Abilene CALF 2013 Day 3
Moving along to day 3 of the Abilene CALF 3. We started off the day with JT opening another two of his birthday presents. I’m not sure why he opened two that day but he did.
We made our way downtown and we started out being early and then ended up running late but we made just barely in time to our destination…Sonny the Bird Man Extraordinaire. Sonny the Bird Man had about 6 birds and they all did some tricks. I really enjoyed it and so did Connor. The birds played soccer and basketball, they rode scooters, went grocery shopping with their little shopping cart, and of course rode a unicycle on a tightrope. The show was a lot of fun and the birds were so colorful and talented. Sonny the Bird Man also did a great job at incorporating a good message for the kids. He told them to do their best, keep trying, that anything possible, and to trust. At the end of the show the kids were able to go up and take a picture with the birds and buy feathers or hanging parrots. Connor and JT got all three. JT took a picture with…I’m trying to remember her name…:( I can’t remember, maybe I will remember later. I think Connor’s bird was James (there were two green birds and James was one of them, I’m pretty sure he was the one though), he wanted to take a picture with the bird on his head so James was the bird…if you just wanted to stand next to it like JT did you could pick any of the birds.
At the moment, Connor’s picture is lost so I will have to find. We had it when we got home but I’m not sure where it got put so when I find it I will update this.
After the bird show we decided to go to the Abilene Zoo to find the Seymour sculpture and get our passport stamped. I went up to the cashier’s window and asked about it and they told me that Seymour was in the gift shop. So, we went inside and found him, we got our passport stickers and stamps, and then the boys wanted to buy something.
Once the boys were done buying their stuff we drove back downtown for the next reading at The Center for Contemporary Arts. We had to wait downstairs until the Fairy Godmother came to get us. They provided us with a Can You See? while we waited. I think we were able to find most of the things but I don’t think we finished by the time the Fairy Godmother came.
The Fairy Godmother led us up to the castle that I mentioned in Day 1.
The theme here was Once Upon a Time and the story being read was Cinderella by Amy Ehrlich. It was actually pretty entertaining here because instead of just the usual projection of the story, this story was actually like a digital version and some elements of the story moved. For instance, the fairy godmother would wave her wand and little sparks would come out or the carriage moved across the screen. JT really enjoyed this and it kept his attention more so then just projecting the pages of the book on the screen. When the story was finished we went back out of the castle. I forgot to mention that when we came in the castle the Fairy Godmother used her wand to shrink us all so we would fit inside the door (it was kid size). We received our pins and were told that Cinderella was available for pictures but I didn’t see her.
We went back downstairs to the room with the crafts. The crafts here were making wands and crowns. JT only made a wand but Connor did both.
On the way out I remembered to get a picture of the Seymour sculpture.
Then we walked across the street to Bogie’s Downtown Deli for lunch. Normally Bogie’s is not open on Saturdays but they were open for the festival. Once again Bogie’s will have its own post.
So…moving on…we walked over to the Abilene Library for the next reading. The theme was Treasure Ship and the book read was How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long. There was a pirate standing by the entrance of the room and Connor wanted to take a picture with him but only if his brother would and JT was scared. After the reading the kids made telescopes. They each got to pick a piece of paper and some stickers and crayons to decorate their paper with. When they were done they taped them together to make telescopes.
On our way out Connor decided to go ahead and take a picture by himself with the pirate.
We not only received pins here but the kids also got pirate rubber ducks. We had a while until the next reading so we got Little Jimmy’s Italian Ice again. Connor had been asking for it since he got some on day 1. As we were walking down the street we saw a stormtrooper. I’m not really sure why there was a stormtrooper but we went over to take a picture with him.
Then the boys finished up their Italian ice and we went to Roberts Studio (you can see it in the background of the Stromtrooper picture) for the instrument petting zoo. They had a couple of different instruments set out that the kids could try. Each instrument is of course cleaned before the next kid can try. JT was unable to play any of the instruments until the last one. He had been having trouble blowing into them correctly. Instead of putting his lip on the inside of the mouthpiece to blow he wanted to put his lips over it but he finally got it on the last instrument.
Now it was time to go to our last reading at a building on Pine Street. The theme here was Toyland Express and the book was The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper. The activity after this reading was making visors. The kids could pick out the color visor they wanted and then put stickers on it.
After the boys were done with their visors we went to go look at the balloon sculptures. Connor thought that they balloon sculptures were really cool, he was very impressed. The man that made all of the sculptures was there also making balloons for the kids. He was only doing puppies, swords, or flowers. Connor got a sword and JT got a puppy. The balloon sculptor is also known as Kornpop the Klown and he travels everywhere. If you’d like to take a loot at his website it is here.
After that it was time to drive over to the Morgan Jones Planetarium for the planetarium showing of Walter Wick’s newest Can You See What I See? book, Out of this World. We got there early so while we waited the boys took a picture with the robot and some other pictures.
When we finally went in to see the show it was different from what I expected. They had all the seats facing the same way and I think it would have been better if they had the seats in a circle all facing the middle. It was a little bit difficult to see everything they way the seating was. We got seats in the middle and I think maybe if we had been in the back it would have also been better. The pictures were also a little blurry at times though so I think it could have been better. The show was based on the new book and had images from the book but Walter Wick created a story to go along with it.
When the show was over we went back out and got a sticker for our passports, the boys got snacks (grapes and apples), and they also got glow stick bracelets. This was our last CALF event.
After the planetarium show we drove up to Anson to visit my grandparents again. The boys love playing ball with them. they also brought all of the stuff they had made or bought to show them.
We left when Connor said he was hungry and as we drove back to Abilene he asked if they had Chick-Fil-A there. We found one close to the hotel and got that for dinner. Everyone is familiar with Chick-Fil-A so I won’t write about that. We ate it back at the hotel and JT also opened one more present.
This was our last night in Abilene. We weren’t going to do the Father’s Day picnic this time because we were heading up to Oklahoma City. The next couple of posts will be about Bogie’s Downtown Deli, the Abilene Courtyard Hotel, Wichita Falls River Bend Nature Park, and then we’ll head into Oklahoma.
