Nature Museum

Tuesday was a rainy day so went to our neighborhood library to get a museum pass. Chicago allows residents to check out free passes to any of the main museums, but the super popular ones are often checked out. The plan for today was to head to the library and just check out the best available pass, allowing fate to dictate the specifics of our Tuesday outing. As it turned out, most of the passes were in, so fate wasn't being very specific.  We (I) chose to go to the Peggy Notebaert Nature museum, where they have a bunch of nice stuff, including a butterfly habitat.

 Before we left, the kids selected some books to check out. Iris made a scene in the library by inexplicably falling off the reading chair and landing on her face.  I mean, she just wiped out hard, and for no apparent reason.  Did she cry?  Yes.

The ride to the museum was informative, kind of like a tour with our own little docent, Sam.   "Daddy, when i cry, my eyes get very wet"... "Grapes have juice inside. When you smush them you can feel it on your fingers"..."Ants kill people when they get mad, but sometimes they are nice"..."Conductors think that freight trains are people, but they are not people".  It was a very informative experience, and to top it off we got free parking right by the museum, which was under attack by some sort of organic steel sex alien.

yikes!

We employed the Bystander Effect and just tried to find the entrance without getting too involved.

The butterlies were pretty, mostly, at least the fluttery ones.  There was this one kind that was way too big, still with its fat caterpillar body but with bat wings.  It was slow and buzzy, and I did not want it to land on my shoulder, i wanted to hit it with a tennis racquet.  There were also lots taxidermized wolves, deer, birds, porcupines, and raccoons that caught the kids' attention.  I avoided the whole "dead" discussion, telling them that these were "statues". "Look, honey, a statue of a bald eagle!"

one of the pretty ones

awwww

Back at home, after naps, the kids started getting a little bonkers, so we (I) made some play-doh. For you make-at-home play-doh-ers, I made two batches, one with the cream of tartar and one without.  It turns out the same either way, and is much cheaper without the c.o.t. addtion.  I can only assume that it's in the recipe to give an acidic taste to the doh so kids won't want to eat it.  That's the least of my worries.  I'd pay a pretty penny for some additive that would discourage kids from sticking their chins in it and shaping it into large balls to throw around the house.

Fun Rating:  9 out of 10.  I like to get out in the city, and things just kind of worked out well today.