Trevor's Birthday - Part 2

On Trevor's actual birthday, Jeremy took the day off work so that we could go do something special together as a family. We thought the boys would really enjoy the Carnegie Science Museum which is in downtown Pittsburgh right next to Heinz Stadium, and right on the river. Seeing as how the boys are totally into Transformers, Stars Wars and anything Super Hero related, we figured they would love an exhibit called Roboworld. In addition, we also had a friend along called Flat Stanley. You will see him in some of the pictures.

The boys and Flat Stanley in front of some of the roboworld robots.

One of the first exhibits we visited was all about air flow and pressure. The boys loved building different shaped rockets, placing them on a cylinder, hitting the button and watching them fly up high.

Trevor and Flat Stanley

Evan and a beach ball exhibit

Another favorite exhibit had to do with the human body. Trevor was quite intrigued with a specific exhibit where he had a pull a piece of metal out of a "body." They had several of these types of interactive faux-surgery exhibits.

a future doctor?

Roboworld was a very neat and interesting exhibit. At the entrance of this exhibit was a programmable robot. We could choose on a computer screen different words for the robot to say, head and hand gestures, color of his face, and eye movement. Our programmed words and sounds were hello, laughing, sighing, goodbye and crying. At another exhibit, both the boys got to compete against a robot on air hockey. The robot was hard to beat, and won both times.

programmable robot

The museum has a retired US submarine located outside and moored on the river. We were able to brave the yucky, rainy weather and went through the submarine. I could not imagine working and living on a submarine!

The boys enjoyed exploring the submarine and going through all the portal doors. Evan needed a little help getting up and through the doorways! His legs weren't quite long enough to do it on his own.

One of the last few exhibits we visited included a sea life area that had amazing aquariums. There were three different aquariums connected by tubes that the fish could swim through. Each aquarium had a different sea setting like a peaceful lagoon, a shallow coral reef and then a deeper reef with stronger tides.

Evan using a magnifying glass to examine the coral

Fish and coral - so beautiful!

The final floor we visited was geared towards kids 5 and under. The boys could have stayed here all day! They had many different activities, but of course, the big draw was the water play area!

We used elastic bands to guide the ball into the hole.

After spending 4 hours at the museum, we headed home and Trevor opened his presents. He received a new Star Wars leapster game, Transformer walkie-talkies, Trio blocks and a Megatron transformer. He had been specifically asking for a Megatron, and we searched high and low for what he wanted. We couldn't find the specific one, but found an old style Megatron on Ebay. Jeremy was concerned that Trevor wouldn't like it because it is old, but he LOVED it. Megatron has now gone with us on a several outings including church today!

Getting so big and grown up!

Megatron!

Happy 5th Birthday Trevor! We love you, and are so proud of the boy you are becoming. We pray that you continue to use your friendly, outgoing nature that God has given you to love all of those around you.