Spring Break Doings: 2014 Edition

I was hoping not to squander spring break this year, as I am apt to do with all "time off", so with Bryson being on vacation too, we did as much as we could with the time we had.

We started spring break off on the right foot by heading over to the Grand Rapids Public Museum to check out the fun exhibits they had going on there at the time and to take in a show at the planetarium.  Apparently everyone had the idea to do that on the first day of spring break, though, and we started off the day in a huge line.  Good times!  But the kids were troopers, and we walked away from the giant line with a year membership to the museum so that's something, right?

Once we were inside, I first ran into my high school geometry teacher and his family, and then we ran into this guy, an animatronic dilophosaurus!  Mollie braved a picture with him, but Baylor wasn't having any of it.

On our way to the dinosaur exhibit, Bryson stopped to explain how this contraption works.  Baylor was very interested, Mollie ... not so much.

So, you know how Baylor was freaked out by the animatronic dinosaur just one picture ago?  Yeah, the whole exhibit was full of animatronic dinosaurs ... who made "dinosaur noises".  It was all I could do to get him into the exhibit, let alone walk through it of his own accord.  But, brave boy that he is, he started realizing that they were, in fact, fake dinosaurs and did really well overall.

Baylor got even more comfortable when we found more activities for them to do, as the kids are definitely at a I-want-to-DO-things-not-just-SEE-things stage.  He attempted to draw an apatosaurus and did a great job of it.

Then he and Mollie found 3-D dinosaur puzzles and put those together ...

... and tried their hand at uncovering dinosaur bones just like real paleontologists.

After a quick lunch, we went to the planetarium and saw a program called "Dynamic Earth".  The kids enjoyed it for the most part and were thrilled to find out afterward that it had been narrated by Liam Neeson, otherwise known to them as Good Cop/Bad Cop from the Lego Movie.

Speaking of Legos, we took a look at the Dream It, Build It Lego exhibit after the planetarium program.  There were lots of awesome buildings created and a neat little city to look at, but the germaphobe in me wouldn't let them play with the Legos available for kids to play with.  I would have felt bad, but I really didn't want spring break to be one giant runny nose fest.

Once we were done in the Lego section, Mollie and Bryson went to ride the carousel and Baylor and I browsed around a little bit and waited for them.

It was a great first visit to the museum, and with our membership I have no doubt we'll enjoy it many more times in the near future.

Though the museum was the one big outing we had over spring break, we did plenty more things to keep busy, like walking to the library and back ...

... or riding bikes through the neighborhood.

Baylor created elaborate games on our driveway in chalk.

And Mollie attempted to shoot hoops at my parents' house.

Yes, this one hit her square on the head.  She was okay, though, as it was a playground ball instead of a basketball.

The spring flowers finally started to come up!

And the weather was warm enough for all sorts of outdoor fun.

We even figured out how to "erase" sidewalk chalk when you make a mistake ... a little water and a thorough sweep with a broom does a decent job.

The week was topped off with chocolate milkshakes made by Grandpa E.

It was a great week, and I think we all really enjoyed getting to spend some free time together.  I can see how special these breaks are going to be once the kids are in school more and more, and I hope we can continue to make the most of times like these.