Children's Museum Daze

One of the blessings of being in the Indianapolis area is truly its amazing Children's Museum and zoo as well as so many other opportunities for cultural events. When our girls were little, we had annual passes to the zoo and the museum. I would ask for them for Christmas as it was a great way to get out during the year to visit with friends as well as just run off some steam. Today's Walk Down Memory Lane is about one trip to the Children's Museum in 2004. This day we happened to be joined on our adventure by two of my friends and their kiddos.

Here the kids are all posing in front of the
giant polar bear. Notice they are
"roaring" like the bear!

As I now notice my girls getting older and more independent, while that is lovely in it's own right, I sometimes find myself thinking back to the days when we would make weekly ventures to either the zoo or the children's museum. Several of my dear friends would get annual passes too and we would make it a weekly date. This allowed the mom's time to chat and catch up on what was going on in their lives but also gave the kids such rich experiences as they would explore their world around them. We loved exploring each new exhibit as they opened. This day we were checking out the Dinosaur exhibit. There were areas to dress up.....

Doodle in the Dinosaur area at the Children's Museum.

...or to dig for dinosaur bones....

Doodle and Bean being archaeologists.

....climb in a cave.....

Doodle and Bean exploring a cave in the science area.
or read about dinosaurs as well as touch everything around.

Bean measuring a fossilized dinosaur egg.

While checking out the new exhibits was always a great time, one thing that always stood as a constant in our visits would be the PlayScape area. In this area designed for children 6 and under, they had exploration areas set up for the kids to be able to explore freely with all kinds of mediums. Some of our favorites were the movable bridge in the dress up area....

Bean and a friend on the movable bridge.

....the sand tables.....

Bean exploring at the sand table.

and of course the water tables were a huge hit.

Doodle, Bean and friends playing in the water table.

As I look back on these pictures, I know I have stacks and stacks of others just like them only with different friends from time to time. These memories are so sweet to me now as I am looking eye to eye with one of my sweet girls and share shoes with both of them. These days of adventure and exploration are so precious in the development of the girls but also sweet to their mommy. I cherish the times I chose to sit in that Playscape area and observe them. Some mom's felt the need to "help" their child play. While there definitely is a time to do this, over time I felt this area was set up for freedom to explore. So I did learn to take the more hands off mom approach unless needed. In doing so, I was able to see my girls excitement and curiosity over different things. I noticed what challenged them and what was natural for them. I am grateful I took time in that moment to really watch my kids and soak in each moment. I remember how wet they would manage to get at the water table no matter how well we got them covered with the aprons provided. And they always wanted to do the sand after they played in the water. While that might drive Mommy nutty, they loved how the sand stuck to their fingers. I adored seeing them excited about learning how things work and dressing up and playing in their imaginary world. My oldest daughter will be 12 this summer and she still misses visiting this area of the museum. I guess that means it was as memorable for them as it was for me. I look forward to continuing to visit the museum and it's many exhibits in the future, but I have to say, I am eager to one day visit PlayScape again. Join me...I'll be sitting back watching whoever I brought, snapping pictures and grinning from ear to ear.