Eclectic Parent

Our city is trying to get people into its small downtown. They’ve started having the second Friday of the month be for wondering the downtown; shops are staying open, the arts center has the museum open and performances going on, there are people making balloon animals and street musicians up and down Main St. We’ve only remembered to go once before and had thought it was a shame that the two museums only one street away didn’t open. This month one of the museums evidently agreed. The Mesa Southwest Museum, whose biggest exhibits are dinosaurs found around the Southwest, had a “Night at the Museum” party and stayed open.

Kids had fun dressing up as characters from the movie. I can’t believe we forgot the camera. D was Larry and wore navy shorts and a navy shirt and carried a flashlight. C wore a glow-in-the-dark skeleton shirt to be Rexie, because dinosurs in museums are all bones. But the most creative was definitely B. She wore one of her brothers checkered shirt because she wanted to be a cowgirl (her brothers told her there were cowboys in the movie) but she didn’t like the cowboy hat we have in the dress up bin. So she wore a gigantic woven topical hat with palm fronds sticking everywhere - or she brought it with her and we usually ended up carrying it. But the best part of the outfit was that, on the way, the boys mention Sacajawea, and B decided that’s who she was. So in a too big, kelly green checked shirt, brown shorts, pink crocks and a giant palm frond hat, she kept telling everyone who asked that she was Sacajawea.

We got a late start out the door, so we just wondered the museum and tried to go to dinner. After seeing the incredible lines, we ended up heading home for dinner and bed.