I love taking my girls new places and seeing their reactions to new experiences. Although we had already gone to the Science Center two years ago, my oldest wasn’t even 2 yet and had no memory of our first visit. That is why our activity-packed Saturday was all she could talk about, even waking up to tell me the plan for the day.
I had told her earlier in the week we had several things to do on Saturday, ending in our trip to see dinosaurs at the Science Center. She was very excited and wanted to see a flying dinosaur, which I crossed my fingers they had. Before we made it downtown, though, we had a few other stops to make.
My youngest at the age of 2 and a half had never had a hair cut. There were a few times appointments were made, but because of illness or other factors we didn’t get it done. As her locks starting creeping down her back almost reaching her rear, I knew we needed a trim. She also has thick hair, with a ton of body and a bit of curl so I wanted to lighten it up and hopefully boost the curl.
We arrived at the salon to meet my friend who took on the task of cutting the girls’ hair. I thought my oldest would sit still and she did, making a quick job of it. My youngest, on the other hand, was very interested in everything happening. She didn’t want to keep her head still and tried to climb down from the chair a time or two. She didn’t scream or cry, which I think is a win for the experience.
Next, we headed to lunch. I wanted to go to a semi-kid friendly location I knew would be playing the Iowa basketball game. Buffalo Wild Wings is packed with TVs and usually people, so the noise and activity hid any impatience the girls had.
We caught a good chunk of the game before heading to my niece’s final basketball game of the year. My mom and dad had been to several games and told me she was quite the player, and I was excited we had the chance to catch a game. The girls played with their cousins and only ran onto the court a couple times. My niece’s team won the game, and she even scored a basket.
Finally the main event was here. My oldest excitedly told my parents several times where we were going before we hopped in the car and took off. After paying for admission, we went straight to the dinosaur exhibit. I didn’t know how the girls would react to the large skeletons. For the most part they liked looking at them, awed by their size and only got a little scared of the T-rex dinosaur that appeared to be running toward the crowd.
The rest of the time was spent in the various activity rooms, looking at snakes, playing with bubbles and watching a presentation about the digestive system, which my oldest really seemed to enjoy. Of course when the time came to leave, nobody wanted to exit the building and reassurance was needed that we would come back again to play and see the dinosaurs. I knew that I may have stretched the truth a little since the dinosaurs will leave in about a month, but we will definitely be back to take in more science in the future.
Contact Jamee A. Pierson at
641-792-3121 ext. 6534
or jpierson@newtondailynews.com