The Museum of Natural History Take II & a Visit with a Storknet Friend

Our initial plans were to go to the Diana Ross Playground and maybe play some, but I was hoping to get the girls interested in the Sandbox Music. The Central Park Conservancy offers many free programs (well someone pays for them) to the public. They strongly encourage membership to help them be able to keep providingbsuch programs, and I'd become a member in a heartbeat if we lived here. The girls have had a lot of energy, and. Guess they felt the need to run around and play. Normally, I'm all over it, but Charlotte is so hard to keep up with at a playground because she doesn't know her limits. After maybe 30 minutes at the playground, it started raining, and I took the opportunity to get out of there (note: would not have been a problem if Charlotte were more interested in the music.).

As luck would have it, the Museum of Natural History is right across the street from the Diana Ross Playground. We have a membership now, so the only extra cost would be lunch since we wouldn't be allowed to eat our packed lunch (will just save that for tomorrow). And, add on 2 tickets to the Frog exhibit as Beatrix was adamant she needed to see it again.

We had a quick lunch in the cafe, and found our way to the Frog exhibit. Both girls love this exhibit. Charlotte likes calling out "FROG", every time she sees a frog at the exhibit, which is everywhere you turn. She loves spotting the poison dart frogs (so many colors), and when she sees one, she says "I see one!". Beatrix enjoys the hands on interactive spots in the exhibit, as well as looking at the variety of frogs.

Beatrix is dissecting a frog.

I had been looking into exhibits to see at the museum the day before, and had a list on my phone of some must see exhibits. I decided since we were on the first floor, we would check out the minerals.

We passed through the floor of evolution (not sure what it's called, but I will have to go back. I am very intrigued by the skeletal remains that have been discovered and the age of them as well. We also saw the exhibit of meteorites, and as we were walking in I'm asking BEA if she remembers visiting Meteoer Crater in Arizona last year. Low and behold, we walk through the entrance, and there is a mini replica of Meteor Crater. I love that my husband exposes us to these fascinating landmarks.

We couldn't spend too much time there because I wanted to get the girls back to the apartment to rest a little before meeting up with a Storknet friend at Alice's Tea Cup. Charlotte fell asleep in the stroller on the way home, and I was glad she was getting a nap in.

We didn't have long to rest, maybe an hour, and we walked a short distance up the street to Alice's Tea Cup to meet Michelle.

A very quaint tea shop with very pretty china. I was told they would have a spot for a stroller at the table when I called earlier, but I get there, and the waitress said I would need to leave my stroller in a separate area. She didn't seem to care that there was a sleeping child in it. I didn't want to do it, but I woke the sleeping toddler. She rested on my lap the whole time, and was actually quite good. Bea, on the other hand, well, I should just leave it at that. I still very much enjoyed my visit with Michelle. She is very personable, and we talked non stop, as if we've known each other for a long time.

Back at the apartment, we ate dinner, and I decided to take clothes down to the basement to wash. It feels so good outside, I decided to walk the girls down to the Tecumseh playground while we waited for the clothes. We started heading back when it became windy and appeared a storm was coming. We didn't make it halfway back before the heavens opened up. We waited under an awning for a good 15-20 minutes before it cleared enough to walk. The clouds were moving on, so we moved ourselves on over to a Starbuck's and took treats home. Steven had a work function, so he joined us at home soon after we got back.