Indy Children's Museum

Dinosaurs

Archaeological Dig

Healthy Kids

Pony Express

Indianapolis Speedway

Construction Zone

Barbie World

Dora & Diego Adventure

Bumblebee from Transformers

What a day! We spent 5 hours exploring and playing . . . and it wasn't enough time to see everything at the world's largest children's museum. Plus, it was Foster Parent Day with free admission for those families, so the place was packed. Many exhibits could only be seen at a distance because of the crowds. While it was quite expensive and busy, we were certainly happy with the day. Perhaps we can make it an annual trip!

Father's Day Fun

Emma and I took Scott to the children's museum for Father's Day! (It's what he REALLY wanted to do, according to Emma.) Scott is a very hands-on dad. He'll do art, imaginative play, puzzles, blocks, dance . . . yes, he can move and groove in a public place! We had a good time! Emma and I are blessed to have such an involved husband and father!

Discovery Day

Scott and I took Emma to the children's museum on the morning of her birthday. (July can be a brutally hot month, so we tend to opt for indoor fun most days.) We made paper bag puppets in the Art Studio. Guess who crafted the Batman puppet? Emma also really liked plexiglass painting. Notice the dual paint brushes. She insisted in having one in both hands and tried to use them simultaneously on the painting wall.

Decatur Children's Museum

Back when I was in high school and college, I worked at the Children's Museum of Illinois. On this day we brought Emma. It was exciting to interact with new exhibits and interesting to see which ones remained after my ten-year absence. The grocery store, toddler backyard, skeleton on a bike, mechanics' garage, kitchen, and ambulance topped Emma's list of favorite spots. In the "Construction Zone," Scott built Emma a Lego race car and showed her how to send it down the ramp. There was so much to see and do that we didn't get a chance to explore it all before Emma had her fill.

Beardstown History

Papa Ross and Grandma Connie regularly volunteer at the Beardstown Historical Museum. They gave us a private tour of the many rooms on Thomas Beard, Rudy Black, the Illinois River, the Beardstown Ladies, and more. We also saw the jail and courtroom. Abe Lincoln tried many cases in the courtroom including his famous "Almanac Trial" in 1858. Lincoln successfully defended Duff Armstrong against murder charges. This is the only courtroom where Lincoln practiced law that is still used today. We let Emma sit in the judge's chair, which she loved. Before we knew it, Emma had picked up the gavel and rapped it several times on the podium! Order in the court!

Discovering More

The pass we recently purchased for a year membership to the Discovery Museum has been used quite often already.  The weekends are busy with visitors, but on this day, our school district was still on Winter Break and the surrounding area schools were back in session.  That made for a calm experience.  In the slideshow, you'll see that Emma made a pizza, drove the Avantii's delivery car, fed the babies in the nursery, and played checkers and chess.

Scott has taken Emma to the Museum during the work week several times this past month.  He likes to get there right when they open and enjoy about two hours of exploring before lunch and naptime.  Now that she's realizing that we WILL be back to play on another day, leaving isn't such a big issue.

The Children's Discovery Museum

One of Emma's Christmas gifts from us was a family membership to The Children's Discovery Museum.  We visited it for the first time in early January and have been back several more times since.  On our first day we spent over an hour just on the first of three floors . . . and still didn't play with everything!  Some of her favorite exhibits were the nursery, doll house, trains, toddler backyard, and water play area.