Random Outing With My Kid: Kidsworks Children's Museum

We had originally planned to spend the afternoon at an Important Must-See Fall Destination with Farrah and her kids, but we decided to call it off on account of rain.  As the day progressed, though, I started to think maybe it might still be the perfect day to go to the Important Must-See Fall Destination, because the rain had subsided just enough to make it tolerable, but it was cold enough to keep the crowds down.   We dug out the winter hats and gloves and headed out.

When we got there, it was closed.  Nathan started to tear up a little.  I said not to worry, we would just head up the road a bit to the Other Important Must-See Fall Destination, which is much larger and must remain open in spite of a bit of rain.

And when we got there?  Yup, closed.  More tears from Nathan.  And a big fat WTF? from me, because these places are only open like a month out of the year, and then they're just going to go and be randomly closed one day?  I mean, I assume the proprietors of these places have learned from experience that it doesn't make financial sense to stay open on days like yesterday, but then I have to say, what is wrong with the people of Illinois that a tiny bit of bad weather (and we're talking a light drizzle and temps in the 40s) would scare them away from an outdoor activity?  This native Californian was suited up and ready to brave the cold.  You lost some points with me yesterday, Illinois.

(I do concede that it was also a random Thursday, which is probably a very low traffic day at Important Must-See Fall Destinations anyway, so when you add in the foul weather it just doesn't make sense to stay open.)

(However, you should have made a note of your closure on your website.)

Anyway.  Eventually we drove to the nice indoor children's museum, which is where we should have started out in the first place.

Nathan was dubious.  I'm not going to have fun here!  I want to go to a corn maze!

Of course it all worked out.

Here he is in the fire exhibit point a fire extinguisher at me, because clearly as a parent I was simply en fuego yesterday:

He's going to be a firefighter for Halloween, so he's just getting warmed up with the boots here:

Incidentally, his actual costume doesn't have the boots.  

I just like this next picture because I got the whole 9-1-1 display in the background:

One of those pinboard thingies:

Upstairs at the "dramatic play" area, Nathan models his costume as a train engineer who is also a tiger.  They really value inter-species diversity at the train engineer hiring place:

This is the tube/ramp/marble toy thing.  I find toys like this very frustrating, so naturally Nathan spent the most time there:

I'm all, It keeps falling apart!  Let's quit!  And Nathan is like, No, we have to stick with it!

This is the rock pit, also known in fancy Children's Museum parlance as the "texture table."  It's cute because they change it up for different holidays:

I don't know, I thought it was cool. 

Back at the stage, it seems the tiger train engineer also moonlights as a firefighter.  And he does a one-man show about it: 

Oh, but it turns out the train engineer firefighter was the alter-ego of a crime-fighting tiger superhero:

Wow, this play has some really dramatic plot twists!

What?!  He wasn't really a tiger at all?!  It was just a mask!  Clearly this plot point was inspired by the boy's extensive viewing of Scooby-Doo. 

And I would've gotten away with this if it weren't for you meddlesome kids!

Next we did a craft.  And then we got kicked out of the museum when it closed at 4:00.  On the way home we went to my favorite boba (a.k.a. bubble tea, a.k.a. tapioca balls) place, Paradise Smoothie. 

The end.