Da Vinchi Exhibit

We took a field trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science which has a special Da Vinchi exhibit.

It was pretty amazing to see all of the things he did! What an incredible man. But, like most incredibly men, he died poor and unrespected. He considered himself a failure. Fascinating, right?

They built a lot of his inventions from his notebooks that they had on display.

My favorite was the flying machine!

This is Claire's self portrait.

Then, it was free ice-cream day at DQ for the first day of spring, so we had to go enjoy. Ben decided to join us!

Come, Follow Me

Our church implemented a new home-church curriculum. This started in January. Every week after church, we pull out our scriptures and study the New Testament.

Some weeks are, well, better than others. There is quite a bit of weeping and gnashing of teeth and "I'm bored!" and "I don't want to do Come, Follow Me!" 

But, because we believe in following our Church leaders, we are committed- even if it isn't great.

Well, yesterday for FHE I copied off a play about the wheat and the tares for Claire and  Camille to do. They hated the play, so I told them they could change it. They fought and fought some more.

Any they presented a play that had nothing to do with the wheat and the tares and completely missed the point.

But, it was great. They ended up having a great time. It did let us discuss the parable and set the story straight. And, once the fighting stopped, it was actually really sweet.

Creative Cooks!

 It's Creative Cooks time! Whew! It is SO. MUCH. WORK.

But, they love it, and we get to eat a lot of great food from all of their cooking.

Claire worked with a friend and had the theme "Just Add Magic." This is a Netflix show the girls are obsessed with.

Camille is still a Cloverbud, so she just competes for fun. She did Animals.

Audra did New York. She had a partner, but her partner's Grandpa passed away and she had to drive to Minnesota for his funeral, so Audra had to go solo.

When Camille got judge, the judge had to turn to the audience and ask everyone to be quite because she couldn't hear Camille.

 They both won for their divisions! Which means they get to go to state, and for the first time we will probably let them. They also both won "Most Popular", which means all the kids voted for them as their favorite.

They were very excited at their success. They really did work very, very hard and it showed. Here's some pictures of their wonderful foods:

Colorado History Museum

The girls absolutely love this place! They woke up with so much energy and excitement, you would think that we never let them out of the house.

The museum is so well done! It is very interactive, with lots of play areas for the kids to really experience history.

Ben was with them for the first couple hours, then I joined them for lunch and some more play. They could have stayed for a few more hours. It was truly a great field trip for them! Luckily for them, they are going back in a couple weeks with Cloverleaf.

Moms Demand Action

It was a crazy day. Moms were lobbying at the capitol, and we Ben had the day off, so we decided to make it a downtown field trip for the whole family. While I lobbied, Ben took the girls to the Colorado History Museum. After I was done, I met them there.

It was so great go be with Moms! It was such a fabulous opportunity to be surrounded by like-minded women who believe that we can and must make the world safer for the children. Even though I knew my reps would be awful (and they were- I'll get to that), being with women who want to make the world better for our children was worth going to.

Also, our capitol building is awe inspiring. It is such a beautiful building! I need to take the girls there for a field trip.Maybe next year I will have them lobby with me, but they would be pretty bored.

Of course, I had to chuckle that guns aren't allowed in order to protect our legislators. But heaven forbid they protect their constituents.

It is always interesting to see how the democratic process works. In lobbying, you send a card to the senator or rep you want to talk to while they are on the senate or rep floor, then they choose whether or not they want to come and talk to you. We didn't expect our reps to visit us, as they are extremists. I consider myself a moderate, but these reps are not. For example. tomorrow they are holding their town hall at a gun shop, even though just a year ago a cop was shot and killed, and with the ERPO bill that we are supporting and lobbying for and that our Republican Sheriff who just won re-election with 86% of the vote supports, his life would have been saved. They are extreme right of far right. They use fear and intimidation at every turn. So, we weren't expecting anything.

But, they actually did meet with us- Chris Holbert and Kevin VanWinkle. And, as expected, they were heinous. Contemptuous, spiteful. Horrid men who when I asked point blank, "Is a child's life, which is being threatened by an abusive father, less important than a gun?" and looked me in the eye and said, "yes." Un-freaking-believable when we have Columbine High School five miles from our district.

Nevertheless, this is how democracy works. Even if you disagree, you sit around a table and speak. You show up when it is hard. Especially when it is hard. So, we did.

Hopefully ERPO will pass the Senate next week. It has already passed the House. This law would simply allow law enforcement officers to remove guns from extremely dangerous persons- AFTER it has already been proven in court and an order signed by a judge that he/she is extremely dangerous. And, they can get their guns back in 15 days. It has already passed in 14 states- many of them red states. This is such a tame bill, and about 80% of Coloradans support it. Republicans supported virtually the exact same bill 6 months ago.

We shall see. Either way, at least I can say that I spoke my truth. Being able to do so is something I will always be grateful.

Natura Obscura

I heard about this art installation and knew I had to schedule a co-op! The weather here has been FREEZING (a high of 8 degrees today), so it was a perfect time to get out of the house and experience Natura Obscura. This is not a traditional art gallery! Instead, you immerse yourself in an art experience.

We LOVED it! I may need to go back with Ben. We contemplated having him take the day off of work, and we should have. He appreciates art more than any engineer I know, and this was really, really, really cool. Sadly, these pics don't come anywhere near giving it justice, so I guess you will just have to go and experience it yourself.

Audra's bestie Ella came with us.

We each got a glow light to find the glow in the dark images and quotes. It was very interactive.

Here is the cloud swing- when you swing, it changes the colors of all the clouds.

 There was a "rabbit hole" room- you went in, and it was all about Alice in Wonderland and fairy tales. It was pretty incredible.

In this room, you put your hand on a drum and it changes the colors of the room makes different sounds. So cool!