Viggo is 10!!

It was a cold, wintry day when we set out to celebrate Viggo's very first double-digit birthday!

. . . that was over a month ago.  

What can I say.  Husband.  Children.  Homeschooling.  Church.  Cleaning.  Cooking and laundry - for some reason, people here want to wear clean clothes and eat, like, every day.  And so blogging seems to end up at the very bottom of my list of priorities.

But right now I am not folding laundry or lesson planning.  It is time to catch up a bit.

So going back in time a month . . . Viggo's birthday!

He wanted to go to the science museum, so off we went, nice and early.

And then we came home again.  I forgot {big surprise} to bring the paperwork showing that we homeschool so we could get a big, fat discount on an annual membership.

So after going home to get that, we were off - again.

 It was cold.  Really, really cold.  In the freezing cold, Nate filled our ride up with gas and even washed the windows.  He had to be super-quick because the liquid pretty much froze as soon as it hit the windshield.  While we were sitting in the car watching Nate take care of the minivan outside, Svea said, "That's so nice that Daddy is cleaning the car in the cold.  It's what good daddies do."

It's what good daddies do.
That's right.

 But not too cold to do some knitting on the knitting fork, though!

 When we arrived, officially one hour behind schedule because of my forgetfulness, this was the weather.  Not exactly balmy.

The science museum was lots of fun.  Here Viggo and Elin try to lift a fish that weighs . . . well, way more than they do.

The Minnesota Science Museum boasts a real tugboat on it's premises to explore.

Everything was shipshape.

 It's good to be 10, in a tugboat.

There was a phone.
I think somebody called Santa.

A nice view of St. Paul, frozen solid from the looks of it.

On to other attractions . . . Svea was delighted and befuddled by this baby doll covered in electrodes in the child's brain development display.

 Viggo took a test that was a little mind-bending {electrodes not required}.

 Elin measures approximately how much blood is in her body.

 Probably the grossest thing:  a gigantic plastic hand covered with various skin and nail conditions.

 Yes!  That is a real mummy!

So the Collectors' Corner is my favorite thing.

It's like a trading post.  You bring in something you found in nature - a cool rock, shell, etc - and you get points for it.  The more you know about the object, the more points you get.  Then you can use your points to trade for another treasure that someone else brought in.

As long as your find in nature is not illegal, alive, or smells bad, you can bring it in.  Pretty cool!  Of course Viggo was lamenting that he had nothing to contribute.  Are you kidding me?!  His room is stuffed with eagle  feathers, unique eggs and goodness knows what all.  And whatever happened to that deer skull?

So who wants to count the annual rings?

 Viggo gives flight to a little plane.

 Dinos.

Elin and Viggo report the weather.
Their prediction:  it's going to be a cold one.

Okay, so we took the elevator in our parking garage to level 4 1/2?  What??

After our fun time at the science museum, we went to the Mall of America to Viggo's #1 destination:  J.M. CREMP'S.  The Boys' Adventure Store!  He bought a new fishing pole (:

And since we were at the mall, Svea did a little shopping too - at Build-A-Bear Workshop.

 Meet Stuffy!  Stuffy is being "fluffed" in this pic.

It was quite a process, being stuffed and fluffed.  Viggo was a patient big brother during the Build-A-Bear visit.  Thanks for sharing a little bit of your birthday with Svea, Viggo!  Plus, Viggo and Stuffy now have the same birthday! {Obviously, Viggo is thrilled with this . . . he gets to share his birthday with his little sister's stuffed bear.  I mean, what ten-year-old boy wouldn't love that?}

Viggo, we had so much fun with you on your birthday.  We are so happy that you have ten years under your belt!  You are a wonderful kid and we are so proud of you and love you SO much!