MPM

For MLK, we went to the MPM.

The Milwaukee Public Museum was just right.  Not too big and not too small.  We really enjoyed visiting.


Dinosaurs are always a big hit.  David and Mary love to determine if a dinosaur is an herbivore or carnivore.

Here is David posed at the edge of a (fake) glacier.

Our house is at what once was the edge of a glacier.  So is David's school.


There was an AMAZING butterfly house.  Greg and I thought it was wonderful!

Our kids did not.  They were totally FREAKED OUT.  ?!?!?  (By the way, David told me not to tell anyone that he was afraid of butterflies.  Oops.  I just told the whole world.)

But Mary was pleased as punch to perch on this giant beetle.  Whatever.

I really liked the European Village.  It was a quick, easy, and effective way to compare and contrast a lot of European cultures.  (Rick Steves is right--Europe is an amazing place!  Such diversity of culture in a relatively small area.)  Last summer paid off.  My kids can identity a Scandinavian house versus a German one.  Kind of freaky.  (The best part of the whole day was when we walked by the Russian house.  David spontaneously broke out into a Russian dance. So adorable I almost died.)

Before we stopped for lunch, I told the kids they had to smile for a picture. No smiles? No lunch.

Mary was grumpy.  But, as you can see, David was very hungry and determined to get lunch.

After lunch we headed upstairs.  I really enjoyed the third floor.  You could cover Africa, Asia, Australia, Oceania, South and Central America in less than an hour.  Sure, the collections weren't as extensive, important, or impressive as, say the Field Museum or the British Museum.  But it also wasn't overwhelming.  It was manageable and provided a nice overview.  Also, I'm a fan of the good old-fashioned diorama. (David especially enjoyed the miniature ones.)

As our kids get older, outings like this become more and more fun.  It was a great way to spend the day.

P.S.  It was super easy to love the MPM because we didn't have to pay for admission--our Boonshoft Museum membership got us in the door.  We keep renewing our membership year after year.  Love the Boonshoft!

Even more fun with Marie

On Tuesday I gave Mary and David the choice between taking Marie strawberry picking or to visit a museum in Milwaukee.

This isn't a strawberry.  (Though we call that little girl a Mary-berry.)

It's Discovery World in downtown Milwaukee, right on the shore of Lake Michigan.  It's a building that fully capitalizes on its beautiful location on a pier.

Inside the museum there are many views like this to be had.

(Also of note are the two siblings who at that moment were not bickering.  Perhaps someone would care to nominate me for a Nobel Peace Prize--I do manage to negotiate an occasional truce. And sometimes my camera even records affection.)

On such a perfect day in such a beautiful setting, we had to spend a good deal of time exploring outside the museum (and taking pictures).

I love these silly heads.

David and Mary were obsessed with running around and finding spider webs.  They made a competition  between them of who could find the most spider webs.  (There were so many to be found that we lost count and they both "won.")

Marie and Mary in front of the "bendy-building."  I believe it's the Milwaukee art museum.  And it's pretty obvious (too obvious?) that it's supposed to look like a sailboat.  But Mary insisted that it looked like I building that was bent, so she called it the "bendy-building."

I had no intention of taking more than one or two pictures that day.  But it was gorgeous outside and the kids WANTED to pose for me!  They were begging me to take their pictures.  What the heck?  Is Lake Michigan some sort of weird energy vortex that changes your kids' personalities?  So, how could I not take a bunch of pictures?

We ventured out over the water.  Everyone was very brave.  (Must be that vortex thing working again.)

And when David decided to jump from rock to rock, I did not completely freak out into panicked hysterics.  (Yes, there definitely must some kind of mind altering energy vortex down there.)

We, of course, also spent plenty of time inside Discovery World, which is a science museum.

Two thumbs up for "the water wing."  There's an aquarium, which includes a large tank of fish native to the Great Lakes.  (Now I finally know what the famous sturgeon looks like.  David liked the paddle fish best.) In fact, there is a whole exhibit on the Great Lakes which was pretty neat.  The aquarium also included an underwater research area that really captured David's imagination.

Mary asks over and over to explain what happens to the water after she flushes the toilet, and her civil engineer father isn't always around to tell her.  So I appreciated the exhibit on fresh water (though there was too much information about too many aspects of fresh water in too small an area--but at least I was able to glean from it an explanation to satisfy Mary's curiosity).

There is also a life-size replica of a 19th-century Great Lakes schooner.  We had a great time exploring the ship.  It was wonderful!  Look at the adorable captain at the wheel.

On that side of the museum was also the best exhibit/explanation of simple machines (like levers, pulleys, and wedges) that I've seen.  My unscientific mind even had a few scientific "ah-ha" moments.  (Vortex?)

I'd give the technology wing of the building mixed reviews.  Way too much crammed in there.  (I hate it when museums go for "shock and awe" over genuine educational value.)  There was an interesting Les Paul exhibit, and David and I were able to light a bulb for a few seconds by running on a giant hamster wheel.  But the best part was the bed of nails!  David bravely volunteered to try it out for us.

Check him out!

Ouch?

Nope.  David reported that it felt like lots of tiny stings but that it was relaxing and didn't hurt.  (He's been going through kind of a scaredy-pants phase lately, so I was a little surprised he actually went through with the whole bed of nails thing.  He was so proud of himself!  I was proud of him too!  Woo-hoo!  You just never know when you're going to need a bed of nails to restore your kid's confidence.)

I think it's fair to say we had a great time.  Then we drove back to Madison, stopped for an hour at the park to play scuba diving and hide-n-seek, and then went straight to David's gymnastics class.  I was pooped by then--I don't know how David managed all those cartwheels and somersaults after such a long day.  Whew!

Let's just say we all slept soundly that night.