Museum of Mountain Flying - 9/03/09

September started out with a tour of the Museum of Mountain Flying. The children were able to climb right in to the pilot seat of several airplanes, climb aboard an original smoke jumper aircraft as well as several other airplanes! This is located right on the grounds of the airport in Missoula and is a great hands-on tour for kids of all ages.

Great turnout for the Griz!

Whoa it was a crowd today at the Grizzly Stadium! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as my family did. The boys ran themselves ragged on the football field. Here's an awesome group photo where we managed to capture at least most of the kids and a few of the parents. Thanks for coming out!

Post office tour

The Post Office tour was a big hit with the mail shooting down various places. When something hit your basket, it almost seemed like Vegas! My kids couldn't stop talking about it. Although most of these events seem like mass chaos, it really is amazing how much the kids retain and actually learn about these places they get to see firsthand.

Don't miss the Landfill tour tomorrow or the Griz Stadium VIP visit later in the month!

Celebrating one year

Thanks to all of you who have made the PLAY Network a success this last year!

We have a great board moving in to take over and we are excited to see what the next year will bring.



Here's a few photos from the PLAY party at the Carousel and a special thanks to Lighthouse Espresso and Great Harvest Bakery for donating food and coffee for this event. Thanks also to all of you who baked and brought your own goodies.

May activities

We had a great month of May with some exciting special events. The tour of the St. Pat's lifeflight helicopter and helipad was a favorite as well as the Lifeline Dairy tour and the hike up the M.

Zootown Arts

It's time to pick up your fired pottery at Zootown arts, if you haven't already! We had a great time painting pottery last week and now our creations have been glazed and fired and are ready for our shelves! If you didn't get a chance to check out ZACC with the PLAY Network, make sure you do sometime on your own. You can check out their website for times to go paint your own pottery. I think we were all impressed with the facility and professionalism of the staff.

Clark Fork Organics

Many of you joined us today for a romp around the Clark Fork Organics farm. We saw lots of animals and planted seeds that we'll be able to come back next month and see how far they've come. Plan to make it next time if you missed this one!

Beetleworks, beetleworks, beetleworks!

Last week we ventured to Big Sky Beetleworks in the Bitterroot Valley and had a grand old time checking out beetles in their various stages of life as well as seeing the skulls and bones they clean. Gross, but gratifying!

Voting Should Feel Good

Look at this month's newsletter and see that Molly encourages you to bring your kids to vote with you and I encourage the opposite. Why? My experience with my own kids taught me that I feel better about voting when I'm not trying to keep my kids from taking down the voting booth or offending the older folks tired from working the tables. I think it's hard to concentrate when the kids are asking questions about the bake sale and getting bored with my distracted answers.

So I've learned to teach my children about voting in the comfort of my home. I vote from home with an absentee ballot sent to me by the county. It gives me time to think, read and look over the ballot and discuss the issues with my whole family. I can explain how it works to them in a very low pressure situation and I can even let them fill in the bubbles for me now that they are older. So I think it is great to teach your kids about voting - just not under the supervision of people with enough time on their hands to volunteer all day at the thankless polling places.

Apple Pressing!

A great time was had by all when we visited Ft. Missoula for some apple pressing.


The kids got to get their hands dirty dropping in apples and grinding them up. The best part was tasting the cider after it was all finished, though.

It was Autumn at its finest!

Clothing Swap also benefits Pass It On Missoula

There were lots of cute clothes, Halloween costumes, and a few toys, to choose from at the clothing swap on Thursday, October 9. On Saturday, I delivered the leftovers to Pass It On Missoula. The PLAY Network will receive a donation of 10% of the sale price for any items sold by Pass It On. Items that aren't sold will be donated to local organizations or families in need.

Both the clothing swap and Pass It On provide great ways for your family to "wear it, then share it" with others. Thanks to everyone who participated.

If you picked up something particularly cute, why not send a photo to the other members of the PLAY Network?

MISMO gymnastics day

A big thanks to MISMO for the free gymnastics class last week. Remember that both MISMO and Bitterroot Gymnastics offer smokin' deals for PLAY Network members. Contact Lara for more information.