It was free homeschool day at the LA Natural History Museum, so we drove into town again for another summer field trip. I have to admit, natural history museums leave me pretty cold. We’d just been to the zoo, so we’d just seen all these animals alive a week previously. And Janie had a first-class temper tantrum in the foyer of the museum because our stroller is broken, the umbrella stroller is just too short for comfort, and I wanted to try a field trip with just a backpack and our feet. Apparently Bug hates walking and can’t walk and I am the worst Mommy in the world because I want her to walk. I tried to sit back and think that I was just doing my bit to make all the other moms in the museum that day feel better about themselves. All in all, the kids had an okay time. We were supposed to meet another homeschool family, but they came an hour and a half late, so it was mostly me and the kids, which Tommy found boring. They all really loved the gem rooms at least! And I let them have popsicles on the way out because the guy was smartly standing right in front of the entrance, ready to revive kids with sugar and artificial colors for $2 apiece. Next time we go to a natural history museum, it will be in Santa Barbara, where it’s small and familiar and has the delightful back creek area where everyone can get muddy and wet.
