The Children's Museum

Today we went to the children's museum here in Harrisonburg called the Explore More Discovery Museum.  We met up with some of our friends from MOPS and had a great time!  Ellie just explored all over the place...

They have a toddler area for children three and under that is gated, so we definitely took advantage of that.  Sometimes it's nice to be able to sit down and just watch Ellie play, knowing that she can't escape anywhere.  There was a little house that had a slide connected to it, so of course Ellie did that over and over.

Crawling through the tunnel to get to the slide

She kept saying, "One...two...three!" and then sliding down

She found lots of interesting things to play with

There was also a neat play area with soft blocks and obstacles to promote "safe climbing."  She is such a climber right now, so that was right up her alley.

There was another exhibit in the toddler area that I'm going to call a light box.  Basically, it was a wall with circular holes in it and a light behind it, with colored cylinders that the child puts into each hole.  Think of it as a large-scale Lite-Brite...remember those? =)

The track with cars was also a big hit with Ellie.  She spent quite a bit of time just pushing the cars up and down the hills on the track and saying "vroom vroom," of course!

We did go out of the toddler area for a little while and explored some of the "big kid" exhibits.  She was particularly interested in the farm area, which had lots of toy produce.  

Weighing her produce on the scale

Showing me the apple she found

Riding the tractor

The museum had several other cool exhibits, like a news station where kids could videotape a news and weather broadcast, a life-size and realistic kitchen, an art area with supplies to make your own craft to take home, a theater with play makeup and costumes, an automotive area where kids could "work" on a car, and more.  Those exhibits are a little more advanced and Ellie wasn't too interested in those, but she definitely loved the toddler and farm exhibits.  We spent a good hour and a half there and she seemed to have a great time.  We may have to invest in a family membership, because the cost per visit is pretty high.  For the two of us today, it was $10, and in April it's going up to $6 per person (meaning $12 for us).  A year's membership for a family is $85, so it would pay for itself in 7 visits.  I'm thinking it would be a good outlet for Ellie when we need a change of scenery, especially with Piper on the way.  I could just wrap her in the sling and carry her with me while Ellie played and explored on her own.  Might have to start saving my personal money to work toward a membership! =)