Dress Up Play at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis

Since we visit the museum so often (free tickets through my sister!), I don't always add a blog post about it.  But this time, Eli was so cute dressing up as a dozen different characters that I just had to post some photos.  We actually ended up doing the entire day at the museum, and ended the day with the end of day parade (4:45, helps get your kids out the door).  This was the first visit Thomas really played, and he absolutely loved the baby zone in Playscape.

In this post, I mentioned most of my tips for visiting the museum, but I've got a few more:

• Check out the paper they give you when you enter to find the times of all the interactive programs and cart demonstrations the museum offers.  My sister was doing one on all the weapons from the Painted Soldiers, which my children loved!
• You can leave your phone and charger with the concierge to charge if needed.
• There were some nice healthy selections of baby friendly food (grapes, cheese, boiled eggs, mandarin oranges, etc.), but of course they were expensive as all the food court is pricey. 
• Many exhibits now have these neat family guides.  Take a look at them to get more ideas with how to interact with the exhibits.

Current temporary exhibit:
Pirates and Princesses:  Storybook Adventure

Family Guide

New Permanent Exhibit:
Beyond Spaceship Earth (Download the app before you go to get the kids even more excited.)

Family Guide

Other dress-up opportunities:

Aunt Erin dressed up as an archaeologist.

Eli in scuba gear.

My little dinosaur.

My dragonfly.

In a traditional Chinese costume.

 And there were a lot of other ones I missed (I had camera memory card and phone battery issues!).  Another great day at the museum!

Tips for Visiting The Children's Museum of Indianapolis with Young Children

As I've said before, we didn't go a lot of places in my childhood.  Having cattle at home to get back to just didn't allow for a lot of travel.  But one place we did go almost yearly was the wonderful Children's Museum of Indianapolis.  Coincidentally, we always visited it when we were in Indy for Hoosier Beef Congress in December.

This setting stared in several short story assignments I wrote in my school days, and will always be on my list of top places to visit in Indy.  And now, as if it could get any better, my sister recently started working at the museum, and is able to give us insider tips!!!  I can't say enough about how great this museum is, for kids of all ages, and frankly it would take a long, long post to explain all of the different exhibits at the museum, so I'll just share some highlights and photos from our most recent visits with the pre-school set.  Back in 2011 we took the first three grandkids on my side, who were 0, 1, and 5 years old.  We've doubled the number of grandkids in the last three years, and took all six of them on the most recent trip, ages:  0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8. 

Of course they need an Indy Car! 

Favorite exhibits for the toddler/pre-schooler set:
Fireworks of Glass:  The colorful sculpture in the center of the museum, made by Dale Chihuly is neat to look at from the ramps, but the pre-schoolers in our group have always loved to look at it from below.  A rotating bench on the lower level makes for a great viewing spot.  And building their own sculpture with plastic pieces is always a hit.

Dinosphere:  The scene is set perfectly for entering the late Cretaceous time period, as changing weather (lights and sounds) add to the awesomeness of this exhibit.  A "storm" happens periodically, and help little ones imagine what it was like to walk with the dinosaurs.  Kids love the archeology pit here, as well as dressing up and hopping in a dinosaur nest.  

Playscape:  The newly remodeled play area for the youngest visitors is worth a membership on it's own if you live nearby.  There is sand play, water play, building, crawling, music, and even an art studio.  The under five crowd (and their "helper" older siblings) can experience sights, sounds, touches, and smells in this wonderful playscape.  Scienceworks is a similar exhibit, but for a bit older kids to explore.

The Carousel:  On the highest level, the full size carousel is always a favorite (though adds a $1 a ride to your costs, except under two who are still free).  Be sure to check if you want a stationary ride or an animal that goes up and down. The exhibit around the carousel includes a maze of mirrors, and some good dramatic free play space.

Take Me to China:  Finally, the exhibit featuring the destination China was also surprisingly fun for our group.  "Flying" on an airplane, "riding" on a commuter train, practicing eating Chinese cuisine, shopping in a grocery store, and dressing up in traditional costumes were all enjoyed by our kiddos.

Additional Tips:

• Keep an eye out for temporary exhibits.  Even if you've been there dozens of times before like us, you never know when something new will be there.  We happened to be there during the short time this Wall to China Slide was up, and it was about the best slide ever.  A nice extra touch.   

• Like many museums, they are closed on some Mondays.  Tues-Sun, hours are 10-5pm.
• For an extra fee, you can view The Emperor's Painted Army in the China's Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit.  Though it was a little old for our crowd, it's very interesting for adults and all my second-grader niece could talk about when she visited on a school field trip.  She loved it, and they do a neat dramatization of the warrior and an archeologist in the atrium daily.  Check for the time, and hurry because the exhibit will end in November!

• There is a Mother's Room in the new Playscape exhibit.  Private with everything needed for caring for a newborn (whether you are breastfeeding or want a quiet place to feed a bottle and change diapers).

• If you have a Transformer lover, they will obviously notice the huge Bumblebee figure as you walk in, but be sure to catch the dramatization of Bumblebee in the atrium too.  Your action lover will delight in watching Bumblebee come to life.  (The main thing my four year old talks about when he remembers his trip.)  Check the time for this when you arrive.

• Tickets to the Lilly Theater and the Planetarium (One World, One Sky:  Big Bird's Big Adventure is good for the youngest visitors) are free, pick up at the lower level ticket booth.  It looks like they have an awesome Christmas Seuss-themed play coming up in the Lilly.

• There is a huge, real life train in the basement that kids can walk through.  Beware though, there are new train tables nearby.  You may want to distract them from these if you have a kid like mine who would play all day and may have a melt down if you'd rather not stay at that exhibit all day.
• You can rent a stroller, pick up a complementary diaper, store stuff in a rented locker, eat at the food court, or even use an ATM in the museum.  Basically, they have everything you need including free wifi spots.  Since it is a bit pricey ($14.50-19.50, under two are free) you really should plan to get the most out of your money by spending the whole day there.  And if you do make it the whole day, plan to end at the top level around 4:55 for the daily "parade".  (They do offer free nights, but I have heard they are packed!)
• Oh, and our favorite part!  Be sure to check out the clock in the atrium at 12:59.  You'll see why.

I'll have to update this in a few years with many of the other exhibits that are great for school age kids.  Because, if you can't tell, this is THE best children's museum in the country.

American History Museum (America on the Move)

I love when what Theo is doing at school fits seamlessly with what we are doing at home.  This week was the school's "Transportation" week, and Theo got to spend the week learning and playing with all his favorite things.  On Monday he was so proud of the train he made during craft time (telling me how he put windows on the cars so they weren't tanker cars) and had a great time riding his trike at school Wednesday during "bike day".  Yesterday as soon as he came home he carried up his huge tote of cars and played with them all evening, after making a car craft with a photo of himself as a driver. Today is the big day where we finally get to go meet the king of all things that move-Thomas the Tank Engine.  We are surprising him, and I hope he loves it.  It's amazing how excited I am to take him to it, but I guess that's one of my favorite parts of being a mom.  Doing something with my child that he will just love.  I'll post pics and a review of this soon. But while I'm on the subject, I had a few other train posts I was planning to share.

When we first went to the American History Museum, we had a conversation that I think I will always remember (even with my poor memory skills).  We came upon the huge engine on the first floor beside the stairs, and Theo asked why it wasn't moving.  I deflecting the question back to him, expecting for a logical reason, perhaps because it is inside a building, or that it doesn't have the fire burning to fuel the engine.  Theodore's reason was that, "There is no driver."  While logical I guess, it wouldn't have cracked my top reasons for why the full size train wasn't chugging through the museum.  He is now at the stage where he knows more than me....  he'll tell you he knows everything (gets that from his dad).

Just past the big engine is the America on the Move exhibit; a great one to go through with any children you have that are interested in anything that moves.  Since we live so close and visit the National Mall often, my method of visiting the museum is always to just pick one or two exhibits in each museum to see and focus on that theme for the visit.  This great exhibit has a couple locomotives and a street car that you can (pretend to) take a trip on, as well as other modes of transportation (even motorcycles, Theo's old favorite).  It is a very kid friendly exhibit, and I'm sure it will spark lots of questions that you may or may not be able to answer for your little one.  (I couldn't get good photos of him, since he is always so excited in the exhibit that he won't stop moving long enough!)

Waving to the driver.

Presidents' Day: Mount Vernon

Presidents' Day:  Normally this day is just a great excuse to have the day off, and maybe a time to look for some great sales. But now that we are living 18.2 miles from our original president's beloved home place, it's a little bigger deal than normal.  Alexandria hosts a parade, and the museums around here had events all weekend long.  We decided to celebrate today by heading up to the (normally expensive) free day at Mount Vernon itself.  We recently visited the grounds at the end of August with my family when they visited, and enjoyed seeing and hiking through the extensive grounds on a very hot summer day.  But Brian did not get to tour the house due to the repair men coming to fix our air conditioner (earlier than planned), so we wanted to return so he could.  This visit was a little different, with the grounds mostly snow covered, and an even bigger crowd.  We spent more of this visit indoors, exploring the educational exhibits. 

Winter Visit

Some important info:
-Tickets are normally $17 for adults, $8 for youth, and free for 5 and under.
-They also have an "annual pass" that you might consider if you live as close as we do.  Different seasons offer very different experiences.
 -You normally pick a time for your mansion tour when you buy your tickets.  Since it was free today, we were handed tickets when we walked over to the front of the mansion.
 -The orientation video is not very kid friendly-since it includes many battle scenes.  Skip it if you have a young pre-schooler/elementary student.
-Most of the grounds are stroller friendly, but some paths definitely are not.  Seek advice from the map or a docent if you aren't sure.
-There is stroller parking outside the mansion, so be prepared to leave it there.
-The Education Center is very kid friendly, with large exhibits and even has a "hands on history" section where kids can do puzzles, play with period toys, or other activities.
-We still haven't made it through the museum, I'll update this once we do.
-Boots would come in handy when it is wet, but the trails really were in pretty good shape considering the recent weather and the size of the crowds.

Summer Visit

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: Dinosaurs

We recently hit up the dinosaur exhibit when we were headed to DC to drop Brian off at the airport.  I'm not going to put any helpful hints about visiting the exhibit with pre-schoolers in this post, because the exhibit is going away!  For a long time.  They are taking years to remodel it, so there's a good chance we'll have moved again by the time the exhibit is reopened in 2019!  To think they'll be 7 and 9 by then.  

Q?rius Jr (the new name of the discovery room I mentioned here) was our first stop, as always, and then we headed on to see the dinosaurs and the hall of paleobiology.  Theodore was going to be studying these in school following our visit, so I thought this would be good pre-experience for him.  Other than occassionally catching "The Dinosaur Train" show, he hasn't had much dinosaur experience yet.  Eli had a great time at the museum, but Theo was being a bit of a grumpy three-year-old.  I did want to share this photo of Elijah who loved the walls with the different prehistoric landscapes.  How grown does he look there?

We did get a quick pic in front of a plate-a-saur stegosaurus (as Theo can now identify for you/me), despite the huge crowd of people there on the first warm weekend in a while.  I have to say I prefer going to the museum on the weekdays for sure.  And, sans stroller!  It was the first time we've taken Eli on an excursion of this kind without a stroller, and he did great.

Alexandria Boutiques & Air and Scare

I love Alexandria.  I like to pretend I live there.  And it would be great if I did since it is so close to Brian's work, but we don't.  But I love all of the boutiques on King Street, and have been wanting to get in them for a while.  I finally got my chance when I read about Alexandria's Boutique Trick or Treat last Saturday.  We dressed up the boys and headed there for a great afternoon checking out lots of new places.  I have lots of places to take my little sister to shop now when she comes out here next.

We took a break midway through to go to an author visit at the local bookstore, Hooray for Books!  We were one of only a few there, so it was awesome that Theo basically got his own personal reading from the author of a pretty popular children's book.  And since we are focusing heavily on numbers right now, Ten Timid Ghosts was the perfect story at the perfect time.  The author/illustrator Jennifer O'Connell even did a drawing using input from the kids.  And Theo got his first signed book.

(I forgot to mention that the cool people at the comic store were so impressed with Theo's Superman costume, that even though they weren't giving out treats they tracked us down on the street to give Theo a FREE comic book.  He spent about the next two days totally absorbed in it.)

 After this, we let the kids nap while we drove out to the Udvar-Hazy National Air & Space Museum's annual Air & Scare event.  This is free, being a Smithsonian, but requires a $15 fee for parking.  They stayed open extra late for this event, and it was packed.  Besides the candy stops, there were story, craft, and activity stations.  Our three year old had a great time.

Racing his "witch on a broom."

I should have mentioned last year that none of our Halloween costumes could be complete without the help of my hubby.  He is surprisingly crafty, and has a knack for figuring out how to get things to work.  Every year he willingly completes whatever I ask.  This year, I unfortunately did not get to pick out the costumes.  Theo got it in his head that he should be Spiderman, and since there was know way I was making that, I talked him into Superman.  I don't think he really knows who either of these  heroes are, but he was convinced he needed to be Superman.  We almost had him convinced to be a "knight in shining armor" (from a favorite Sesame Street episode).  He agreed once we explained the sword he would get.  And the fact that Eli would be a dragon.  But, he recently went back to just wanting to be Superman.  So, Eli was paired up as Batman, naturally.

These were pretty easy to put together.  We found the shirts and tights at Wal-Mart and some tights/socks and undies at Target (this is the second year in a row Theo is wearing girl's tights) and then got fabric, felt, and ribbon (yellow belt) at Joanns.  I put together Theo's cape based on this tutorial, and we threw socks and hose over Theo's rain boots to make them red.

While this was Theo at 44 months, his father was the same character many years ago at 38 months of age.

 His brother was Batman too.

For Elijah we went ahead and paired him as batman too, since he didn't have an opinion on the matter.  His cape was a lot more complex when I realized he should really have a hood and a bat-look to it.  I basically came up with it on my own, making a newspaper template to fit him, and using these three tutorials for ideas.  Super Hero Hooded Towel, Bear Hooded Towel, Cape Expectations

Brian then made Eli's black gloves, and their emblems also.

For more costume ideas, check out these links for 2010-2012 and 2014.