it's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights

so after that delicious lunch we shared at petit trois, we drove up the street to where the "that's from disneyland" was set up.  too bad for us, though, because the line was absolutely insane.  so much worse than what we experienced when we headed out during opening weekend.  this time, the line not only went out the door but wrapped around the building and even snaked down the street a bit.  posts i saw on facebook were reporting a wait time of close to two hours to get in, and as much as we wanted to get in there, we knew there was no way the kids would stand for it.  and so we scrambled to figure something else out, and dailygluttony mentioned the jim henson exhibit at the skirball center.  after looking at the map we realized we were just a few miles away, and so that became plan B.

even though it was already 3:30 and the museum closed at 5, there was a pretty good sized line to buy entrance tickets.  and once we got past that and made our way to the exhibit, we found ourselves standing in yet another line that took the better part of 15 minutes to get through.  it seemed that all of southern california was out and about that day soaking in some fun sights around the city.

we could catch glimpses of other exhibits as we stood in the line, and i made a mental note to make sure we returned with the old lady and her special friend one day so we could check out the rest of the museum.

as we waited in line, we came across a couple of cases displaying puppets from shows i'd never heard of.  didn't matter, though.  they were interesting enough to keep the kids occupied for almost the rest of the time we waited in line.

when we finally made it inside, it was kind of a mad scramble to try and squeeze in as much of the displays as we could in the time we had left.  i was bummed to see that the one shot i got of the bean with kermit was blurry.  and there were so many people crammed in there, it wasn't easy to get a decent shot of anything.

she did a better job on mine, though.  heh.

there were lots and lots of fun things to look at.  some things i recognized, but there were lots that i didn't.

i love that she's still willing to take silly pictures like this.

and of course, we had to do this.

even jim henson had a puppet of his own.

look, miss piggy's gloves!

and this wall was fun to watch.

there were a few interactive stations for the kids to play in.

and while i had to admit that i'd never seen it, the bean was stoked to see pieces from "the dark crystal."  she told me she'd seen parts of it via youtube.

david bowie and jennifer connelly's costumes from "labyrinth" were there too.

we managed to get them together for a couple of group photos:

and then they were pretty much over it.

we stopped to look in the gift shop for a minute, and then finally gave in and herded them into the car to head home.  they got a little silly towards the end of the ride, and it was funny to listen to them banter and bicker and joke around.

we may not get to hang out all together very often anymore, but when we do it sure is a ton of fun!