Children's Museum

 March 3, 2016: Whenever the Children's Museum is free, we take advantage of this and GO! Before, I wasn't ever a die-hard fan of the museum because a lot of the activities weren't entirely age appropriate for Lily. However, as she's gotten older, it has been so fun to watch her explore and play in the various play stations. 

This particular day, I asked Allie Tucker if she wanted to join me at the Museum. Her son, Titus, is in the same preschool class as Lily. Lily always talks about how much she loves Titus - so we made a play date out of the free admission at the Children's Museum.

If I remember correctly, this was Titus' first time at the Museum. He didn't let any time go to waste as he played right next to Lily at the play grocery store.

Lily taught him how to gather fruits and vegetables in your basket, how to make ice cream cones and cupcakes, and how to check out when you're all finished.

When we moved on to the Krispie Kreme donut factory station, neither child was too interested in playing here. It may have been because that's where the majority of the other guests were playing at the moment. 

So instead, they went exploring!

And I was floored when Lily climbed into the leaf enclosure. She has always been terrified to go in here and never been brave enough to try it on her own. Maybe she was trying to show off for Titus, or introduce him to it, but she was assertive and climbed up the beanstalk. Titus, on the other hand, was the one who was timid and got scared halfway through his ascent. So, I got to go up and get him out. 

As the kids started to tire out, we made a quick run through Alphabet land before heading home.

This time at the Children's Museum was quite a special one for me, because, in some way Allie Tucker and I bonded and became good friends. It may have been because I opened up and told her that I had Jehovah's Witnesses who stopped at my house the day prior. Allie then asked me what they talked to me about. I explained that they don't believe in an existence before this mortal life and that it shocked me. To which, Allie replied, "I don't either." [Talk about foot-in-mouth disease]. It was an eye opener to me that other religions don't believe in any type of "existence" before they came to this earth... and it made me so grateful for the knowledge that I have that we do (or did) exist before coming to this earth. As I explained to Allie that I believed this, one question led to another, and the conversation ended when she asked me why I refer to God as both Jesus and Heavenly Father. So I explained that I believed they were two separate beings. This can be a very argumentative point for many religions, so instead of arguing Old or New Testament scripture. I just simply told her about the Joseph Smith story and how, as a 14 year old boy, he knelt down to pray and ask God which church to join. His prayer was answered by seeing God the Father and Jesus Christ in the flesh and having them tell them that he should join none of them but re-establish Christ's church again on the earth. While she quickly dismissed the possibility of this happening, by me sharing my beliefs with her, it created a bond between the two of us to openly and freely share what we believe with each other - but respect each other all the same. We were able to find and forge a unique friendship through our love for Jesus Christ, even if our beliefs differ.  So... overall... I'd say that this was a pretty memorable, pretty unique, and pretty good trip to the Children's Museum.