Children's Museum

Jeremy took today off of work, so we were able to spend the day together. We decided to take the kids to the Children's Museum because it was one of the handful of things that I wasn't planning on doing this summer since I was uncertain whether or not I could manage it with both kids by myself.

We had a great time, of course. The thing is that Jeremy and I knew that Sydney would have a good time and that Jack would have a good time. What surprised us was how much fun we had as a family.

They have had this exhibit for a while and I always thought of it as the Mexico exhibit. There is this dance/band scene, a backyard barbecue, and a kitchen where you can make faux tamales. I found the exhibit compelling and it always reminded me a children's book or something I had seen before that I couldn't quite name. Today, with Jeremy there with me, I was able to look around and actually read some of the information about the exhibit. It turns out that more than just a Mexico exhibit, it is an exhibit about the artist Carmen Lomas Garza. Her paintings, once I saw them, are pretty famous scenes from the daily life of Mexican Americans in South Texas and each setting in the exhibit is straight from one of her painting. Compare our family band with the band in her painting, Baile, particularly the guitarist behind us.

Other than the Carmen Lomas Garza exhibit, Sydney's favorites this time were the feature exhibit, The Big Game and the Tinkerer's Workshop which she was finally old enough to enjoy.

In the Big Game, they had tables with regular old board games, so Sydney and I played Candy Land. The funny thing to me was that they had employees whose job was to be in that section to not only keep the game pieces from wandering away, but also to play games with the kids. An employee actually played with Sydney and me, possibly because she was bored. Any kid coming to the museum has to have a parent, but the museum provided people to play the games with the kids because ???

I hoping it was about parents with multiple children and the case that I did see where the seven year old wanted to play chess but grandma didn't know how and so the employee played with him.

The reason it was called The Big Game, though, was that they had big versions of some favorites, including Mancala, which is what Sydney and Jeremy played.

In the Tinkerer's Workshop, they had oversized Tinker Toys made from plastic, as well as some K'Nex, nuts and bolts and other building supplies. Sydney was fascinated by the Tinker Toys and built with them for quite a while. This is her castle house.

When we went to lunch at the Spaghetti Warehouse, Sydney asked if we were going back to the hotel. Her question made me realize that she had so much fun today and found it so novel to be out and about doing fun things with both parents that she thought we were back on vacation.

I'll call that a win for the entertaining Sydney column.