Dozin' With the Dinos

I took off the last Friday in March. It was the last day of Spring Break and neither Noah or Wyatt had school so I pulled the other two from daycare and took them all to see Dumbo. I thought it was better than the original.

The real reason I had the day off, though, was to take Noah on our next overnight adventure. This time we slept over at the Field Museum.

Waiting for the orientation to start.

This is Max, the dinosaur who took over Sue's spot in the lobby.

They had some extra activities set up for the kids there such as dissecting owl pellets

And taking a field class where they made a drawing of some animals

They also had some extra objects out to look and learn about

The special exhibits were closed, but that didn't stop us from taking a picture at their entrance

Of course, we had to do the dinosaur wing. I had no idea that these prehistoric flyers were this big.

Sneaking a peek at the skyline out the window

Finally, we made it to the new Sue exhibit. They wouldn't let anyone sleep there.

This life-size dinosaur experience really made the exhibit come alive.

Check it out here:

https://youtu.be/NRQH-2vAXIQ

After snack they had a story time

And we were able to go exploring the museum in the dark. Our group was assigned to the African mammals section. Noah and I chose a cozy corner next to some antelope-type creatures.

I found the best spot in our area because it ended in a dead end.

This charming fellow watched me sleep all night. He was slightly illuminated, so whenever I woke up, there he was staring down at me.

In the morning we had breakfast and then got to spend the rest of the day in the museum.

But first we had to move the car to a metered spot.

We made a second stop to visit Sue

And I had to go back and put more money in our meter, so Noah hung out with friends while I made the long hike back to the car

Later that day, even though were were a little tired, we decided to go ice skating with Wyatt's best friend. This was Wyatt's first time ice skating (not counting the fake rink in the Commons) and he loved it. Noah also did much better than he did back when he briefly took lessons as a three year old.

He was so proud to show off to me that he was skating without the bars.

 CeCe and I had fun just watching.

Games, Painting, and Axe Throwing

One morning I woke up to find Noah teaching Charlotte to play his Labyrinth game.

And later they sat together while Noah played on his tablet. Too cute.

We signed Wyatt up for pitch baseball this spring, so we had to make a run to the sporting goods store to get him a bat, glove, and helmet. I really liked this yellow helmet because I would have no trouble spotting him on the field (spoiler alert: it worked).

Eating some grilled cheese on what looks to be a mommy and me Tuesday

One night we met up with Grandpa and Cheryl to throw some axes around. It was a birthday gift from Uncle Kurt who likes to buy us interesting experiences. It was a little tricky, but we got the hang of it and nobody cut off any toes.

My best throw of the night

Grandpa was pretty good at it

Nick misses and Grandpa hits:

https://youtu.be/IgHZd3pX0uY

Even though it wasn't warm enough, Charlotte insisted on wearing her new shirt.

With March came the annual Spaghetti dinner fundraiser for Scouts

Charlotte's room became increasingly messy. Partly due to the fact that she never actually slept there and so had no real reason to have to walk through her room.

We took the kids to a ceramic painting event at the nature center.

We also ran into some Little Sprout friends there

And it finally got warm enough for park time without coats on. We took Wyatt to the Kindergarten Center's playground so he could become familiar with the school.

One monkey

Two monkeys

Three monkeys

That night was game night and Nick picked Monopoly. Wyatt and Nick were a team, Charlotte and I were a team, and Noah played by himself. Noah won.

 Game Night Sample:

https://youtu.be/UchnOZx9S5Y