Because we all need a little funny...

Silas would like you to know that the sunnies they give you at the eye doctor when you have your eyes dilated is the latest thing in spring fashion this year.

Wear them with pride, peeps.

Sherman

I forgot to include these pics on my Valentine's Day post. I knit this worm as a little valentine for Si. He named him Sherman and has been sleeping with him every night. Sherman also "sits" in bed with us each night while we're reading. Both Sherman and Silas seem to be enjoying the Marvelous Land of Oz (we finished the Wonderful Wizard of Oz a few weeks ago, so now we're on book two of Baum's series). Guess he's a bookworm (groan).
More about this project can be found on my knitting blog.

Valentine

I'm not inclined to make a big deal over Valentine's Day. When adults are celebrating it, it's a pretty cheesy holiday in my opinion, as well as almost comically commercial. But it doesn't have to be that way, and it is a great kids holiday. Watching Silas get excited about it his first Valentine's party at school, brought back fond memories from my own childhood.
I love that boy, funny faces and all!

Pacific Science Center

Ah, the Pacific Science Center. Where do I even begin? Giant Caterpillars...

Giant guitars...
...and so much more. I don't think we knew what we were getting ourselves into when we walked through the gates. There's so much to explore that we will have to go back to see it all. But here's a brief run down of what we did see:

Mechanical dinosaurs: Silas was a bit spooked at first, but then warmed up to them. He wasn't afraid to get close to the ones that were listed as plant eaters. The meat eaters, on the other hand, he eyed with suspicion, and kept a ready-to-run stance, just in case.

Space exhibit: Planets, a "holographic" orb, outer space exploration, etc. They have observatory shows as well, but as much as I wanted to, we didn't partake...next time!

Insects: (including our giant caterpillar friend). Lots of different exhibits. A giant mechanical fly, live hissing cockroaches that you can pet (Silas declined, as did I), examples of six different food items made with insects (scrambled eggs with bee larvae anyone?). And also:

The butterfly room:
They must like orange, because Silas was very popular.

And so were bananas:
Backhoe: fun times for boys of all ages.
Also, a scale model of the Puget Sound, naked mole rats, physics exhibits, human body science exhibits (flexibility, sght, endurance, etc.). And more. We didn't even get to the downstairs area, the special exhibit, or the laser show. We did, however, make it to an imax film, and this is monumental, because Silas had never been to a movie in a theater before. We've held back, partly because he's usually only allowed to watch one video per week and we weren't sure how he'd react to the stimulation, etc. And partly, because, we figured, what's the rush when you're not sure if you're kid is going to freak out or decide to talk loudly through the whole thing. But the movie came with our City Pass, and we thought we'd give it a try. So, Silas' first movie was....drum role please....

BUGS -- A 40 minute nature film narrated by Judy Dench. On a ginormous imax screen.

Not a traditional choice for a first movie experience, but he loved it. He sat on the edge of his seat and politely whispered questions to me, when they came up. And he didn't even get upset at the end of the film when one of the "protagonists" (praying mantis) ate the "female lead" (butterfly). So, perhaps there will be other movies in his future.

That sums up the Pacific Science Center experience. We have one more City Pass to use before the end of the month. The zoo it is!

Argosy Tour

On the same day that we went to the aquarium, we also headed out on a 1 hour harbor tour on an Argosy boat, the Lady Mary.

Since we take the ferry across the Sound whenever we want to go to Seattle, we would never have thought to go on this tour. But I'm glad we had our passes because it was really quite fun. We got up and personal with some California sea lions:
And we went all the way into the port of Seattle, where we got to see a container ship being unloaded with gigantic robotic cranes.

And hey, did you know we import things all thew way from... China?
The Coast Guard icebreakers were admittedly pretty awesome.

You can't beat the skyline.
Last weekend, we went to the Pacific Science Center. The City Pass fun continues, so stay tuned!