My husband has been on vacation this week, so we had a rare opportunity to do something as a family in the middle of the week, instead of on the hectic weekend. Today we took the kids to the Children's Museum here in Portland, OR. They currently have a Curious George exhibit that runs through June 5th, and I actually learned something interesting about the authors of Curious George! Hans Augusto and Margret Rey fled the Nazi invasion of Paris in 1940 on bicycles that they made themselves, carrying the manuscript for Curious George with them! Being as how my Monkey is only 2, he was more interested in the rotary phone on display!
For such a little room, there was quite a bit to do in the Curious George "wing" of the museum.
We moved on to the room that looks like a grocery store, while my husband and son played in there, I took our 6 month old to the "Baby Garden" which is specifically designed for kids 0-3. Honestly, if your child is between 0-3 months old, there is nothing for you to do in this room that you can't do in the rest of the museum. There is a little water bed bench that the babies can lay on and get wiggled around, Dee almost laughed at that. What she was enthralled by was the fish tank, which I could have taken her to PetSmart to see for absolutely nothing.
I don't recommend the museum if your children are under 2. There is nothing for them to do there, and Dee actually had a melt down because she was tired of being in her stroller. We had to find a semi quiet place to let her get out and stretch. This was in the "Tree House Adventure" room. When we got there, no one else was there.
We were able to let Dee wiggle around on the floor (yes, that is face paint, I'm getting to that.). Then all of a sudden a wild child with absolutely no supervision at all came running full speed around the corner, through the middle of the carpeted area where Dee was playing and he almost stepped on my baby! Not even an excuse me or anything! I realize that we are in a children's museum, and yes I know that there will be kids running about. What I don't understand is you popping a squat somewhere and not watching your children in a building full of strangers and lots of little places to hide.
So, as you can see above, there is also a place for face painting, but not by a person skilled at the art of face painting, no, your kids do it.
You can see the light bulb blowing out in my husbands head as he decides to draw on my precious sleeping baby girl. I even got in on the fun!
As you can see, it doesn't matter if an adult does it. I may as well have drawn this with my left hand.
My sons favorite part of the whole museum was the "Vroom Room". They had a bus and a bus stop set up, as well as an ambulance, where the kids could get in and pretend to drive.
They also had a huge wooden train set to play with...like he has at home. He did spend a lot of time driving the bus though, much to his fathers chagrin. He drives a bus for 10 hours a day so the thought of his son taking after him is less than thrilling.
Now, the very best part of the entire museum...
A GIGANTIC LITE BRITE! I sat in front of this thing for about 30 minutes by myself, no kids even wanted to play with it! Weirdos. 660 glowing peg holes, just waiting for the lucite pegs to bring them to colorful life. I actually require this in order to live a happy life now and would gladly pay $8 to sit in front of this thing all day long! It is by far the coolest thing I have ever had the opportunity to play with. I honestly don't think it would cost that much to build one.
Overall, it was a lovely day. My Monkey man had a blast running around and not being told NO NO NO NO over and over again. He could touch everything. He could do everything. He could play with everything. We're thinking of becoming members so we can take trips down there a few times a week in the mornings and he can run around and play and be a kid...that and I need to see my lite brite again. Seriously.
