On the third day of Spring Break

We went to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum with the kids. We spent about 5 hours inside playing. Mom and Dad were absolutely exhausted by the end of the day.

Michael ran from exhibit to exhibit. At first we tried to keep him in the sightline the entire time, but that became absolutely impossible and we gave him a little leeway to do his own thing, checking in on him every 20 minutes or so, and he did really well. I was VERY impressed with his ability to be deferential and sharing with others. He certainly did me proud. It was not the order of the day with lots of the kids, so I was very impressed that he kept his head and manners, even when others around him were not.

Hannah also ran off and played with little friends she met along the way. We also kept an eye on her, but it was pretty easy. She stayed in the little playhouse, grocery store, farm, and water area almost exclusively. She was extremely social and made so many little new friends all day long.

Garrett and McKay proved to be a little more tricky to contain. They were the ones we followed and kept close tabs on. (McKay kept wanting to go into the gift shop to play. He was having a hard time drawing a line with what toys were there to be played with and which were there to be purchased.) This will also explain why most of the pictures are of those two and Ella. Ella was content to be carried around and then play with whatever the others were playing with.

Overall, it was a very fun afternoon and the kids did a great job of playing nicely within boundries with a little bit of independence.

McKay LOVED this ball area. Especially this little lift system. He always came back here. He would venture to visit the other exhibits, but he would check back over and over.

Ella just happily played with whatever the other kids were interested in, and didn't complain when it was time to move on.

Garrett loved making BIG sounds on the HUGE xylophone.

Hannah socializing. This pretty much sums up Hannah's whole day.

Michael and McKay sending messages across the atrium.

Cartooning.

So, if we divide X by the square root of pi....

In the doghouse...

This is one reason we don't let Garrett drive the car.

He's a grocery pro.

Amazing Spiderman

Peek-a-boo!