discovering houston: children's museum

Memaw came to visit for a few short days, such a whirlwind trip that I got a mere couple of photos!  On the trip back from dropping Memaw off at the airport, the kids were sad, and we noticed a sign for the Children's Museum.  Britton, knowing the hubs and I were easy prey, asked quietly from the backseat if we might go soon.  That turned into a trip this afternoon...

There are something like 19 museums in the museum district, and after passing the Bike Museum, we stumbled upon a bright building.  The statutes holding up the building gave it away - we had arrived!

This statute's name is "Joy"

 We went in an immediately started with the hands-on activities.  This museum is entirely interactive, and the kids wanted to do it all.  Pulleys, magnets, electric currents, air pressure - we did it all!

Barrett (with his new snazzy haircut) loved the bank drive through-esque tubes, which sent balls up to  the wire track system overhead.

Both Britton and Barrett liked the magnets, though I could have spent over an hour there!  I was entranced by the iron in the tubes - shards, blobs, and tiny fragments like those magnet boards where you move the pieces to give the picture a beard or weird hair.

I made the kids get a picture with a payphone, because really, these things may not be around forever.  I picked up the phone just to remember the weight of it, and punched in phone numbers I haven't had to remember since I got a cell phone.  It was deja vu all over again!  

The payphones were in a sculpture made entirely of old phones and computer circuits.  

Jessica and I had that clear phone below, and our mom had that brick cell phone!

One fun area is Kidtropolis, and entire "kid-sized" town, with a grocery store, vet, police station, bank, stock trading floor, and more.  The first thing you do is hit up the ATM (with the "ATM card" they give you) so you can pretend to withdraw money!  Then at each store/stop, you can earn a paycheck of $20, which you can then deposit into your account.  

Barrett didn't want to leave the police car, so I tempted him over to the vet, where he didn't want to leave the stuffed dog behind.  It was hard to be three years old and deal with the crowds of kids who wanted their turns too!

There's an outdoor area (it was oddly under 90 degrees today, so it was doable), where you can play with water!  The kids sprayed water guns, but the real hit was metal "rivers" for floating boats.  The hubs was all over the lock system, and Barrett didn't want to leave without the plastic boats!

It was a fun afternoon at the museum, though somewhat crowded and lacking in exhibits.  There's a lower level, but it included "inventor" type activities, which catered to older children.  The second floor was for infants and toddlers, so we stuck to the first floor only.