digging in the sand

That summery title is brought to you by the beach-like activity we did today.  The Science Museum ended its shark exhibit today by inviting us to dig in the sand they had brought in as part of the display.  We didn’t get to demolish the sand sculptures like we thought we would, but they removed the Please Do Not Touch signs from one of them, so we had a chance to feel the hard sculpted sand, including the shark in the foreground of the photo below.

This was our first view of the shark exhibit when Caroline and Ian and I visited the museum on Dec. 23 during Rhiannon's Shakespeare camp. Today, the kids dug in the sandy area to the right in the photo.

On the 29th, we rushed down to Richmond early enough for Rhiannon to come with us to the shark exhibit for shark petting time at noon before her 12:30 Shakespeare camp start time. She took several photos of the sculpted animals like this one.

Today I forgot to bring my camera (its malfunctioning is depressing my interest in taking photos anyway) so I didn’t get any photos of my kids digging.  However, a photographer recorded some other kids digging HERE.  Rhiannon dug up a pretty rock and a shark’s tooth.  Ian dug up an admission ticket for the museum, which we will be giving to a friend because we have the membership.

We also visited other parts of the museum.  Rhiannon listened to a demonstration about force and Newton’s laws.  They all danced in the reflections mirrors and pretended to be part of a fruit bowl.  They like pretending to be astronauts too, and they each took a turn on the spinning pole.  Ian loves the balls he can swing and knock together too, of course!

I had to remind them we have a membership and will be returning in a couple of weeks because they protested when I said it was time to leave.  I look forward to going back too.