playing "museum"

Today after preschool, Dennis asked to go to the airplane museum at the airport. I wanted to wait until at least tomorrow for 2 reasons: David will be off work tomorrow AND the price of a membership for the rest of the year drops from $30 to $20 tomorrow. Dennis wasn't so thrilled and cried that he wanted to go today. He was completely exhausted and this enhanced his sadness, escalating to a near unbearable cry-whine-snot deal that I had to think fast to solve from the front seat. Cries turned to giggles and smiles when I suggested that we make our own airport museum at home and set up his new cash register to charge people that are coming to look at all his toy planes. That's what we did, turned our living room into an airplane museum with exhibits on every couch, chair, and ottoman. He charged me $38 for my first visit and guided me through the exhibits, explaining about each plane or section of planes. As the day progressed, more fire fighting equipment worked its way into the museum and the tours got more elaborate. The last visit cost me $131 but he let me use his play credit card to cover my expenses (and he handed me a toy $50 bill and some change). He used his toy keys to lock the museum after each tour. When David came home for lunch, Museum Curator Dennis pounced on him at the door (his cash register booth was set up right inside the front door, hard to miss) and offered him a tour. David was thrilled to accept and enjoyed seeing all his exhibits. I have toured the museum 7 times now, I think, and we just locked it up for the night (he stands in front of the room and turns the key in the air and makes a locking sound). He had more fun with that than he would have had at the museum--he was completely in charge. I so enjoyed his narration "and what we have here is a Little People airplane" and "this is a water-shooter plane" and "we call this a jet" and "if you'll look over here you'll see an aircraft carrier" and "thank you for visiting airplane museum--we'll open again in 30 and a half hours". He works up a serious southern accent (like his cowboy accent) to give the tours. He's completely charming! It was an awesome play day!