Thursday, April 06, 2006

Spring Break, Day 4

We made it to day 4 (not counting weekends) of Spring Break. Only one day left (not counting weekends) before the my sweet little angels thankfully go back to school.

Because of the Septic Saga, we could not afford to actually go away for Spring Break (although I really prefer not to go anywhere during Spring Break because it seems like half the world is on Spring Break too. I would rather go somewhere - usually the beach - during our school's winter break in February, but again the Septic Saga prevented that as well. I promise one day I'll tell you about the Septic Saga.) so I chose do take the kids on a couple of day trips instead. Monday was the Mayfield Dairy and shoe shopping at the Mall of Georgia (I know you're thinking "shoe shopping again!?!?", but with 5 kids there is always someone needing new shoes).

Today we went to the Fernbank Museum, which we will probably not do again. The kids had a good time (we left P home with Nan) and it was very interesting, but once you've seen it, there's just not much to pull you back. Maybe we'd go to the IMAX again if they were showing something really good. After paying $56 for one adult and 3 kids (J is still free) to get into the museum and see the IMAX movie, we spent some time with the dinosaurs and then checked out the Chocolate Exhibit, which was not terribly child friendly nor overly exciting, despite the fact that chocolate is my most favorite thing (I even gave a speech on chocolate in my HS freshman speech class). We did however leave with a bit of chocolate, not for free but for $8. Very smart of the museum people to force visitors through a chocolate gift shop before leaving the exhibit. And no it wasn't even great chocolate, merely okay. But $8 is worth avoiding a tantrum times 4 (yes, my 9 year old still has tantrums on occasion, although they aren't the kicking and screaming variety anymore and M & E can cry on command, so better to just pay the money and avoid the spectacle.)

We moved next to the museum's permanent exhibit - Georgia in Time (or something like that) which started with the Big Bang and worked it's way up to I suppose the present, but we turned back at the Giant Sloth because it was getting close to our IMAX movie time and the exhibit seemed to have worked itself into a cul-de-sac (but now that I think about it, perhaps the corridor that looked like it only went into another viewing room for a short film was really the way to the rest of the exhibit) so we worked our way back to the Big Bang and a definite exit.

After stopping for a short chocolate break, we saw Wild Safari at the IMAX, which was really good, but not very wild.

Next was Lunch, with a capital L because it cost us $30. Why didn't I pack lunches, you ask. Why didn't I take them to a less expensive place outside the museum? First, I hate packing lunches and it didn't really occur to me this morning. Second it's way more fun if you get to eat out. Third, there's no way I was going to walk four kids back through the whole museum, load them in the car, go crazy trying to get them to agree on one place to eat, while driving around the city that I'm only marginally familiar with and seems to be strangely devoid of fast food. So pizza and hot dogs at the museum dining room it was.

Perhaps the best part of the museum was the Nature of Senses room. The room was full of activities for the kids, mostly involving optical illusions and the like, complete with explanations of why they worked and what was happening. Great for the 9 year old who can read. Not so great for the 5 year olds who really can't read and the nearly 3 year old who had to be boosted up to everything. And really not so great for the mommy who was pulled in 3 different directions trying to help them all. But despite that it was great fun -- especially the bubble tub. I really need to get a BIG bubble maker.

Overall it was a great day, but I don't think we need to go back anytime soon. Next time we'll go to the Fernbank Science Center and visit the Planetarium.

1 comment:

April said...

Whew what an expensive day out! Should have just went on vacation somewhere, lol.