Friday, March 5, 2010

MOSI

One of the best play places we went to while in Florida was MOSI (The Museum of Science and Industry)My parent's have worked for them in the past and received free membership and admission tickets, so we all decided to go and check it out.First thing we saw near the entrance was this neat little train. It was just like one we saw at Christmas Village that they didn't let Holly ride and she really wanted to.Well the guy here at MOSI let her, and there were no other kids, so she climbed in and took a ride. She could see me the whole time watching and waving, so she sat like a good little girl and waved and went around two times. She had so much fun.Next we headed into the sciencey area. There were not a lot of things Holly was super interested in, not that she didn't explore them all anyways.My Opa and Tanta Kat took off on there own right away, and before we were even inside they were up on the third floor riding a Bike across the room on a tight rope! Good thing they weren't afraid of heights! Yikes.I love the little plaid skirt Holly is wearing here. She is so cute! We found this skirt at goodwill, I think it was like two dollars. it is still a little big on her though.This was neat, to let her stand on the big scale so we could see how much she weighted, though it was hard to get her to stay still.Here she is playing on the inside of a airplane cockpit, she actually really liked this display, I think it was all the levers and buttons for her to push.She climbed all around onto everything, up onto the seat twisting and turning the steering wheel.There were so many buttons for her to push, she was really curious.There was a hole in the floor in front of the seat, she kept stepping down into it, so I had to keep a close eye on her.Daddy had a lot of fun showing her all of the displays.She wanted to run and play, but at this point she had to stay with us and explore the exhibits.I love this picture, I sometimes can't get over how beautiful she is, I don't know I shouldn't be bragging about my daughterBut I love her profile, her little noise, the way she is biting on her lip and the look of curiosity in her eye.She liked this display, there were buttons to make the robotic arm move and pick up blocks, and she liked controlling it.She is wearing one of her little necklaces, recently she is really into dress-up she wears necklaces, sun glasses, hats, head bands.She will put them on and then run to the mirror to see what she looks like wearing them, it is so cute.On this particular day she wouldn't let me take it off and leave it in the car, so I let her wear it into the museum.Ahh, the many jobs of a rescue worker in the Disaster zone area, fireman, Doctor, paramedic, the possibilities are endless.This was really cool, it was a hurricane emulator, look at how flat Joel's hair is. Holly did not like it and started to cry, so Joel had to step out.She was so worried about her daddy, it was really sweet. Once he was back by our side she was fine again. Maybe she just didn't like the loud noise?There was an outside habitat area that Holly really loved, but I was disappointed in it.It was supposed to be a butterfly habitat but all of the butterflies were inside an inside room and we couldn't really see them.There was a little lake and inside that lake was fish and a turtle just like Mack, and Holly enjoyed watching those swim around.Though she did try to climb in, she always does she is obsessed with water.Here is Tanta Kat and Opa driving a big red fire engine, they had a lot of fun exploring the museum together.Eventually we made our way to the Children;s play area. My family was seeing a show and we were waiting to go there when they were in the movie, now I know better.We could have played in this area for hours. Did I mention we had Great Grandma Birthday, and Granny Jackie and Nana Mary with us? Also great Uncle Ty, Tanta Kat, Oma and Opa.Holly loved this car, she is really into them actually pushing them, climbing into them, driving with the steering wheels, perhaps it is because we drive to play dates and such so much.She sees me driving all of the time and she wants to do it. She recently learned the sign for Car, which looks like you are steering or turning the wheel of a car back and forth in mid air.Now when she want to leave somewhere or go out she will sign Car. I liked it better when she was saying "Go, Go, Go" but I still hope that will come back eventually.Sometimes when she signs car she means she wants to watch the "hear we go" song on Baby Signing times where they teach the car sign, so I always try and give her the phone first.But recently i realized that she has generalize and associated and signs car when she wants to leave wherever she is. Sometimes she says all done also, like if she is strapped into a shopping cart.But then when I tell her no, we aren't all done, she moves on to the next sign, as if I just didn't understand her first request, that must be the case since I didn't comply.As you can see the play area is huge. There is a romper room with all of the cushions and climbing blocks.There is this entire restaurant area, and then a super market and then a processing plant for the oranges growing on the trees in the fields.It had a place to "wash" them and then put them on a conveyer that you turned where they would dump into a basket that you could carry to the shelves int he store.There was also a bounce house room. It cost "Tokens" to use it for like 20 minute increments which I think is obserd, but we were able to sneak in twice (gee I am such a bad influence)Inside one of the bouncey houses were this neat slide, but Holly needed help climbing up to the top of it.Here granny wiggled in and helped her, so she of course went down the slide over and over about 30 times. She liked it a lot.Here is my Queen of the Nile and her "Mummy" ah yes, I know, I'm corny, I just couldn;t help myself.I love that sideways glance she is making looking over at me, so cute.And then of course Granny got in on the action and took a picture too. We like these silly little stand ins, they are fun.Here Granny and Holly are playing with some shapes on a light table, they were pretty cool.And then she is back into the bouncey house yet again. They had an obsticle course like the one at Pump It Up, but the worker would not let Holly go through it, he said she was too small.This was one of her favorite things to play with, she should try out for America's got talent!She has lots of single drums and drum sticks at home, even the Wii Drums, but she has never seen anything like this before.And boy was she entralled, she must have sat and played these drums for 15 minutes, and just like a real musician she worked so hard she broke into a sweat.That didn;t stop her from bang bang banging away and getting her groove on.We took a little break, for our sakes and she moved over to the keyboard which she also really loves. This one unlike the piano at music class made lots of weird sounds which she liked.She is really into music, and into making it herself, she likes playing the Guitar, Drums, and piano. I may have a musician on my hands.I think though that in the end, the keyboard is just too stationary for her, she tries to bang the keys but we really didn't let her, so she was slipping off the seat and running back to the drums where she could really whale.I forsee sometime int he future there might be a drum kit, though I don;t know if my ears and patience could take the constant noise of it.In the back was this neat bridge, it was one of those unstable ones built with blocks that stayed off the ground because of the pressure of them pressing together.She wasn't a fan of walking on it. But it is good PT for her balance so we tried.This was a really neat optical illusion, she got a kick out of both seeing daddy's head and then getting to pop her head up into the Salad bowl, it was fun for her.She went back into the play room. The place reminded me a lot of Habitot, but it is like 6 times the size, and really only one very large exhib / room of the broader Museum. But all the other wings I think are much more fun for the older kids. I was surprised in the other area's things were not more hands on like here at the exploritorium.There were a few interactive displays like the desaster recreater's, they had an earth quake one that we went on, but didn't like very much, it mostly jerked you around.In the back there was also this amazing Tall Slide that took two tokens to ride. Here is Joel giving it a try. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZQMM5FLGY8

Once the move was out and the rest of the family rejoined us, they got to play too. Here are Tanta kat and Opa going down the slide. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAykMNK5iYs

Next we headed into the bounce room one more time, we paid tokens this time for kat to get to try on the Velcro suit. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5dCSNVDpNU

These are hilarious, it is a big bouncy floor and a tall velcro wall, she is supposed to get enough jump to make it to the wall and stick. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBDhwOl17ZI

She just wasn;t that lucky and wasn;t getting much height in her bounces, but man oh man was it funny. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8ncX47trIw

Here Holly is on the slide one last time, the day is winding down. She is with Great Grandma Bertha here having a snack.I think Bertha had a nice time with us, even though it was a long day.We took our time walking out so she could stop and explore last minute play area's one more time.She loved this blowers right by the exit, somehow the balls were floating mid air, maybe the forsce of the air got them turning and they stayed there? She liked the wind in her face almost as much as the flying balls.We also stopped in the gift store, on the way out and found some really good post Christmas sale items that Granny picked up as last minute gifts. We were going to open more presents once we arrived in Gainesville.And that was our day at MOSI, we talked about going a second time but never got around to it, but I am sure on our next visit to Florida we will be back.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was a fun day, and a fun museum!Maybe we'll visit some exciting place in CAlifornia this week!
Love, Granny

Umma said...

What a fun place to play! I loved the picture of her looking at you with that sideways look, so cute. And the skirt is a find! It's adorable.

fragilemom said...

Love the drums pics!