cRaZY about these people

Faced with another rainy day in this hotel room, I assessed my choices...

#1. Hide in the tiny closet, curled up, sucking my thumb, waiting for the sound of Sweet Daddy's key in the door.

#2. Make a run for it...while the kiddos are lulled unawares by PBS and their crackling rice krispies...leave...them here.

#3. Road trip! Drive 75 miles to the greatest mall evah! Well, at least, in Iowa. Okay, the best in this Cedar Rapids part of Iowa.

Aren't you glad I chose....

{wait for it...}

...#3? We got outta Dodge! {Good call, momma.}

No sense keeping this gripe-fest to ourselves. Let's squabble out in the world! Funny thing is...as soon as we leave the confines of our home or vehicle they begin to behave...some don't quite believe that they can be punks. But some of you have had front-row seats to their mischief, so you believe me, don't you?

{Head's up:: lots of embedded links coming. Just click on them.}

We had a fun day. We're weren't going to just any mall...it is a mall that houses the Iowa Children's Museum and it just may be my favorite kid's museum. Believe me, I've been to plenty...just counting 2009 excursions alone. Remember...see here...my addiction is full-blown.

Some exhibits were similar to some we've seen at The Works, COSI, or other museums. {Sidenote: Licking County peeps:: The Works and Dawes Arboretum are treasures...enjoy them, support them if you can.} Many were  very original and fun. There was a whole aviation room where we built airplanes and rockets out of paper and launched them. We probably spent the most time there and in The Notion of Motion room. ABC Forest was cute. There was a LEGO room...Bug wasn't interested today...which kind of surprised me.

A whole City Works space had an ambulance, doctor's office, dentist's office, radiology room complete with lab coats, stethescopes, crutches, etc. and a grocery store, pizzeria, post office, and TV station. Bean kept wanting to revisit the grocery store, of course. I confess, I found a bench and my knitting on our third go 'round.

And in the mall, there was...{trumpet fanfare}...a Chik-fil-A! We walked out of the museum, turned right, past the open-year-round ice rink {told ya it was the greatest mall, evah!}...had lunch and waddled back into the museum.

The kids would not allow me to go to Eddie Bauer...yea, what up with that? who's in charge here?...but maybe there'll be a next time.

Maybe tomorrow.