First Trip to the Museum

Saturday morning my friend, Megan, and her little boy, Luke, came over and Ella Ann and I walked with them downtown to The Children's Museum. The Sesame Street exhibit is there until the beginning of September and since Ella Ann LOVES Sesame Street I wanted to make sure and take her before it was too late. Luke is also a big Elmo fan, so Megan really wanted to take him too! After we walked in the scorching heat and humidity, we arrived at the museum just as the doors were opening. Ella Ann was so excited you would have thought her stroller was on fire and she needed to evacuate! Luke kept yelling "ELMO!" over and over! Once we got them out of their strollers, they pretty much took off to explore all the fun activities. It was a really neat place, but I can see why children 2 and under are free because our kids were almost to the point where they could reach things, but they couldn't understand much or do any pretend play, which is what the museum encourages. They had an area that included a sort-of tree house, which Ella Ann was afraid to do anything in, and it had a miniature pond with a waterfall that was filled with play fish and animals for kids to scoop up, splash around in, and just play. They offered raincoats for the kids, but both Ella Ann and Luke refused to put them on so they got soaked! At one point Ella Ann doused her head!

We also joined in on some group singing and dancing, which Ella Ann absolutely loved and danced so much that people were laughing! When the Sesame Street theme song came on she was busting moves all over the place! We also watched a play that took place on Sesame Street, but unfortunately no actual characters came out so Megan and I were pretty disappointed with the whole Sesame Street exhibit!

Anyway, after we pulled Luke and Ella Ann away from all the fun activities, yes they were screaming because they didn't want to leave, we walked back home. Both of them were pooped from all of the running around, as were Megan and I! It was a really fun morning and I hope to take Ella Ann again sometime because she did love it all so much.

We didn't do much the rest of the weekend. Spencer worked on Sunday so Ella Ann and I hit the mall for the last day of Georgia's tax free holiday! :)

Here are some pics from the museum.

Ella Ann was running around so crazily that it was very hard for me to keep up with her. At one point she had run over to their computer area and started playing on it. I guess she learned from watching Spencer and I!

Dancing along with one of "Oscar's pals."

It took quite a while for Ella Ann to actually hold the paintbrush because she was afraid of it! I kept having to scribble so she would figure it out! She hates anything on her hands at all and kept saying "NOOO!" when I was trying to teach her to paint! But once she did it, there was no stopping her......
Isn't the mini apron cute??!!

This is the pond area I was talking about. They loved the water and all the toys in it!

Luke and Ella Ann playing around in the soft toy and gym area.

Ella Ann would walk around the tunnels because she was afraid to go in!

She loves any rocking toys and gravitates toward them when we go to playdates. This one was a little small for her, but she was dead set on rocking it like crazy anyway!

Going down the big banana slide all by herself! Note the soaking wet shirt!

Headed home and the kids are not too happy about it! We had to stuff their faces with snacks to lure them into their strollers so we could get outta there!