Our Favorite Field Trip

After all the snow we had from the day before, I was very happy that we had a sunny day today. I had to go to the "big city" for an appointment with my endocrinologist. I didn't want to loose the school day, so I decided to head over to the Maine State Museum when I was done so the kids could have a fun field trip.

The kids love all the exhibits. I love that they allow homeschoolers (and any school) in for free. It's not that expensive to begin with, but free is so nice.

The day began at my endo's office. I had four kiddos with me. My sister usually watches some for me, but she's been busy with my mom lately so I just took them with me. I had Miss L along for the ride as well. My plan was for B & N to just stay in the waiting room & play quietly. B is old enough to watch N & N's old enough to behave. The waiting room is very small & I knew they would be okay. They were. I took J & Miss L in the room with me & that went relatively well also. My numbers still aren't great but they are slowly getting there. We tweaked some numbers & we'll see how that works.

From here we headed to McDonald's for lunch. This alone would have thrilled my kids. I'm pretty sure it was Miss L's first visit. She loved it.

After lunch I went & picked up my nephew. My sister was with my Mom & my BIL was heading off to work & then to help my Dad get some things ready at the house.

Since we've been to the museum so much, I wanted to do something a bit different this time. I had the boys pose in front of their favorite exhibits. My goal was to have them write about them but that hasn't happened quite yet.

This train (The Lion) is right in the foyer of the museum & one of the first things you see when you enter. This is hands down N & J's (and their cousin's) favorite exhibit. N says he likes it because "it's cool and big."

I started out carrying Miss L like this...

That lasted for one exhibit. Then I sent B back to get a stroller. This "little" girl weighs close to 30 pounds. Phew! While it would have been an excellent workout I didn't think I could manage. Plus the stroller allowed us to use the elevator - another big plus for the boys.

Smile!

Another favorite exhibit is the "vehicle" room. In that room is also a display showing an iron ore smelter. They have wax figures throughout. They also have sound buttons so that some of the displays make noise. In the vehicle room there are three noise buttons. One at the ore smelter to make the sound of the furnace roaring, one near the Model T to sound the horn, and one on a boat to sound the motor. There are also "touch boxes" throughout & in this room there is a real horn that they all can take turns tooting.

There is also a great display on Civil War artifacts. Here B is posing near the cannon balls.

This past fall the museum added a really neat display called "At Home in Maine." I love going through it because it has so many things similar to what I had growing up. For example, when I was a small girl my mom had a wringer washer. I remember her hooking it up to the kitchen sink to do the laundry. In fact, the first time I went through this display, I called her to see if she knew were all her stuff was because they have so many neat things here.

So what are these silly boys doing???

They are making faces of themselves in the mirror. This is the "attic" display & it's a lot of fun to go through.

We had a long day & by the time I got back to near where I lived I still had to do grocery shopping. (I dropped Miss L off at home on my way.) I had a babysitter coming the next day to watch the boys while I spent the day at the hospital with my Mom. I had pretty much nothing in the house to eat and this was my only chance. I dragged all four boys through Wal-Mart and Hannaford (our local grocery store - wait our only grocery store).

My BIL was on his way to pick up my nephew & so I didn't want to go all the way home & it was now 6:30pm. I also did not want to eat at McDonald's again so I decided to try Pizza Hut. I knew most would be okay with this but B would revolt. He does not like to eat pizza. I was right. He didn't eat until we got home. The other boys loved eating here for the first time.

It was a long day but a lot of fun.