Parque de las Ciencias Kicks the Exploratorium's Booty!

Today we all got up super late since we don't have the convenient pan man to wake us up when he delivers the bread. We decided to go to el Parque de las Ciencias which is similar to the Exploratorium in San Francisco, but much bigger and better (sorry Lola, but it is true). Outside there was a giant marble ball on top of a little bit of water. When the water was turned off , you couldn't move the ball at all. When the tiniest layer of water was under the ball, you could move it with just your finger. There were tons and tons of hands on activities for the kids to do. We spent the entire day there and still didn't do everything we wanted to do. There was a tropical butterfly area, a venomous plant and animal exhibit, taxidermy galore, a real brain with a spinal cord in a jar, a whale's heart in a jar, skeletons of various animals, a perception exhibit, outdoor activities using water, a mobious circle climbing net, giant chess set, wild bird show, tide pool, human body exhibit, science and architecture in Al-Andaluz . . . . I could go on and on. Basically, it was kid paradise. Emma liked the butterfly house best. Aidan's favorite part was watching a guy squeeze poison out of a snake. Ian's favorite part was the hedge maze which he went through twice.

In the human body section there were various organs in formaldehyde, a complete replica of the circulatory system and many other interesting displays. I was following the kids around and all three were watching a video of a baby being born. The boys both thought it was gross, but fascinating (see picture of Ian's face) because they kept watching it over and over. Emma's face (see picture) and reaction were priceless. She ran away from the screen and kept saying, "I'm never going to have a baby! There is too much pain and blood and it is DEE-guststing!" Later, whenever she thought about what she saw on the video, she would say, "I wish I had never seen that video! Why did I have to see that?" She was also REALLY mad at me because I kept laughing about it.

Ian had a hard time in the venom exhibit because he is terrified of spiders. He won't even let me do the "spiders crawling up your back," part of Going on a Treasure Hunt. It was really dark in the room and the animals were behind at least one or two layers of thick glass. He had no trouble with all the giant venomous snakes, but started crying when he saw the tarantulas. I had to carry him through the rest of the exhibit.

There were the coolest pillows in the museum in a huge pile that the kids were burying themselves in. They really looked like boulders until you touched them. Livingstones by Smarin. I love the design and they were so comfy. I would like to get some for our house in Pennsylvania to lounge around on in the living room.

In the Safety in the Workplace exhibit there was a blue ergonomic chair that I fell in love with. I wanted to spend some serious quality time in that chair. If there hadn't been a line of people waiting to try it, I probably would have fallen asleep there. There was a neat room that sterilized you when you stood between two doors and then had beakers and test tubes in a glass box that you could play with using the attached rubber gloves, like the box that John Travolta lives in in the movie Boy in the Plastic Bubble.

We ate at the cafe. I got soaked while holding our table because it was so windy that the fountain that was 5 feet away ended up spraying me and our table. Ian and Aidan ate steak sandwiches. Emma and I ate cheese sandwiches. Collin protested the cafe's lack of tortilla by eating nothing. I got separated from Collin and the kids at the science park and ended up calling his cell phone from a pay phone in the main building. Luckily, it was me that got lost and not one of the kids. The kids are much better at walking fast and keeping up with Collin than I am. Of course, I am carrying food, water, a camera, a Spanish dictionary and a bunch of other stuff that slows me down. (Plus, I just walk really s-l-o-w.)

We watched Coraline in 3D (thanks April!) when we got home. I loved it! We put up flyers to find a Spanish teacher for the kids and a language exchange partner for me and today we got calls for both. The Spanish teacher comes tomorrow and I am meeting my language partner at the park on Thursday night. They are both women. I hope the language teacher works out and I wish we had advertised for both when we first got here. I feel like we have wasted a month when the kids could have been having Spanish lessons.

Collin might go camping with the Young Men. I hope he does. I think he could use a break from the craziness that being with us 24/7.

I walked 19,397 steps today.