You can watch a video of a real open heart surgery -- they play it in the chest of a mannequin so it looks super real,
You can find out how to dissect and mummify a frog if you want to...by the way, I don't ever want to see that again!
There is an AMAZING room where you can learn all about airplanes, and they teach you how to build a paper airplane, then you can put your paper airplane into this machine that will launch it really fast. If you built it right, it flies.
Then, if you are sneaky, you can climb into the cage where the airplanes land and gather up the best airplanes and launch them again and again. FUN. That's why the Franklin Institute is the funnest place on earth.
This was a FUN day. There is nothing like a big sister to be a jungle gym, unless it is a Mom jungle gym. 
Don't I have a great smile????
I went to all my sister's Tball games this spring. Sometimes it was boring, but sometimes I would bring my bat and my wiffle ball and my mom or dad would play with me. Mostly I was patient and didn't complain.
We went to Valley Forge on a hot day. The park had places where you could stop and see different parts of the camps where the soldiers stayed. Here was a cannon set on a hill to fight off the British just in case they tried to attack. They were in Philadelphia in nice warm houses while the soldiers of the Continental army slept in small cabins.
Here I am on a cannon. Fun!!!
Here was a soldier from the Continental army. He talked about life in the camp, and what they would eat and do to stay busy.
When we walked up to the camp, the soldiers were playing a game called backgammon on a board they made themselves. Real live soldiers liked to play games to pass the time, too.
This was one of the soldiers talking about their uniforms. He said the bow on the hat would indicate what rank you were. He told us that Washington made his rank wear the same color bow as all of the enlisted men (lowest rank). He said that meant that Washington had respect for each soldier and didn't think he was better than the soldiers.
Here is the inside of one of the cabins. The were all made of wood, with clay in between the gaps in the walls. There was a fireplace to keep warm by and 8 beds in the tiny cabin. I had fun at Valley Forge.
We got to listen to 13 great stories about people that had ties to Philadelphia. Here is the lady that told us about the first circus in Philadelphia.
This was my favorite story about how Merriweather Lewis came to Philadelphia before his trip across the country to meet a famous doctor -- doctor Benjamin Rush. Dr. Rush gave Lewis some medicine call "the ThunderClapper" that he had invented. Dr. Rush believed that if you were sick you needed to get what was inside of you out very quickly. The ThunderClapper did just that...it made you poop a lot and fast. Dr. Rush gave Lewis 600 ThunderClapper pills to take on his trip. When he arrived back from his trip, he only had one left!
This was the pirate story. Some storytellers were better than others at keeping our attention. Some of the other stories we heard were about the ghostly rider, Benjamin Franklin and the shuck of oysters, the women of the revolutionary war, about freedom, about Harmony Lane, how Jimmy fought a crocodile, about the carousel, two stories about spies from the revolutionary war, and lots of other really cool stories. I loved it.
The best part of the day was that when we finished collecting stickers from each of the 13 storytelling stops, we got a certificate and a coupon for a free ride on the carousel. I rode a horse. It was fun.
We also got free ice cream...YUM.
We saw some people talking in a square so we went to hear what they were saying. They asked for all those willing to fight for freedom. We said we were ready to fight, so they mustered us into the continental army! We had to march off to get ready to go to war. We followed a drum and fife corps to the muster site.
Once we got there, the recruiter let us know we were in for a treat. Mad Dog was going to come and train us for battle. When he came, we had to yell hip hip Hazah!
The quartermaster tried to get us looking decent for Mad Dog. He didn't do too well.
Finally Mad Dog came and trained us in the proper way to load and fire a musket. We were ready to go off to battle.
Just as we were getting ready to go to battle, Mom realized it was time to go take the tour of Independence Hall. She told the quartermaster we had to go. They made a big deal about it, calling us deserters.
It was a fun day in downtown Philadelphia. Here we are inside the building that houses the Liberty Bell. Behind us is Independence Hall. We took the tour of Independence Hall after we ate our lunches.
We saw the big crack in the Liberty Bell. It can't ring anymore because it will split in two.
Here we all are in front of the Liberty Bell.
This is the room where the continental congress met to work on the Declaration of Independence. The Park Ranger told a story about how Benjamin Franklin would stare for hours at the carving of the sun on the top of the chair in the middle of this picture. It was the chair that George Washington sat in. He made a comment that he wondered if the sun was rising on this great country or setting. Finally he was satisfied that the sun was rising.
I size up the pins...this is going to be easy
Aww, man! I thought I had that last pin...bummer.
I'm having F.U.N.
The bowling buddies at Sproul Lanes after a tense match. Megan won.
This weekend, I went up to New York City with my mom and sisters. It was a quick trip, just overnight, but we had lots of fun. The best part was meeting up with my cousin Henry. We had so much fun earlier this summer while we were both visiting Grammy and Poppy. It was just like old times when we met up again. 
I took a ferry ride with my cousins that went right past the Statue of Liberty. It was cool.
I liked looking through the portholes at the back of the ferry. I could have slipped right through one so I kept my head inside the ferry.
I saw a really cool old ship docked at a wharf right by the Brooklyn bridge.
I went to a really cool museum that had tons of dinosaurs and exhibits about peoples and cultures. I loved it all, especially running off with Henry. It was a fun day. Watch for more posts this week. I get to hang out with my cousins all week!
The Jolly Roger pinata we broke wide open....full of candy. Awesome.
The aftermath of the smashing of the Jolly Roger
