All about Eagles

This morning we went to a fabulous program at the Kodiak Wildlife Refuge. The kids and I got to enjoy an interactive presentation about bald eagles. The presentation allowed the kids to touch eagle talons and eagle feathers and to see eagle eggs. The presenter also engaged the children in learning about the recent eagle deaths that occured down the street. It made the national news. The view from the windows of the Wildlife center are fantastic. This is the beautiful Baranof Museum that the kids and I went to last week.

And here is a tree full of eagles just outside the museum.

Daniel was quite taken by Gordie the whale. He kept calling it a Dinosaur and roaring at it in his best dinosaur voice. We've recently seen the movie Night at the Museum, where the dinosaur skeleton comes to life to play fetch with the security guard. On the way down the stairs, Daniel seemed a little leary of the skeleton and asked me to pick him up.

Gordie has an awesome story behind him. I definately recommend checking it out if you are not already familiar with it by reading here.

After the eagle presentation upstairs, we went downstairs to see the exhibit hall.

Joshua and I talked a bit about the difference between the bear carvings (not being real bears) and the whale skeleton (being real whale bone). We talked quite a bit about the hard work of the persons that dug up the whale bones and that they were real bones that were inside a real whale. And that the carved bears are artistic sculptures, but not made from clay, they were carved from wood. He's very interested in Gordie's story and we will be spending more time this week looking at the website about it.

We enjoyed our time with the hands-on part of the center. Daniel went straight for the berries. He was sad to realize that they were fake.

Megan liked the momma and baby bears. She was the first to notice that the baby bears were drinking their mommy's milk.

Aside from the bears, there were displays of birds and other wildlife specific to Kodiak to learn about.

It was fun to push all the buttons and listen to the different bird sounds.

Daniel really enjoyed looking at the bears. He hid his Buddy Bear behind his back because "he was scared". I could hear a little Buddy Bear voice saying, "oh, no, don't eat me". And then a Daniel voice laughing.

After our exciting time there, we walked down to Subway for lunch with the Flerchingers and the Schwartzs. Between the three of us moms there were 8 children with Joshua being the oldest at 5 3/4. The the kids 2 and over sat at one table, while the moms and the little ones sat at another. It was great to sit and talk for a while, until the kids got restless. We chatted about the woes of discipline and the fantastic service Pastor Mark gave this week. The music was rough, we could tell the boys had not practiced the songs on the guitar before getting up to play. But the message was moving. It was aimed at parents, talking about the faith that parents did or did not have during the time of the Passover.

I leave you with the pictures the big kids colored after the eagle presentation. I'll let you guess who did which one.