The Museum & Martin

Last week was an annual event at the girls' school called Night at the Museum. Elaine's class did not take part in this because they have an event called Razzmatazz, which is science-based. That was a couple of weeks ago. Night at the Museum is science, social studies, and art projects combined. Each grade is assigned a different theme.

Darren was trying to make it back from his office to attend so the girls and I went ahead without him. We arrived two minutes after the start and had to park three blocks away. It's kind of a big deal. Elaine wasn't feeling well, so I just brought her in her pajamas (and bedhead if you're wondering why she looks a little rough in these pictures).

The theme for second grade this year was China. This is the first year that Mandarin is being taught at school. The students begin Spanish in pre-school and now Mandarin Chinese and Latin in first grade. They continue all three languages until high school at which point they become electives.

Here's Luce and Hathead outside the second grade corridor (oh, and Lucy is wearing the Chinese hat she made and the second grade t-shirt that says "China" in calligraphy:
Here is Lucy's classroom. There are three second grade rooms, and they each did different things about China. Lucy's class focused on things invented by the Chinese.

Here is their tea display:

This is their counting display; Lucy did 14 cups of tea:


They made paper! Also, outside the classroom, they did the Chinese flag out of their homemade paper, but unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that.


This was my favorite exhibit. Lucy told us how when Chinese emperors died, their palace guards were buried alive with them. (Nice.) However, Emperor Chin took pity on his soldiers and had substitutes made of terracotta that were buried with him. The class made this terracotta soldier display (they each made a soldier):
Here is their tangram display:

And here is their display of various Chinese inventions.

After visiting all the second grade rooms, we visited first grade, who did ants, bees, and spiders; kindergarten, who did sharks, whales, and dolphins; third grade, who did a wax museum of historical figures--each child dressed as a different character, and when you pressed a button on his or her hand, would give you some facts about that person. Fourth grade did space, and fifth grade did the Civil War, complete with handmade paddle boats that raced each other on a recreated Mississippi River.

All the kids (and teachers!) worked so hard on their various exhibits. It was a great night.

On Friday, Lucy came home with Martin the Moose. Again. Remember Martin the Moose? I thought we had seen the last of him, but apparently not.

We had no trips anywhere planned, so I foresaw a mundane weekend at our house for him. Then I remembered we were going to a wedding on Saturday. Martin could go as our guest. Lucy was excited about this idea until we actually got to the church.

"I'm too embarrassed to carry Martin in to the wedding," she whispered.

"I'll carry him," offered Elaine, but by the time we got in the doors, she decided she was too embarrassed, too. They tried to pass him off to me, but I'm not carrying a stuffed moose as an accessory. Dad, good sport that he is, got Martin.

He also got the camera after the ceremony and set about getting Martin's photo ops.

Here is Martin with the bride and groom (who were extremely good sports to pose with the stupid moose).

Here is Martin at the punch bowl:

And Martin with the cake. At this point, the girls AND I were mortified, so we walked away and pretended we didn't know Darren. Or the moose. But of course we're grateful to him for getting these shots we were too embarrassed to get for ourselves.


So, that was our week/weekend. And congrats to Jon and Michele. We wish you many happy years together!