Our Valentine's Surprise

Alayna has been learning about dinosaurs in science class and had been VERY interested in them. Each night she comes home and tells us the things she learned that day. Lilly has been taking an interest with her, so it's great to see Alayna teach Lilly what she knows. Of course, whatever the big girls do, the littlest tries to do. So while Mikayla doesn't understand the difference between a meat-eater or plant-eater, she knows what dinosaurs look like and that they roared.

While talking about Valentine's earlier this week, Andy and I decided to bring the girls to the Science Museum of Minnesota. We didn't tell them this, so Saturday morning we got ready and just left the house. The girls had no idea where we were going. When we were very near the museum, we realized the upper entrance to the parking ramp was closed. We had to drive past the museum and enter the ramp from below. Alayna instantly saw the museum and said "It would be so cool to go to the Science Museum! I bet they have dinosaurs and cool experiments there!" Hmmm, really? You can imagine her surprise when we went around and she could read that we were entering the Science Museum Parking Ramp.

The first thing we went to see were the dinosaurs, of course. The older girls were just enthralled to actually see them up close like that. They exclaimed several times over the size of them and both girls immediately studied their teeth to determine what they ate. They thought it was "sooo cool!" to give a direct quote.

The girls with the Triceratops

Alayna with an Allosaurus and a domed/turtle-like dino (think like those in Ice Age)

The Diplodocus from the floor above. This was the most impressive, being a big "long-neck."

Mikayla checking out the scenery

After the dinos, we went to the Human Body exhibit. Here we could do all sorts of fun things like learn about our eyesight, hearing, how blood works, what our muscles do, etc. Lilly's favorite part here was a girl that "sneezed" on you, then told you the mechanics of a sneeze. She probably got sneezed on about 20 times.

Lilly checking out the electrical currents in her muscles

The girls putting a cell back together

After visiting some other areas of the museum, we entered the Collector's Gallery. This is an exhibit that displays several different collections, from pottery to rocks to bones to animals from around the world. While the little girls played in the adjoining play area, Alayna spent about 30 mins looking at slides through a microscope. She LOVED it. She looked at sand, bugs, hair, tissue, etc. We literally had to pull her away from the scopes so we could finish the day!

Alayna and the microscope

Daddy and Mikayla check out a brown bear

Lilly building a tower

Mikayla doing a puzzle

We will definitely have to go back again. Alayna really wanted to take her time and read all the placards, do all the fun experiments, etc. But with Mikayla getting tired and other plans for the day, we didn't get as much time as she'd wished. We also would like to bring Alayna to the OmniTheatre, too, but the other girls are too small yet. So in the future, we'll be making another trip to the big museum.