We went to the Shedd Aquarium last month with a big homeschool group. Derek hung out with the big kids…doing silly things like wall sits

while the rest of the kids hung out with cousins.

We got to pet fish

an watch sharks swim by. How thick is that glass, anyway?

Jeremy imitated the puffer fish.

And Ruthie discovered her life calling: penguin caretaker. This woman sat on a stool petting the penguins one at a time while the rest waited their turn at her feet. It was all I could do to keep Ruthie from jumping in and joining her.

Yesterday we visited the Museum of Science and Industry. They have a new exhibit called Numbers in Nature, all about the patterns that we see in the world. A “highlight” of the exhibit was a mirror maze that was so confusing that some of us began to feel sick to our stomachs trying to find the end. Here’s the crew at the beginning of the maze:

If I had taken a picture of the same crew at the end of the maze, you would have seen relieved faces, and one teary-eyed Jeremy holding his forehead after running slap-bang into one of the mirrors.

Jeremy found an outlet for his crazy faces.

Ruthie visited the tornadoes.

Here the kids were waiting for lightning to strike.

Hanging out…

The boys had some fun in the farm exhibit, trying their hand at milking a cow.

You can make just about anything into a competition these days!

As one of the boys’ friends said, these field trips are for “a lot of fun with friends, with a little bit of education added.”