A day for them

Today we decided to devote the day to the kids and head to the Children's Museum and park afterwards. I read that this museum was one of the best Children's museums in the world, so how could we turn it down?

Luckily, we got their super early, because it was C-R-O-W-D-E-D when we got out. (And I thought it was crowded when we got there). The museum is enormous... think a basketball arena- all devoted to children. They divide the museum by ages and you can buy entry to different parts of the museum based on your kids ages. Since our kids are pretty young, we didn't do 1/8 of what we could have done, but it was nice to just get a taste :)

They have a hall of mirrors, and it was hilarious to see Emi completely confused.

Next, they have a room devoted to different sizes. They have tiny bikes, bigger bikes, bigger bikes, and then the biggest bikes. They do this with chairs, clothes and hand prints. Then, the kids try to figure out which size is best for them. Really cute idea.

Emi found her size!

I thought this was so ingenius... you put the letters on a bar, and form a word, and the machine says it to you. What a great way to teach kids how to read!!!

A glow in the dark room where you could play with ultraviolet lights and draw stuff on the walls.

Walk through a car wash.

Zig Zag through bamboo.

Emi was a little overwhelmed... she kind of walked around a little dazed.

I think this might have been Emi's favorite- simple pleasures. How to get a ring through a metal rod....

We got to sit a while in front of this one!

The water section was awesome. Kind of like our old time favorite at home...

I think Emi was the smallest one there! Way to go champ!

I really liked this idea! They had a river in the floor that floated around the room... and the kids could put shapes in the water and see them float...

There was a lot of thought put into the mechanics of the water.... there were 10 stations of water that you could turn on, spray... whatever... and then crates on the floor where the water fell through. I think this is much better than just the drain that we have back home which makes the floors so slippery.

This room is a little boys dream. Basically a construction area- a two story house, helmets, a crane, blocks, mine carts, blocks... the little boys were so into it. Even our girls were mesmorized.

Watch out Bob the Builder!

After we exhausted all of our imaginations, we sat down and had a great little lunch in the cafeteria, and headed outside. I think this might be some type of planetarium inside (we didn't go because the kids are too young), but it is super cool looking from the outside.

We sat down on the grass and relaxed.... I could have taken a nap :)

Couldn't have been a trip without a Carousel...

Or a park (with awesome inflatable jump areas).

And very comfortable chairs! I love the design of everything in Paris.

Swings I had never seen before...

After all of this, we were pretty much at 2% energy. We headed back to the metro and walked home :)

After putting Emi down for a nap, all of the remaining ladies (Maddie, Audrey, Becky and I) went for a light lunch in the neighborhood.

Divine chocolat.

A great view from whatever angle.

What happens to a 3 year old after 1 chocolate chaud, a soda, french fries and ice cream (?!) Ok, so I'm not the best mom! This will all change Sept 1st!

This is also what happens when you give a 1.5 year old normal food after she sees mom put a macaroon on the table. Whoops. She didn't quite recover, and never did eat dinner. I guess I wouldn't want to eat normal dinner either if I saw one too.