Year 3, December 20th, 2018: Visiting Santa at TCM of Indianapolis

Don't you love traditions?  We do!  And thankfully as I've gotten older, I've been getting better at not panicking if every single tradition isn't done every single year.  One of those traditions has been going to the Jolly Days at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis every December.  I think we've gone every time we've had an annual pass, which is most years.  Or I've found someone who can get a couple of kids in for free or something so it's a little cheaper.  But of course, we missed the years we were in Canada, the first year or two of Benaiah's life when we didn't know about it, and so forth.  The exhibit itself hasn't changed much from year to year, just like the Hot Wheels exhibit in May that they've had for the last few years.  Since we have the Access Pass this year, we did manage to go today just to get that one picture with Santa for a total of $12 instead of $50 or more at the mall.  I know there are "free" events, but they are typically swamped with people.  The $12 was our admission price, not the price of getting a picture with Santa.  The museum does hire a professional photographer and you can purchase photos, but they let you take your own (quickly) as well.  So that's what we did.  I actually had to pick up Benaiah from his school because he had one last final to take.  We arrived at the museum a few minutes after 10am when it opened and the line was not long to see Santa, which is the very first thing we did.  That was the only thing I was requiring Benaiah to do.  And then Jared joined us a couple of hours later for a few minutes to pick up Benaiah, who would rather go hang out with his adult friends at church than putter around the children's museum all day.  I was hoping he would interact a bit more with his siblings, but I didn't push it.  We ended up staying in Jolly Days for a very short time, and I meant to go back in, but never did.  It was a little crowded with a couple of school groups but overall it was a very quiet day at the museum.  I was a little bit surprised at the quietness because some schools are already out for the holidays, but maybe parents aren't off of work yet.  I'm sure it's going to be super busy this weekend and next week.  Santa is only there until lunch time on Christmas Eve though.

And yes, we stayed all day.  We usually do.  We focused on areas we didn't do as much last July, like the Dinosphere.  We also spent a good amount of time in PlayScape and ScienceWorks.  We didn't go into the Treasure of the Earth or the Space area.  The exhibit that has a specific country for a year or two was closed because they were changing it from China to Greece.  Pop Culture was still open, but we didn't go in there.  Oh, and we didn't go into the area with the carousel either (I have to pay extra for the carousel because I don't have an actual expensive museum pass, so I was trying to avoid it this time).  They are also working on two more exhibits, Star Trek and Paw Patrol that will be open in February!  We will have to have Jared take a full day off to join us because he grew up with Star Trek like I did and of course, Paw Patrol is one of Abishai's favorite show right now and it's perfect timing because it's Abishai's birthday month!  And lastly they had a "Ripley's Believe it or Not" exhibit which was ok.  It was a lot of reading with some, but not a whole lot of real artifacts.  I think there was a lot of touchscreens with videos that if you have the patience you can sit there and learn a lot.  But it's not my take on what "interactive exhibit" means.  Abishai won't sit still long enough to learn anything.  We visited a Ripley's "museum" on PEI and it was more of a walk through exhibit and I felt there were more wax figures and real artifacts.  Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly.  Maybe I just got tired of chasing a preschooler while I was in this new one.  I just wasn't super impressed.  And the kids love the Ripley's Believe or Not books and have read and reread them many times, so it did click with them.  They did see a couple of things in the exhibit that they had seen in the books.  Oh, and we skipped the "Power of Children" again.  Maybe next time when we bring Daddy along, he can stay with Abishai in PlayScape and I'll take the other two to the Power of Children to really read all the signs in there.  It's about kids like Anne Frank, so it's meant for older kids.  Our museum is definitely not just for little kids.  There's a ton of information there for everyone to enjoy and learn.  That's why we keep going back!

I'll probably mention it in the captions below, but Abishai spent a solid 20 minutes digging in the dino dig this time.  I was reminded of how both Benaiah and Justin spent a lot of time there as well.  Keturah didn't get as much of a chance because I didn't go as often to the museum with her, plus we moved when she was 4.  Wow, um, we moved to Canada when she was Abishai's soon to be age!  Just another reminder that each kid really does live a different childhood.  Benaiah remembers the older exhibits that have been redone, and being at MOPS all those years, and hanging out at CFA.  Justin remembers some, but Keturah didn't have the same opportunities as the boys.  My siblings at an extremely different high school years than I did because my dad had a stroke the month after I went to college.  It's all very fascinating to me how circumstances change throughout the years and members of the same family can experience life quite differently.  Cool!

Anyway, it was an exhausting, but fun filled day.  Not too much drama until the very end when Abishai couldn't buy the toy he wanted.  He spent most of the day out of the stroller, too, and did 3 very big boy things.  He climbed to the top of the climbing lily pads to the big boat on top in PlayScape and said, "I'm brave!"  Although he was a bit scared of Santa, he understood that I just wanted him to take a picture with him quickly, so he went up to Santa without much fuss and later declared that he listened and did it!  And finally, he was old enough and tall enough to go down the Yule Tide slide all by himself!  I went the first time because I wasn't sure if he was tall enough and then the employee could see the kids weren't by themselves.  But after that, all three of them rode the elevator, stood in line, and slid down two more times all by themselves!  That's a HUGE step for all of us!  I like to keep the kids close for their safety, but mostly because I don't want to be excused of neglect.  I really should let Justin handle Abishai by himself more.  I know Benaiah did more things like that when he was much younger than Justin is now.  But, different kids, different circumstances.  And Abishai is quite the handful.  So, Abishai, and the others, had a very big day indeed!

Oh, and top it off, Keturah and Benaiah had rehearsal that evening for our special family Christmas services this Sunday.  We don't have Christmas Eve services because it's hard to put on a full day of Sunday services and then turn around the next day and do it again.  So, we are just including everyone but the 2 yrs old and under crowd in our main worship services.  And then if you have to go to church on Christmas Eve, we have literally 100's of churches in the area that have one.  Benaiah is on the worship team helping out with something special, and Keturah is helping lead the first song with her KP worship team, which is more kid friendly.  Again, two kids on/near stage!  And I believe Grandpa is doing the sermon/sermonette, his last official Christmas sermon of his career!  (Insert super sad face).  What a privilege to see all of that come full circle!  Oh, and don't forget, when Benaiah was just 7 months old, he got to play Baby Jesus, and Jared and I were Joseph and Mary in the live nativity scene for I believe the Christmas Eve services that year.  We had a live sheep or something, too.  It was the second time I got to play Mary.  I also played Mary when I was 16 yrs old in a kids' musical at my home church.  I can't remember if I was part of the whole play or just that scene, but it was geared towards the K-5th grade crowd like Keturah's is.  Oh wow, that, too, all just came full circle because Benaiah is 16.  So cool!  What a blessing!  What a privilege it is to be in a place of religious freedom and to be able to openly celebrate the birth of Christ and pass down that legacy from generation to generation.  Oh the fun and adventures we've had, even within the walls of the church.  Yes, yes, I know we need to get out of the fancy "salt shaker," too.  I get it.  But I also know that not everyone has had the opportunity to grow up in church, healthy or unhealthy.  Again, it's a lifestyle and I couldn't imagine doing life differently.

And as per usual, there's like over 200 photos, so bear with me.  Any iPhone photos will be at the end.  Enjoy!

Playlist of videos for the TCM:
TCM December 2018

First things, first, gotta see Santa!

Sweetness!

A family favorite in Jolly Days, fishing!

Ice castle!  I'm sure I could dig up quite a few pictures of the kids playing on this.  It makes me wonder where they store all of this stuff!  It's the same stuff every year.  Probably an offsite warehouse.

The little slide.

Crawling underneath the ice castle.

"Ice" (sock) skating rink!  Home to soft snowball fights, too.  Abishai didn't slide, he ran and ran of course.

Why does she look so big?  Jeepers!

Sliding into Christmas like...

Snowy Christmas train scene.  Push the buttons and different things light up.

Can you spot all the things on the train that remind you of exhibits in the Children's Museum?  Dinosaur skeletons, polar bear, soccer balls/basketball/baseball, Bumblebee transformer,etc.

And Santa and his reindeer with sleigh flying in a circle over head.  And the gondola as well.

Aw, Abishai is old enuogh to try fishing by himself.  It was a bit crowded and kids kept taking his fish.

It was kind of hard to hook the fish on the fishing pole, so Abishai did it by hand.  There is also an are where you can groom and feed the reindeer and cook treats in a large dutch oven.  Justin played a round of chess on an oversized chess board.  Oh, and there's an area just for the 2 and under crowd as well that we've used in the past.

Keturah's turn to fish.

Hey, that's the robot from my Star Wars book!  Except now it's a mailbox near a postal worker bear.

Ripley's Believe or Not! exhibit had these huge walk through snake where the kids could learn about the different parts of the snake.

Two headed calf that lived for only a month.  We saw a two headed sheep like this at the vet school on PEI.

Cute underwater diver.  Keturah helped him up so he could see.

Wow, is there really a shark that big?  Jaws? I didn't read the info panel.

Octopi! Because they are soft bodied, they only leave a trace of where they were fossilized, kind of like when you see fern imprints.  But I think the ink blob that they left behind at the top was quite fascinating.

Real wooly mammoth hair!  And insects in ambler stone like in the Jurassic Park franchise.

Close up on tiny unicorn sculpted a tiny piece of something.

This is what the unicorn was sculpted on.

An owl on the head of the pin you see here.

Mermaid on a pearl.

Abishai checking them out through the microscope.

There's close up of the mermaid on the pearl!

A real giraffe skull!  I dn't think I've ever seen one!  And a sea turtle skull, too.  And some kind of pig animal on the far left.

Mosaics made out of unique items.  Can you guess what they are?

Keys from computer keyboards!

Hm,....

Pennies!

And this one?

Stamps!

The next two were made from sculpting out of phone books!  Who thinks of these things?!

Last one...

Various candy!

Well, the man child did look at a few things...

Can you guess what these are made of? First of all, they are full scale.  They are made of human hair!  Cool, but ewww!!!

Justin loved the optical illusions and Benaiah tried them out as well.

This car was entirely made out of matchesticks!

It just looks like wood! Not matches!

Can you really make your neck longer by putting a huge spring coil around your neck?

Not quite.  It basically stretches your neck up and pushing down your ribs.  So unhealthy.

Yup.

Hm,...maybe I should try this!

Would you buy one?

This optical illusion made Abishai upset.  There were mirrors reflecting a diamond object but when you reached in to grab the object, it wasn't there.  He kept trying and trying to no avail.

Miah's turn!

Do you see the tiger?  Can you guess what this is made of?

It's knitted and from the front, you can only see the black and white stripes.

Now that's a large snake skin!  And another largish snake.  Definitely not the biggest or longest snake skeleton though.

Keturah was impressed by this one.  Think about it: this man was as tall as Goliath the giant of King David's time in the Bible.  Can you imagine going toe to toe with him?  This animatronic man sat down and stood up and looked around.  It was kind of creepy.  And then Keturah or Jared said the real man died because his legs (and heart I think) couldn't support his weight anymore. 

A camel sculpture made up of tons of kid toys like Dora the Explorer dolls, Nemos, matchbox cars, etc.

A 4 legged chicken?!  Say what?  It still walked on just his two front feet, but imagine it dragging those other two feet around. 

Next we went to Playscape.  Abishai talked about the water table, but then seemed like he didn't want to get wet this time.  He spent some time with the sandbox, a lot of time climbing the lily pads, and some time in the BabyScape area.  So, not every corner of Playscape but enough to scratch that itch.

In the old Playscape, the sand table was much smaller, but it had signs that read something like "scoop and pour...(are important for kids to do because it teaches them about volumes and physics, or something like that)." 

The old Playscape was in a dark room with no windows, but when they redid it, they opened it up to include tons of natural light.  Most of the other exhibits are also dark, but the atrium and the ramp in the middle have lots of sunlight, too.

Climbing!  Keturah with the "helper" tag encouraged Abishai to keep going higher and higher.

There he goes!

What birdie lives in there?

Stuff the scarves in, push the button and some air pushes the scarves out.

Look, Mom, a birdie!  Grandma's favorite birdie, a Cardinal, too.

Up, up, and away!  It's supposed to be lily pads under the water with a boat at the top on top of the water.

Almost there!

"I'm so brave, Mommy!"

He made it!  Keturah and Justin did, too, of course!  Sweet!

Hey, we are all at the museum together, you could at least smile about it.  Daddy stayed for just a few minutes, but that's ok.  We enjoyed eating a snack with him. 

Now that's a pretty fancy gingerbread house.

We went upstairs to the ScieneWorks area where they had a big kid water table that showed different waterways all over the USA including Lake Michigan and New Orleans, and some locks on rivers, too.

Figuring out how locks work.

There ya go, New Orleans Cargo Boats.  I remember seeing a bunch of them as we sailed out down the river into the Gulf of Mexico on our cruise 4 years ago.

Lake Michigan Cargo boats!  From the south to the north, or north to the south. 

Abishai liked the green boat the most.

This is what happens when you lean on and over the water table, your whole shirt gets wet!  I knew this would happen and I did have a second shirt because he can be picky abut these things, but we were able to dry it up a bit and he was fine.  They don't have waterproof aprons in this area like they have in the toddler area.  It's meant to be for older kids who would most likely be mature enough (cough, cough) do not douse themselves with water.

Thunderstorm and fog effects on the river waterways play table!  It didn't freak Abishai out but he did back up and was finished playing at the water table.

Tractors! Of course!  But I tried to get him to not play too long here because we have tractors at home, we've been to the state fair, and there was a huge tractor and such at the science museum in Chicago this summer.  Plus, we see them often enough because we live in the suburbs.

Gotta drive the tractor of course.  In just the few years this has been redone, I can see the seats already being worn down.  Boo! Oh well, easy enough to replace.

From the tractors, we went into the "health house" or whatever it's called.  That might have been the old name.  When it was redone, it was modernized a bit.  Here we have a potted garden.  They still have a bathroom that talks about hygiene, though.

Then you can sort out the different foods into food groups, similar to before. Abishai took everything out of the bucket because he only wanted the tomatoes and carrots in there.  You can also open and fridge panel and it will show how much sugar is in each type of drink and so forth.

This area is totally modern looking.  Before, it was just a place to kind of exercise.  Now it's talking about weather I think.

Four floors of awesomeness!  I love all the light that the museum has, too!

Abishai freaked out both Justin and I when he started climbing.  Stop!

Big boy spent most of the day NOT in the stroller, didn't need a high chair at lunch, didn't try to goof off or make a mess.  He's almost 4 and it shows.

Justin's favorite part of the museum is this right here.  He loves guarding the dinosaur eggs.  He does it each and every time he can.  We did move on more quickly than we usually do though.  I couldn't get a could video or picture of Abishai roaring, but it was loud.

I havne't followed my idea of reading every single sign in the museum while we have this access pass, but I did try to read a little bit today.  This is the nest of dinosaur eggs that someone found that appears to have been stepped on or crushed.  Hm,...by a flood?  Or a rock that moved during an epic flood?

Explaining the nest above.

What do each of these smells like?  One of them makes you think that's what a dinosaur must have smelled like!

For the first time in a really, really long time, we spent a good 20-30 minutes in the dino dig area.  The boys LOVED that area when they were Abishai's age.  Keturah spent some time there as well.  But we hadn't sat in it for that long since we left for Canada.  It brought back a lot of memories of hiding out in this relatively quiet corner.  I've been here so many times that I know how they remake the dino dig when it's all dug up!  About once a month, they slide the tray back into the wall to behind the scenes, take whatever "rocks" are there that are lose, add those to a bucket of more "rocks" with some glue, mix it all up, pour it in, and let it set I think 24-48hrs.  I think it was actually being reset one time when we were here years ago.  If I wasn't busy with so many things, I'd dig up a picture of the boys here.

Here's a link to a Facebook photo album of the kids in 2011 at the Children's Museum.  You'll see the old dark Playscape area and the old Science Works area (complete with the old health house and orange couches).  Also, the train table with the holes cut out in the middle is now in the train area and you'll see it below.
February 2011 TCM

And here's a link to another visit prior to that in 2009 with the Woodwards, who are the ministry family in New Orleans along with Aaron and Shauna.  The Woodwards continue to serve there, too.
September 2009 TCM with Woodwards

And another trip:
Star Wars at the TCM August 2009

Last one for now, with LEGOS in it!:
TCM February 2009

Abishai kept his googles on most of the time.  He loved digging at the 'struction site!  I think he understand it was dinosaur bones, but I also think he was just happy to be digging.

That's Abishai climbing up on the dinosaur.  Whoops!  If you look at those links to the Facebook photo albums, wow, you can see how everyone's changed.  And how Benaiah isn't with us, but Abishai is.  Crazy how 7-9 years changes everything!

Abishai worked really hard on everything!  He didn't want to leave!

These two "dug in" as well.  Great for Keturah how is good at picking things.

The googles!

Random picture I took of how long the t-rex tail is compared to the spherical ceiling.  Remember, this was the original planetarium space.  Now they use the screen for mood lighting, including thunderstorms, which can scare some of the kids.  It's usually pretty quiet down here, even during the holidays.  Most kids focus on featured exhibits on the 2nd floor like Jolly Days.  Yes, the museum gets very busy, but I know all the quiet corners, especially since I nursed two babies here.

I had us actually go into the palentologists' alcove to see what they were up to.  Look at the triceratops' skull they are working on!  And yes, they are doing real work!

Bones and cast of a dinosaur leg.  They have the whole dinosaur and have been working on it for years.  You can also go up to an open window where a paleontologist is working on an item and ask questions.  My sister Kristina would have loved seeing all these growing up!  She is the dinosaur lover in my family.  Justin is our dinosaur lover.

Playtime with dinos!

I have never looked up in this area before, and lo and behold, I see this huge STUFFED ANIMAL!  These thing's wingspan is taller than I am!  Crazy!

They used to have a huge sign here explaining some things and the sighs and sounds thing would explain more but I guess we just get to use our smartphones.  Just one of the things I notice has changed over the years. 

Direct from Wikipedia:
"The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is the world's largest children's museum. It is located at 3000 North Meridian Street, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, in the United Northwest Area neighborhood of the city. The museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. It is 472,900 square feet (43,933.85 m²) with five floors of exhibit halls and receives more than one million visitors annually. Its collection of over 120,000 artifacts and exhibit items is divided into three domains: the American Collection, the Cultural World Collection, and the Natural World Collection. Among the exhibits are a simulated Cretaceous dinosaur habitat, a carousel, and a steam locomotive. The museum's focus is family learning; most exhibits are designed to be interactive, allowing children and families to actively participate.^[2][3]
Founded in 1925 by Mary Stewart Carey with the help of Indianapolis civic leaders and organizations, it is the fourth-oldest such institution in the world. The current site became home for the museum in 1946; the current building was constructed in 1976 and has had four major expansions since then. The museum hosts thousands of activities annually, including plays at the Lilly Theater, classes and workshops for school children, traveling exhibits, and fund-raising events. With a 2008 budget of $28.7 million, it has 400 employees and 1,500 volunteers. Its financial stability is ensured by a large endowment that was first established in the 1960s and is governed by a board of trustees."

See!  There's the train table from the old Playscape! Wow! I can't believe I just made that connection!  Cool!

There she be! This locomotive pushes, not pulls, cars up a hill.  There's a model train demonstrating that in another part of the room.  They built tracks just to push her into the museum and then closed the walls behind her.

So, this was a little frustrating.  We were in the area when the lights and sounds display went off and instead of watching the train "take off," Abishai wanted to see what Keturah was doing on the computer!  Good grief!

How cute are these little train outfits?!  Someone took a regular shirt and a regular stripped shortall, cut a line down the back of them so they would open up, sewed the shirt onto the shortall, and trimmed everything up, of course adding the hankerchief!  What  a clever way to make home made costumes!

Morse code at the train station.

"Isn't this like the one in 'A Christmas Story?' "  Yes, it is!

Some artifacts from the bygone train days.

I love the little pocket "cyclopedia."  Just think how much less practical information there was back then than now.  We have a bet a million times per inventions and ideas and instructions and manufacturing rules, etc. etc.  No wonder our brains are on overload!

Nice quiet hallway at the end of the day after school groups go back to school and before the holiday rush hits.

Another little boy at another train table.

What's this, a foot I see? Let's crush it!

Justin JUST noticed this (after 13 years of going to the museum) that the train that runs at the top of the exhibit is the one that comes out of the exhibit and loops around the ceiling towards the glassworks.  Boy, sometimes you just need to look up and TAKE IN WHAT YOU SEE.

Aww, they changed out other train cars for Christmas ones.

See that train up there?

Same train as out here!

You're too big Keturah, too big!

Glassworks is always so beautiful.

Industrious boy taking plastic "glass" from one sculpture to another.

Taking a break and watching the ceiling of glass slowly go by.

The Yule Slide and Jolly Days, same as always.

We waited until the end of the day and the line was much, much shorter and quick!

I went down with Abishia the first time, but he's tall enough to ride next to me.  Then he did it again, once with Keturah and once with Justin.  I can't believe he's old enough to do it by himself and I can just stand at the bottom and watch!

After the first run, I let the three of them take the elevator by themselves and stand in line by themselves and go down the slide by themselves.  That's a big deal for me! I'm not sure if I would have done it if hadn't been so quiet close to closing time.  I'm glad I went down the first time so the worker knew that there was a parent waiting for them at the bottom.

"I win, I win, I win!" when he clearly lost, lol.

Practicing for the luge team are we?

He's so long!

Testing out toys!

"Mom, this is MY section!" Yes, Abishai thinks he owns a section fo the store.  But look, it's the exact sets he wants for Christmas! (and yes, he got that exact fire station set as I write this a few days after Christmas).  Spoiled are we?

Now these have been around since I was a kid!  And they are sturdy enough for bigger kids.  You have to rock back and forth to make it go forward.

There were many different versions of this, but how silly! Would you really get this out to make your tacos?  I don't think so.  There was also a shower head that looked like a dinosaur, and a hardboiled egg mold.

Look, it's Dave from the Penguins of Madagascar movie, and all his mini me's!  I thought Abishai would be excited ut he wasn't because he found his favorite $6 metal cars display.

Just randomly playing with merchandise on the store floor.  Yup, he's mine.

Pfft, gender equality, gender fluidity, gender neutral, yeah right.  Not when they clearly take a traditionally boy toy and make it 100% girly like this!  Where are those LGBQT activists?  But seriously, these do look cute!

If Keturah had liked trains, I would have bought her the regular trains.  If she wanted regularly colored Legos and not the "Friends" line of Legos, I would get her those.  When Abishai wanted the "Skye" bubbles (pink paw patrol dog), I let him have them.  Kids don't see color, they just see something they like and go for it, which does have a tendency to one way or the other based on how God designed males and females. Just sayin'

If it wasn't so expensive I would have bought this as a gag gift for Jared.  Maybe I'll snag it as a birthday present or something.

Or this one.  All for the love of airplanes.

This window faces west and of course the sun is setting, but they always have a great display at Christmastime with oversized toys here on this doorway.

The new Bumblebee movie comes out this weekend, so we had to take a picture with this movie prop from the first new Transforamers movie 10 years ago.  Yes, this was used in the movie and then donated to our museum.  It's not fully functional of course, but it helped to block scenes and did a few maneuvers. 

Me, too, Mommy, with my paci!

Next time we come, we will see Paw Patrol, yeah!

The End. We made it home in one piece and because traffic was bad, we ended up taking the backroads, though the middle of down town and saw monument circle and the military statues that look like nutcrackers.  Abishai fell asleep 30 seconds before we saw them. Oh well, we went last year, we'll skip this year and go again next year.  And then I followed our favorite route home from Washington St. (once I found it) to Southeastern, all the way to Franklin Rd., two minutes from our house.  I love how our city is laid out with spokes like that.  Streamline, enhanced traffic flow, etc. They just didn't plan for a housing boom where these surburbs on the southeast and northeast side are still cropping up.  Our side of town isn't too bad, but the northeast side is horrendous.  We were safe and sound, and under control 

P.S. iPhone pics, some of these will be similar to ones above, but they are worth sharing.

Fishing!

Jolly Days selfie.  One of the last times we were here for Jolly days before moving to Canada I think I wore this exact same shirt!  Abishai picked it out today!  It's not "fashionable" but it was my moms and I like it.

Fog over the waterways!

I had plenty of coins to let them roll down into this big funnel.  They raced a few of them, too.

Preschoolers and their busyness!  Working at the 'struction site!  His favorite!

Don't let anyone fool you, this teenager still like to play!  Justin and Keturah tried to put the dinosaur puzzle together that roars and pushes the puzzle back out when you finish it, but it wouldn't let them finish it.  I can tell the exhibit is getting a bit older because of things like this wearing down.

I let them press pennies too!  I can do that when we bring our own lunch and we don't pay much to get in.  The coin exchange machine gave you four quarters and two pennies for every $1 you put in it!  Cool!

The Santa hat gets me every time!  Again, kids might be getting older, but they still want to play!

A better look at Abishai playing at the train table.  At some point they changed it from Thomas to Brio trains.

Pressing the lighted crossing arm as the train passes by.

Interesting position on the spinning chair.

I try to be like big brother, but I can't sit still that long!

More sliding pictures, because why not?!

These kids are growing up too fast!  I can't believe I can stand on the first floor with the stroller we barely used and wave up at them where they are standing in line all by themselves!  And I didn't hear any fighting!  Proud Mom moment!  Again, I wouldn't have been so eager to try this if the museum had been crowded.  It was one of the quietest days I've seen to date.

Clock tower, many floors of fun, the best children's museum in the world and it's all ours!  I hope I get to take our grandkids here someday.  So grateful for all the memberships we've had in the past, whether as gifts or paid for ourselves.  So many memories.  So much learning.  So much fun!  Right in our backyard!  It's the #1 thing I recommend when out of town guests ask what there's to do in Indy.  Now, it's hard to take it all in on one day, so I wish they sold two day passes, and it is $22 per adult per day, but it's so worth it!

Even little guys and gals can enjoy DC comics.

Really?  But check out that t-shirt!

How does this work?  Do you crack the egg into the mold and then cook it in the microwave or submerge it in water?

Soft snowball fight!

Ready set go!

Playing doesn't stop, even if you're in the museum store.

He really, really wanted this set.  I had to literally drag him out of the store with him balling and screaming.  It doesn't bother me that much because every kid does that.  It was almost $20 though and it looked cheap.  I knew he was getting all kinds of great things in just a few days, so I said no.

And once again, Mommy selfie with Bumblebee because the movie just came out.

Pretty cool that this was actually used in the original Trasnformers movie!  The collections that the museum has astounds me!

And this is all we got to see of the lights downtown this year.  We ran out of steam and none of us really wanted to do much during the week between Christmas and New Year's.  Walking downtown to see the lights is a fairly new Christmas activity for us and it isn't a Johnson tradition either, so it' not something we feel we have to do.  There's always next year.

 Now, truly this is THE END...and POST IT ALREADY!  Lol. (It's 8 days late...)