Spring Break!!!

We kicked off our spring break with a trip Indianapolis on Thursday. The 2-hour drive only confirmed we can't take long trips with Kimberly (too many questions & screaming). But we made it our hotel, sanity intact! We had some fun in the pool before a good nights rest. We woke up to eat a delicious breakfast, have another swim, and head to The Indianapolis Children's Museum!!!

So, we weren't the only ones to have this brilliant idea, the line outside the museum was sooooooo long (they were on SB too). We parked 5 blocks away. But it was all worth the wait...WOW... what a museum! Talk about first impressions...dinosaurs busting out of the building!We haven't seen a bigger (5X bigger)and better museum other than COSI in Columbus. Five whole floors of interactive, engaging, colorful, and fun exhibits to explore! It would easily take you 2 days to really experience all the museum has to offer, but we did our best in 5 hours.

Fireworks of Glass was our 1st exhibit to explore and very unique! We saw the largest blown glass tower (43 ft.) made of more than 3,000 glass pieces and a "floating" glass ceiling that was breathtaking! It felt like you were under the ocean watching a dazzling display of colorful seas creatures. The girls got to create their own glass art using an interactive computer. We saw a 55-ton steam engine that was 35' long in the train display. "What if ...?" was an exhibit were we explored a coral reef, an Egyptian tomb with a mummy and dinosaurs. The kids really enjoyed this one! Being able to explore a submarine, break into an ancient Egyptian tomb and discover the identity of the female mummy, write their names in hieroglyphs, reconstruct dinosaur fossils was so exciting.

We watched a live theatrical production of Sleeping Beauty that was amazing. Kimberly was in awe at Sleeping Beauty and her dragon friend Griff. Did you know there is a clock that accurately runs on water? The largest water clock in North America (26' tall) sits in the lobby and helps you keep track of time during your visit. After lunch, we took a few steps back in time to 65 million years ago in the exhibit Dinosphere. We met all our favorite dinosaurs...T-Rex, and Stegosaurus. Plus, we met real paleontologists working on real fossils. Chivalrous knights saved fair maidens from ferocious dragons in the Lego Castle Adventure traveling exhibit. I am always amazed at the wondrous things people
can create/build using only legos! One 13-yr. old boy built this amazing castle scene from scratch. This exhibit was a favorite of everybody!

We finished our long day with a ride on a century old carousel with the original animals and a short visit to Scienceworks (which is very similar to our own kid's museum). A short stop at the gift shop for some goodies and we hit the road. We even drove 7.4 miles out of the way just to get ice cream for our sweet darlings...are we the best parents or what!