Surviving the Hurricane--in Wisconsin!

Thankfully friends and family back in Texas made it through Hurrican Ike okay. My cousin that lives in the same small rural community as me said there was no damage in our area--just some rain and the regular amount of wind considering we are in the prairie.

Meanwhile Wisonsin is getting the scraps that are left over of Ike--which mainly amounts to misting rain and slightly cooler temperatures.
Yesterday Joe and I took the boys to the Kenosha Public Museum. It is made for children--allowing you to touch the exhibits on the ground floor (but not the art on the second floor).
This is a bivalve. There are thousands of them in the channel back in Texas, near my grandmother's house. Hopefully Henry and Ben will be able to climb down there soon and find some. After every rain new ones are washed up.
Ben and Henry look at a prehistoric antelope-like creature. They were actually more interested in the museum than I thought they would be. I went into it figuring they would be bored but they found it quite compelling.
Here they look at a depiction of people cutting meat out of a mammoth.
The docent at the museum took a photo of the four of us.

Ben and Henry watch a quarter spin down into the hole.
In the ranger section of the museum tables are set up with activities for children to do. The boys enjoyed drawing with crayons. I hoted that Henry is drawing with both hands at the same time.
In the same are vaious shaped objects could be attached to the wall inside frames to create art.
On the second floor the boys pose by the large window. The lawn outside was covered with white birds.
After leaving the museum we stopped at Wal-Mart (they have them up here too) for supplies, and also made an appointment to have the boys' portrait taken.

In the evening the boys tried on their Halloween costumes--Ben as a monkey and Henry as a pumpkin.
Milwaukee has channel 49 that shows nothing but old television shows. I used to love watching these shows rerun on channel 11 back home. Henry got his first glimpse of "Petticoat Junction".
This morning it was raining a little outside (that's what's left of Hurricane Ike) and a lost duck spent a copule of hours in the back yard while the boys kept a close watch on him.
We bought the boys matching outfits for the portrait session.
Next door to the portrait studio is a nail salon--which predictably is staffed by Vietnamese. They enjoyed visiting with Henry and Ben. Tonight they have invited us to go to Chicago with them to the Vietnamese section of the city.