The Howard Family: December 2009

It has been quite a long few weeks so we decided to take a break and have some good old fashioned "family fun" last Saturday. Strong National Museum of Play (and the National Toy Hall of Fame!) is right in our backyard here in Rochester, NY.

I haven't been to Strong Museum in YEARS...I think the last time I went I might have been in high school. I remember bits and pieces but mostly I just remember rows upon rows of antique toys and "collectibles" in glass cases. In the past ten years Strong Museum has really evolved. Every article I read about their kid sized Wegmans marketplace, the Videotopia arcade room, the Lego and Barbie displays and the new Toy Hall of Fame made me wish I was 8 years old again. I decided we HAD to spend a day there!

As soon as we arrived and picked up a map we headed to Sesame Street (In case you hadn't heard Sesame Street is celebrating 40 years!!). It was a favorite of all three Howard children. I was a big fan of Oscar the Grouch (Osca-gotches) and of course Big Bird. Olivia was into the Spanish speaking Rosita monster and Elmo's hyper friend Zoe. Grant loved...Ernie. Everybody get ready to say AWWWWW...

Grant 2 years old at Sesame Place with Ernie
AND
Grant 12 years old in Elmo's mini bed in "Elmo's World"

Mom took a picture of us on the famous stoop:

Not only was there a life sized Elmo's World to play in, but there was also a whole street scene to wander about in. We bought food from the local Bodega-

Walked around the cement playground, rode in a taxi with Cookie Monster and Elmo and saw Big Bird's nest. Then we headed to Mini Wegmans. This was one of my favorite parts but unfortunatly I didn't take any pictures (virtual tour from the website is here). We were too busy playing "Top Chef".

When you walk into Wegmans you are told that you may pick out 5 items to purchase and then you must "reshelve". The carts are kid sized, the shelves are kid sized, there is a mini deli, bakery and fresh meat market and the best part: kid sized check outs with working conveyor belts, scanners and cash registers!!

We love watching Top Chef and often find the only shows all 5 of us can agree on are on the Food Network. This should come as no surprise to any of you-the Howards love food. SO...we decided to treat the Wegmans 5 item limit as a Quick Fire Top Chef challenge. Create a meal for dinner using only 5 ingredients found in Mini Wegmans. Meet at the checkout and describe your dish. I went for a sweet dish (more of a dessert suprise suprise!) green apple, brie cheese, french bread, vanilla ice cream and some honey for drizzling. Olivia bought chicken breast, bread, brocolli, fancy cheese and low fat chocolate deluxe ice cream. Grant went with the basics; spaghetti, sauce, bread, cheese and of course, Panda Paws ice cream (are you seeing a pattern here with the ice cream!?). Mom decided on a comfort food stew; beef broth, beef, brocolli, a green pepper and pasta. Dad's recipe was the most creative; strip steak, topped with blue cheese, cherries, green apple served over a sweet potato puree. I'm pretty sure my ice cream had nothing to do with my recipe. At least Olivia and Grant used their solely as a stand alone dessert-Emily please pack your knives and go.

After our fun at Wegmans we went ahead to Videotopia. Imagine every original arcade game you can ever remember-Pong, Pac Man, Tertis, Dig Dug, Frogger, Super Mario Brothers (personal fave) and Q*Bert were all there. We each got 5 coins to use in any game we wanted. After watching Olivia play a car racing game we're a little concerned about next September 25th.

We walked through the cool lego displays and made our way to the Super Hero section. The pictures below feature some familiar Superheroes-climbing a wall in Rochester (SpiderGrant), flying off the side of a building (WonderOlivia) and SuperGrant saving a Damsel in Distress.

P.S. The building in the background with the Mercury statue is the Aqueduct building where I work in downtown!

The best roller coasters I have ever been on are at Cedar Point in Ohio. If you love roller coasters you must plan a trip here. The first time I went was the summer after 9th grade and Olivia was just under 2 years old. She LOVED the Berenstain Bear playland there. So we were thrilled to see the Berenstain Bear exhibit at the museum. Here's a little now and then featuring Olivia:

2 year old Olivia with her favorite-Mama Bear

AND
15 year old Olivia with the entire Bear Family

The bear land here was absolutely darling! There is a kid sized Diner (I would have LOVED that) with a working intercom system set up to the kid sized farm. You can place your order for farm fresh produce, eggs and milk to be delivered to the diner. At the farm you can gather eggs, sort veggies and take care of the animals. Here's Olivia and Grant in the Tree House:

The last stop before the official Toy Hall of Fame was Reading Adventureland which features life sized story book sets for kids (and adults) to play in. There was a stage, the inside rooms of a castle, a giant pirate ship, a beanstalk obstacle course, a Troll bridge, a pumpkin coach:

an area devoted to all things magical (O and G attempting to pull out the Sword in the Stone:

and a really awesome "mystery" house complete with hidden bookshelf doors:

On our way up to the official Toy Hall of Fame Liv and Grant posed for a final picture op in a kid sized Log Cabin-:

When we finally made it up to the official Hall of Fame all of us were very tired but it was still fun checking out all the favorites; Mr. Potato Head (or as Oliva would say, Mr. Tato Piss-note: Mom objects to this being in the blog because she thinks its crude...but it's a true story), Barbie (more on her later), Barbie (more on her later), Yo-yo, View Master and cardboard box* (*actual inductee..."stick" was also inducted this past year). Only 44 toys have been given this official honor. It was cool to see them all together.

The next room featured some time capsules and a little buzzer trivia game about toy-->we love games. Last but certainly not least are the exhibits that I remember seeing when I was a kid. Rows upon rows of cataloged glass cases featuring various "collectibles". Antique toys, Depression glass dishes and even a disturbing stuffed squirrel diorama. The title of which is "Whimsy With Squirrels" (seriously I can't make this stuff up)

Finally we saw a sign for "America's Favorite Doll". There was an entire little corridor featuring Barbie in all her glory. One display case had all her friends out to play. Of course Mom loved finding some of her old friends:

FRANCIE!!

SKIPPER!!

I also saw a familiar face:

I immediately broke out into song, "We're Barbie and the Rockers! Rockin' out we're totally in the groove. There's Derek, Dee Dee, Dana and Diva toooooo!" (by the way, circa 1989 I performed in an AWESOME lip snyc routine to that song)

After the euphoria of the Barbie exhibit (Grant and Dad were particularly thrilled with it) we decided to call it a day.

We finished the night with a little shopping with our aunt Ann and then all 6 of us went to Pizzeria Uno-how's that for some cliche Family Fun?!

We all had a great time-and it was a good reminder that every now and then, everyone needs a little time to play.

This is not an easy post to write. I wanted to create this blog to share with you news about our family and unfortunately not all news is happy, so it was with great sadness that I post that my Grampa passed away last Thursday. It was a difficult weekend for the family and this past week has been very tiring for Mom. I’d like to share a few thoughts about my grandfather with all of you.

William Harvey was 84 years old, father of 6 and grandfather of 13. There are many words that can be used to label my grandfather; Valedictorian, basketball player, baseball player, farmer, tooth puller (ask my mom), Tonight Show fan, storyteller etc. But I think the best label and certainly the one that describes how I will remember him is, Gentleman. Maybe this was a benefit of being a grandchild, but I never heard Grampa lose his cool, yell and scream or swear. I have heard stories of him being upset…but they are few and far between. And when he was mad…it was a story. Grampa was patient, always listened to everyone’s updates and stories-and with 5 very talkative daughters this was quite a feat. He posed for the obligatory group photos at every occasion. I never heard him complain about much of anything…except maybe politics or some crazy comedian on SNL. This is the grandfather that I will remember. Easy going, calm, patient, polite, in short-a gentleman.

Whenever I left a visit as I hugged Grampa goodbye he always said these two words to me, “Be Good.” A great reminder that I will keep with me always.