Forgive me. These posts are gonna be out of order for a bit but I want to get up all the pictures and stories.
Christmas 2009 Mom and Rog gave our family a one year membership to the Discovery Gateway childrens museum. Richard had recently taken on a lot of responsibility with the girls and they thought it would be a good way for him to spend time with them and make some memories. They must have already known we were destined to be a family! (Truth behold he never went without me! LOL)
Well January 2011 rolls around and we decided to get one more trip in before our membership expired.
For those of you reading this that have never been to the Discovery Gateway, I highly recommend it. My kids will spend all day here if I let them. They may even consider moving in. I only have pictures of the one area they seem to focus on which is this little land for little people so they can feel big.
One of their favorite parts is the grocery store. While there you can just shop, buy your groceries, and take them home. (We will cover that in a minute)
Another option is to put on an apron and take over one of the many jobs available in the store.
Caydance is a big fan of stocking shelves. I think she gets some kind of happiness about everything being in it's place, I just haven't found out how to transfer the concept to her bedroom at home!
Athena really likes to be the cashier playing with the cash register and bagging the groceries. She doesn't spend much of her time in this are though.
Another hot zone for the girls is the little house. I would say Caydance spends 80% of her time in this area. She is a future domestic goddess I am sure of it.
She carefully pulls each item out of her bag , analyzes it, and decides it's proper place in the kitchen. Occasionally she finds something another child has left in a place she deems inappropriate and spends a few minutes talking about how silly it is and "EVERYONE knows _____ goes in the ______!!"
Athena spends her time in the house looking in the fridge and making endless (seriously) food for her mom and Richard to eat. She also likes to play with the baby dolls and do the occasional vacuuming. She liked it so much that we made this her chore at home, apparently she doesn't love it as much as she though.
The final area of interest is the water cycle exploration table. This is where it's at for Athena. There are all types of tubes and tunnels to put ping pong balls in and see where they go. Also splashing is not only allowed but more or less encouraged so the potential for fun is THAT much greater.
Our family gift in 2010 was a membership to the zoo that we haven't activated yet. I was feeling a little guilty about it but then I realized the later we do it in the year the later it carries into the next. That means not only will little Dexter be able to join us but we will be able to see the new polar bear exhibit that is supposed to open next summer!
