We have a family membership to the children's science museum in Dayton, but it had been a few months since we had been there, so I decided to take the kids yesterday. All 3 have always had a blast there, so we were all looking forward to it, but when we arrived Ella completely shut down. Now, anybocy that is around Ella for a bit of time always comments on how outgoing and social she is, so this was very strange. It wasn't even crowded there, initially. Look at how pitiful she was...

She finally warmed up after about 20 minutes. We went upstairs to a pretend grocery store and, ugh, they have a real (dead) deer head mounted on the wall. Ella saw it and then I had 15 minutes of this: (and yes, she is wrapped tightly around my legs)

So, by this point I am thinking that I will never get her to play with anything and have fun. *sigh* But then the heavens part and light shines down right on one of her favorite activities:

Yeah! She loves to write (she even carries a journal and a pen around with her most of the day, LOL).

And to top it off, she even found a quiet place to read (her other favorite activity):

After that, the day went pretty well (as long as we ignore the rowdy group of school kids that were on a field trip- TRASHING everything in sight. Made me feel so much better about being a homeschool mom). The kids found an activity that they all loved and could all do together:

The boys also loved going into the tree house and doing a little bird watching (partially because, at the time, it was the only way to escape the loud school kids- then they came into the treehouse and ran us off.....)

Cody loved the "Science in Toyland" exhibit:

We had a great time, but I wish my boys would have stayed still long enough for me to get a few more pictures of them. More than half of the pics of them shows just a blur where a boy once was, LOL.