Bill had the idea that we should take the kids to the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland today and I’m so glad that we did. We all had an absolutely fantastic day ~ lots of fun that I’m sure we’ll remember for a long time to come.
The only iffy part of the day was when we got off of 71 and went down 9th Street into Cleveland. There were a ton of people lined up along the road shouting back and forth across the street. I saw a bunch of signs with Bible verses on them “And the wicked shall perish…” and then began to notice a lot of rainbow clothing, vendor tents, etc. Apparently, the rainbow people were having a special weekend in Cleveland just for them. Not exactly what we had in mind for a fun family day…
Once we got into the Science Center though, everything was fine. I guess the rainbow people decided to stay outside where all their fun was. The GLSC had something for every age. The kids seemed to enjoy everything whether it was age appropriate or not. Here is the gang in a space shuttle simulator…Bill was learning how to land the space shuttle and all the kids decided to “help” him:
The museum was filled with hands-on things for the kids to enjoy. When we first got there, the kids kept saying “Can I touch this Mommy?” and “Can I see what this does Mommy?” It was great to be able to say “Absolutely!!” Here are Weslea and Weston lifting heavy boxes:
For those of you who know Wyatt at all, you can imagine how much fun the “hands-on” experience was for Mr. I-Have-To-Touch-Everything:
Everyone enjoyed the Heat Imaging section. I took a picture of each kid with their Heat Image. Here is Weslea’s:
The most fun area of all was the “Polymer Playground.” This section was geared toward younger children and had all kinds of awesome activities for them to do. The indoor section had a huge ball-pit area that the kids could put balls into special air shoots and pulley systems. The balls would then go into a giant container above them and when it got full the kids could make the balls dump onto everyone below. They played in that area forever. There was also a playground, bouncy room, computer games, dress-up area and tons of other things to do as well.
The outside area of the playground had all kinds of water activities for the kids to cool off in and a playground in the shape of a tugboat. The cool water felt great on a hot day:
Before we left the playground, we had the kids line up on the bridge of the playhouse for a farewell picture. We had quite a time getting Wyatt and Weston to stand there for the picture since they wanted to be in the ball pit. I didn’t realize that Will had such a solemn look on his face since I was focusing on Wyatt and Weston instead. Will took great pride in the fact that he didn’t smile for this picture ~ after I took the picture, his face beamed with a smile and he said “I didn’t smile for the picture at all Mom!” (What a little stinker!)
We took a short walk after we left the Science Center (we couldn’t go too far because of the rainbow people.) We ended up walking down by the water a little ways and came up to the William G. Mather boat. Will was very impressed that his name was on a boat and I told him that I would take a picture of him with his name. Pretty cool!
All in all, we had a fantastic day and the kids had a blast. The younger boys are upstairs snoozing away right now and Will and Weslea are outside helping Daddy put some finishing touches on the playground. I told them that once they come in it’s time for baths and then bedtime. I have a feeling they will be out there for quite awhile! 🙂
