Cookies and Milk and Yellow Balloons: Children's Museum

Brad had a Friday off a few weekends ago and so we spent the day in the Twin Cities. Although we have been to the Minnesota Children's Museum at least three times before, we spent over FIVE hours watching the kids play, explore, pretend, create, imagine, climb, and have an all around fun time. It was a great way to spend a freezing cold January afternoon.

The museum had a Sesame Street exhibit which I thought was not very interesting and engaging for the kids. It was a lot of Sesame Street history which included a lot of reading about how Sesame Street was started, the changes over the years, etc. Not much fun, in my opinion, for an exhibit at a children's museum. Since my kids are not familiar with Sesame Street (except for an acquaintance with the main characters - Elmo, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie, etc.) they didn't spend too much time there. But we got a few cute pictures. I just love the smile on that baby's face!

Here are my cuties in Big Bird's nest. Ben really enjoyed this and it was a perfect place for him.

Emily and Sam engage in a challenging game of chess. (Sam rarely looks at the camera. This is a typical picture of him.)

They have a fabulous room for toddlers called Habitot. Since Emily and Sam are so short, they fit right in in this room. It consisted of areas based on all the habitats in Minnesota with tunnels to crawl through, ladders to climb, and trees to hide in. Part of the exhibit included animal costumes. Sam spent most of the time dressed as a skunk. You can imagine how a little boy would have fun with that.

Here's Ben chewing on some flowers from the pond area. He LOVED being able to get out of the stroller and crawl around and examine things on his level.A favorite spot in the museum is a section called "Our World." There is a store, Korean restaurant (kimchi anyone?), post office, hospital, home, and music area. Who wouldn't want to pretend to deliver mail, take your order, and walk around on crutches (for fun anyway)?The kids were quick to grab an available shopping cart and start filling the basket with groceries. Then they took turns checking everyone out.Here is Emily at the house hanging up the laundry. Sam is following in Grandpa Zee's footsteps and planting flowers.Who could resist jamming to some fun music and watching yourself on TV. Emily's absolute FAVORITE spot at the museum is the Art Center. The Art Center is Emily's idea of heaven. They have all kinds of interesting craft supplies available to make something. It was the first thing she asked about when we told her we were going there. She was really upset when we noticed it was closed until 6:00 pm. But image her JOY and HAPPINESS when we were still there at 6:00 and she was able to create a mosaic tile. She was devastated when she realized we accidentally left it behind. We forgot to pick it up on our way out. At least we captured it on film (or at least part of what she did before I left to go feed Benny).After a long day at the museum, we left with crying kids (it always seems we stay a half hour too long). It was such a cold day that the water bottles and sippy cups we left in the car had frozen solid! We drove to Chili's for dinner, had a great meal, changed the kids into their PJ's, and headed for home.