Summer is Coming!!!

We live in New England so while the rest of the country is out of school now, we are still in school and making up snow days. Our school district has the last day of school on June 17th. With tomorrow's temperature reaching 90`f it feels like summer.

It's interesting to hear the difference between parents at the bus stop in regards to the summer break. Some can't wait until they can sleep in and slow down in the morning. Some can't wait for vacations, traveling, vacation homes, and getting things done.

Some dread the summer break. They are usually the ones that would then have to pay for daycare while they work during the day. While some are saving up for a trip to Disney these parents are saving up for camps and daycare so they can continue to work.

We no longer have a community. We no longer have one working parent and one at home. It's rare to see stay at home parents now. So think about all those kids that don't get to wake up when they want, they don't get to run the streets like our generation did. They don't get to eat every meal in the backyard and live in the pool all day.

So, my challenge for those stay at home parents out there is this. Take one of your child's friends who would otherwise go to daycare during the summer for a sleep over during the week. Let them sleep in, serve breakfast outside, spend all day doing fun summer things like running through a sprinkler or have a water gun fight. It's their vacation, help them have a long summer day not just on the weekend. It feels so much better when you know you should be in school but you're free.

We should all be working towards building back a community. Including someone else is a step forward in rebuilding a sense of "us" instead of it always being about "me".

April Vacation

Many parents still have to work during April vacation, but my husband and I are lucky to be home when our children are. With my husband working as a teacher this year we were able to enjoy more time together this school year then we ever have. Though we don't really have it in our budget to vacation, we don't lay around the house. We spent time with family and friends but also time with just the four of us. 

I was very excited to go to the Museum of Science over this break. Morrigan is so interested in every exhibit. We spent our time in only one wing of the museum missing the other 3 because Morrigan loves to really learn from each exhibit. Her love of learning makes the Museum of Science so much fun. I was a bit disappointed in myself for not taking my camera but we got a few pictures with our cell phones. 

Chris is a teacher so he received a card that allows him to get into the museum and many of the exhibits for free. It also gives him a discount at the gift shop as well. We got the library pass which gives us a discount for 4 tickets. Freya is free since she is under 2 so it would only be me and Morrigan that would need to pay for tickets. Chris however got us a membership for the year. He paid $85 which is a membership for two. It offers Free Exhibit Halls admission all year, Omni and Planetarium passes, plus Exhibit Halls guest passes, Free admission or discounted entry to 400+ select science centers and zoos worldwide, Subscriptions to Sparks! member newsletter and Member E-News, Waived service charges on advance reservations, 10% savings on your annual renewal when you sign up for the One-Step auto-renewal program. It also gives your discounts for Tickets to the Butterfly Garden and 4-D Theater Museum parking garage, 10% off purchases made in the Museum Store, and10% off dining selections at the Riverview Café. It also gives you special access to Member events and exhibit previews, Advance registration for summer courses and select lectures, and Priority service at the Membership Booth and at the box office. The regular tickets are $23 for me and $20 for Morrigan. Even if I didn't get anything but the tickets, after 2 trips it will pay for itself.

If you are looking for information on memberships at the Museum of Science Boston here is a link to the Museum Membership page.

Also, if you are a part of the Old Colony Library Network, simple go to the website and reserve your museum passes with your library card number. Library museum passes include Boston Children’s Museum, Massachusetts ParksPass, Museum of Fine Arts, Mystic Aquarium, New England Aquarium, South Shore Children's Museum, and Zoo New England. Starting in May, the Plimoth Plantation is also offered. Note that the New England Aquarium is only offered in day in which school is in session so no summer discounts are available for the New England Aquarium.

Our favorites ("our" meaning my family. I, on the other hand, am petrified of it.) exhibit is the butterfly garden. It was great watching Morrigan get excited when she saw a different type of butterfly. Freya also enjoyed herself but I think mostly she wanted to put every butterfly in her mouth. In fact she tried to eat a tree while we were there. Chris had to pull it out of her hands. 

 

I have a fear, okay, maybe not a fear but rather a general dislike of things with wings, more so insects with wings. I can handle large birds of prey, they are rather intelligent but fluttery things make me want to run. I am most afraid of moths. I think this stems from growing up in a house that the front porch used to be completely covered by moths at certain times of the year. After leaving the house after dark I would have moths up my pant legs and in my hair. Just thinking about it makes my skin crawl...YUCK! So you can imagine how difficult it is for me to walk through a butterfly garden. I did it the first time and the woman working in the exhibit assured me butterflies are not like moths, they fly around you rather than at you. Which seemed to be true and it brought me great comfort the next 4 times that I went.


This last time, I called her a liar!





Yes, the biggest butterfly in the room landed on my hand. I nearly peed my pants. I held him there while I was sweating bullets so a gentlemen could take a picture of his wings open. I did it in the name of good photography which never happened by the way. While his little fuzzy body tickled my hand every hair on my body stood on end.The guy with the camera waiting for the butterfly with the brilliant blue inside wings to open up said the worst possible thing to me. He said that it was a moth not a butterfly. I nearly passed out right there but Morrigan whispered to me that it was in fact a butterfly. I love having an intelligent kid. Even if she was wrong (which she wasn't) she always knows what to say to make her very anxious mommy feel better.

We also took in the lightening show right when Freya feel asleep. The noise would of been way too loud for her anyhow so only Morrigan and I went. It would of been Chris and Morrigan if she was awake as I am nervous leaving Freya since I'm her only source of food. It was shorter than usual but still just as fun. The Lightening Show at the Museum of Science Boston has the world's largest air-insulated Van de Graaff generator. The show talks about conductors, insulators, electricity, magnetism, and storm safety. They even place a volunteer in a cage and hit the cage with bolts of electricity. The indoor lightning storm is so loud and sudden it usually causes at least one person in the audience to scream.

We left after spending 3 hours in the museum. Morrigan clutched a snow owl she got at the gift shop the whole car ride home and Freya ate the wing of her stuffed butterfly she got at the gift shop the whole car ride home. Chris and Morrigan both ate their space ice cream in the car. Chris also got a gyroscope as well. He opened it up as soon as we got home. Morrigan and Chris sat down at the table and played with it like two little kids. I got a straw cup with the logo on it. I needed a new one after my Bruins one fell out of the cupboard and broke, I'm practical like that.

We are already planning our next visit in 8 weeks. There is so much of the museum we haven't seen yet. Morrigan and Chris plan on doing these virtual reality machines that strap you in and you are enclosed in a capsule that turns and twists. It shows you a roller coaster and mimics the turns and loops like you are really on it. We also want to take in one of the Planetarium shows but we want to buy a sound reducing head set for Freya since babies at her age have such sensitive hearing. There is just so much you can do at the Museum of Science in Boston, I can't wait to go back!