Vilis's first Star Wars convention

It was a busy weekend in Greenville, with over thirty festivals, concerts and other events happening across the Upstate. Here’s the rundown on all of them… Just kidding, we only made it to one! (But here’s the list in case you're interested)

We opted to head to Roper Mountain Science Center on Saturday morning for Star Wars Reads Day, this month’s Second Saturday program. Meant to be an opportunity for the public to visit the learning spaces that students occupy during the week, Second Saturdays showcase special events or themes in addition to opening up the farm, planetarium, observatory and other science exhibits for fun and learning. A couple of Second Saturday programs we’ve attended have been the Blueberry Festival and Green Halloween, and of course we love the Center’s butterfly garden and the Holiday Lights. Usually there is an admission fee for non-members; this was the first time I’ve attended that there was no charge. Admission usually is $6.00/adult and $5.00/children ages 5-12 and seniors. With all the great programs offered by the RMSC you might want to check into an annual membership; the affordable price includes admission to 300 science centers and museums worldwide.

We headed first to the Symmes Hall of Science where the majority of activities were centered. A demonstration of how Han Solo was put into carbonate was the first thing the boys checked out, resulting in a large Darth Vader-shaped foam package we carried around for the rest of the morning. Then they built rubber-band propelled planes with the Science on the Move SC 4-H, which we even hooked up to fishing line for a demo. The boys’ plane flew 35 miles an hour! We adjourned outside to enjoy our lightsaber ice pops where the rocket build-and-launch station was located, and I was impressed at what could be accomplished with some PVC pipe and a bicycle tire pump. Lauris and Mikus took turns launching their paper rocket into the air. 

Once back inside we cut helicopters out of paper and then made hovercrafts out of CDs and balloons, but the highlight might have been operating the remote-controlled R2D2. They definitely enjoyed that more than taking photos with the storm troopers, Vilis is really the only one who cooperated and he was still mostly asleep…

We didn’t go to the movies in the Giant Dome Theatre and Hooper Planetarium, although I’m hoping to make it to the weekly Friday Starry Night (a guided look at the current night sky, a feature show, the "Mars Rollercoaster" Ride and viewing at the Daniel Observatory) one of these days. It was the Daniel Observatory that was our next stop, to see if we could get a glimpse of the sun through their refractor telescope. Although the sun didn’t oblige us, both boys enjoyed taking a look at the clouds through the telescope and having a look around the observatory.

Our last stop was the Living History Farm, to visit the barn animals and enjoy the beautiful autumn weather. There were blacksmithing and woodworking demonstrations occurring, but the boys gravitated towards the corn grinding – they just wanted to feed the chickens…

Eating their 'lightsabers'

The rest of the weekend was definitely low key. Saturday afternoon we joined families with babies born in the last months with the Greenville Midwives for some food and games, but otherwise there were a lot of Legos. Roberts took frequent naps to try to get rid of the virus that has been plaguing him all month, and I ran errands to fill up our near-empty fridge. We had hoped to head downtown for Fall For Greenville, but it rained almost the entire day Sunday which was probably for the best; although a great time with delicious food and good music, the crowds aren’t so fun with three kids in tow. Maybe next year?

The next Second Saturday at Roper Mountain will be the Fall Harvest Festival on November 8^th. For more information on the Science Center and their programs, visit www.ropermountain.org or call 864-355-8900.