Winter Break

So most of our Winter Break passed by uneventfully- lazy mornings, playing with new toys, TV time, etc, etc (intermingled with one day of Tyler and Penny puking) but we did have 2 fun days. Wednesday we were going to go to Splash Universe with our new pass Tyler's parents got us. Only as we started our drive there, I realized the pass didn't start until Jan 1st so it wouldn't work yet. This led to some very disappointed kids. I was just grateful we hadn't driven the hour to get there and then realized it wouldn't work. So we came back home, ate lunch and regrouped about where to go. 

We ended up deciding to go  to the Natural History Museum in Ann Arbor. It turns out it closes Jan 1st and will be reopening in a new building (next door) in 2019 so it was lucky we went there. It was really our last chance to see it in that cool historic building. I was worried that the kids would be bored but they actually had a lot of fun. Like any kid, they really enjoyed all the dinosaur bones and exhibits. Honestly, I love that stuff too and wish I was able to read more plaques but kids can be a bit distracting.

Please note the pretend frightened faces in many of the pictures I took- I mean dinosaurs are super terrifying, right?

There was also a lot of heads getting stuck into creepy mouths happening...

And a picture of an adorable posing Penny mixed up with all the head eating.

They had a fun station where the kids could make chairs out of blocks and surprisingly, there chairs actually worked.

They also had mammoth bones that were actually found in Michigan. Pretty Cool! 

Our second fun thing was on Saturday, we finally went to Belle Isle. It's an island off Detroit and it would probably be better to visit in the summer when you can play on the beach and go down a giant slide they have. But we still had fun at the indoor things they had. 

It was freezing outside so I was lucky the kids like to pose and I got two pictures of the cute things outside. A fish riding in a seahorse pulled sleigh and my 3 little snowmen.

Our first stop was at the Aquarium. It was nothing fancy but it had some fun fishes & reptiles. A favorite was the alligator turtle that sat at the bottom of it's cage waiting for prey. Everyone had to do their best imitation of it.

They also had a clownfish (Nemo), electric eels, seahorses, and stingrays which were also some of their favorites.

After that we walked quickly through the speedy cold and into the Conservatory. This was a nice warm place with lots of neat plants. We made Steven stand by a plant called "dumb cane." He did not appreciate us making him pose by it. Lucy, however, was very willing to pose by this pretty, bright plant below. 

I think the banana trees were a favorite- of mine too! There's just something cool about a banana tree. Maybe because you don't see them very often?

I especially loved the dessert room. Tyler, was not impressed. I loved seeing all the cool different kinds of cactus's and succulents. I made Tyler take a picture with me and he refused to smile nicely- until I decided to be silly too. He's seriously the worst to take pictures with.

Our last stop on Belle Isle was the Great Lakes Museum. It wasn't a very big museum but their was some fun interactive stuff. It was too bad our kids were being cranks and deciding to fight about every little thing (even who got to pose in a picture first). We didn't last too long at it due to their cranky-tudes.

The building this museum was in was really a neat, historic building with lots of ornate carvings and this neat stained glass display.

Ben worked hard on loading the boat so that it wasn't tipsy and wouldn't crash.

The girls learned how to communicate with flags. Ok, Penny just waved them around but Lucy tried to spell the letters in her name with them.

There was a neat part of the museum that made you feel like you were at the front of the ship, steering it along. It gave a nice view of the Detroit river and the kids enjoyed pretending to man the ship- even if they kept fighting over whose turn it was *sigh*

And those were our adventures for our first week of Winter Break. Next week Tyler goes back to work and the week is busy with a couple appointments and babysitting for a friend one day so these might be our only adventures for Winter Break. I am definitely feeling like I can relate to the line in the Christmas song that says, "Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again." Oh, children.