Young at heart

I am convinced, the Houston Children's Museum might be one of the coolest places in town! The young & the young at heart love it just the same.  We spent a half day here & made it through about half of the exhibits before heading over to the Zoo.  One great thing about this museum is that as a child grows, they will enjoy different parts in new ways.  At nearly 3, Charlotte was a pretty fast mover through the exhibits except for in the science area where we lingered for quite some time. She loved it though & so did her sissy. 

We started in Kidtropolis, USA a place where kids can be in charge & play the roles of different people within a city. We got to spend some time inside an ambulance where I showed Charlotte how to correctly use a defibrillator. Thankfully we were able to shock our patient back into sinus rhythm ; ) 

Her hair makes me laugh...I look like that after I take a scrub cap off I guess. She was so cute listening with the stethoscope. She repeated the same exact sounds our pediatrician does when listening to the heart or belly.

After all that strenuous & not to mention stressful work we did in the back of the ambulance, we went to the HEB grocery store where Charlotte got to do a little shopping.  She loves the real grocery store & was delighted to find everything at her level. She picked out all kinds of healthy fruits & vegetables & even got some "Judy Juice."  We went through one of those self check out lanes that I loathe. This time though, Char got to scan each item so it was much easier for me to tolerate. About 15 items into our scanning we noticed a sign that said "no more than 5 items please." Oh well, she was a quick scanner & then stocker as we put back our purchased items.

Next stop was a Diner where my parents & Eloise sat at a table & placed an order. Charlotte returned from behind the counter with lots of food. She even pretended to wash her hands as if she could read the sign "all employees must wash hands before returning to work."

After everyone's imaginary tummies were full, we went to the Vet Clinic where they had 12 little cages with stuffed animals in them. Char & Elo are dog kiss deprived at Gaga & Paw Paw's house so they were excited to see some four legged friends.  I think that the stuffed dog might be Gaga's favorite breed ; )

We (me and Charlee) crawled through a mini obstacle course before heading over to what seemed like one giant science fair. I think this was by far my favorite part.  First I joined a table of kids that were on a field trip and built Charlotte a mini hot air balloon looking thing that she got to put in a wind tunnel. It was made out of a dixie cup, pipe cleaners & a coffee filter held together by some tape. Mine was far better than everyone else's.  As I proclaimed this to my parents we were all laughing thinking about the 3rd graders that were at my table & how I was more than triple their age and IQ ; ) Still though, I claimed the victory in the "most flights & still intact" category! Here is Charlotte watching it in the tunnel. 

I think it is safe to say that my Dad had more fun than all of us combined ; ) He is the "young at heart" person I was thinking of when I titled this post. He was very focused to complete the tasks at each station. His lego car performed quite well as it went down the hill & off a jump. He then put the creation pictured below together with the assistance of his eldest granddaughter.

The next activity brought the most laughter of the morning.  The task was to build a rocket.  My Dad's face lit up when he saw this table so he sat down & got to work right away. He followed the directions while his supporters looked on....

I was busy taking pictures & not paying much attention to my 2 year old who had never held a pair of scissors before. In fact, I didn't even notice how she had her fingers between the scissor blades until I looked through the sequence of pictures...hahaha! Thankfully she & her sister each had ten fingers when we left the rocket station ; )

So after a good thirty minutes my mom helped place the top on the rocket & declared it was ready for its first flight. Doesn't my dad look so happy?

Paw Paw & Char took the rocket over to the launch cage & again followed the directions. We were really excited to see it fly!

I wish I had a video of the minutes that followed.  My dad stepped on the pad that launched the rocket & it flew up about 14 inches & went straight to the ground! We were all laughing & it only got funnier. Just after our disappointing launch, a kid that was probably 7 years old launched his from 20 feet away & it flew all the way across the cage, squeezed out of the net & kept going right over our heads! This was all it took for my dad to reconstruct & attempt a second launch.  This time around he wrapped paper around a plastic bottle. Charlotte loaded it up on the launcher.

It actually worked! It still paled in comparison to the 2nd graders' rocket but was a vast improvement from our first launch : ) Charlotte still thought her Grandpa was the coolest guy in there with all the attention he paid to her. He won her affection by giving her Blue Bell Cookies n' Cream every night.  One night she had already had her serving and was wandering from person to person begging for another bite. I told her "no" and to please not ask again. My dad said "Charlotte, come here, you don't want any of your mommy's ice cream." I think Charlotte was a little confused but caught on quick when he took her outside in the back yard and they enjoyed another scoop together! She walked in, came right up to me & spilled the beans. Haha...such an honest child!  The next night my mom & I were out with the girls & I told Charlotte we would see Paw Paw soon. Her reply exactly: "See Paw Paw soon? Oh boy! I yike Paw Paw! I say 'Paw Paw I wah some I-keam & Paw Paw say yes!' " I would feel the same way about a person giving me Blue Bell every night ; )

Back to the museum. After losing at the science fair, we ate some lunch then went to the birth to 36 month play area.  It was awesome!  There weren't any big kids to run over the little ones & everything was sized perfectly for the enjoyment of a crawler.

Charlotte was excited to drive a car & wanted Eloise to sit in the back seat. Well little miss Elo was not interested in sitting so she stood up & held on for dear life.  Char kept turning around & saying "Sit down Elo! Sit down!" I guess she knows a little bit about car safety ; ) Paw Paw filled their car up with gas & they were happy to "drive/ride" for a bit.

I cannot wait to return to Kingwood & make another trek to the Children's Museum. If I lived nearby I would definitely have an annual pass to this wonderful place.  We could have spent a few more hours there but decided to head over to the Houston Zoo for the afternoon.