Wings of Love

Wow! We spent an amazing morning at the library, and all I can say now is, I'm so sad my daughter is out of town. She would have loved the show we just watched. It was full of birds! There were birds of all different feathers, and all different tricks. I'm not a huge fan of birds, in fact I'm afraid of them. However, I still really enjoyed the show. The room was filled with spellbound children. You could see the awe on their faces, and it was beautiful.

Today was Blockbuster Wednesday at the library, and the show was called Wings of Love. It featured different birds of the rainforest, including Tiki Toco toucan. This was the first time I've ever seen a real live toucan. He was such a beautiful bird and a little ornery as he kept being put back in his cage. There were a few parrots in the show, the main one Uala. He did lots of tricks from bowling, to playing basketball, to riding a bike. All were extremely entertaining and funny to watch. What amazed me the most was the personality that the birds each exhibited. It was such a fun morning!



Milonga, the lory, break-danced and drove a fire truck for us.

The show featured lots of audience participation. All the kids wanted a chance to pass the red barrier line on the floor to be a part of the tricks. This one below was a contest between two of the parrots to see which one could pull off the hat first. The blue macaw won!



Uala (pronounced U-ala) is a boy cockatoo who stole the show away. He was full of tricks and kept trying to get away with things. He constantly was getting off of his perch, and disobeying Yvonne. She would kindly tell him to get back up, and he would obey. But a little later, he would get down again. It was like witnessing a conversation between a two year old and their parent.


My favorite part of the show was the owls. They are such beautiful birds. I might be a bit prejudice as they symbolize my favorite music artist, Owl City. Each owl took a turn flying back to their perch. They have such a large wingspan; it was easy to be impressed by them.


The second owl didn't make it back to his perch right away. The crowd must have been too large, or he couldn't pick his perch out well enough because he circled the crowd and then flew out into the hallway of the library. Can you imagine being out there and suddenly have an enormous owl flying straight at you? Terrifying.

It was frightening enough having the owl fly over our heads, but at the same time it was quite thrilling. They are such magnificent creatures.



After Swoop flew out into the hallway, he was able to try the trick again, and this time he made it back to his perch without any trouble.


After leaving the show, I couldn't help but look up online to see where they would be appearing next. Since Ariel is out of town this week at church camp, I was extremely sad that she missed out. I highly recommend checking out the Wings of Love schedule to see when they will be in your area. You won't be disappointed!


Just for fun, I had to make a Owl City picture. I really couldn't pass up the opportunity, Swoop posed beautifully for my photo. It's less than one week and I will be partying at Owl City's concert. I can't wait! The new CD All Things Bright and Beautiful is wonderful.

I wanted to include Adam's explanation for his newest song, my favorite, Galaxies. And just in case you've never heard Galaxies on Air1...

Veggie Tales

"If you like to talk to tomatoes, if a squash can make you smile, if you like to waltz with potatoes, up and down the produce aisle... Have we got a show for you! VeggieTales! Broccoli! Celery! Gotta be VeggieTales! Lima beans! Collard greens! Peachy keen! VeggieTales! Cauliflower! Sweet and sour! Half an hour! VeggieTales!There's never-ever-ever-ever-ever been a show like VeggieTales! It's time for VeggieTales!"

One of our ideas for summer fun was a Veggie Tales day thought up by Gabriel. Since Ariel is out of town for the week at Kid's Camp, Gabe is calling the shots. I was pretty stumped on what to do, however I have some awesome friends, and they came through for me. Most of our party was their ideas.

Our first Veggie fun was shopping for a new DVD! In August the Princess and The Popstar will be out on DVD, so today we preordered it. Right now Lifeway is offering the movie for only $10 and you get another DVD with 3 stories on it for FREE! That's a deal!

Just for fun we had an official Bob and Larry join the party. They weren't very talkative, but they sure do taste good! Their eyes are attached with Ranch dressing.


We filled our day with lots of movies, amongst a few activities. My kids are big fans, so we had plenty of options to choose from. After the first movie was over, we decided to get creative and make some macaroni art.

This was so easy, but especially fun for everyone. If you've never dyed macaroni before, it's simple. You mix 2 tablespoons of rubbing alcohol, with 4 or 5 drops of food coloring. Add that to a ziploc full of 1 cup of macaroni, toss the bag around a little, and then allow them to dry. Once they're dry, you can make your art!


We were so impressed with our colored macaroni, we are going to have a grown-up girl night and make some macaroni jewelry. You can find all different shapes of noodles, and the colors are endless. It should be a fun time!


Once our macaroni dried, we all drew pictures of Bob and Larry, and then set our mind to gluing.





I love all the details the "kids" put into their pictures!


We alternated a few times between movie then craft, movie then lunch, movie then ... You get the idea. Another great addition to our party was Veggie Tales fruit snacks. The kids loved them! Personally I believe, Laura, the carrot, tastes the best... she's watermelon.


After all the inactivity of so many movies, we decided to stretch a little and exercise. We played hot potato to some Veggie Tales music. There are so many long pauses in the songs that it made it rather difficult to tell when to stop and when to keep going. But we still had fun!






Our last activity together was a time of story reading with Amanda. I read Larry Lights the Way, a story about finding your own special gift and learning to use it.


It was a great party, and I don't think we're going to need to watch another Veggie Tales movie for at least a few months... maybe until August when we go pick up our new DVD!

Alphabet Hunt

This morning and into the afternoon, we gathered together with our friends and searched the museum trails for ABC's. We all put our thinking caps on and were extremely creative in coming up with all the letters. We had wonderful participation from everyone, and enjoyed ourselves along the way. We looked for things that started with the letter, or even actions that began with the letter. And for a precious few, we were able to spot the actual letter in nature. Our only rules were that it couldn't be a person's name, and we had to go in alphabetical order.

This is something we do each summer, and the kids always find it fun, but I believe it was actually the adults that got more into it this year. I always look forward to our hunt. There's something about using your brain creatively that I find extremely satisfying.

So without further ado, here's our Alphabet!

A is for AGUA


B is for BROKEN


C is for CAMOUFLAGE


D is for DANDELION


E is for EAST


F is for FLOWERS


G is for GREEN and GRASS


H is for HANDS


I is for INSECT


J is for JUICE


K is for KIDS (If you look closely, they are in the shape of the letter K too.)


L is for LILY holding the LOVE LEAF


M is for MOSS


N is for NIKE shoes


O is for the letter O


P is for PINK


Q is for QUIET (Shh)


R is for ROOF


S is for SOIL


T is for THE TRAIL


U is for UNDER the sign


V is for the letter V (If you look closely here, you can see the V is actually the head of a man who's holding a walking stick.)


W is for WOOD chips


X is for the letter X


Y is for the letter Y


Z is for ZIGZAG