September Exploits: MOTHER AND SON FUN

On September 19th Jacob and I participated in a "Mother and Son" day at the Children's Museum. The event had 4 parts. First we were assigned the task of creating a "safe landing basket" for a water balloons using a bunch of recycled materials. The goal was to create a cradle that would allow the thrower to have the most amount of distance between the himself/herself and the basket. There was a long measuring tape that we could use to check our range.

This was an interesting challenge. Jacob immediately grabbed a piece of egg carton foam, and I found a broken down box. We made an effective and safe basket for our balloon, but because our opening was fairly small, it was hard to get a lot of distance between us and our target. The most successful baskets had three high walls and one open side, almost like a horseshoe pit. We could safely throw our balloon about 3 feet. One mother/son pair threw their balloon safely at a distance of 11 feet!





Next we walked a few blocks to a park that had a shallow pond for kayaking. There was also a climbing wall with harness and counterweighted ropes (to help us repel to the ground when we were ready to stop). Jacob wasn't up for the climb, but I gave it a try and I got about 1/3 of the way up the wall. I was so scared I was shaking! I turned around and asked Jacob how I was doing. He said, "not that great, mom. You're not very high on the wall."

Kayaking was a blast. Jacob used his paddle very effectively in the water and we paddled around the pond for about 10 minutes. Jacob loved it, even though he had told me earlier in the day that he was too scared to get in the boat.



After kayaking we returned to the Children's Museum for a cookout. The museum workers grilled hotdogs, burger and veggie burgers; they also served several different kinds of salad. The food was great, and it was a beautiful outdoor picnic!

At the end of our morning we went inside and decorated sturdy paper photo frames. The museum workers had taken pictures of the various mother/son pairs, and they printed out the photos for us to put in our frames. On the way home Jacob said, "Mom, that was one of the funnest times I've ever had!" It was for me, too!