Field Trip to NY (Moon/Space)

Right before we left for our trip, Mikie finished his eighth Magic Tree House Book titled Midnight On The Moon. At the back of each research book, the author lists several museums that you can visit to learn more about that topic. It just so happened that the Natural History Museum in NY was one of those research sites and it had a planetarium show titled "Journey To The Stars." I don't think I had the right expectations in my mind for what we actually saw. I was disappointed in the planetarium show and it didn't hold Mikie's interest for long. Luckily, it was only a 20 minute video. The one part of the museum that Mikie did enjoy was being able to step onto scales that showed how much you would weigh on the different heavenly bodies.

Mikie & The Moon


Mikie would weight 8.3 pounds on the moon.

An asteroid.

The boys see how much they would all weigh on the asteroid. I think Mikie just wanted to see how high he could get the number to go up to.

Mikie in front of the planetarium.

The other MTH research guide that sited the NY museum as a source was the one about dinosaurs. If you look carefully in the bottom left corner you can see my boys by a brontosaurs.

Our family by the raptor.

Mikie has always worn his heart on his sleeve and this is a perfect example: While walking through the dinosaur fossil exhibit, we saw a T-rex skeleton enjoying his "lunch." When Mikie asked me why the Apatosaurus was lying down under the T-rex, I answered his question honestly and showed him the painting that depicted this scene millions of years ago. He immediately started crying and yelling at the T-rex. (The child loves his long neck dinosaurs!) He has seen illustrations in books about the carnivorous acts of the hungry dinos, but I guess this was too life like scaring him and making him feel sad for the Apatosaurus. He buried his head on Michael's shoulder and refused to look at the rest of the exhibits in that room.

Here we found another giant sloth from the Ice Age (MTH book #7)

The boys with their souvenirs: Zachary chose an orange tree frog and Mikie, of course, chose another long neck dinosaur. The tree frog exhibit that we really enjoyed didn't allow you to take pictures, but the boys sharpened their "I Spy" skills when they tried to find the camouflaged ones.

After riding the subway back to our hotel and loading our bags into the car we headed north for a few hours while the boys napped. Here they are in the morning when we are checking out of the hotel.

This next day was filled with more driving and to reward the boys for being good little travelers we stopped for: (take a guess)

Mini-golf!

This place had 2 eighteen hole courses and while we were just going to play one (and in hindsight we should have stopped at 18) the attendant told us we could play the second 18 holes for free. Now, I say we should have stopped because by that time they were hungry and Zachary was at the end of his rope. He is SUCH an independent (read as strong willed) highly spirited (read as overly dramatic), easily frustrated (read as tantrum throwing), vocal child (read as a screecher and a screamer!) who when faced with up hill putting obstacles absolutely loses it and refuses help. This video is only the tail end of his fit; if you really want to get a feel for our pain play the first 8 seconds of the video over and over again until your ears feel like they are ready to bleed. (Be sure to listen to Mikie tell us Zach's score at the very end of the video. That'll give you an idea of how long we were at this hole!)



We brought his little Mickey Mouse plastic club with us on our trip to ease some of his frustration so that he didn't have to use the larger, heavier rubber ones; and, we were planning on going to more mini-golf courses along the way. So you can imagine our frustration, when at the end of the second 18 holes, he threw his club in a fit of rage and snapped off the head of it.
Michael pulled out the first aid kit and bandaged it up. I couldn't believe it, but that medical tape actually held up for the entire trip (and trust me...you will see a lot more mini-golf pictures in my future posts)

Well, most people would be completely satisfied (if not tired of) 36 holes of mini-golf in one day, but not my boys! Later that same day, we stumbled across another course and got the boys out of the car for 18 more holes of challenging fun. The picture above shows the machine that took your token and, in return, spit out a ball. You could select one of 4 colors or take your chance with a mystery color. Mikie chose the mystery ball and was surprisingly satisfied with one it gave him. Whew! This course also had hills, but thankfully they were mostly downhill! Which meant, no more tantrums! Whew again!