The Children's Museum

After having such a successful trip to the zoo, we decided that another adventure was in order for Friday. Since the weather was much cooler and rainy, we headed up to The Children's Museum. What an amazing place! I love living in Decorah, but I can really see the benefits of living closer to a big city that provides such great hands-on activities for kids. Gracie once again did fantastic, and I think Olivia would have played all day just in one exhibit.

Favorites of the day were the store, kitchen, dress-up, dinosaurs, and the playgound....

Olivia thought she needed to put absolutely everything in her cart in the store - I think we ended up with at least 10 cans of garbanzo beans - and I don't really even know what those are.


We distracted her with the next exhibit, the kitchen. It was really neat to see her play make believe, but she just couldn't understand why she couldn't get the top off of the juice!


Perhaps Olivia has a career in the construction business - that was the only outfit she was interested in in the dress-up section. Must be all the HGTV I watched while I was home on maternity leave with her!


The Museum has a really neat area specifically for kids 6 months to 48 months. It allows the kids to be very active with ramps, slides, ropes, tunnels, bridges, and much more while at the same time being safe because everything is soft and padded. I think I could have happily let Olivia play in here for hours. It was so rewarding for me to see her let down her guard a little bit and explore more physically. It was like I could literally see her confidence growing. She learned how to climb the rope ladder and went down the slide numerous times - and the best part - after the first few times she didn't want my help anymore.


Attached to the playground was a great little reading room. It was a good way to slow everything down after all the activity. It was pretty sweet how Olivia crawled right into the chairs and wanted Gracie, her aunt Thyme, and her mommy to sit by her.


Socially, Olivia seems like a pretty easy going kid. She's conscious of other kids around her and never tries to push or butt her way in front of others (well, at least she didn't at the Museum!). I also love how conscious Olivia is of Grace. She wants Gracie to be near her and is always concerned if she doesn't know where she is.

As we were getting ready to leave, Olivia went right into the crowd of kids to get her own chance at getting to pet the dinosaur - of course, in all her fairness, wanting "mommy too" to pet him. It was a great way to end the trip - happy and exhausted!