Puttin' on some miles

I wanted to take the kids to a museum we haven't been to before, so I found one in Davis that looked fun. However, when I checked the hours it didn't open until 2pm. WHAT!!? So, instead we drove all the way down to Stockton to the one Grandma took Elle to a few weeks ago. It was quite the drive. Meanwhile, Michael drove all the way up to Yuba to get some plans for a bid and talk to a city engineer. Our whole family were driving all over Northern California.

Elle's favorite part was the little play house in the babies area where she could pretend to make dinner. She wanted me to sit at the table so she could serve me dinner. Hunter wanted to play too, but she'd get mad if he'd take something that wasn't specifically given to him.

Hunter's favorite part was the police motercycle. It didn't make any lights or noise, but he liked to climb up and pretend to ride it.


Something that I really liked, but the kids only explored briefly was an area completely dedicated to the medical field. They had an X-ray area, Doctor's waiting room, Emergency room and Ambulance backed in. I thought it was a great idea! The kids weren't really interested so they moved on and didn't take much time to pretend other than trying out the gurney in the ambulance.





Another huge hit was the pretend grocery store complete with beeping checkout counter. Much of the bar coded merchandise was damaged and donated by Food 4 Less. There was a produce aisle, a bakery section, a meat cooler (all of the food was very high quality pretend...very realistic, too)

The kids would make rounds putting things in their baskets. Elle liked the pastry section the best, probably because it was the easiest to reach. After they would check out I would take the carts back around and put everything back were it came from.



There was also a news studio where the kids got to see themselves on TV. Ethan wanted to know if he would see himself later on the news, but I explaned that it was closed circuit system and we were the only ones watching.

Before we went home we stopped by the Arts and Crafts room. Of all the children's museums with such a thing, this was by far the best, most well stocked crafts room. Each of the children made a Valentine to give to Daddy. Ethan was highly critical of his work and kept starting over. Elle was most interested in pouring out as much glue as possible upon which I would sprinkle cut paper. Hunter made the most detailed Valentine, but what what most sweet is that he wanted me to write a message to Daddy that went, "For Daddy, I love him". I made a Valentine, too. My working on a project seemed to help keep the kids focused on completing a project, but Ethan just got more frustrated because his didn't look like he wanted it to.

We finished off the day at the paint wall, which was ....extreme. I'm not sure I like the look of layered paint. Even if it was done by kids. My favorite paint wall to date was the one in San Jose.