Children's Museum

It has been on the calendar for two weeks. The kids haven't been to the children's museum in two years; Chloe doesn't even remember going before. Yesterday morning we got a surprise phone call and Evan's best friend was able to come to our house for the entire day, including our museum outing. Yay!!!

Off to the museum!



There are a lot of stations set up on two floors and lots of space for wandering around. In my opinion, there are really only five or six really great exhibits overall and those are the ones that the kids rotated between for the three and a half hours we stayed.

(fluorescent lighting makes for weirdly lit, blurry pictures... sorry)

Right when you walk in there is a really big water table. Chloe soaked her entire sleeve, but I had brought a change of shirts for both kids anyway.



The blue and yellow boards are movable to make your own path for a boat or rubber duck to float down. This was very serious work indeed.



Also at the entrance is the giant bubble maker.



The lady at the front desk said if you blow on the bubble it will make a lump. See it? I love Chloe's flinching face here ;-)



They did this over and over and over in different groups and alone all throughout the day.





On our way upstairs we passed this display which is about recycling -- put an empty bottle on this mannequin's arm and push the button for him to whip it into the trash can. There was lots of hilarity and laughter here....


Upstairs are two ball machines. Pictures never really capture what this big one does but lets just say it invokes tons of laughter as the balls go flying across the room. This is where the boys spent a solid hour of the day.


While they did that Chloe and I went around the corner and played store. Everything is very realistic and I think she loved that!


She was so serious and thoughtful about her shopping choices as she wandered around. She and I took turns being the shopper or the cashier since it was just us in there... it was so sweet.


My favorite part was when she discoverd the deli and grabbed all the cheese triangles that she could carry. My little cheese girl.



Back on the first floor was the building wall. Move the pieces, make a slide, drop the ball down.


Lots of collaboration between friends going on here. They each wanted to make their own paths but figured out they had to combine somehow at the end. This was another forty-five minutes well spent. Chloe and I actually went to other displays while they did this.


They were so proud showing it off when they were done!


Did I mention there was no one else there? Maybe three other preschool age kids in three hours. At the very end a bunch more came in but by then the kids had already done it all and didn't have to wait for turns or share. This is another one of those perks of homeschooling -- no crowds during the day :-)



I loved seeing how different today was with Evan having someone closer to his age to share this experience with. Chloe wouldn't have stayed with him on the things he loved the way that Jed did. And I know he wouldn't have wanted to play store or trains the way she did. It worked out so nicely.