museum outing

in an effort to get out of the house for a little fun, beside running to the grocery store, we hit up the museum first thing this morning. i wasn't sure how busy it would be with school out so i thought we should just be there when it opened.  and, just to make it extra fun, i decided to make this our first outing without a stroller!  yep, four walkers in a public place this morning!

madelyn was being a little pouty about the museum this morning, but once we got there all of the kids really enjoyed all of the christmas decorations throughout.  and i was super excited about my "museum" setting on the new camera that allowed for mostly blur-free fleshless photos!

manning was just beside himself with delight at being free in the museum.  he was darting all over and just couldn't decide what to look at and touch first! he did keep returning to the parakeets and cockatiels.

the bigs comparing notes on their checklists.

 we spent the bulk of our time in the 'science' portion.

mason is finally big enough to reach the cranks and turn them fast enough to light the bulb (above him on the wall)!  this was a really big deal.

while manning (and occasionally his brothers) play with the aerodynamic demo (aka "the ball popper")...

...the bigs have a lot of fun with the green screen acting out the different backgrounds.  madelyn enjoyed being the director most.

manning did a pretty great job with the robotic arms.

mason was able to put all of the gears together in a way that he could turn them all at once.

we always have a lot of fun with this two-way mirror.  the kids love how brightening and dimming the lights allow them to see and hide from each other.

you can't quite see how excited she is, other than her large eyes, but madelyn was thrilled to finally figure out how to pick up the ball with the robotic arm!

i really liked this one because they adjusted the lighting just right that you can see all three boys at once 'stacked' in birth order.

the old town was super cute with the christmas decorations.  madelyn kept commenting that she would be sad if people had to live in houses like these and how everything was old and dirty.  i explained that everyone lived in houses like these once and that the items were dirty because they were old, but at one time they were new and people were excited to have them.  then we discussed how fortunate to live in the time we do and have all of the new items we have.  we are very blessed.

we always end with a spin in the ball bearing demo.  it is so hard for me to watch them spin around and around and around.  i drag them away when i start to feel too sick.

we were in and out in just over an hour.  it was starting to fill up as we were leaving with lots of generational family groups.  i think it was great planning to get in right when they opened at 9am.  plus, we had lots of time to run into two grocery stores on the way home and were still back in time for lunch.  love.