Children's Museum

Since it was 40 degrees and really windy this morning, we decided it was time to head to the Austin Children's Museum. Harrison has been there a few times before when his cousins have come to visit, but this was the first time he really seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself and really play with more than a couple of things.

He started out at the giant train table in the lobby. It is at least four times the size of the one we have at home, and so he was just amazed. Then we played with a musical thing that had big tubes you could hit with a paddle.

We spent most of our time in three spots that he really seemed to enjoy. First, we went up to this little area where you could watch a model train go around a track. He loved pushing the buttons that made all sorts of different (and loud!) train noises.

Then we had a lot of fun playing with the fake food. There's a little area with a cash register and lots of baskets for food. He sure had fun with that, and then we moved to the other food area where they have a fake sink, wok, burner and cafeteria area. Harrison had a great time serving up food on cafeteria trays to me. The only thing that would have made it better is if the fake sink really worked. I have a feeling he wouldn't have ever left if it did work.

The mini ketchup was a big hit and just about everything I was served got a good "squirt" of it.

After that we hit up the construction area. There's a spot with different shaped bolts/nuts/screws and you can drop them in their respective shaped tubes. They then shoot downstairs where someone can put them in a little tube and they get sucked back up and shoot out into a bin up top. Harrison thought that was so fun...he loved putting things down the tubes, and was thrilled that they were coming back up to him. I was just happy there was another little person downstairs enjoying the other end of our game :-)

Overall it was a great morning at the museum. It probably helped that Harrison fell asleep on the way there (at 9:54 am!!) and slept for 30 minutes while I drove a bit and then sat in a parking spot. I guess he just really needed a rest!

Some photos of our morning:

The musical thing...not sure what it is called:

Even play food is better with ketchup:

Sampling the merchandise before ringing it up:

Working the register: