"If I had 46 million $$$$ dollars"

If I had 46 million dollars......I would renovate the Edmund Inn to my expensive taste, invest in a new car, book a few vacations, get a nice hair cut & color, and buy really nice gifts for Brian, our kids, and my friends! I'm sure I could think of a few more things I could do with that amount of money. That's how much was spent on renovations to the new Children's Museum in Boston! We (my kids, one of my favorite friends, her 3 girls & I) went today for the 1st time! We had a blast. It was so crowded, each child had about 2 square inches to move about, but the whole place was a teacher's and parent's dream! It focused on childrens' need for physical activity, discovery, inquiry, and having fun. What a wonderful place!! We are huge fans.

In addition to all the happy excitement of our 1st time seeing these renovations, we also had some chaos. There were 100's of people there. It just opened last week. This week is school vacation in MA. And, we've had a week of RAIN. Our chaos included losing Conor a few times, Megan getting knocked over by a big kid, & general overstimulation. My friend's kids had their balls taken away, and all 5 kids got REALLY tired! Tantrums shouldn't surprise us when kids are tired. But they always manage to. Everyone lost it, so we thought we should end our adventure. Conor pushed the "down" button on the elevator and then we heard the fire alarm. No joke. There were at least 50 kids in a new climbing structure, 1000's of kids wandering around without their parents, 100's of strollers. We were prepared to burn up with the Hood Milk bottle! We figured it was a false alarm or a test, and we reassured our children. Miraculously enough, everyone remained calm. We filed outside, and we were really impressed with how the employees handled the situation. Way to go!

My friend & I agree that the $46 million went to great use!!!! The museum is well worth buying a pass. Tonight at the dinner table I said to Conor, "Tell daddy about the Children's Museum today. What was your favorite part." Only a firefighter's son could say this. He looked up at Brian and said, "The alarm going off. That was my favorite part!"