Children's Museum

On the 22nd, we got to go to the local children's museum. It used to be a small little store-front with a few sensory tables and and arts and crafts hour (i.e. it sucked), but now it's in a new, much larger space, has a ton of cool pretend play areas, and is totally awesome! And to top things off, it was FREE from 3 hours that Saturday due to a promotion by McDonald's and the local dairy farmer association. There was an adult cow and a baby cow out front and free milk inside (along with a TON of really fun activities). Here are the highlights:

The mama cow, baby cow, and beauty queen outside.

The mock auto garage (BTW, sorry for all of the blurry-ass photos; the lighting was terrible inside the museum).

The cool train set and train.

A farmer's market equipped with a scale to weigh the fruits and veggies and a cash register to check out.

A play house complete with lowered countertops, real appliances, a kitchen table and chairs set, and TONS of food, plates, cups, bowls, pots, pans, serveware, and silverware.

Vivian decided to take the toy house dog (that had a dog bed inside the house) out on the front porch to feed it. She filled it's bowl with veggies, took the bowl out on the front porch of the play house, and brought the dog out, propping it up at it's food bowl. When I asked her why she fed him outside, she said (with a very matter-of-fact tone), "Dogs don't go in da house, Mom."

A farm where you could ride a tractor, milk a cow, brush a horse, herd some sheep, or pick food out of the ground.

A puppet show.

A construction zone/engineering center where you could play with a giant lite-brite, build a fort with these huge foam things, or create little building with blocks.

A real ambulance that you could pretend to drive or help people in the back. The ambulance was hooked up to a health science area with a giant Operation game, a bunch of interactive health exhibits, 

An art center.

And a TV Studio, a theater with costumes, curtains, a stage, and makeup for all of the actors, a science center where experiments took place, a playground area, and a few other things I can't remember. Overall, it was a GREAT time with the kiddos (did I mention that it was free?). We will definitely be going again.