and then she snapped: family

Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Merry Christmas 2013 from the Drechsels

From our family to yours, have a very merry Christmas!

(This is our G rated 2013 Christmas card. Only a very select few received the PG-13 edition).

feel free to insert witty title here. in the meantime: halloween photo dump

Oh hi.
I dusted off my big camera:
Harvest fest. Pumpkin "patch" (don't you dare tell my kids that the neighborhood market is not a pumpkin patch). Annual pumpkin carving. Done.

lake chelan weekend

A couple of weekends ago we took an impromptu trip to Lake Chelan when my old people that I work for offered us their time share at Wapato Point since they couldn't use it that week. Because of Chris' crazy travel schedule lately we were only able to go for 4 days, but it was great. We left town the morning after we closed on our new house, which meant our old house could stay clean and fresh for showings while we were gone. We left our real estate agent strict instructions to please sell our old house while we were gone and she did not disappoint...we received an offer and accepted it. Yahoo!

drechsel family field trip! #pbskidsaddsup

Last weekend we were invited to visit the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, courtesy of PBS Kids (of which we are huge fans, Hello?, GEORGE!) to demo some of their new apps and online games in the PBS Kids Lab. They are definitely making learning fun for kids! We already had the (free) PBS kids app on our iphones, and it's been a favorite for playing games, and watching episodes of our favorite PBS Kids shows as well. But the event introduced us to some new ones as well, like a (free) PBS Parents Play & Learn app which also has great games for kids. There's also a Dinosaur Train Camera Catch app where children use the camera to "catch" flying dinosaurs and learn about patterns along the way, and a Martha Speaks Story Maker app where children get to choose the characters, settings and actions to create a pop up fairy tale. Charlie always chooses the spooky sleepover. Which I think is funny. Since he's "afraid of the dark".

The people at PBS Kids also told us about their website called pbskidslab.org. Once there, click on "All Games" to navigate by skill area, child's age, the type of technology you have, or by PBS Kids series! There are a bunch of different games kids can "play" and they might even not notice that they are learning something in the process! PBS Kids believes (and I agree) that any time can be learning time, and all the little things we do with our kids every day add up in a BIG way.

If you check out any of these apps, or the online games, let me know what your favorites are!

Drechsel family field trip!! Woot!

We were kind of hoping for Curious George, but Cat In the Hat was in da houzz.

Charlie was showing Chris how to play the game.

Because, you know, he's THREE.

It cracks me up that all these kids have no problem navigating through the games or using the technology. Remember back in the day when all we had was a Nintendo 64 and a Brother word processor?

Grace and Chris were very interested in the display. Obviously.

We ran into some blogger friends too! This is Rowan and Ellie.

After the PBS Kids demo we got to visit the rest of the exhibits at the science center. Charlie had a love/hate relationship with this praying mantis.

And then he got to help remove the DNA from a strawberry. WHAT?!!

This is a true story. These people ALL fell asleep on the way home.

Except me. I stayed awake driving the entire way.

Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post. My family received an invitation and admission to the event, but no other compensation was received. I'm sharing with you because I LOVE PBS Kids. And these really are great apps.

maui 2013 | drechsel family vacation

We spent eight awesome nights in Maui earlier this month. And it was awesome. So awesome, in fact, that I still haven't re-adjusted into regular life. We stayed at the Kihei Beach Condos which was great, a little dated, but clean, and RIGHT on the ocean. I opted not to bring my big girl camera, so these shots were all taken with my Nikon P300. I definitely noticed a bit of a shutter lag as compared to the DSLR, but the compact size made it easy to toss in my purse along with an extra pair of underpants and pants (Charlie's, not mine), and snacks, and water, etc. Overall it was a nice little camera and I'm happy with the shots I got.

So without further adieu (or is it ado?), here they are: