Fort Phantom Hill

Scott had this past weekend off giving us lots of time to hang out as a family in the Abilene area. One of the places we went was Fort Phantom Hill not too far away and right on the same road as our hotel just away from town instead of toward. Being out and getting the opportunity to be in the same places where history took place is really amazing of course we live in a living history museum but a western fort has a whole different feel. There were a few original buildings still standing and lots of chimneys next to signs telling us what used to be standing there. There was a cannon that Chance really loved and some wagons as well.

being in different areas of the country give us the opportunity to teach Chance about different plants and animals. We talked about cacti and rattlesnakes and how to avoid them. We also saw some of the biggest ants ever. Have you seen the end of the lasted Indian Jones movie? They are that big (almost). That's what Scott and Chance are investigating in the bottom picture.


Scott took some good pictures of our day at the fort but I don't have them yet so check the flickr stream to see those, I'll get them added soon.

Children's Illustrated Literature Museum

Here in Abilene they have the National Children's Illustrated Literature Museum, I wasn't sure what to expect but it turned out to be a really neat experience. Each month they host a different illustrators work this month the featured artist was Anita Lobel. If you don't know her work I recommend checking it out especially Away From Home, On Market Street and her Nina books which star her cat, Nina. Your local library should have them as her work has won numerous awards and because they are really great kids books of course.
The works were grouped together by book then the book in which they appear was on a pedestal for us to read. This was a great way to present the art. We went all around the room reading books (we probably read six or seven). We would look at the pictures first then sit on the floor and read the book, Chance's job was to find the art from the wall in each book and he was excellent at his job too.

After working our way through the exhibit we went to the book store and children's area where we read three more books to find the perfect one to buy, we settled on We Are In A Book by Mo Willems, another great book. I highly recommend any of his titles. Then Chance discovered popup books for the first time. We read four more popup books before going back to the hotel and reading our new purchase about a billion times.

Fort imagination

The other day when we were at the zoo we saw this great playground but it was closed as they were adding new mulch to the whole area. So we decided to go back to see if we could play today. It was open and a good thing too because this is an awesome play area. It is built like a fort with a jail, bank, stable, store and everything.

There were lots of other little ones around to play with and after a moment Chance ran off to play and I sat on one of the benches to watch and relax a bit. Then I heard one of the other moms say "come over here Chance let me take your picture" I waited a moment to make sure she said what I thought she did but when I heard Chance answer her I got up to see what was going on. Turns out there was another Chance at the playground, they were both four years old and once they figured out that they were both named Chance they spent the reedy of the time playing together. It was so cute. They called each other "my Chance". They were moving at incredible speeds so the only picture I got of them both where they weren't blurry is this one of them both on the tire swing.

We had a good time at this playground and will probably be back a few more times while we aree here in Abilene.

Playing at McDonalds

When we are staying with Scott in a hotel we are always looking for ways to get out of the room and with the heat being in the 100's we can't always head to a park so this day we went to play at a big indoor play area we had seen at a nearby McDonald's. There weren't many other little people for Chance to play with but he had a good time going in and out and through and around the play area anyway.


It was also towel day and if you don't know what that is you should check out www.towelday.org and read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Children's Museum in Abilene

Here in Abilene they have an interesting children's museum. It is small actually only half of the second floor of The Grace Museum which is an old hotel that has been converted into an art gallery and children's museum. First we started out going throughout the art gallery downstairs where Chance and I explored each painting making up stories about the houses and people in each as well as finding all the little animals that were hiding in them.
Chance received some great complements from the people working in the museum. They said they had never seen a little person so interested in the art and patient enough to look through the gallery. We've been going to art galleries since Chance was just months old and now that he is older it is fun to make up stories with him about what might be happening in each painting. He has such a great imagination it makes me look at art differently after I hear what he has to say about a particular piece.


after checking out the art we went to the children's museum area. One of the first things we saw was an optical illusion. With one a drawing of a bird on one side and a cage on the other Chance thought it was really cool how the bird magically appeared inside the cage when he turned the wheel really fast.

Just through the next little door they had a tornado! When Chance pushed the button the tornado started up going round and round till the smoke reached the top. We could change the size and way the tornado moved by blowing on it. None of the other children's museums we have been to have had a tornado so this was all new and fun to play with.
We had a great time making music with their music wall so much in fact I didn't think to get a pictured of it. They had a whole wall covered in different color wood blocks all of different shapes and sizes. When you touched the blocks they each made a different sound. Some sounds were instruments like drums, organs and strings others were car horns and nature noises.
Abilene does a great job of making the most of what they have, like the zoo the children's museum is small but they have things that make them unique like feeding the giraffe and this music wall.


After we finished with the children's area we went on upstairs where the have whole rooms set up with period pieces from Texas houses in 1900's, 1920's and the 1940's up here there was also a typewriter Chance could type on, he was supposed to leave a message about how he liked the museum but instead he just typed his name and the words zoo, cat and mom which for a 4 year old will just have to do. He liked the typewriter though and so we ended up typing on it for a while before we left.