The saga of Wednesday August 14, 2024 in London, England

Lessons learned from my outing with the boys two days prior, I planned the day around visiting the British Museum. The time zone difference between most of Europe and Maryland made it possible for Chaim to leave for work early in the morning so that he could meet up with us for a few hours at the museum before returning to work just as his colleagues were beginning their day.

The British Museum is massive. One could spend an entire week there and barely scratch the surface. I expected the boys would find it overwhelming and want to fly through it. I also knew that the museum offers six exhibit-specific scavenger hunts to help kids (and parents) feel less overwhelmed. Each scavenger hunt focused on only a few specific artifacts within one exhibit while pushing participants to think critically about the artifacts and information they are encountering.

After taking time to catch up on journaling, we set off on the Tube to meet up with Chaim at the British Museum. While waiting in line to enter, one of the line attendants called out in a clear, deep and booming theater voice: “If you don’t have a bag you can skip the line and enter the museum. If you have a bag, a small bag, it is still a bag.” Writing doesn’t do the moment justice, but everyone in line cracked up and his colleagues began applauding. A minute or two later, another line attendant walked up to Chaim and suggested that I hand my purse to Chaim so that I could skip the baggage check and enter the museum with the boys ahead of him. So that’s what we did. Why we didn’t think of that, I have no idea!

Although the museum is enormous, the number of visitors was already swelling and the boys became quickly overwhelmed. The first exhibit was about the cycle of life with no interactive parts. Their first impression of the museum was not going well and their patience was exacerbated by the need to wait for Chaim before moving through to the rest of the museum. Thankfully, and unsurprisingly, someone had to use the bathroom, which kept everyone busy for at least ten minutes. Once Chaim made it through, we walked straight back to the family information desk to acquire the first scavenger hunt booklet.

Each scavenger hunt is designed to take about 30 minutes so I figured each of our boys would have the opportunity to be a “team leader” and guide us through the hunt. Amichai started us off with Ancient Greece. Quickly, Amichai grew disappointed when he realized the answers were provided on the page. He and the boys decided to up the challenge by covering the answers and making it harder to find each artifact. This kept them entertained for so long that we only ended up getting through two scavenger hunts: Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt. Since each of the boys thought they were going to have a chance to lead, they split the scavenger hunt in half to ensure each boy had a chance to practice his leadership skills.

A few artifacts that really caught our attention were:

  • A picture of a child crying while sitting in an ancient potty seat
  • Mummies, which terrified Matanel because he was convinced they would come alive
  • Seeing names from Tanakh/Hebrew Bible
  • Ancient sandals that Matanel was so excited about he yelped, “Those are Moshe’s shoes!”
  • The fake Rosetta Stone because we were allowed to touch it

In the end, we ended up staying for three hours, including a short 20 minute break in the family room which I highly recommend families take advantage of when with young children.

An ice cream truck was stationed right at the museum exit. The boys were spent and needed a pick me up, plus my doctor told me to give them ice cream every day if they weren’t eating well and I took that to heart. After enjoying four 99’s we caught the Tube to Pizaza for a late lunch/early dinner. While at Pizaza, I found incredibly affordable tickets to see MJ The Musical at the West End at 7:30PM. I was torn. Do we take the boys out for a musical they would probably love? Or, do we go home and get a good night’s sleep missing our only opportunity to see a musical while in London? After texting Chaim to find out what he thought I polled the boys to gauge their interest. The Kirby boys are huge MJ fans. They know a ton of his songs by heart, and the Weird Al versions, too. It was a no brainer for them. Of course we were going to see The MJ Musical. I grabbed the last six tickets seated together and that was that. After buying some much-needed fruits and vegetables to counter our newly heavy-on-ice cream-and-pizza diet, we went home to decompress for an hour before heading to the West End.

As happens in the Kirby family, we were running late. Amichai and Shai were beginning to freak out about being late, saying that we weren’t going to be able to see the show. It probably didn’t help that I had told them the ushers won’t let audience members in after the show begins. It also didn’t help that when we got off the train and above ground, my Google Maps was having a seriously hard time helping me navigate through the streets. It had been acting up for several weeks – the arrow was consistently inconsistent in terms of the direction it would face to show we were moving correctly. It was becoming a very real nuisance as the sun was setting and everyone’s anxiety levels were rising. Eventually, I figured out where to go and we met up with Chaim who was already in line for the show.

The MJ Musical was spectacular! The actors were excellent; the main character sounded just like Michael Jackson when he spoke. The dancers were supremely talented and the singers were amazing. Our boys loved every minute of it and felt pretty cool when I explained that the West End is the Broadway of London. In their excitement, they might have sung louder than appreciated by other audience members. They also talked and asked a lot of questions to make sure they could follow the storyline, which moves back and forth between time periods. It is completely possible that we may have ruined the experience for the people in front of us, which I felt a bit badly about. But our boys were so hyped about their first real musical. They were so energized by the show it was hard for them to transition to their bedtime routine when we got home. Unsurprisingly, the minute they passed out the minute their heads hit their pillows.