the science of being a mom

along with the bean, of course, i went to the discovery science center in santa ana for the first time since the teen went on a field trip there in the 5th grade.  i'm sad i wasn't such an active blogger back then, because it'd have been fun to look at those old pictures again. 

of course, through the magic of photos on CD...well, let's just say that the teen will likely mangle me when she gets home if she sees this post anytime soon.

i wanted to take the bean that very week to see bubblefest - which i'm amused to see was also happening during that field trip back in '06.

except that i'd totally forgotten about spring break - which meant that the joint was packed to the gills.  ugh.  and the parking lot was completely full a mere 45 minutes after the museum opened.  we ended up having to park across the street, at the mall.  but hey, we saved $4 on parking.  silver lining, people.  there's always one.

we'd bought our passes online, but still had to wait in line to exchange our printed ones for real tickets.  plus, there was an additional ticket purchase for the bubble show, which looked like fun. 

judging from the bean's reaction to this sign, i'm thinking we'll be taking at least one return trip to the science center in the next few months.

i'm totally giggling at this:

and these:

well, and this isn't so cute but i'm sharing it anyway, because it's fun.

do you love the pink razr phone?  that horrid hair?  the blah soccer mom attire?  niiiiiiice.

as we made our way inside, the first thing that caught our attention was the sesame street-themed "body" exhibit.

i wanted to see her shake her groove thang here, but she wasn't havin' it.

instead, she headed here to play:

yeah, we have a ways to go before she's tying her own shoes.  thank goodness for velcro and vans slip-ons.  heh.

before long, it was time to get in line for the bubble show, which i knew would be pretty packed.

i thought i'd be able to ignore this, but the various staff members sprinkled throughout the audience were total photo nazis.

i still managed a few before i was approached and asked to put my camera away, though.  i'm a rebel like that, yo.

the show really was pretty fantastic.  it's a traveling family act, and we were treated to 45 minutes of amazing bubble tricks by deni yang.  dude's been performing the bubbling act since he was 4!  he made it look easy, although we all know if i tried it, i'd waste about a bazillion gallons of bubble solution before realizing i wasn't cut out to be a bubble...er.

by the time the show was over, it was lunchtime.  for us and the rest of the freaking audience.  bah!  the bean had already seen this, so the PB&nutella sandwich i'd packed was DOA. 

besides, how could i resist this face?

as we stood in that long ass line, she changed her mind about what to eat about six times.  and i did find it incredibly ironic that we were being taught about eating healthy and making good food choices throughout the museum and yet their biggest sponsor (and only food option)...taco bell and pizza hut.  fab.

we headed upstairs to check out the rocket lab exhibit and other fun stuff.  i always wondered what was in that big black cube that's freeway visible.

back outside, we found our way to even more fun.

muahahahahaha.

back inside, the bean gave the rock wall a shot before giving up and following the footprints on the floor.

but when she saw him, she turned tail and ran out, leaving poor elmo bereft.

after thinking about it for a minute, she decided to go back and give him a hug, and asked me to get in the picture too. 

it had been such a long day, and we'd stayed out longer than i'd planned.  which, of course, meant that we were sitting in some hellacious traffic almost the entire way home - ugh.  although she passed out in her seat within minutes of getting buckled in, and i entertained myself with the radio and some leftover snacks i found in the backpack.

snacks, man.  they fix errrythang.