The California Academy of Arts and Sciences in San Francisco

The charter school that I home school through gave us a free day at this museum.  We have been there once before, it has some great exhibits.   Shane is looking at a little fish.



This bird and butterflies are inside their bio-dome, a real life simulated rain forest.  It's my favorite part of the museum.  It's three stories high and you spiral up the sides of the dome.  When you're done they usher you into this room with mirrors and the "workers" brush you down.  Why would they do that you ask?  Just in case you have any spiders or butterflies that came with you.  Spiders!!!!!  I said, "are you kidding?"  He said, "no, it's happened twice now."  Alright, moving on. 

Underground aquarium.  I love turtles.

The skeleton of a T-Rex.  Scary.  But, not as scary as the Albino Crocodile, apparently....

Lunch time.  I brought a salad and yams.  Salad just for me, yams for baby and me.

I like to look put together on a day to day basis.  For the city I like to do a little extra.   But, as you can see I shouldn't try too hard because her banana is not only mashed all over her mouth but in my lap.  And of course she doesn't want me to feed her in her stroller she wants to experience her lunch on my lap.

Don't let me fool you, I love it.  She's only going to want to sit in my lap for so long.  Precious.

Share your ideas on how to help the environment that is.  Here were some of the ideas.

Since I only wash my hair twice a week, can't I leave the water on just a little bit while I shampoo?  No?  That would be missing the point?  Got it.  I should do this, but it's easier said than done.

Okay, this sounds great.  Simpler lifestyle, less material goods, self sustained society....who's ready to take the plunge with me and fall off the grid?

Yes!  Kids, are you reading this?  Thank you Laney-for an attainable green goal.  We are going to work on this.

This was Georgia's favorite part of the whole museum.  She said, you could see "all kinds of stuff, even birds and things in the world, I think it was a little bit magic."  Kids!  They're so precious.  I wish I would have looked in there, I had to get Shane to the potty.

This is the Crocodile spoken of earlier.  I thought Shane would be so excited to see it.  As soon as I held him up to see, he looked astonished.  He put his head on my shoulder and quietly whispered into my ear, "I'm afraid of that."  The T-Rex he could handle, but not this crocodile.  So cute.

Penguins are my favorite, they are so cute to watch.

This museum, The California Academy of Arts and Sciences is in Golden Gate Park.  Funny thing is that it's somewhat hard for the children to understand that Golden Gate Park is huge and houses over four museums and the Japanese Tea Gardens alone.

 So, right as you turn onto Martin Luther Dr. into Golden Gate Park this little park is off to the left and the younger kids all yell, "it's Golden Gate Park."  I don't try to explain anymore.

Needless to say that if the museum wasn't enough they really wanted to stop at "Golden Gate Park."   My oldest daughter, Gwyneth wasn't with us today.  She was in the city too but with her best friend's family, the VanTuyls.

They all went to the Legion of Honor museum located in the Presidio.  It sounds like a museum dedicated to war memorials, it's not.  It's a great museum too.  She came home with all kinds of notes and sketches she had done while browsing.

This park is awesome it has a lot of "old school" structures.  Like that slide above.  Those slides are extinct here in San Jose, haven't seen one in years.  They're the best.

Okay, just for the record my kids have the best mom ever because after visiting the museum all day, my sons begged me to play "hide and go seek tag" with them, in the sand.  What's a mother to do?  And, I love playing with them so here I am about to take Kalen down.

Reece is trapped up there and I'm "a comin" to get him.  Except those boys are so naughty, once I tagged them they changed the rules and said there were "tag backs."  Meaning, one of the them could go and tag the other to be safe again.

We played for forty five minutes.  I met this really nice mom with her son who played with Georgia the whole time.  She was nice to try to get some action shots of us.

There are those naughty boys trying to jump off the swing at the same time.  We had such a fun day.  I love learning and playing with the children. There is nothing better in life than to see your children happy, healthy and eager to see what's next.