We recently finally visited the relatively new St. Augustine Aquarium. We tried to visit it when Grandma Pat was visiting in the fall, but it was closed for a very long time after Hurricane Irma.
It was actually a pretty low-key place with few visitors. Everything was outside, including an aquarium with sea horses and a hands-on exhibit of horse shoe crabs - I completely understood when the kids weren't interested in touching one of those! But it was still impressive to learn that they have 9 eyes and haven't really changed since they were living with the dinosaurs.
There was a really large circular tank full of beautiful fish and stingrays. It was really cool how they swam up to the window you were looking through as if they thought you'd be feeding them. There was also a large tank with nurse sharks and other interesting fish. I liked this shot of a little puffer fish in one of their smaller tanks. 
Last Wednesday we decided to take advantage of the kids' school's early release day to drive to Blue Spring (about an hour and a half away) to see the manatees.
Brielle's friend had visited there recently and their family got to see a bunch of baby manatees.
Unfortunately, we didn't see any babies, and the manatees tended to hang out on the other side of the river. But it was still extremely beautiful and peaceful, and we were really glad we went.
Ronan's kindergarten teacher seems great. She's always on top of all sorts of activities and celebrations that help the kids learn. Friday was their 100th day of school, so she had them celebrate by decorating a shirt with 100 different items. Here was Ronan's work.
Today we headed to Old Town St. Augustine to participate in "Pirate Fest". It wasn't as "wild" as I thought it might be, but that was great because it had a lot of kid-centered activities. And because we were showing up during the last couple hours of the celebration, there weren't many people there and the kids got to fully participate in all the activities without any lines. One reason we went was to see Brielle's teacher, Ms. Boggess, dressed up as a pirate. She's an actress who participates in various theatrical and pirate-themed activities.
One of the activities was "challenge a pirate to a game of Jenga". But since both kids wanted to play, they challenged each other with local pirates cheering them on. It was a very impressive game that lasted a very long time, with our kids pulling out pieces that left a structure that seemed impossible to withstand the force of gravity. People stood by to watch.
After a very long time, it got to a point where Ronan was forced to pull out an impossible block, and the structure finally took a tumble. They had a lot of fun.
Pirate-themed crafts were for sale, and other games were available for the kids to play. Brielle participated in an archery challenge and got a bulls-eye! She did actually learn archery at a summer camp last year, so that might have helped.
The kids' main interest, though, seemed to be getting face paint. Since very few people were there, the line wasn't long so we decided to let them do it. The painting was actually being done by the mom of one of the girls in Brielle's class, and she was very talented. Ronan decided to be a fox.
And Brielle decided to be a tiger...
No comments:
Post a Comment