A Day At The Museum!

My best friend, Dolli, is part of a mommy's group where she lives. She had organized a playdate to go to the Catawba Science Center this past Friday because it was Free Friday.

The Science Center has a dinosaur exhibit right now and it sounded like something that Emily would enjoy. So we drove over the night before and had a sleepover. We got up bright and early on Friday so we could get to there in time to meet another mom and her son from Dolli's mommy group.

We got in and we were given stickers to wear for Free Friday. We weren't sure before we got there if it was going to be free for everyone or if it was just going to be the kids. But it was free for everyone, which was shiny.

In the building we started out in, there was a bunch of fish. There was also a tank of sting rays and little sharks. We also got to see a tank with all the types of fish from Finding Nemo as well as some sea horses.

From there, we went to another building and that was where the dinosaur exhibit was. We weren't sure what kind of exhibit it would be, but it was very good. There was a bunch of dinosaur toys when we first walked in and the kids played with those for a little while.

Emily is three but the other kids with us were two. Emily wasn't afraid of the dinosaurs, even though they moved and some of them would roar if you got close to it.

Kaylee, Dolli's daughter, was especially freaked out by the huge dinosaurs. I don't think she knew what to make of it. But she did manage to have fun when the kids started playing in the dinosaur bone dig, which was kind of like a sandbox.

All three kids happily played in the dig box for a few minutes. We ended up following a tour of kids all day but at the tail end of our time in the dinosaur exhibit, we were in there by ourselves - expect for the museum worker, who was dressed up like an archeologist.

When it was time to leave the dinosaur exhibit, Emily was sad because she really liked it. She actually kept asking to see more dinosaurs. It was really cute. The dinosaur exhibit is going to be there until September 2nd, so I think we are going to have to try and go again sometime before it's gone.

Since it was the free Friday day, there was tons of kids everywhere. We think that there were two groups, probably from schools, there too. It made things interesting as we moved on to the other things to see.

There was a ton of hands on stuff everywhere we went, but the next section was really geared towards kids. The first room we came across had rocks, fossils, stuffed animals and more. And many of those things were out so kids could touch them.

Emily had a great time looking at the rocks and fossils. Maybe she'll grow up to be a rock hound like her Pop-Pop and grandma! We spent some time in there, and then we moved to the next room.

This room had a bunch of tables and chairs set up like stations. There was a station where you could play with toy gears, one with Legos, one with blocks and more. There was also compressed air tubing running around the room where the kids could put a ball in and watch it travel around the room. There was also a bunch of famous science quotes on the wall.

Emily really loved this room, especially the compressed air tubing. She could have probably stayed in there for a long time. The next room wasn't my favorite since it was geared towards older kids. There was a bunch of things where you could put a ball on a track and it was zoom down into a bucket.

Emily wanted to stay in the ball room but there was a lot of big kids there, so we went to the next room, which was much more toddler friendly. There was a playhouse and a tube that lead up into another area that had stuffed animals to play with. But Emily's part of this room was trying to catch fish with the help of a fishing rod that had a magnet on it.

By the time we had gotten to that last room, we had been at the science center for two hours. It was getting to be lunch time so we decided to call it a day and head to a nearby mall for lunch. It was the same mall that Dolli and I took the girl trick or treating.

We had a nice lunch in the food court and then we rode the carousel before we left. Emily really liked that and was brave enough to take her hands off for a minute.

Emily and I hung out with Dolli and Kaylee for the rest of the afternoon. We had dinner with them and headed back home. We managed to avoid all the bad weather on the drive home but got some pretty bad thunderstorms for the rest of the evening.

Emily had been so pooped that she fell asleep in the car. Usually she'll wake up when we get home, but she was so tired that she fell back asleep when I put her on the couch. I hurried to get all her bedtime stuff inside and I got her bed made up. I put her in bed and tucked her in, and she barely woke up while I was transferring her.

We had a great time but we both tired today. It's going to be a lazy Saturday for me and Emily!

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