Friday nights our local children's museum is open until 8:00. With our unique family schedule it is easiest for me to get out with the children after at least 3:00 in the afternoon. As far as playdates and activities geared towards young children there are not many options at this time of day. We don't really mind, our schedule has been helpful in simplifying our life. Still when I decided that I needed to try to engage my children more I immediately thought of the children's museum. Thanks to my aunt's volunteer work we got a free family membership for a year! Quite the gift. So early in the week I scheduled a trip to the museum (yes scheduled, that's the only way to make sure it gets done in our house) and we were off.

There was so much to do, and luckily we didn't have a lot of crowds to deal with.



Painting with feathers.  



and cleaning up, this was Mavis' favorite part.



Looking cute at the evening jamboree.



Exploring China's wildlife,



and theater arts.



Shopping at our local market.



Exploring the world of water,



and dinosaurs. Mavis was not a fan of the moving T Rex, but this still model was OK.

Quite a lot to accomplish in on evening.