Adventure Tuesday: San Diego

For our San Diego style adventure we headed to the New Children's Museum, which puts a modern art slant on museums for kids. Truman had a blast with his Nana, though much of the stuff was geared toward older children.







My mom pretending to be a rock-throwing giant in the toddler area:








They had a giant room filled with old mattresses to jump on and these pillows shaped like tires My mom took these lovely photos:

Adventure Tuesday: Minnesota Science Museum

(What's that weird thing bisecting the picture, you ask? Why it's Truman's painting I just happen to snap as it whisked to the ground.)


We cheated and did Adventure Tuesday on Monday this week with Sarah and Khai because the Science Museum runs a special Preschool Playdate event on Mondays. Kids under 5 are free and there are activities specifically geared toward little ones, such as watercolor painting and fun with wind tunnels, both of which we tried.

Truman loved just about everything and ran all around the museum like a banshee. Although I guess a banshee would probably float. He found a small living room built into the middle of the light exhibit where families cool read books and take a rest. He was having a good time there until he noticed that there was a tiny closet-sized office tucked into the corner that contained a computer and other office accompaniments. Of course, this quickly became the most interesting exhibit on display.

The museum worker was kind enough to show them some special non-exhibit items from the closet-office — a ball that lit up when you touched two metal segments on it and a strange puzzle that involved a glass tube, sand and a ball bearing that she challenged me to solve ("I bet mommy can't even figure that one out"). I was on my way to proving her wrong when he realized the light up ball, like all balls, looked great when you throw it and we began bouncing from exhibit to exhibit for a while.

We forgot to pick up the paintings the boys made, but here are some pictures of the painting process:















Oh, and he loved the musical stairs just as much as you would expect a budding audiophile to.

Mill City Adventure Tuesday

\





I met up with my friends Pat and Heather for an educational Adventure Tuesday at the Mill City Museum, where we were treated to this gorgeous view of the river. After watching me snapping away with my lens nudged against the glass, the tour guide kindly pointed me onto a balcony. My lens and I were thankful; these were the result:













The museum, housed in the old Gold Medal Flour mill, offered more than just a pretty view. We learned a lot about the history of the mill and Minneapolis. Did you know that for a while Minneapolis milled more flour than anywhere else in the world? There were lots of hands-on activities geared toward older children; Truman's favorites involved water (no surprise). We also road the excitingly named "flour tower," which was a lot less like the Power Tower than some would hope, but much less nauseating.

In fact, we left the museum hungry, on our way to The Spaghetti Factory for lunch.







This is what I would look like if I were insane, but enthusiastic (notice the thumbs up?) living in a giant field of wheat:




This is what it looks like when play food at a play dinner table is inexplicably glued together and you try to indulge in a nice slice of felt bread while your child wonders where their bread is:




Not enough pictures of me looking crazy for you? After the museum, Pat and Heather headed home and we went to visit my friend Vanessa, where I became a robot:



Or maybe an iPod, depending on your preference.

Chariot's Maiden Vogage: Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge

Joe has been playing basketball Tuesday nights, so Truman and I have been taking day trips fondly refered to as adventure Tuesdays.

Last Tuesday Truman and I took our new bike trailer (called a chariot) out for it's maiden trip — a jaunt around the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge. Intense gusts of wind and the slippery sandy trail cut out trip short, but we did get a chance to stop and eat lunch near the eagle's nest. I think I need to do some longer paved drives before I attempt this again, but the trip was still exciting. I found an eagle look-out point and we saw a huge snake. SSSSSssssss is Truman's favorite animal sound, probably because it's also our sound effect for peeing.

Hmm, he must think snakes are always peeing.