Wild Wednesdays

Wednesdays are the only day during the week that we don't have appointments and in an effort to make something of our summer, I decided to take the kids on outings those days. A few weeks ago I took them to the Carnegie Science Center  because we had been talking about going there for a while. Luckily for us, The Science Center has this awesome deal for families receiving Medical Assistance (MA), and since Maddie not only has private insurance, but also receives MA, we were able to get into The Science Center for $1 each... and since Maddie's under 2, she got in free! 

When we got there Aiden saw a giant ad for one of their OmniMax Theatre shows called Tornado Alley. Since Aiden has been interested in tornadoes for some time and we only spent $2 to get in, I decided that we could splurge a little and go see the movie. We bought some popcorn (which was spilled before we even got in line for the theatre, and there was crying and sobbing and cleaning up and then Mommy saved the day with treats she had in her bag), entered the theatre, found our seats, and unloaded. As we were waiting for the show to start, I began to think about all that could possibly go wrong. What was I thinking taking a 3 year old and a 17 month old to a movie by myself?!?!?

We were sitting as far away as possible from the exit and in the middle of the row, so I packed everything and everyone up and we moved as close as possible to the exit. Then I started to wonder about the movie itself, I didn't know anything about it and the possibility that it was inappropriate for a 3 year old and was going to scar him for life was high. This was not a movie about cute, cuddly animals in the wild. It was about storms and thunder and lightning and tornadoes and people going out into the middle of them trying to film them. Clearly, I didn't think this through before I bought the tickets. At least we had moved near the exit and had a clear shot of getting out before we ruined the movie for everyone. 

Throughout the entire movie, I was on edge, waiting for it to be too much for Aiden or Maddie and ready to leave at the slightest sign that someone was going to lose it. Turns out, I was worried for nothing. Aiden loved every second of it, and I was able to keep Maddie happy with snacks for most of the movie. During one part of the movie, Aiden leaned over to Maddie, who was sitting on my lap, hugged her and told her he loved her. Just a spontaneous hug, which melted my heart! I wish I had been able to take a picture of it, it was so sweet!

After the movie, we continued on throughout the center.

They had an entire miniature railroad and village set up and Aiden was in awe of it! He kept exclaiming, "Look, Mommy! A train!!" every 5 seconds.

He had no idea who C-3PO was, but took a picture with him non-the-less. Can't you tell how excited he is about it??

Aiden is obsessed with sharks and sharks live in the ocean. So when he saw this "submarine" he was in heaven!! He probably played in it for 45 minutes while Maddie and I stared at the fish in the tank next to it. Every time another kid would come in he would go into this elaborate explanation about what they were doing to find sharks in the sub and even managed to include some things about tornadoes into his imaginary play. It was pretty cute, but Maddie and I got pretty bored after awhile, although you'd never know it from this picture!

I finally convinced him that there was more to see and that we should move on. Little did I know that there was a water area awaiting us. So we spent the remained of our time playing with the little ping-pong balls in the water.

And, little sister wanted to play oh-so-badly! She's doing some AMAZING things lately... there will be a post on it soon!

Then she started to put the balls in her mouth, so she and I went to a little side area where we could still watch Aiden, but play with some other things that we were less likely to choke on.

We had a great day at the Science Center and can't wait to go back, because we didn't even get to go into the SportsWorks area, and we'd like to take Grant with us, too!

The week after we visited the Science Center, we went to the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium, however I don't have any pictures from our visit there. It was pretty crowded and I was by myself with both kids and Aiden wanted to walk most of the way through so my hands were pretty busy with the kids. We, of course, had to see the sharks first. Then, we saw a baby sea lion that Aiden fell in love with, Maddie loved the water fountain that was in with the sea lions. Maddie threw her giraffe sun hat out of the basket of the stroller and I thought it was lost forever, then I had to go back later because some wonderful person turned it in to lost and found. Maddie threw a few more things out of the basket of the stroller, but luckily I noticed those. And finally we got to see a live animal presentation and Aiden answered one of their trivia questions for the audience correctly! It was a great, exhausting day as well!

I'm loving our Wild Wednesdays! We get out of the house and do something that's fun just for the kids; no appointments, no chores, no schedule and it makes me wish everyday was Wednesday!!