Last week the kids had off Monday and Tuesday for mid-winter break so after getting the grocery shopping and house cleaning out of the way Monday, we went and had some fun at Chuck E Cheese on Tuesday. Steven was obsessed with getting tickets and would play any game that gives him lots of 'em. I was quite impressed with how many tickets he made from skee ball. Penny loved riding on all the vehicles, although she always had a deadpan sort of expression, except in the picture below...
Wednesday school was back in session and that evening the kids got a visit from their Grandma and Grandpa Hatch, they were excited to have them here! Only the girls were a bit weary of Poppy Hatch. When he tried to talk to her for the first time she said, "Sorry, got to go!" and ran away from him. It was pretty funny. Thursday and Friday the boys ditched school so we could have some fun with their grandparents.
On Thursday I left Penelope with Grams Brady and the rest of us went to the GM Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit. We grabbed a bite to eat there. While getting food I dropped my wallet without even realizing it and someone was kind enough to use my driver's license to find me and get it back to me. I am so stinking lucky! After eating we went on a free tour of the building. The tour guide had a monotone voice and he tried to cram too much information into one tour. Needless to say the kids were not entertained (Lucy spent most of the time rolling around on the floor at every stop) but they did enjoy the view from the 71st floor, even if Steven was a bit nervous about the height.
After eating the ice cream we took a ride on the people mover:
Despite the cold we took a look out over the Detroit river at Canada. The kids thought it was cool that their was a patch of ice on the river and Steven was desperate to try and break it with a rock, only he couldn't find a rock. When we got to the street he finally found a rock and he had to run back to throw it at the ice. He was very disappointed to find out his little rock had no affect on the ice.
We headed back to our house after that and Tyler's dad was so disgusted by the dirty state of our van that he and Leslie went and got it detailed. It really was disgusting, apparently so disgusting that the staff at the place fought over who would have to clean it. I must say though that I am quite enjoying driving in a clean van right now. I just wonder how long it will stay that way.
Friday morning we went to on the Ford Rogue Factory Tour. You take a bus to the factory and the first thing you do is watch a movie on the history of the factory. Penny was trouble during this movie but the rest of the kids did really well. Next there was a 360 all senses movie about the process of making the Ford F-150. It was really interesting and visually stimulating but it was also really loud. Lucy about fell out her seat at one point because a loud sound scared her and Penny got to crying over the loud sound.
After the movies we went to the top floor of the building and got to look out at the whole factory and learn about their living roofs. Then came my favorite part, seeing the factory in action! It was cool to see the assembly line, how they have everything timed down to 1 minute tasks and the kids especially loved watching the robot arms put on the windshields. The only bummer was when we were halfway through we found out the factory would be closing down in 5 minutes for lunch so we had to rush through the last half.
Pictures were not allowed for most of the tour, except at the top of the building and in the lobby where they had some cars on display.
When we were done with the tour we grabbed a bite to eat at the Henry Ford Museum. This was not the most pleasant experience because it was Penny's nap time and she was cranky and she also decided to become part monkey and kept trying to do risky climbing moves on chairs and high chairs alike. As punishment we had Poppy Hatch hold her ;)
The weather was so nice when we got back home that we decided to take a walk to the bakery and then go to the park.
That night Tyler returned from up North and so we celebrated all of us being together with some dinner at a local restaurant:
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