Dino Days

MJ and I took the kids to a dinosaur exhibit last weekend, and we had a great time. 

I was worried that the dinosaurs (animatronic, so they move and make noise) might be scary for the kids, so I spent the last week stomping around the house and roaring like a dinosaur, making them giggle like crazy, hoping that it would keep them from getting scared. If anyone would have seen me through the windows of our house, they would have thought I was a crazy woman! 

But I think it (kind of) helped. CC was a little nervous at first, but eventually asked to walk back through the exhibit area twice. Sweet Pea wasn't scared at all -- she stomped around and roared right back at them! But poor Little Man completely lost it the minute we walked in. His body went rigid and trembling, his face turned red, and he screamed bloody murder. 

Fortunately, the animatronic dinosaurs were only half of the fun. The other half of the exhibit hall was full of dinosaur-themed bounce houses! We spent most of our time there. Many of the bouncing areas were restricted to children under 6, which was nice. And since we'd arrived the minute the doors opened in the morning, we had the place mostly to ourselves for a while.

CC climbed up this "rock wall" in the blink of an eye:

Sweet Pea is turning into quite the climber. I'm glad she's so tiny for her age, because her short arms and legs keep her from climbing more! She figured out how to climb up onto the bouncy slide after I showed her just once:

One step ... 

Two steps ...

Success!

Little Man had a blast running around inside the bounce houses, and climbing in and out:

CC successfully completed an inflated dinosaur maze (twice):

There were a few administrative glitches. First, no one was allowed in the bouncy houses without socks on. My kids, of course, all showed up wearing sandals. Conveniently, the gift shop sold socks. Sigh. We're now the proud owners of three pairs of unnecessary, too-big, ugly socks.

Also, although the website for the exhibit clearly said that children under 2 were admitted free of charge, it failed to mention that children under 2 were not permitted in any of the bouncy houses. This could have completely ruined our day, except for a staff member who nicely looked the other way. Whew.

I just love how Sweet Pea and Little Man are old enough to really enjoy family outings now! I am excited for more things like this in the future.