Space

We are members at the Minnesota Children's Museum for the second year (thanks to my parents), and no matter how many times we go Andrew is excited to be there. And, being a three-year-old boy he also loves Bob the Builder. So, when I found out the museum was going to have a Bob the Builder exhibit I figured Andrew would love to go. The exhibit opened yesterday, and they offered a members only event to check out the exhibit and say hi to "Bob" last night. The info I read said they were going to limit the numbers so I expected it to be a smallish amount of people there - mostly to see the new exhibit. Instead, the place was packed. There was barely space to move, much less play, in the Bob exhibit and plenty of people in the other areas too. We did get a picture of Andrew with "Bob".

From Bob at mcm

Nicholas was able to visit the Habitot exhibit for the first time. He was very interested in the water-filled mat/pond. He was even able to sit by himself long enough for me to get a picture.

From Bob at mcm

Sorry about the quality of the photos - we only had our cell phones with us.

The space I have been working on this weekend is my basement. Our basement isn't a pleasant place to be. It is an old (1909), partial basement with limestone walls and who know what stored in the crawl spaces (we see that there is stuff left from the previous people that lived here, we just haven't been brave enough to dig it out) and no heating but the pipes running to the radiators. Because it isn't a great place to hang out, we try not to spend any more time down there than necessary. That means that stuff that is stored down there isn't always put away as well as it should be. There is also stuff there that we need to get rid of so we have more room to walk. I decided that with Christmas things being put away and out-grown baby clothes that need to be stored again this was as good a time as any to do some clean up. In the time I have been able to spend cleaning I have one corner organized and found some things we could use for Nicholas, as well as a book Tim can use for his writing class. Unfortunately, I still have a way to go. One thing that needs to go is three (big) boxes of Barbie stuff from my childhood. I have tried to give it away to a few friends that have girls, but no one has wanted it. I would love to give it to someone I know rather than drop it off for Goodwill to sell. There are Barbies (some in better shape than others), lots of clothes (many made by my mom), a car or two, a couple horses, an ice cream shop (I think), and probably more. My parents kept the stuff hoping the grand kids would be able to use them, but since I had a boy (at the time) and my sister probably won't have kids for a long time, they decided they needed the space. I took it before I knew Nicholas was a boy and have decided I need the space more than keeping it on the chance we decided to have another and it turns out to be a girl. So, if anyone is interested in the lot or digging through to see if they find something they want let me know. Or if you know of a place that could use them I would be happy to donate them.

Mitten update: Both of the mitten bodies are knit as well as one thumb. I only put seven stitches on waste yarn for one (for some reason or another) so I had to do a little fixing, but it turned out ok. They are still a little smaller than I was hoping. I will have to see what happens when I wash them. Pictures of finished mittens tomorrow.