Have I mentioned how much I appreciate my wife lately? No, well that’s totally understandable seeing as how I haven’t blogged since September. For the record, I had plenty I could have written about but I just didn’t fully know what I wanted to do with my blog moving forward. Between working on our deck, substitute teaching, and a stint in physical therapy, it was kind of a busy fall. After meticulously checking a calendar though, I’m 99% certain that I am on Day 1,884 of being a stay-at-home dad (not counting days I actually subbed).
Anyway, I appreciate my wife. Right now, I’m appreciating
her for all of the little ways she plans fun activities for our family to take
part in and also how she manages to make the lead-up to said activity special
as well.
On this occasion, our family activity in question was a trip
to The Rabbit Hole in North Kansas City. If you’re not already familiar with The
Rabbit Hole, the best way to describe it is that it’s an interactive museum
based around generations of children’s stories. Basically, you wander from
exhibit to exhibit with each new journey putting you right inside the story.
Pretty cool concept if I do say so.
Bethany had known for quite some time that she wanted to
take advantage of our family’s day off on MLK Day and visit The Rabbit Hole. In
fact, in order to make sure that we all really enjoyed the outing, she checked
out every single book from the library that is highlighted throughout the
experience. Each night for the past few weeks, we’ve read through a few books once
the kids were ready for bed in an attempt to familiarize ourselves with the
stories that we would be experiencing.
Yesterday after lunch, it was finally time for our visit to
occur. Once we arrived and placed our coats in the holding area, we proceeded
to wander down a stone staircase that looked like something out of a magical
cave. Once we reached the base, we then entered a magical tunnel which led us
into something resembling a rabbit’s burrow complete with low ceilings, low
lights, and lots of knick-knacks that had clearly been gathered by the rabbit
over the years. Then, we wandered out of the rabbit’s burrow and onto a swirling
series of ramps which ultimately led us to the heart of the museum.
As we had been reading some of these stories for weeks, we were
excited to see displays for “Stega Nona” and “Anatole” right off the bat. The
kids were enamored as they watched the displays move right before them. After
that, we wandered into an open area surrounded by tons more stories. Shel
Silverstein’s famous “Where the Sidewalk Ends” led us onto an elevated platform
where we slid down a giant foot. “Blueberries for Sal” placed us right inside
the blue and white kitchen of Sal. “Curious George” featured an awesome moving
display of George’s entire city for the kids to gaze at, complete with a fire
escape that they could climb. “Caps for Sale” had us sitting underneath a tree next
to a napping salesman as monkeys overhead excited chattered at us.
There were three displays that really seemed to resonate with
the kids though. One was a fire house straight out of “The Fire Cat”. In said
exhibit, the kids could climb up a ladder, through a tube, and drop down a fire
pole to the ground below. If that wasn’t enough, Pickles the Fire Cat himself
occasionally dropped down another fire pole for us to watch and enjoy.
The second display that the kids adored was the Great Green
Room straight out of “Goodnight Moon”. As part of the ambience, we actually had
to slip off our shoes before entering the dark and quiet carpeted room. If you
timed your visit right, you could actually hear the crackling of the simulated
fire burning. In that room, Ethan found himself enamored with an extra-large
version of his cherished stuffed animal, Cat, that he sleeps with every night.
It was honestly pretty special watching him happily carry it around the Great Green
Room.
The other display that really needs to be mentioned revolves
around one of the kids’ longtime favorite books, “Last Stop on Market Street”.
In this story, CJ and his Nana leave Sunday church and hop on a bus to go serve
at the local soup kitchen. This display actually had us inside a simulated bus
complete with stops and jerks as the story played out on the bus windows in
front of us. There were even statues of Nana and other bus patrons that helped
bring the story to life. I even got the opportunity to play the bus driver, Mr.
Dennis, and you’d better believe that I proudly slipped on the accompanying
coat and hat.
After we finished our bus ride, we told the kids to pick a
few of their favorite exhibits that they wanted to see again before we headed
home. With that, Ellie and Ethan began weaving their way back through the
rabbit’s burrow, the fire station, the Great Green Room, and a few others.
Sometimes, it can be a little hard to tell how much Ellie and Ethan enjoyed an
experience. However, the fact that Ellie absolutely was crestfallen to leave at
the end of the afternoon meant that she had definitely enjoyed this experience.
Fortunately, The Rabbit Hole has plans to continue to expand and add new exhibits
all of the time so I’m sure there will be another visit in our future down the
road.
#DaddyWrite
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| Obviously, I missed the memo that it was blue shirt day in House Holt. |
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