Jon took a vacation day on Friday because he thought that maybe the children wouldn't have school on Friday since they didn't have school yesterday. Turns out the girls were supposed to have school, but our district took another "too-cold" day so it all worked out. We spent the day at the MN Children's Museum. The children loved just playing around and getting messy. They even had their faces painted (Kate did her own, I did Eliza's, and Jon did Andrew's and Adam's).
On one floor of the museum they had an "earth world" exhibit. One corner of the room had ramps and tunnels and was to simulate an ant hill. When we were in the room that had a bunch of activities with golf balls Eliza and Kate got bored and wanted to check out another exhibit, so I took them into "Earth World." The room was empty except for us, so the girls immediately started running around the tunnels and ramps. There was even a cracked egg with a plush pupae inside that the girls took turns hiding and seeking.
Another floor had a bunch of hands-on activities depicting some different workfields in our world. One section of that room had a place in which the children could make recycled paper. Another section had a bunch of conveyor belts and big foam blocks that the children could put on the belts and then turn a wheel to make the belt move the block from one area to another. 
There was an area with tubes and recirculating water. The tubes had stoppers on them (I don't know what else to call them), and Eliza and I had fun trying to get a ping pong ball from one area of the tubing to other end. They had big bubble wands that Eliza, Kate, and Andrew loved; and, it was fun to see them try to make the longest bubble.
On that same floor there was a huge room that I absolutely loved. We spent at least an hour just in this one room. It was a room that had a grocery store, a restaurant, a house, a bus, a mail center, a doctor's office, and a recording studio. Our children ran from one area to another, got to dress up for specific occupations (construction worker, pilot, police officer, etc.). And, they got to go into the recording studio and pretend to be a rock band. It was so fun to see them rocking out to "Allstar," and "YMCA."
By the time we left it was almost dinner time, so we decided to stop at Olive Garden on our way home. This was the culmination of our fun and fantastic day! Our children are usually okay at restaurants, but they tend to be loud and sometimes fight and whine when they don't get their food right away, and then we end up taking 4/5 of their food home because they don't eat it. This time however, they were so polite and everyone ate their food, they used quiet voices, and were just all around well behaved! (I think even better than we eat at home!)
There was a table near us at which sat two elderly couples. As we were leaving one of the women motioned me over there and she said that one of the men wanted to say something to me. He said that the children were very well behaved and that there must be a lot of love at home. She said that I looked really calm for having four children and a newborn baby. She asked it was usually this calm and I said, "No, definitely not. Today was an unusally good day." (I had to be honest, right?) But, it felt so good to have someone just compliment us on how well the children were behaved instead of saying that we are "busy" or have our "hands full" or even look shocked that we have five children. By far, it was the best day we've had has a family in a very long time!
On one floor of the museum they had an "earth world" exhibit. One corner of the room had ramps and tunnels and was to simulate an ant hill. When we were in the room that had a bunch of activities with golf balls Eliza and Kate got bored and wanted to check out another exhibit, so I took them into "Earth World." The room was empty except for us, so the girls immediately started running around the tunnels and ramps. There was even a cracked egg with a plush pupae inside that the girls took turns hiding and seeking.Another floor had a bunch of hands-on activities depicting some different workfields in our world. One section of that room had a place in which the children could make recycled paper. Another section had a bunch of conveyor belts and big foam blocks that the children could put on the belts and then turn a wheel to make the belt move the block from one area to another. There was an area with tubes and recirculating water. The tubes had stoppers on them (I don't know what else to call them), and Eliza and I had fun trying to get a ping pong ball from one area of the tubing to other end. They had big bubble wands that Eliza, Kate, and Andrew loved; and, it was fun to see them try to make the longest bubble.On that same floor there was a huge room that I absolutely loved. We spent at least an hour just in this one room. It was a room that had a grocery store, a restaurant, a house, a bus, a mail center, a doctor's office, and a recording studio. Our children ran from one area to another, got to dress up for specific occupations (construction worker, pilot, police officer, etc.). And, they got to go into the recording studio and pretend to be a rock band. It was so fun to see them rocking out to "Allstar," and "YMCA."By the time we left it was almost dinner time, so we decided to stop at Olive Garden on our way home. This was the culmination of our fun and fantastic day! Our children are usually okay at restaurants, but they tend to be loud and sometimes fight and whine when they don't get their food right away, and then we end up taking 4/5 of their food home because they don't eat it. This time however, they were so polite and everyone ate their food, they used quiet voices, and were just all around well behaved! (I think even better than we eat at home!)
There was a table near us at which sat two elderly couples. As we were leaving one of the women motioned me over there and she said that one of the men wanted to say something to me. He said that the children were very well behaved and that there must be a lot of love at home. She said that I looked really calm for having four children and a newborn baby. She asked it was usually this calm and I said, "No, definitely not. Today was an unusally good day." (I had to be honest, right?) But, it felt so good to have someone just compliment us on how well the children were behaved instead of saying that we are "busy" or have our "hands full" or even look shocked that we have five children. By far, it was the best day we've had has a family in a very long time!
Comments
Sounds like you had a fun day!!