How’s this for spontaneity: we hopped on a plane

and went to…take a guess…

Oh man, I guess the exhibit behind the seats blows our cover. Despite how it appears, we didn’t fly anywhere. But our destination was much lower stress and lower cost: we visited the Museum of Science and Industry this week.

And because we’re rascally homeschoolers, we received free admission.  Go MSI!

The original plan was for all the kids to go and Jim would meet up with us at lunchtime, but the plan was foiled when Ruthie woke up with a fever. Jim graciously allowed me to go with the boys while he stayed back with her.

We experienced virtual butterflies landing on us:

and tried to catch a few (think it’s hard to catch a real butterfly? Try catching a virtual kind):

We realized just how quickly Jake’s legs are growing. Truly, this is not too far from an accurate representation of his growth (the only part that isn’t accurate is that his pants are as long as his legs).

Then Jeremy did his Charlie Brown impression.

Lots of hands-on, brain-building play time.

We met up with the Vances. When Jeremy saw them from the cable car, he yelled out, “all aboard!”

Good buds, Jake and Sammy. They share a nerdy love of science.

We enjoyed the Science Storms exhibit the most. Here, we learned about the power of water,

tornadoes,

and lightning, among other weather-related phenomena.

Here, Derek ran on a giant sized hamster wheel. He was going so fast, he was just a blur. Perfect activity for this energetic one.

We commented after leaving that we managed to cover just a small fraction of the museum. The exhibits were chock-full of learning and activities–this place is definitely at the top of our faves list!