This is (will be!) Claudia’s third homeschooling birthday, on the 28th. But the opening for the “Mythic Creatures” exhibit at the Academy of Natural Sciences was this weekend — and so she took some friends.

We took the subway up.

Prior to going into Mythic Creatures, we attended the live animal auditorium show, where Claude was incredibly excited to see a live owl. She and Max ended up onstage with a big python shed, and she and Béla got to pet a pine snake.

While the Mythic Creatures exhibit had boasted a “Kraken dissection”, it was not this…

It was this. Fine.

Also fine.

There was a lot of… stuff to look at.

Some of it, apparently, perplexing.

It was a good day. Since Claude’s actual birthday falls on a day she has jiujitsu, she is planning to make cupcakes that look like her coach and take them there — but we will see. she is not all that kitchen-inclined. She had a good time yesterday, they all did. And most of them made unicorn poop glitter soap.

Is it 1983? What is it with the unicorns?

We had a good time. I think perhaps they learned the little tail-end of something (no pun intended) about looking at animals and looking for the unique features they have that help them survive. But then, you know, unicorn poop. It was a birthday thing after all.