Star Wars Exhibit

We were very excited to see that this traveling Star Wars exhibit was coming to Ottawa - we never did make it to Montreal when it was there so finally we would have a chance to check it out!  And we all loved it, I thought it was so well done.

If you look closely at these posters, it's neat to see what elements they used to make up the face - battleships and the death star for darth vader, troops for the stormtrooper

and pieces of the marsh for yoda!

Ryland was thrilled to see all of the characters, and ran from favourite to favourite - in between scanning his bracelet on anything and everything that would beep:-)

Kea carefully read every section and watched all the videos - it was really fascinating to look at and examine what makes up a person and who they choose to be, and then you worked on selecting what you think makes up who you are - this exhibit was really geared for kids around Kea's age (and mine!)

Here the girls are picking out their physical attributes - I think Tiegan wished they had more focus on fashion, though there were some neat examples of costumes worn during the movies and she found that really neat!

I personally was most fascinated by all of the different illustrations and proposals for characters before they finally picked the final ones in the movies.  I love learning more about the process of movie making, especially with something as creative as Star Wars!

Check out some of these early prototypes for Yoda - crazy!

In the end, after answering a bunch of questions and examining who you think you are and what has shaped you over the years, you scan your bracelet for one last time and then are shown the character that would be you in Star Wars!  Here are Ryland and myself - 

and then Tiegan (aka as Lily!) and Kea - 

The exhibit is on until Sept., so if you're in town this summer I highly recommend checking it out (more so for those 9 plus, but as I said, Ryland loved much of it too)  We were in there for 1 1/2 hours, and still could have spent a bit more time reading and watching - if our legs weren't KILLING us and we weren't starving to death!  

I also got a quick glimpse of the aviation museum - enough to know I definitely want to go back again this summer and check it out!!!!!!

A Day in the Life - June, 2013, part two

After lunch we pulled out the paints that Anja had sent me for my birthday (thank you!) and played around with them.  It was interesting to see the effects of little water or lots of water with the paint, and to discover how to get the effects we wanted.  Tiegan went for lots of paint with very little water, whereas Kea opted for the more watered down version!

Then we got ready to go out for an exploration paddle on the lake - 

We saw so many frogs, so much fun.

And a very cool beaver lodge

We did a bit of fishing, and first Jamie caught a northern pike which was very exciting as he wanted to eat fish for dinner!

And this one definitely looked good enough to eat:-)

After all that excitement, I actually caught a fish too - and screamed like a little girl as it jumped on my lure right as I was bringing it in, and it was SOOOO unexpected!  We decided to release this one, as there's no way we could eat two - but it was still kind of cool:-)

Kea thought my squealing was rather silly.......

On our way back we saw these little snake head poking out of the rock - we'd been watching them swim back and forth all morning, and it was very cool to discover their home.

Now back to our camp spot

where Jamie cleaned the fish and we discovered a huge frog in its belly - crazy!

And then everyone went for another swim across to the island

More wood for the fire

And a snack of cherries and bagels while we read our books and hung out 

and Jamie roasted the fish over his fire:-)

Tiegan wanted me to scratch her back - everyone is covered in red welts.  Thank goodness for anti-hystemines, both external and internal!!!!

Getting ready for dinner - the kids opted for hot dogs over the fire rather than fish, crazy people that they are.  Broccoli coleslaw with avocado and salt and vinegar chips rounded out the meal.

And then, of course, it started to POUR.  So we put up the tarp over the bug house.

The kids were so dedicated to making s'mores that they went out in the pouring rain to roast their marshmallows!

It was raining HARD - but I"m sure the s'mores were well worth it!

Time to do another round of dishes - and turn the canoe over for the night, hang up our food bag, etc - so fun in the pouring rain!

Finally, we knew it was time to retreat to the tent when the meltdowns started to happen in earnest.  We all felt like this, buddy........

Of course, the problem when you bring everyone into the tent at 6:30 for the night is there's a fair bit of pent up energy in very little space.....

Kea ended her day as she began it, with her nose in her book.....

And I tried to do a modification of my evening yoga stretches - 

FINALLY, people started to conk out

And all was quiet for another night.

Still too early for me to go to sleep, but I was happy to have some quiet, mosquito-free time to write in my journal and finish some of the letters!!!!

G'night until next month.......