The day I took my parents to Bloomington

We haven't posted in a while so I decided to take my parents to Bloomington for a photo shoot. On the way I napped in the car - I bet my parents wished they had done the same!

Knowing M's passion for educational toys and books, I took her by the Discovery Room at the public library first. What a great place to play...uh, I mean learn! Of all the interactive learning stations (puppets with matching story books, dress-up outfits with matching story books, trains, Legos, etc.), my favorite item was the toy camera - which I still prefer to hold backwards!

From the library we walked down the pedestrian friendly downtown to the Children's (and, their Grown-Up's) Museum. Let's see where to start, it was all so exciting. I'm definitely taking the parents back some day - they were well behaved and didn't put up too much of a fuss leaving.

This water exhibit was near the entrance, so in the spirit of newness, I happily agreed to wear a waterproof apron (the same wouldn't be true by the time I reached the third floor with the paint exhibit).

I loved playing in the pretend pizza delivery truck. The dashboard included at least ten big buttons with truck-related sounds. I loved the obnoxious horn sound the most.

OK, so my favorite part was painting on the glass wall of the paint exhibit. Of course, the apron was way too inhibiting, so I kept pushing it off. M was impressed that I stayed focused on putting the paint on the glass (not myself) then spraying water on the wall (and not myself) to clean up. I watched the older kids, then I was Mr. Independent contently painting all by myself.

D's favorite exhibit was the two story climbing apparatus - technically, it was curved, laminated plywood suspended by aircraft cables. But it looked much more precarious than that. I found the smallest little hole to crawl through making M nervous as she tried to keep up. D thought about crawling through too because it looked like so much fun (but, he thought he'd make other parents nervous).