Night at the [Perot] museum

So what did we do Friday night? Oh, just stayed over night at the nature and science museum. The Perot Museum is only about a year old and very cool. They offer about 4 overnights a year and we signed up for a members only. There were about 200 people I'd say. The had us stow our gear until midnight and I wondered how on earth we'd keep our girl up til midnight when I don't think she's ever been up that late before. Well the answer, as with so many things is SCIENCE! Way cool science... oh and candy!

They played with bubbles filled with dry ice smoke, watched a pumpkin explode and then spew yeasty foam, they searched in the dark for clues about owls, they sat on a chair made of nails and that was just the special stuff they offered. They enjoyed many of the regular exhibits also. I was hesitant to sign up for a second year membership thinking we'd seen every floor, but Lea does not tire of the place. Especially the life lab where there is a video game, but with projected images where you choose good life choices to add years to your "age" or bad life choices to subtract years. But there are hundreds of other exhibits Lea loves too so we'll continue to go back as often as we can. I'd even stay over night again even though I am still sleepy after two good nights of sleep, two naps and an extra hour thanks to the time change!

We were lucky enough to meet up with friends (both adults and kids) who had a wonderful night together (misery loves company, right!). Plus we all had soccer the next day, though our friends had a game at 8am, yikes! The separated the groups by last name and some slept on floor #3 (rocks & minerals — which probably would have been Dan's choice) and floor #4 (dinos & hall of birds — us!). I felt privileged to get to sleep under the bones of a mammoth and an alamosauras, with a view of a pterodactyl and Dan's favorite the gigantic sea turtle (by gigantic I mean bigger than the mammoth!).

There was a science costume contest and I had several elaborate ideas, but Lea came up with her own. She said to me "I'll just wear a sign that says "gravity" and jump up and down." Well how perfectly Lea is that, she is a bouncer after all. However, when it came time to say her costume she got overwhelmed by the boy in front of her who knew every part of a pumpkin plant and its scientific components from seed germination to tendrils that supply nutrients. So Lea humbly said "I'm gravity and it, um... keeps us on the ground." NO BOUNCING. She would have gotten applause just for brevity considering how long the pumpkin was up there. But I understood. There were several who thought they had to give a report with their costume and I'll give credit to the museum, those were the costumes that won. Hooray science! We knew she wouldn't win, I just wanted her to be herself so that's all that mattered.

So 5 musueum floors, 4 hours of science fun, 2 hours of fiddling around in sleeping bags, 5 hours of "sleep," 3 friendly families, 5 kids adds up to fun to the power of infinity!

The Neal family & The Perge Family ready for a night at the museum

Crazy kids holding up a dino skeleton. We were waiting for the science show where they "exploded pumpkins" — using a reaction &  flammable gas pieces of a carved pumpkin shot out and then with yeast and dawn dish-washing liquid the pumpkin oozed like it was throwing up. They also got to try cheese puffs frozen in liquid nitrogen that made them puff out steam from their mouth. And this wizard's lovely assistant was Sanger's art teacher, Ms. Fletcher!

"We're paleontologist princesses" Never have I heard more precious make-believe words in my life! Science and princesses! Awesome! Their pretend names were "Lila" and "Magda." This was on the flash light scavenger hunt in the dino room and Rose Hall of birds. It was very owl-cetric.

Ready for sleep, all 4 hours of it. While Dan and I were happy to sleep under the Wooly Mammoth skeleton, and Lea and her friend were between that and the gigantic, 2-story tall Alamosauras skeleton, all Lea would say was "My friend parked me under the exit sign," when she explained where she slept. I guess the light was a bit bright as we went to sleep. She did crawl over with me for the beginning of sleep and then rejoined her mate somewhere around 3am.

Returning from brushing her teeth in the hall of dinosaurs.

Just one more thing we've done together, slept under a Wolly Mammoth skeleton. You can't see it in the photo, but in Dan's eyeline as he lay falling asleep was a beaver skeleton so in the morning he made the girls laugh with "I slept next to Justin Beaver!"

Not comforable in the least, but amazing none the less. What a fun family adventure!

Our cozy spot. Did I mention we slept under a Wooly Mammoth. I know you're tired of hearing it but it was just so amazing! I did misspeak at one point and say we were under a mastodon when Dan informed me that the differences between mammoths and mastodons are size and millions of years.

Lea waiting for her pancakes the next morning. We couldn't get her to put her Dork Diary book down. That's a good think I think.