Grandma Wendy's Visit (day 1)

A few weeks back, my mom came out for a visit. This time it was just her. She was wonderful enough to come over our anniversary so that she could babysit for us and we could have a night out without Ellie.

She flew in on Wednesday, April 6th. Ellie and I went to pick her up from the airport and then went home to drop off her stuff and see if Ellie would take another nap (she only slept on the way to the airport).  Since she wasn't having anything to do with a nap, we took off for the Children's Museum.

There are plenty of things I like about each of the different children's museums I've been to (Utah's original children's museum, Discovery Gateway, and now Denver's).  There was this great toddler section to play in.  We started there.  It's designed specifically for newborns up to 4 years old. Kids older than 4 and adults are only allowed in if they are helping or with a child under 4. 

Ellie and Grandma Wendy gardening.



Learning how gears work.



Caught my first fish.

This area had plenty of rooms for different types of role play and activities; a store, house, barn, etc. One of Ellie's favorite was the coloring activity.  She really wanted to try working with a new art medium, chalk, but I didn't think that would be very nice on her clothes.

After, we walked around the fire engine they had set-up. We learned how to be fire fighters.  Upstairs we found a room with several tables and trains. Ellie has just started to like trains, cars and such. Although she didn't understand that she couldn't climb on the tables because it knocked the tracks off.  Building connecting train tracks are harder than it looks, or I was just too lazy to stand up and find the right piece.

Here Grandma, let me help move your train.

Just outside the train area was an invention area. Ellie really wanted to do the activities there but they looked like they were meant for older children.  They had plans to build an object and supplies to build them. You picked a plan, gathered the materials, choose a station, and followed the instructions to build whatever plan you had picked. Tools were made available for the kids to work. It looked really fun.

However,we were able to distract her by entering into a world of animal living.  It was a learning area set up to teach about how some animals live; rabbits, ants, squirrels, birds, worms, etc.  In the room was designed as a tree with roots and an underground tunnel so kids could pretend they were animals living and gathering food.  They also had huge foam puzzles about life cycles of frogs, butterflies, etc and animals shapes to make rubbed pictures. Ellie loved running around with the bigger kids. Half the time, we didn't know where she was other than under the tree.

Here's Ellie escaping down the burrow. Yes that is here saying "wee, wee"

Here comes Ellie Cottontail.

  

She makes such a cute bunny. It was a little big.

She wanted to try on another one. This is a squirrel.

Next we went and played with bubbles.  You could make big bubbles and there was a machine to enclose yourself in a giant bubble, like what Stef did at the Festival of Trees.


Me making a big bubble. The camera focused on the bubble and not me.

It also showed experiments of putting gas inside bubbles. It made them cloudy inside and then the gas leaked out when popped.


This was a bubble filled with gas. It sank to the ground instead of floating.

One of the other areas we didn't play in was the art area were they had paints out. Some other day I will let Ellie paint but maybe once she is a little older.

Lastly was the dress up area where they had classic oldies music playing; the Beach Boys, the Beatles, etc.  Ellie wouldn't dress up in the princess, prince, knight, magician, etc outfits but she did wear the tutu and twirled. They had a bag full of kids tap shoes to play with also.  I thought that was a really neat idea.



After playing, we picked up Jake and headed for dinner. On recommendation from some friends, we tried the Cherry Cricket.  The Cherry Cricket is a small local burger joint in Cherry Creek. As we entered the building, there was a guy at the door who said, "If you guys are drinking any alcohol tonight, I need to see your IDs." I thought it was interesting to ask up front for the ID's and mom was excited that she had been asked to show ID. The food was pretty good. We ordered burgers and frings (an order of fries and onion rings). For burgers, you pick your size and then add your toppings. We all enjoyed what we ordered and Ellie ate a little of everything.