There is a Bob the Builder exhibit at the museum right now and we checked that out first. The girls have no clue who Bob the Builder is, but they courteously waved hi to the giant statue of him that stands in the doorway with a friendly smile and a hand in the air. Then...they climbed; they slid; they explored; they ran/crawled like grease lightning; they squealed in glee. And we were just getting started. 

Next was the mock-grocery store/deli. My thoughtful children licked every everything that was on the shelves of the store and I could practically see the thanks written across the faces of the other parents. They must've been so pleased to see their own children handle the still-wet-from-my-daughters'-mouths plastic produce. Then we went to the mock doctor's office. There were a bunch of anatomically correct male and female baby dolls in cradles and The Bug picked up a little boy baby. She looked at it for a minute, then put it down in favor of a girl baby. She gave it a quick inspection and proceeded to hug that doll for about five minutes. Belly made a baby pile with all the other dolls and then tossed each one over her shoulder, creating a new "discarded baby" pile. Nice. After that, we went in some play area that was like a forest. Belly pulled every book off the rack and tossed it (the "discarded book" pile). The Bug stared long and hard at the fish tank. I could practically see her little mind thinking about her favorite book, Good Dog Carl, and how the baby goes swimming in the aquarium. Then we donned waterproof smocks and headed into the water room. The girls were just a little bit too short to have as much fun as I thought they would've, but they still had a great time. The final stop was in a transportation room with a bunch of toy trains and a miniature city bus that the kids can pretend to drive. This was truly the real highlight of the day for The Bug. She LOVED driving that bus. She absolutely refused to let anyone else drive or even help steer it. Belly normally fights pretty hard for what she wants and she wanted to drive that bus. But even she could see that arguing with The Bug on this one was pointless and instead had a rollicking good time playing peek-a-boo, hiding in front of the bus and popping up in the windshield to scream at The Bug.

We are going to get a membership to the museum FOR SURE. The girls were exhausted afterward and almost fell asleep on the way home. Bedtime tonight was quick and easy. I've got two words that pretty much sum it all up: Mama likes.