Museum of Science and Industry

Today we went to one of my favorite places to bring kids in Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry.  This is not in the city, per se, but it is awesome and huge and has a lot to offer for the little guys.  There is a play lab for little kids to run around in, with a water stream and all sorts of obstacles that kids can put balls through.  There is an area for little's to climb around in, and Baby James loved it!  Joel Andrew was a little annoyed that he was now too old to climb around in the baby area, but quickly got over it and was excited to learn in the big kid play space.

Right next to this area is the tractors.  It is surprising how many tractors John Deere must have donated to museums in the mid-west, because this was Joel Andrew's second or third time in one?  We ran through this fast and then went to have lunch in the cafeteria, which was not half bad.  Joel Andrew even got a huge blue choo-choo cookie (he asked nicely and usually never eats the things so I thought why not?  I can use it to have him eat a good lunch).  He ended up loving it but luckily understood that he was only allowed two bites and he would get more after dinner tonight...maybe...

Then, the piece de resistance, the choo-choo area. They have a huge hall of trains, with all sorts of cabooses and engines you can go in and out of, as well as in the center of the room a massive train table with a recreated Chicago and midwest.  Joel Andrew and Grumpy were in heaven.

We zipped right out of there - home for naptime.  We will get to go back, with Daddy on Sunday (Mom's ASTC-ACM covers us again!) - and see the many other things, the additional John Deere's, the hatchery, the space shuttle, the wind area, the light area, pretty much everything else a science museum would have.  It will be nice to have Mommy-Daddy-Joel time there (Ama and Grumpy will stay home with James).

Sidebar: Tomorrow night is daylight savings time. We did all this work keeping the kids on east coast time this whole week, because when we get home James starts daycare right away and I wanted him to be as close to schedule as possible...  And now I find out it is daylight savings time?!  I am so glad I kept them on East Coast time, because then we would have had two hours to make up and adjust to on our return!

UPDATE: Joel Husband and I went back to the Museum with just Joel Andrew, and had a blast.  This time we went to the submarine exhibit which was HUGE.  Like the size of the whole museum.  This would be great if the boys were 7 and 5 or older...  We also walked around some of the big kid exhibits, like how to make a toy.  It really is an awesome Museum.  The big bummer, it is not near food.  But the cafeteria is not too bad.  It is about a $20 cab ride from downtown (or $20 to park there) - but it is so worth the morning you will have.  We went twice this trip and still I have only seen about 1/2 of the place!