Friday, May 6, 2011

SCIENCE MUSEUM PART 1

Today was Cinco de Mayo, and I thought that I would take the kids over to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts for the festivities, but after re-reading what was planned (craft projects, scavenger hunt, etc.) I thought that might turn into a disaster - sometimes wrangling these two is a lot like herding cats.... While Nova was napping, Gus and I looked up some bus schedules and talked about going to see the dinosaurs at the Science Museum. It's been a very long time since we've been there, and he was pretty excited by the prospect. So excited, in fact, that he stomped right upstairs and woke his sister up.

Nova was less than thrilled, especially because she didn't really get what was going on. She understands adventures, and buses, and dinosaurs but honestly - she was napping and not really in the mood for Gus's excitement. Once we got going, she was on board. It was unfortunately her brother (Mr. I-will-not-nap-anymore-no-way-no-how) who totally crashed while on the bus:

We got there, though, and I only had to carry both of 'em for about 2 blocks. I tickled Gus awake, and we went right to the dinosaurs. Triceratops!


This giant fossil is right at the bottom of the steps when you get to the dinosaur exhibit. The monsters liked him an awful lot.


Right next door is the giant T-Rex skull, which (if you're strong enough) you can pull a lever and have him open and close his jaws. Gus tried, but it was pretty tough.


I showed them my T-Rex skills, and then Nova and I had a little talk about why they put fences around the exhibits.....



To keep kids OUT! I think I said the sentence "we look with our eyes, not with our fingers" just about 8 million times. Doesn't matter, she climbed every fence. Stegosaurus!



I know these aren't all great shots, the kids were moving fast.




And this little guy hasn't moved much. Remember? The last time Gus saw him?
(sheeesh....looking that up made me awful nostalgic. That was from this post (probably the first & only time Nova's been to this museum)


Miss Nova checked out the Apatasaurs's tail...


And we moved on to the other exhibits. Look! A giant hand!


One of Gus's favorite exhibits was one I didn't get a photo of because I had to hold him up to see it. There was a wall with a life size photo of a girl who was probably about 10 years old (thus, taller than Gus). The caption over her head said "How Fast Is A Sneeze?" and her face had a little door you could open. When you did, water shot out at you, and the photo of her face changed to a sneezing one. Essentially, a little girl sneezed on you. Gus made me do it 8 times. He loooooooved it.

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