Ohio Day Five - Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

  I am sick.  My sore throat is better but now my head is so stuffed up and I think I have a fever.  So today James drove himself to work so that I could have a chance to sleep in.  That last two days we've had to drag the boys out of bed at 7:30 so I was hopeful.  But alas, this morning all three kids were up by 6:30.  I think that is one of the laws of parenthood, have somewhere to be and they will sleep, but desire to sleep yourself and they will need all your attention as early as possible.

  After breakfast the boys and I walked the half mile to the playground.  Now, before you say "Wow, what a self sacrificing mother!" (I know you were all thinking it), you should know that this was completely selfish on my part.  Three little boys in a hotel room all day is never fun.  But when one of them is a toddler?  Chaos.  We have a limited amount of toys for Charlie to play with but there is seemingly an infinite number of things that he shouldn't touch.  For example, this morning I found him locked in the closet trying to eat a packet of sugar.  If I had felt any worse I might have just let him eat it.

 The walk to the playground wasn't too long and last night's storm had cooled things down a bit. But still the boys were tired and ready for a snack shortly after we arrived.  Halfway through snack I realized that I had left my camera on the bench so I had to send Will (aka Sonic, aka The Flash) back for it.  He is my little super hero.  :-)

The walk to the playground

Charlie on a dinosaur

   There were more kids on the playground today and the boys had fun playing with some new friends.  Charlie flirted with a girl his own age and played with a little boy in the sandbox.  Will and Jon ran around with a group of bigger boys who were playing cops and robbers.  I found some boys jumping out of a window on the second floor of one of the playhouses so I informed their teacher.  The mom in me was horrified and worried that they would get hurt (I ran over to catch one boy but he landed safely before I got there) but the kid in me felt bad for "tattling".  

Charlie plays with a new friend

juice break

  After the playground we headed home again for lunch and a nap.  The walk seemed longer this time.  Possibly because Charlie has perfected the art of "going boneless" whenever he doesn't want to hold my hand or when I won't let him run into the road.  But we made it back and Charlie took a three hour nap which was nice.  I even got to sleep for an hour!!  A good nap can do wonders.

  When James got home we all headed out to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum.  Will and Jon were really wound up so James took them for a run around the pond while I got Charlie ready to go and packed the diaper bag.  Poor Charlie was so eager to leave that he kept saying "go? go? I ready. go? ready? go?" and pulling me towards the door.  He was so cute.

  We arrived at the museum a little after dinner time but we foolishly attempted to see some of the exhibits before we ate.  That was a mistake.  So we headed up to the cafe to find some food.  Jon saw carrot cake on display and he immediately walked up to the counter, plunked down his money (about $.95 in change) and said with confidence, "I'd like a piece of carrot cake and a red slushie."  James and I were laughing but the girl behind the counter just stared at him.  We did end up getting him his slushie and the cake but we made him eat a burger first.

Outside the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Running outside the museum

Jon listens to a display about D.J.s

Charlie checks out an Elvis display

  At one point we passed a Katy Perry display and Jon said "Mommy! What if you had this dress?!?" He seemed very excited about it.  Sometimes I wonder just how my children see me...

My new dress?

   After dinner the kids were in a much better mood to tour the museum.  Charlie seemed to really enjoy himself, there were all kinds of colorful things to look at and he was dancing around to the music. Will and Jon did well although they were less interested in the exhibits.  At one point we came across a Billy Joel quote which said, "If you aren't doing what you love you are wasting your time."  Will read it to me and when I asked him if he thought that was true he said, "Yeah, but I'm not doing what I love!"  

Do what you love

listening to music

Daddy talks to the boys about a David Bowie
exhibit.

  Despite their complaints, Will and Jon did have a good time.  They enjoyed the David Bowie exhibit, especially since we had recently listened to Space Oddity.  And they both spent a lot of time listening to music on headphones.  Will recognized Nat King Cole's "Route 66" from the movie Cars and he discovered and loved Howlin' Wolf's "Evil".  Jon liked everyone but he spent the most time listening to Louis Armstrong.

enjoying some music

Will loved these touch screen exhibits

   We had a good time but the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame wasn't quite what I expected.  Though the building was large the exhibits seemed a little small.  I guess I thought that a museum dedicated to Rock and Roll would be... cool.  But I shouldn't judge to harshly since we didn't have time to see the whole thing.

  On our way out Jon stole the camera and took a couple pictures of us.  He loves taking pictures just like his father.  Although he can be a little bossy about it.  :-)

leaving the museum

On the streets of Cleveland

  We were hoping to grab some ice cream at Tommy's, the nice little restaurant the boys and I visited on Monday, but we got lost and it was closed by the time we got there.  So even though it was late we stopped at Wendy's for a frosty.  Charlie started squealing with delight and that made our frustration melt away.

Thankfully the boys went to sleep quickly and now I must be off to bed as well.  
Goodnight!