Because I like a Challenge.

 Today, I decided to keep one of my friend's little boys so that she could go on a field trip with her oldest.  She has 3 kids and I understand the desire to do things one-on-one with your children. 

She offered to pay me for my time, but I declined.  I just asked that she do the same for me one day.  I'm sure that will come in handy :)

She dropped off her littlest (about 6 months younger than Brighton) just before 8 a.m. yesterday.  It was raining buckets when I loaded the 4 boys into the van to take Chandler to school.  After dropping Chandler off to school the now 3 little ones and I headed to the Museum in Durham.

We had the museum practically to ourselves because it rained ALL DAY LONG!  We mostly kept to the inside stuff and we treated to a volcano (really, it's a tornado) display right away.  In the past we haven't had the patience to always see the volcano (I'm not sure why the boys insist on calling it this) form, but today we got to see it twice!

 Next it was off to play with the large tinker-type blue blocks.  These are always a hit for the boys and I love the big comfy couches for me to sit on!

After playing in another toddler area we checked out the indoor animals.  Here's Emerson pointing out a snake, and Brighton jumping up to see it.

The worst part of the day was making the trek from the indoor part to the butterfly house and the cafe for lunch.  While at the butterfly house we saw one other family that had made the trek and we had the entire cafe to ourselves.  Here at the butterfly house, Brighton spied the birds on the ground.  Can you find them in the picture? 

Also at the butterfly house, the boys enjoyed looking at all the bugs.  Mom is just glad that most (if not all) are behind glass.  Yuck!

After having lunch we trekked through the rain back to the indoor part of the museum and played with the blue tinker-toys again.

We headed home after noon and had to pick up Emerson's older brother from preschool.  As you can tell from this picture, Emerson had a great time.

It certainly was a tiring day for me too!