Walk for Life and Amococo

This past Saturday, the Hannan Clan and the Siegels got together.  Whenever we get together, there is bound to be lots of fun, entertaining "oops" with the kids, and sleepy children by the end of the day. 

We started off with the annual Walk for Life to support our local pregnancy resource center.  Tim and I have volunteered with the Center for several years, and we are so grateful that there is an organization in the South Hills like it.  Hundreds of little babies have been welcomed into the world because of the Center.  We fully believe in what they do as they give women free ultrasounds, STD testing, counseling, parenting classes, and so much more.  If you would like to learn more, you can visit this link.  http://www.prcsh.org/

The Walk was so much fun.  Rosa slept through most of it and Katie was trying to be so brave even though there were tons of balloons everyone (she is terrified of them). 

The highlight of the walk was meeting Tim Murphy.  He was responsible for getting our FBI paperwork expedited so that we could go down to Colombia sooner.  Instead of taking potentially 12 weeks, he got it done in about 10 days.  That is unheard of!  While we were excited to finally meet him, he enjoyed the photo op.  The girls helped out with Rosa holding his finger and Katie giving him Up-Tops (High Fives). 

After the walk, we headed down to Oakland for the Pittsburgh Children's Festival.  They have tons of activities for the kids including crafts, a petting zoo, face painting, theater shows, etc.  Katie and Rosa were a little too young to fully enjoy the experience, but they were able to do a few things and even managed to get their naps in the middle of all of the chaos.  Our Godsons had a blast though and went from one craft and activity to the next.  I loved watching them have so much fun!

At the end of our time there, we visited the Amococo exhibit.  http://www.architects-of-air.com/luminaria/amococo.html. 

This is a really neat exhibit.  Basically, it is a labyrinth of light and sound.  The walls are thin and have a cool texture that they encourage you to lay and relax against, and the lighting really puts you in a relaxed and awwed state.  While it was enjoyable for adults, I think it was a very misplaced exhibit at a Children's Festival.  We weren't aware of the "rules" until we entered the exhibit and had already paid for our tickets. If we had known the rules, I'm not sure we would have attempted it with toddlers.  The rules were simple:  Don't run.  Don't make loud noises.  Don't slide on the walls. 

REALLY?

What do you think the kids all wanted to do when presented with the sensory overload inside the exhibit?  RUN.  YELL.  SLIDE.

If you don't want kids to be kids, don't put the exhibit at a children's festival.  It would be better placed at an arts festival. 

Needless to say, the kids got threatened by the all-mighty monitors inside that they would be thrown out on several occasions.  Even little Katie, whose only crime was that she slid down a wall once because she liked the sensation on her cheek, got in trouble.  I was pretty irritated with that because she has sensory issues as it is and had a hard time warming up to the place, and when she finally did, she got yelled at.  Oh well.  It was still a really neat experience and one I would recommend for families with older kids or no kids.

Yet another exciting day with the Siegels.  We are so blessed to have them in our lives and to call them family.  Can't wait until we have another Saturday adventure!