Ahoy mateys!

The girls are in full pirate mode these days. They're learning about pirates in day care, with the culmination being "Pirate Day" next Friday. They've been making swords, flags, eye patches, parrots, earrings, etc. in preparation. The plan is to take a picnic lunch down to the playground at a nearby church where they have a boat to play on.

Their teacher put a flyer about the family day they were having at the NC Museum of History on Saturday in conjunction with their Knights of the Black Flag exhibit. The newspaper article said the activities were geared toward school age kids, but kids of all ages could participate.

We got there around 11. Parking was a mess. The one public lot near the museum was full, and people were coming in from both sides. The parking areas dead-ended, so it was impossible to turn around and get back out. There were a number of totally empty state lots, but they were all designated "No Public Parking." We ended up parking on the street a few blocks on the far side of the museum. After last weekend at the fairgrounds and this week at the museum, it's clear there are a lot of people looking for cheap or free things to do with their kids around here.

The girls were young for most of the activities and the exhibit. Having only been to childrens' museums, Madeleine and Lily did not understand why they couldn't play with the items or jump into all the displays. The pirate ship they had in the play area wasn't as cool as the one at Marbles (that they were expecting).

Both girls tried writing with the feather pen, with limited success. Lily went to make "Sea Biscuits" while Madeleine worked on a coat of arms. Neither particularly liked the singer. They liked making the sea monster mask, but it was very crowded by then, and it was taking forever. So we did our best to convince them to take it home to finish.

We had lunch at the Mellow Mushroom, and made it home around 2. We all crashed with the late nap.

Sunday morning we worked on projects. The girls have been excited about Pirate Day and ask about it every day. So, we made a countdown calendar for Pirate Day. Each day they open a door, and it tells them how many days are left. They decorated it with stickers they picked out at Michaels on Saturday.

Then we made brownies to bring to the new neighbors and necklaces with the beads from Michaels.

Then we did "water play" in the driveway with Mr. Wiggly. The girls always say they want the sprinkler and then get all upset when it's turned on and throwing water in their face. Madeleine is more afraid of it than Lily. So, I came up up with the brilliant idea of putting a cup over the top.

As Lily says, "It's actually not that bad!"