Last week I mused about driving by myself with the kids to Mount Rushmore over spring break. 950 glorious miles. I am sorry if I let some of your down. That was just crazy talk. I was under duress: Spring break week happened to be performance review week at work. The boys seemed to be fine not going anywhere however. They have the entire Minecraft universe to roam about where they can build fanciful things, and probably more importantly, then blow them up. I wanted to make a special effort to do some non-Minecraft related activities because
1. Last Friday, at the beginning of Spring Break, 9-year-old Mr. Monk suffered first degree burns when I bumped into him and he spilled hot tea all over his upper chest. OUCH. He’s been a trooper even though he questions my skills as a Florence Nightingale every time I change the dressing. (I should also admit that when the disaster happened, I immediately Googled in order to find out what to do since I had NO clue whatsoever. Shouldn’t First Aid training be mandatory for people about to become parents?!)
2. On our way to see the doctor (for a followup visit) I actually told Mr. Monk, “I cannot deal with stupid people. Please don’t be stupid.”
3. After seeing all the creative, amazing plots inside Minecraft, I told Number One Son, “I am so embarrassed by your lackadaisical effort. You spend all your time on this, and you only have this pyramid to show for?”
Long story short: We went to Museum of Science and Industry, and a grand time was had by all. I realized one thing: Museum visits become less horrifying once all your children are out of the stroller and have attention span longer than that of a fly.
And really, what kind of monster can resist baby chicks? It’s a shame though: the process of a baby chick pecking its way out of the shell can take up to 10 hours. We did not witness any birthing.
I was very excited to be able to revisit the Twinkie experiment right before closing time. I wrote about this insane plan of MSI back in October 2009: they decided to test whether Twinkie indeed could survive a nuclear Armageddon by leaving a Twinkie out in a display case. I am happy (or actually, horrified) to report that the Twinkie is alive and well, and has not aged a bit.
Here is a picture of the good ol’ Swiss Jolly Ball at MSI. I can stand and watch this thing over and over again. It is a giant pinball machine, essentially. The tour of the ball takes more than 5 minutes to complete. I took a 2-minute video of it because it is awesome and I need more people to know something this fascinating exists near the exit of MSI. Yup. Most people probably don’t even notice it as they rush towards the exit. It bothers me.
Maybe this is exactly how the natural world works: repetitive, fascinating motions. There are many things that I could stand and watch at length. Just watching and being mesmerized. The giant Newton’s Cradle for one. And also something called Avalanche Disk. (The video below is only 30 seconds)
You’ve got to admit, it’s pretty darn cool. No medicinal aid required to get into a trance.
I thought, “Hey, instead of hitting play over and over again, I should just copy and paste the clip to extend it! Multiple times!” Soon, a song popped into my head. The perfect song to accompany my insanity. Oh, sorry, L’insanity. I know this post is now tl;dr. Somebody stop me! I am leaving this 5+ minute video on here because Mr. Blue Sky told me to. I am staring at this video and listening to this song until spring break is over.
Om.
The Coal Mine- haven’t seen it in years but I like that museum an awful lot. Just a really sweet place and easy to get lost in. Time wise that is, easy to lose track of time.
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We don’t see the coal mine because tickets were sold out. But we enjoyed very much the exhibit called Science Storm. It really makes you in awe of mother nature. We alsodidn’t see the Myth Buster exhibit. But really, any more things would have been too overwhelming for me.
So sorry to hear about Mr. Monk’s burns–poor baby. Something very similar happened to my brother when he was little. He lived to tell about it.
Hope you have fun in your next museum adventure.
Hugs,
Kathy
Kathy McCullough recently posted…To Blip or Not to Blip: The Struggle to Collaborate Creatively
Thank you! We went to the aquarium today and it was a lot of fun! There’s an exhibit of jellyfish. Talk about mesmerizing!
I am glad that you did something so fun over break. Kaishon’s is coming up this week. I hope I can muster up the energy to do at least one exciting thing… : )
Life with Kaishon recently posted…If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. ~Mother Teresa
Hey you! 🙂 Sometimes I feel it’s a wasted effort on my part since they probably would be just as happy staying home playing Minecraft. It can get really frustrating because often at the end of the break, they’d whine, “But we didn’t get to go anywhere!” and I understand why animals sometimes eat their young… We are going to the aquarium tomorrow. I don’t care whether they are excited or not. I am going to see Jellyfish!
I love a good science museum.
Now that my kids are older and do not whine (that much), I enjoy going to museums a lot more!