Field Trip!

Last week a friend of mine and I took our combined 4 kids to Columbia for some fun. We started at the Riverbanks Zoo, but for some reason that we never quite figured out (a Justin Beiber appearance!?), the zoo. was. packed. Like, not just busy, but CRAZY-packed. Like overflow parking lot packed. I'm not much of a zoo person to start with, but the idea of cramming outside of the lion exhibit while 1,349 other people invaded my personal space did NOT sound enjoyable whatsoever.

So we turned our strollers around, packed the kids back into the Sienna and hit the road. Destination? Columbia Children's Museum. It was only a short 5-minute drive and before you knew it, we were in a beautifully spacious parking lot, standing behind the only other person in line purchasing tickets, and well on our way to some museum fun!

The kids all had a great time and it was a wonderful way to spend a Spring Break day. Here are some pics of our fun!

Here are the kids posing next to a super freaky-looking fireman statue. Chase wasn't too excited about posing for pics.

Here's a scary glimpse of what lies ahead in the future. Seriously, like only 10 years away. SCARY!

The kids really enjoyed this wall of magnetic gears, and I had to snap a picture because it was amazing to see the kids playing TOGETHER and not annoying the crap out of each other. Win!

LO climbed up on a huge tire just so I could take her pic! But of course I didn't really get the tire in the pic so you can't really see how massive it was...

Chase playing a fun Q&A game.

Ah, yes. A ginormous water table experience. Truly the best part of Chase's day. The pictures (and soaking wet outfit) are proof!

So handsome!

This kid was putting his arm -- up to his shoulder -- in the water, playing with plastic boats.

He got a wee bit wet...

He loved turning the crank that sprayed water everywhere.

LO had a turn, too, but made sure to stay dry the entire time.

See? Told ya it was the best part of his day. :)

Splashing. Water. Everywhere.

Sinking and splashing his plastic boats.

Inside the museum there was a huge, oversized chair, so I thought it'd be great to get a pic of the kids together. Check out the progression:

LO kind of maybe loving on her brother??

A deep discussion between the two, most likely over whether or not to give mommy the shot she wants.

Cheese it out!!! Although neither of them are looking anywhere near the camera, I still love that they're sitting less than a foot apart and actually SMILING and not HITTING! :)

This was one of the coolest things! There's a color that shows up in the center and you're supposed to touch all of the blocks with that color so they turn off. Once you do that, the next color shows up and so on. The kids (and mommy!) all loved it!

I had to share one more pic of the kids... You can't really see their faces, they aren't necessarily smiling, but they ARE playing TOGETHER and I have to document that as much as possible since it truly happens so very rarely...

We had a great time and the kids really loved it! I'm thinking I'll try to take them back to our local Children's Museum soon since I'm sure they'll love it, too!