I'm dedicating an entire post to the Tucson Children's Museum. One hot day, we decided to take the kids there. We didn't know what it would be like, so we took a chance. And it was AMAZING. Seriously, this children's museum was right up there in quality with COSI and the Indianapolis Children's Museum. I kid you not, it was an incredible place for the kids. Here is Lydia "building" a magnet PVC track for a golf ball.
This was really neat. See the leaves and the lines on the tree trunk? The leaves have lines in them like the tree trunk. The lines are big enough to fit a chain of little balls through, so you could build a track that started from the leaves and went all the way to the roots of the tree. Then the little balls went down the track. So cool.
This was the toddler area, which is why Emily is in here blocking off under the bridge, of course. Lydia loved the little person slide.
Cool perspective.
Lydia really loved to play with Grandpa at the museum.
Electricity ball.
In one area they had an ambulance, a fire truck and a police motorcycle. In the ambulance they had pretend medical toys (stethoscope, otoscope, blood pressure cuff, etc). There was a fireman's pole that children could climb up and down, and they could "drive" the vehicles and push buttons to make the siren lights turn on. We spent an hour in here saving Granny and Grandpa's life.
They really loved the fire truck.
And Grandpa really loved the motorcycle.
Oh yeah, you're so tough.
Future career?
In another big room was the construction section. Half of the construction section were these wood plans with large plastic bolts, washers, and wing nuts.
Getting her architect on.
In the other half of the room were big foam blocks for building. Emily chose to organize instead of build and tried to get her sisters to help her.
Charlotte didn't want to organize and had Granny tie her up instead.
Too silly.
This was after Emily had organized everything.
This was our FAVORITE room. It was the food room! A grocery store, mini shopping carts, magnetic fruit trees, air blenders, pretend garden, pretend kitchen, cash registers....we spent an hour in here too.
Just like me!
See the fruit hanging from the tree? The chain is connected to the tree and at the bottom of the chain is a strong magnet. Inserted at the top of the fruit is another magnet. So you can put fruit "on" the trees and then the kids can "pick" the fruit off. GENIUS!
"Thank you for shopping at Safeway today."
On the wall of the food room were these hilarious organs. Mouth, heart, nose, lungs and ear. Each one of them did something. If you pushed the heart in, blood vessels would like up around it and you'd hear the sound of a heartbeat. If you touched the tongue, the mouth would start yodeling or breathing.
The nose had boogers in it, and if you pulled on them (a kid favorite!) you would hear the nose sneeze.
Ear hair!!
The shopping area. Shelves, produce bins, and the fruit trees on the left side.
Here is a tree house surrounded by trees.
Lydia let Granny touch her!
Lydia decided that she was going to take up gardening like Daddy. Looks like a good harvest!
Back at the construction room, Emily worked on building a plane.
Basic framework, two wheels...
Finished product...
Those are the wing flaps and the round piece at the front is supposed to be the cockpit.
Hurry! Granny is sick!
Seriously, the Tucson Children's Museum was awesome. The girls STILL talk about it. We decided to go there every time we visit Tucson. It was amazing.
