You're Gonna Hear Me Roar!

Roaring with the dinosaurs at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science! 

A couple of weeks ago, my younger sister (who lives in Portland, Oregon) came home for a visit with the two cutest babies in the world! My nephew is 10, and my sweet little niece just turned six! I never get to see them, so I kidnapped them for an afternoon. Here's what we go up to:

Our first order was temporary tattoos. My family was visiting close to the July 4 holiday, so we all put on some patriotic ones - on our hands, on our faces, just wherever we wanted some festivity. 

Next up - lunch. The two littles are into kid food, and I'm all about delivering on expectations. A quick Google search revealed WingSide was open, so off we went. The kids got chicken nuggets, and I had an order of lemon pepper wings. Tasty, quick, and inexpensive. We dined in, and our conversations revolved around the Guinness Book of World Records (Did you know that the largest biceps in the world measure nearly THREE FEET in circumference?!) and what we planned to do next. 

If you haven't spent any time talking to young kids lately, I recommend it. My nephew is quick and curious and loves trivia. My niece is into princesses right now, but she's also a little bit of a dictator (and I love it). It's so refreshing to hear what they're thinking about and follow where they want to take the conversation.

 

Look at those TEETH!

We decided we'd start our day's adventures at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, which has a FANTASTIC dinosaur exhibit on offer through Jan. 5. At first, I worried that our six-year-old might find the dinos too scary, so we watched some videos of them first. Once she gave us the go ahead, we went straight to the Jurassic period. 

When we arrived, we first enjoyed the large dinosaurs stationed in front of the museum - a T-Rex, a triceratops, and more. The dinosaurs move slightly, and distant roars are piped into the space via speaker. My littles took turns roaring for a bit, then we went inside and bought our tickets. Next up, we enjoyed the bones and fossils on display, then spent some time in the cool interactive exhibit about topography. (Kids can build mountains and valleys using synthetic sand, and the smart projector overhead will then reflect those changes with an overlay projection of map topography elements. You can even make it rain to see how your created landscape reacts and where the water flows! Super cool.) 

Then, we explored the indoor dinosaur exhibit - more cool examples from different regions of the world. (They even had a couple of dinosaurs you could climb on - both for interactivity and for photos. Smart.) 

Little people love a big fish tank. 

Next up, the fish tanks! My son LOVED these when he was younger, and they were a hit with my niece and nephew as well. We were lucky enough to be in front of one of the largest tanks when a diver went in and fed the fish! Really neat to see. After exploring the rest of the indoor exhibits, we hit the trails out back. I was really glad I'd sprayed my littles with bug spray, because there were more dinos out there! Our favorite was the pterodactyl that they'd suspended among the trees so it looked like it was flying. We ended our trip in the gift shop, where all merchandise was 50% off. We got a piece of fossil and a small stuffed toy.

Brother and sister <3

What to do next? It was HOT outside, so the nearby playground was definitely out. But we'd come prepared, so we headed to the pool at my gym! The kids had their suits, and I had towels and sunscreen. I paid a small fee to bring my guests along, we changed in the changing room, and then we hit the water. 

The pool has a zero grade entry area as well as a cool slide and a small climbing wall. In addition, there are some communal pool floats and water toys that everyone can use, so my little people were happy. We swam, enjoyed the sunshine and the cool water, and hurtled down the slide on our stomachs at warp speed for a while. 

Tuckered out, it was back to my house for showers, and the my sister met us there with dinner from Aladdin Mediterranean Grill. (If you've never been, their food is legit. We had grilled meat and chicken, rice, salad, tons of dips - hummus, babaganoush, etc., everything.) My dad even took the opportunity to come, getting out of the house a bit. We all ate and spent some time together before I tucked my sweet babies into their car and gave them lots of kisses goodbye. 

Until next time!