Looks can be deceiving. From the top, this looks like a regular (though dated) Little Tikes table. Crawl underneath, however, and you will find yourself in "Venturer" – one of the space shuttles in NASA's fleet. In its early years it took Zach into space more times than I could count. Emma has also taken many flights over the years, and lately Carter has caught the space bug, and you could often see his little feet poking out of the table in the much-loved astronaut suit.
The table was taking up a lot of space, however, and since we have 3 other tables in the playroom, it was time for one of them to go. The end of NASA's space shuttle program was the perfect opportunity to retire our shuttle as well, and move the dials, knobs, switches and gages into a 3-man spacecraft headed for the moon, Mars, and beyond. (Yep, under another, larger table.)
On the day Atlantis landed for the last time, my little astronauts took one final voyage in Venturer. They went to the ISS, and made spacewalks to repair tiles on the shuttle and to fix things on the space station. They spent all morning in space – and then Venturer flew them back to earth, one by one. (The un-docking from the space station was classic – and very creative.) The tool kit came out and the "innards" were removed and saved for the next spacecraft.
I was sad to say goodbye, both to the real shuttle program and to our little table. There has always been something magical about space to me – so although the vehicle to get to space has changed, I am glad that astronauts big and small will still be exploring!
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