Museums, Art, and Unexpected Dunkings . . .

While Daddy slaves away at audits and training, the girls and I have been having great fun exploring the city of Pittsburgh, the last couple days!

Yesterday we went to the Children's Museum. It was great!

There's a section on Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, with a trolly, some of the "houses" from Land of Make Believe that the kids can go in & do puppet shows in and such, etc. Of course, I think *I* enjoyed the Mr. Roger's connection, more than my kids, who've seen the show very rarely, and not for several years. They still liked putting on their own puppet shows and such though.

Then we moved on to the art area. OH MY!!! Could it BE more perfect for my kids?!?!?! They had easels set up for kids to paint (and smocks to protect their clothes), silk screening, paper weaving, clay, paper making . . . and I think a couple other stations we didn't make it to! The big girls were in HEAVEN!!

And even Little Bit got in on the fun, playing with clay and painting her own masterpiece!!!

Once we dragged ourselves away from that area, we moved on to an optical illusion room complete with a very fast slide, that required the kids to walk through a "slanted" room to get there. I took Little Bit down the slide once, but refused to brave the slanted room again, hee hee.

And then a whole Curious George room! It was a great combination for all ages. Little Bit had fun "sorting vegetables" and moving around big foam blocks (oh, and gathering up the plastic golf balls from the "mini golf course" and putting htem back in their basket). The big girls made crafts out of straws and tape and streamers, played dress up, also played with the foam block packages (and their conveyor belt) . . . and I don't remember what all else.

We moved on to the "Garage" which was very cool for the big kids, but not so toddler friendly, so we didn't spent too long there.

And so we moved on to the water play area! They did have "rain coats" for the kids to wear, as well as "boots" (fake crocs). The big girls were already wearing crocs, and I figured as hot a day as it was, some splashes on their clothes weren't a big deal. I changed Little Bit into crocs (since she was wearing leather shoes) but again, didn't bother with a rain coat. And turned them loose. Well, turned the big girls loose, and stayed with Little Bit. Amongst other things (build a fountain, a "lock", and I'm not sure what else), there was a "pool" that bigger kids could kneel beside and little ones could stand beside to play in the water (which was probably 1 1/2 to 2 ft deep). There were all kinds of buckets and boats and things to play with in the water. So that's where Little Bit & I headed. She was having great fun splashing and such, and then, as I glanced around the room to make sure the big girls were doing ok, she must have tried to reach too far out into the pool (or perhaps she tried to climb in, I'm not sure), by the time I glanced down she had "dived" into the water & was completely under water. I grabbed her out & stood her back down next to the pool, fished out the shoe that had come off while she was in the water, wiped off her face, put her crocs back on, decided to take her dress off, since it was soaked anyway . . . she never seemed the least bit phased by any of it. I think she showed the most concern about loosing her shoes, which is why putting them back on was so high on the list . . . My little water baby, sigh . . . we stayed in the water area awhile longer (I must say, I'm abit surprised that nobody working there came over to see if she was ok, I know they can't be looking everywhere every second, and she wasn't screaming and making a scene, but still . . .) and then she was acting very sleepy (even w/o her "dunking" she'd had a very short (half hr to 45 min) morning nap on the way to the museum, and it was now almost 4pm, and no afternoon nap yet. So, since her dress was still soaked anyway (if it had been earlier in the day I *did* have dry clothes in the car, but was feeling lazy) I changed her into a dry diaper and put her in the sling in the hopes that she would nurse to sleep and the big girls could play in the "Garage" a little longer before we left. No such luck, she was much too distracted by all the noises around her, and was getting fussy, so we gave up and left (it was less than an hour till closing time anyway). Needless to say, she slept on the way back to the hotel LOL.

Anyway, it was an all around fun day, despite the unexpected dunking. We didn't make it to the "nursery" area intended for younger kids, and there were other things the big girls wanted to spend more time on, so we're hoping to find time to go back, if not this trip, than next time Daddy has work in Pittsburgh area.