Our Spring Break is off to a rocky start. What started out as a nice, sunny morning, quickly became a scary situation when Kei was taken by ambulance to the hospital after suffering an allergic reaction to some medication. He’s OK now, but I was very worried. The up side? The kids were with him and experienced their first (and hopefully last) ride in an ambulance. Thomas said it was cool, even if they didn’t turn on the siren.

Side note: It hurts a little that, in an effort to save money I arranged a series of childcare swaps with friends rather than sign the kids up for day camps. It was a fantastic plan (and still is) but, sadly, it looks like that money will be spent on medical bills instead. Don’t get me wrong, the ambulance ride was absolutely necessary in this instance. I just wish it didn’t drain our bank account.

Let’s change the subject, shall we?

I was looking through my photos from the past few weeks and realized that apart from the red couch pics, I hadn’t shared the rest of our photos from our recent visit to OMSI. While I used to take Thomas to the science museum a lot when he was a toddler – they have a baby playroom – I realized I hadn’t taken them to check out the museum since they have been old enough to really enjoy and understand it. A school holiday seemed like the perfect opportunity.

After my kids asked me what this is…

…we made a stop in the ball room where the they had to build tubes and then use forced air to move balls through the tubes. Samuel showed me around.

And, honestly, I think they were a little delusional with this sign.

We then wandered around learning about balance and earthquakes and all things physics. I may have even learned a thing or two.

This was so much fun – paper, a pen and a pendulum.  think we made about six of these drawings.

Sadly the boys wouldn’t let me take any pictures of these with their static electricity hair, but this was the next best thing.

We built perfectly balanced arches…

Played with some puppets…

and looked for fossils.

We even sorted some recycling, although Thomas looks a little perplexed by this potato.

It was a great day – so much so that we stayed for about five hours and were forced to eat in the OMSI cafeteria. I have to say, though, that the food was actually very good. I’ve eaten in a lot of museum cafeterias and was incredibly impressed by the quality and the reasonable prices. I’m tempted to go back even without a museum ticket.

I’ve determined that 7 and almost 5 are great ages for OMSI. At this age, the boys have just enough curiosity that they’re not easily jaded by things like electricity and, well, puppets. I think we’ll go back agan soon although I think a trip to the Planetarium might be on the cards. I think the boys would really enjoy it and, to be honest, I might too.