A quick afternoon at the museum

One of our favorite fixtures in Durham is the Museum of Life and Science. It is a WONDERFUL children's museum with tons and tons of interactive exhibits, activities, animal habitats, and outdoor play spaces (including an enormous tree house exhibit that I'm particularly fond of). It's kind of pricey to make a one-time visit, but an annual membership is a great deal. My parents have given us our membership for Christmas for about 4 or 5 years now, and it's maybe my favorite gift every year! If I wanted, I could take the girls for hours every day of the week. We go a few times a month (weekly currently), and regularly meet up with friends there. Almost all of my mom friends very quickly acquire a membership upon moving here/visiting the museum with a member friend. I've said it before and will say it again: if you're a mom of young/young-ish children in the Durham area, it is WORTH EVERY PENNY to have a membership. It's excellent for beautiful days when you can be outside; for rainy days when you need to go somewhere but need inside activities; for cold days; for hot days. It's pretty fantastic.

Brad will often send a group text to a bunch of dad friends for Saturday morning meetups, too. There's so much to do there that you actually cannot run out of things to do + our kids all have their favorite things. Some favorite:
Erin: Hideaway Woods tree house exhibit + creek
Brad: Checking out the animal exhibits (bears, wolves --> there are wolf pups right now!)
Claire: Butterfly house + Dinosaur trail
Lily: Farmyard animals + climbing area/playground
There are also tons of indoor activities and exhibits that we enjoy, but these are current favorites.

A few weeks ago, we decided- kind of last minute- to head over as a family on a Sunday afternoon. We spent almost the entire time at the Into the Mist exhibit, which a) looks like the Shire and b) is a great place to cool off while it's so miserably hot. I grabbed some quick pictures of the great fun that was had:

This mist pit is Lily's favorite. Related: it is also the area most prone to muddiness.

Tunnels and hidey-holes

This little hut overlooks a creek/really beautiful scenic spot.

Not quite to the point of frolicking in the mist...but she had a good time, anyway.

Claire is so very into birds right now, and we have beautiful cardinals in our area (state bird of North Carolina, guys). We saw this one on our walk back to the car, and Claire was thrilled.

This happened down in Lily's favorite mist pit...

...which led to this (she's wearing a pull up, don't worry)...

...and really tested my laundry prowess. Take that, Mist Pit!

I'll try to post more of the fun we have at the museum over the course of the summer. We'll be there a lot, I'm sure!