Museum Madness

Since we had the day off school, we knew we wanted to go play. However, it was windy and cold so we were searching for something indoors. We ruled out anything local, knowing that with all the schools out we would run into crowds. We finally decided on the Betty Brinn Children's Museum in Milwaukee because they were having a Halloween "event". We tried to remember if we had a long weekend last Halloween too. I quickly checked my blog archives and found that we did, and that we went to the Kohl's Children's Museum in North Chicago. You can click here if you want a recap. I found it amusing to look at how much Chloe has changed in a year.

Anyhow, I warned Jen that the museum in Milwaukee is much more stressful, because the crowds are always bigger, and the layout is a mess. They have some great exhibits and they make changes more often than the other museum, but all the exhibits run into each other so there is no open space. It is also crazier because it is right downtown, so you have to deal with city traffic and parking garages. Since the Hawley girls had only been to the one in Chicago, we decided to go for it.

I'll be honest. It WAS stressful. We got lost looking for the parking garage they referred us to (their garage is closed). We ended up taking quite the tour of downtown Milwaukee. I will admit that it is much less stressful to be lost in Milwaukee than Chicago. When we finally arrived, there were no restaurants in walking distance (at least not with 6 kids in the windy cold) and we didn't want to drive, because then we'd have to pay for another parking garage. We decided to make do with what they offered in their gift shop. Luckily our kids never complained about their lunch and we had a good laugh as we laid out their feast before them. I think they were still hungry, because when one of the trick-or-treat stations had string cheese sticks the kids all tore right into them like wolves.

It was incredibly crowded and pretty unnerving trying not to lose any kids, but the kids had a great time. They had no idea how much anxiety it was causing their mommies. No one got lost, and we made it home safely, so I guess in the end, it was a success. I did make a mental note to only go play in Illinois when there is no school in Wisconsin in the future. Apparently everyone in Wisconsin was out of school today and looking for a warm place to play.

Our makeshift lunch

This exhibit is a blast. The kids create a newscast. They even operate the cameras and report in front of a green screen. Alyssa once spent her entire museum day right there. So cute!

One of my favorite new exhibits was the life sized board game. You moved through the game board by making healthy choices, solving health riddles, and completing health related activities. There were dozens of stops along the way and I enjoyed going through with the kids as well. It was also easy to keep them together during this exhibit, so that was a plus.

Solving a riddle. The answer for this one was: You are what you eat.

One stop was a fast food window and they had to order a healthy entree, drink and two sides before they could move on.

I loved this Price is Right style wheel. If you landed on an unhelthy food item, WHOA would light up and you could not move forward. If you landed on a healthy food item, GO would light up and you were free to move forward.

We went to a Halloween storytime, which was another mommy favorite because they were contained in the theater where we could watch them more easily. Chloe especially loved the fun stories. Alyssa was chosen to be in the puppet show and I was very nervous for her, but luckily they assigned her to be a tree and all her puppet had to do was wave in the wind. I think if she'd had to speak we may have had a problem.

When the girls saw me with the camera they all three held up their cheese sticks and said cheese. They thought that was so funny.

Also, it turns out that Seth did feel left out from pumpkin carving. He went and got a pumpkin tonight to carve for Alex. He was much faster and more efficient than we were. We added his pumpkin to the lot.

By the way, this is a SUPER huge costume hint.

That is all the Halloween I have for you today, but I do have a batch of cookies all cut out and baked, with a base coat of icing on them, ready to be painted tomorrow. And tomorrow is trunk or treat, which means costume pictures are coming!

Also, did you know that if you go in to IHOP tomorrow, all kids 12 and under get a free scary face pancake? I may or may not get over there, depending on what time I get up and get my chili in the crock pot for tomorrow night, but I thought I'd pass that info along in case anyone was interested.