Children's Museum

Another picture-heavy posting. :)

Charles had to go to Long Island overnight for a business trip, so we hung out all day at C's house on Wednesday (after a LLL meeting). Most of the good pictures of my kids include her kids, so I'm not posting sans permission. The girls had an amazing time (and the mamas/mama-aged persons did too.) We didn't leave until 7, so I had to order dinner (pizza) on the drive home.

This morning, we got up and headed to Richmond to go to the Children's Museum. We stopped at Sheetz, home to the infamous "sprinkled doughnuts" and got second breakfast. The route was pretty straightforward, so I didn't print it, and instead relied on memory. HAHAHAHA. I hung a left when I should've gone right to get on Boulevard. I tried calling Dad, because he used to live in Richmond, but the phones were on hold since he was home with a bad cold. I wound up pulling off as soon as I got B on the phone (as that was the first spot I found) and getting my GPS out of the trunk. It was an easy trip back in the right direction, and Adia got to see a canoe on top of the SUV beside us at a stoplight. (We'd been talking about canoes on the trip down, because I had read that there was a "James River Playground" at the museum.)

We got to the museum, and it was a little overcast. There's a big echo thing (I'm sure Charles will be along soon to tell me a technical term for it) out front. Francesca seemed a little unsure, but Adia thought it was awesome to make really big echoes. We headed inside and paid, and then we went to the main part of the museum. It was a lot smaller than I remembered (funny how that works. :) The girls were first attracted to the big play area mentioned above. I didn't get any good pictures of them up in the treetops, but they were a little unsure about that at first anyway. The little logs they are climbing over are the end of the "riverbed." It's a translucent plastic, so you can see the pebbles and frogs and stuff underneath. My kids walk on water! ;P


Having fun in the dino area. :) There was a stegosaurus slide that both girls climbed up to. Adia shoved Francesca down it, but then decided she didn't want to go down it herself. Sisterly love, that.

We have a picture of Adia, aged <2 months at a science museum being held up to a measuring thing like this.
Next was a model of the digestive system. Adia crawled all the way through, but I had to back out after Francesca found a way out and I didn't want to get stuck Pooh-style in the tunnel. Speaking of poo, I'm not sure if it's intentional, but it smelled of dirty disposable diaper. (Not knocking the throwaways, but they have a different smell than cloth, seriously.)
A kid-sized Ukrop's. Adia was in heaven. This was one that had self-checkout and everything. ;P Francesca, however, was willing to leave her basket of groceries in the middle of the store and take off.
Praise whoever decided to put the gated baby area in there. It's recommended for ages 0-3, and Adia did get bored pretty quickly, but it was soooo nice not to worry about anyone falling or escaping for a few minutes. (And by "anyone" I mean Francesca. The store area had signs asking kids to put away their groceries when they were done, so I helped Adia get everything back on their proper shelves. While I was doing this, Francesca had wandered around the side of the store and was leaning up against a pretend truck beside it. She was fairly well trapped and I was in a good position to (a) watch her and (b) chase if necessary. The kid stood there for at least 5 minutes before she tried to go anywhere, and she never once looked around for me. So have my work cut out for me there.)Adia serves up something to eat in the kitchen.

She had a blast in here with two little boys who were a year or two older than her. They were making "Everything", which entails putting "healthy stuff" into a bowl and stirring it. This is a mom-to-a-toddler's nightmare, as it's a bunch of pretend food that lots of of other kids have either (a) handled, (b) put in their mouths, or (c) both! Strengthens their immune systems, right? Also, who says there isn't a gang problem in Richmond? (Yes, I'm making fun of something drawn by a little kid. I also have been known to mock talent show performances by kids the same age as my own. I'm bad, what can I say?)

The water tables. They smelled like a swimming pool, but the kids didn't seem to care. They both loooooved them. I'm not sure if more time was spent here or in the treetops, but it would have to be close. There were working-ish levees in both of them. (I'm sure it was "ish" only because of people like me who want to make the levees overflow. :) Both girls got in on making the blocks go down the spiral tube.


We didn't really spend THAT much time in dino-land, it just afforded the best photo ops. :)

And finally, we spent a very small amount of time in the theater. There were like three moms with their kids in there when I took the girls in. I sat down to nurse Francesca and the room was cleared out in about 2 minutes. Seriously. Oh well, not my problem. Adia wanted to dance onstage, so when Francesca was done, I put on her tutu. She picked out Francesca's outfit. (She wasn't exactly grateful for Adia's choice either, but I'm not totally sure I can blame her.) They danced for a little bit, and then they played in the puppet theater for a few minutes. I tried out the light board and was sorely disappointed that it didn't work. :P Then we hit up the art studio, where the girls drew with markers and played with gluesticks for a few. I think I've figured out Adia's issue with the library last week -- she does not transition well from crafts. Once we got out of there and she had a few minutes to play in the trees again, she was totally fine to leave. We tried to take pictures in the photo booth (and I'll scan them later) but Francesca wanted nothing to do with it. So they're hilarious pictures. Then we headed home in the rain and cold. Now they're in my bed sleeping, and I'm waiting for Charles to get home in just a little bit. He got an earlier flight but then ran into traffic, so hopefully he'll get in soon. (Also, I'm beat! The museum did its job of wearing them out, but I hadn't counted on my feeling like this.)