St. Patrick's Day Fun

This St. Patrick's Day we took a day trip to Lawrence for the new exhibit at KU's Natural History Museum called Blood, Boogers and Bones
http://www.nhm.ku.edu/index.html. We took Cade's buddy Riley along
for the ride and had a pretty good time.

The boys got to do alot of hands on, interactive activites and demonstrations. I was very impressed with the simplicity of the demonstrations/explanations the docents
(I assume they were biology students) gave on what was really quite complex subject matter. I mean, they were explaining blood-typing to my 7 year old in a way that he could actually understand. That's beyond cool. And comparing the trachea and esophagus to a fish's gill? Genius! I'm still geeking out over the whole thing.

The boys participated in the scavenger hunt the museum had going and got a free rubber, sticky skeleton for their efforts. Oh and the day was BEAUTIFUL! We took a quick detour across to the parking lot to get a glimpse of the new digs at the football field-WOW! Maybe next year we'll be able to make it to one of the 'Hawks football games.

Road trip!

Everybody! "The wheels on the bus go round and round..."

Cool view. But it brings up an interesting question: Does Mangino really climb to the top of that tower on the practice field?

You KNOW I couldn't come here and NOT have him take this picture, right?

And him, too.

Madagascar hissing cochroaches. Sick.

White spot assassin bug. Could there BE a more intimidating name for a bug?

Giant cave cochroaches. Eeww.

What can I POSSIBLY say?

How stinkin' cool is this???? IT'S A LIFE-SIZE OPERATION GAME!!!! It even beeps when you touch the sides of the compartments. Only thing missing is the light-up nose. Yeah, I know. I probably got a little too excited about this one. I don't care. I believe this game single-handedly got me interesed in healthcare. Really.

Making his Mamma proud.

Boooorrrr-rrring!
Just kidding! Lydia was mid-blink when I took this picture.

Admittedly, I didn't quite get what this was about. How fish don't have necks, I guess.

Now, I've heard you can pick your nose and your friends, and that you can't pick your friend's nose but....can you pick a nose WITH your friend?

Yes those bottles really say "fart" on them.
By the way, I STRONGLY dislike that word.

The head bone's connected to the neck bone, the neck bone's connected to the...to the...to the..

I just put this picture in because I thought Lydia looked especially sweet.

Lydia was pointing to and saying my favorite word of hers, "Tur-toh!"

My little scientist.

I believe this was called a mosasaur.

Checking out the beehive in the tree.

This picture was a bit nostalgic for me. It reminded me of the summer I spent at KU and the first time I visited this museum. Seriously, where did the time go?

I don't even know how best to explain this "activity"...

...I was questioning the sanitation {?} of this the entire time. They were blind-folded and had to smell their way across the sheet following a certain scent. Why? Good question.

A bit over-exposed, but I couldn't help but wonder if the same picture wouldn't be taken about 13 years from now...

Lydia was too freaked out by all the construction equipment down the street making all kinds of noise to have anything to do with posing with her favorite "hah-hawk".