Day at the Museum

Noah has two good friends at church.  They happen to be twin brothers, Tim and Ben.  They had a birthday last month, and for their present we gave them a bunch of gumballs (muwahahhahahaha!) and a certificate to take them to the transportation museum with us during vacation.  Tuesday was the day.

The weather started out a little overcast, and there was even a bit of actual rain.  But we went anyway, and were so very glad we did.  It wasn’t raining in Luzern, and just after lunch the sun broke through and I ended up carrying all the kids’ coats. 🙂

We have been several times already to this museum, so we just let the birthday boys decide what we did.  We explored the train area until everyone got hungry, then we had lunch outside.  Oh, I am forgetting the best quote of the day!  After we picked the boys up, I stopped at the little grocery store to grab a few more things for our picnic.  I asked them what they would like to eat. The answer? “It’s okay. I’m good. I ate at home.”

” Yes, my kids just had breakfast, too.  But we’re going to be gone most of the day, so what do you want to eat for lunch?”

“Candy.” hahahaha!  At least they were honest.  I bought bread, chips, drinks, grapes, and cherry tomatoes.  I already had lots of different meats and cookies for dessert.  Sorry, no candy. 🙂  But they liked lunch just fine when the time came.

Then we hit the outdoor construction playground. And stayed there for at least an hour, if not longer.This is Ben on the backhoe.  It doesn’t actually move, but it is an actual backhoe.  After discovering the controls didn’t actually do anything, he climbed down and found a miniature, functioning one to ride around in.

Can you see Alexandra in her pink coat, and Sophie in her blue one?

And there is Sarah, working hard, with Sophie next to her.  I know that kid in the left corner looks a bit like Nicholas, but it isn’t.  There wasn’t room in the car, so he stayed home and read books and played computer games.

This is Tim.  Usually Ben wears blue, but today they switched.  Despite that, I am proud to say that I didn’t call them by the wrong name once. That’s better than I do with my own kids!

Alexandra spent almost the entire time sweeping up the little rocks all over the “roads”.  I am definitely going to need to buy her a broom for at home.  She was a good little worker.

When enough children had asked me when we were going to be finished, I told the group we were heading over to the car building.  Unfortunately, I said this before I was actually ready to leave, and the twins took off like a shot.  They thought I meant the area where the remote control cars were, but I meant the actual building devoted to cars.  By the time I had finished packing up the backpack, and was ready to move, they were nowhere to be found.  We all looked around the playground area, then walked in an ever widening circle around it, all the time searching for two green hats.  Just as I was about to really get worried, I saw them heading towards where we had just been.  We ran back and found one of them with tears in his eyes. 🙁  I gave him a hug and told him that this was why I had told everyone to stick close to me the whole time.  He nodded his head in understanding and the trauma was soon forgotten when they saw the free carousel to ride.  (Did I mention I was at this museum with 6 children ranging in age from 3 to 9 BY. MYSELF?!?!?!  Frankly I’m shocked I didn’t lose all of them during the course of the day.)

After the car building, they wanted to go on the big boat.  So we did.  It happened to be attached to the building with the giant Swiss map.  So we went and had some fun there.

The girls were the only ones old enough to actually use the map as it was intended.  The rest of them just ice skated with those cool Swiss slippers!

We were on our way to the car when we spotted the little train that runs through the statue garden.  Of course we couldn’t leave without taking a ride, or two! Then we really, for sure, I promise, left to go home.  It was a great day, with great kids.  Until next time…