Is It Naptime Yet

As a kid I remember field trips to the Lied Discovery Children’s Museum. Well, one field trip. There were all sorts of cool things and a room that was an optical illusion type room. It’s hard to describe because it was so long ago, but it’s also just hard to describe.

I took my girls there today and I saw a lot of the same things that were there about 15 years ago when I went.

Like a huge doll that had organs in it, and bubble stations and then these wheels you turn for optical illusions and the big ball with electricity lines that when you put your hand on it it attracts the electricity, I think that’s what it was anyways. I’m hoping that the doll had been replaced during this time but I’m sure the optical illusion wheels had not because they just weren’t working, or really turning.

They had exhibits that had changed or were newer. Like this survive a hurricane booth and a fake grocery store and bank with a broken atm, or the card was broken, I’m not sure which. They also had this train exhibit that was “visiting”. Lilah wanted me to cover her ears while she pulled the cord for the whistle, but she wasn’t strong enough on her own, something that replayed itself when the girls wanted me to lift them on this “lift yourself”  thing. I had a hard time pulling my own daughters let alone the thought of an eight year old doing it alone.

The girls had lots of fun. I forgot my camera, so I feel bad because there were some cute moments.

They  liked the bubble station. We got to be in a bubble a couple times. It wasn’t working when we first got there but a worker put more solution in it and describe the best way to get the bubble to work.
They also had this desert exploration area for kids five and under. The girls actually liked the ‘baby oasis’ and played in there so it became more like a ‘toddler oasis’ as I describe by a slightly disgruntled worker when she passed by a doorway I was sitting next to. There was only one baby in the whole area and 4 toddlers, and at least I made my girls follow the rules and take their shoes off, unlike the other toddlers.

This desert area had wheels to turn to pull some buckets along, and the wheels were also hard to turn for me as an adult. Lilah could do it, but it took forever and was not simple enough so she lost interest before any cause and affect could be seen. They still had fun, but I think certain teaching tools were lost within the ‘too difficult to handle by themselves’ exhibit for children.

Upstairs there were these air instruments that worked on whatever, where you put your hand in and it plays notes. Lilah thought they were too loud so she had her fingers in her ears for about 2/3rds of the time we were upstairs. It wasn’t that loud so I feel this is just a way for her to get attention at times.
We examined our hands under a microscope that used a computer monitor. Eden had gunk on her nails.

We were there for 3 hours, so with the free passes and my $1 off the regular admission price with AAA I think it was overall worth it.
I don’t think I’d pay $7- but maybe just $6 with AAA- for one child, especially a young child, for the experience. Maybe $3 per child but then you have the cost of me as an adult too. Some things in Vegas are just to expensive to do regularly or are just too expensive for the overall experience.

The museum has a yearly pass that you can buy where you spend like $50 for an all year pass and then just $5 for each pass after that, but the overall exhibits don’t change often enough that I’d want to go there even once a month, well maybe I could do once a month, but that’s only while the girls are young and still find moving fake fruit around very amusing. (They did it for like 15 minutes and would have even longer I’m sure if other girls hadn’t invaded their territory.)

The girls also really enjoyed this tunnel area and played on it for the last half hour we were there. It just warmed them up for us going to the evil McDonald’s, which to Jon is evil but not so evil to me so I just go there by myself with the girls. (We both agree that Valde–Mart is evil. I can’t even say it’s real name. 🙂 )

The girls spilt chocolate milk, well Eden spilt her chocolate milk and Lilah ate all her apple slices and 3 1/2 nuggets, which is an accomplishment in its own, since they rarely eat even half of any fast food meal. They had fun in the play area and played with a boy around Lilah’s age, or that was 4. We shared an ice cream cone, which is one of the two reasons I like Mc Donald’s, the apple pies being the other reason.
We came home, put Eden to bed and Lilah entertained herself until she stubbornly did not want to go to bed.

I like doing free to cheap things with my girls. As the Fall comes we can go to parks but once winter hits we’ll be nearly completely inside bound, so I’ll need to find other things to do with them that cost little to nothing.
I wanted to use the free passes before field trips would be taken by classes. It got kinda busy, but nothing like it would have been with a third grade class running around.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 4:56 pm and is filed under fun, Kids. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.