we hiked back to the museum and looked at the other "regular" displays. We saw dinosaurs, animals, weather, and human body exhibits. Gavin, Garek and I even did a short lab experience where we got to look at cheek cells. As a scientist, I love it when my kids are interested in real life science. Garek really liked the microscope too. Here you will see us in our protective gear: lab coats, goggles, and gloves.

Once the boys were worn out (as well as Matt and I), we headed to Grammy and Grampy's in Chaska. There we ate hot dogs and cupcakes and ice cream. It was a great ending to an awesome day!! Later Gavin told us he had a really awesome birthday!