Pastor conference day 2

On Tuesday, Ram got a ride from another pastor so we slept in a little. Our hotel had a nice breakfast. We were the last ones to eat so the breakfast lady made a little gift bag with muffins, candy, and cookies for the Lambs.
Even with our late start the mall wasn't open yet so I decided to try out the history museum. I choked a little on the price of $12.50 adult admission, but all the Lambs were free. Yea for 5 and under! The reason for the admission was they had a T-Rex exhibit on loan from the Field Museum in Chicago. Normal admission is $5 for adults. The Lambs have just started to get interested in dinosaurs. I know this is abnormal for boys. About a month ago they got some plastic dinos from the Target $1 section and a few books too. Since then they have had dino temporary tattoos and other dino stickers. There was a "grandpa" working at the museum that enjoyed giving us a personal tour. He took us straight to the T-Rex. After we saw the T-Rex then we looked at their other permanent exhibits a little, but it was above our young Lambs. Then they had a very nice play area and the Lambs played for a long time. They had a play store, kitchen, trains, and puppets area. The play kitchen had similar appliances to our Lambs so Lamb 3 was the only one interested in that. The Lambs played a very short time with the trains and I think they thought they had better trains. But they spent a long time in the play store. One shopped and one worked the cash register. Lamb 3 had a basket of eggs and enjoyed dumping them and picking them up. He even said "egg" to me several times. Then they played veterinarian with the puppets. The play area was stocked with really nice quality toys. If the T-Rex exhibit wasn't there, it would be worth the admission price, especially in the winter, for the Lambs to have a play place. One other boy came in while we were there and mostly played with the trains. They said over the weekend the play area was very busy. It was nice that we homeschool and could go on a Tuesday. We shopped a little in the gift shop and I bought the Lambs small dino keychains. They tried to talk me into expensive plastic dinosaurs with no success.
After a few hours at the museum then we went to the mall. Lamb 1 wanted Chinese and Lamb 2 wanted pizza. Lamb 1 shared with me. Lamb 2 and 3 shared.
I parked far away from the play place on purpose. With the flu going around that was the last place I wanted the Lambs to be. We window shopped a little more and even survived going to Macy's to the housewares section to print off a bridal registry. When Lamb 2 picked up some china while it was printing, we left Macy's and we'll have to order the gift online or get it later. Then I took the Lambs to Payless shoes. Lamb 3 was sleeping so we couldn't measure his feet. They didn't have any of Lamb 2's size. While we were there Ram called the cell phone that he was done. So I avoided Lamb 1 being upset that I didn't buy him any shoes. We had a long walk through the mall to get back to our car.
We picked up Ram and I ran into the card store. Then since I hadn't had very much lunch-Lamb 1 ate most of the huge plate of noodles and chicken-we went to Five Guys. The Lambs didn't eat very much. After a quick Starbucks run then we went to Willmar. We got the Lambs Culvers frozen custard as a treat. Then Ram took the Lambs to the park because the day was really beautiful weather compared to the day before while I shopped at Walmart.
I had cleaned out the coat closet and taken all our coats (the ones that aren't machine washable) and a few other items to the drycleaners. I was shocked that the dryclean bill was almost $100! But we got a lot drycleaned at once instead of taking in one item at a time.
Then we all did the grocery shopping. Lamb 3 was difficult and I couldn't figure out what he wanted. Finally I figured out he wanted to push the cart! Things went a little better then. But I was glad when Ram finished shopping for the WIC and he came and watched Lamb 3 while I finished the other shopping. I had a big list which meant we spent a lot of money. But I'm so glad when we can get there to shop because they have a nice health food section which we buy a lot from.
After a few other errands then we got Arbys for supper. The Lambs all fell asleep on the way home. We didn't even get home that late for everything we did-about 9pm. The Lambs went back to sleep and Ram and I put the groceries away.
It helped that the Lambs and I did a lot of errands and shopping while Ram was at the conference. This is part of living in a rural area-that when we get to the city we have lots of shopping to do while we have the chance. The Lambs are slowly learning this and we try to make it fun.
Ram's mom suggested that we take a little schoolwork to do in the car like she used to do with Ram and his brothers. She suggested this because I'm so frustrated that September is over and we haven't done much homeschooling due to having the flu etc. I chose to just take a vacation and have a fresh start when we returned home. The museum ended up being a great field trip. We had a great homeschool day on Wednesday. So now that we are home, I think I made the right decision to take a two day homeschool break and come back ready to work after our little break.
I don't think the Lambs had ever been to a museum before this. Today they played museum. They set up their plastic dinosaurs, some matchbox cars, and some other plastic animals. One of their prizes was a Big Bird stamper. Lamb 1 earned that stamper today and had to stamp our hands to enter the museum. Lamb 2 got out their play camera and took pictures. They had quite the set up.