Nordic Heritage Museum and Mom's Birthday 2012

Behold, a wooden horse! No, it wasn't a birthday present for Mom, but Mom and the Muffins did go to see it at the Nordic Heritage Museum on Mom's birthday. It was quite fitting, really: Mom had been curious about the museum for awhile, and it turned out to be the sort of place the Muffins were not quite as enthusiastic about (not a lot of hands-on science stuff). So, it was nice of them to put up with the outing for a sort of birthday present for Mom. One of the more interesting exhibits for the Muffins was the collection of authentic Nordic costumes, such as these:

Curtis was also fascinated by this little milk maid, since she was just about the same size he was:

Amanda got a kick out of the troll photo op. The others did, too, but Amanda put on the best troll face:

We also saw this neat Lego viking village (Legos are Danish, after all):

The Muffins' favorite part of the outing by far, though, was after we got out of the museum and Mom let them play at the rainbow slide playground across the parking lot (Webster Park). It had been raining when we got to the museum, but the sun came out again in time for the Muffins to play.

Lydia really got the hang of getting up and down slides this summer, and she had a lot of fun on one of the smaller slides.

The other Muffins, meanwhile, spent most of their playground time with their favorite attraction: the leftover puddles (and mud) under the swings.

Back at home that evening, Mom made lasagna for her birthday dinner, just because she wanted to.(And yes, it was very yummy, thank you.)

Dad brought home a card for all the Muffins to sign and some chocolate for Mom that evening. Nevertheless, Mom couldn't resist one more little outing. After the younger Muffins went to bed, Mom and Amanda headed off to Chocolopolis, a chocolate store in the Queen Anne neighborhood,  to try out their gourmet hot chocolate, as well as whatever other samples happened to be out that evening.

And, yes, we did sample the ultimate in chocolatey-ness, the 100% cacao bar.

All in all, a good birthday for Mom.