A Day at the Museum

Two events gave me a nudge to take Ramsey to the local museum this past Saturday; "Tree Houses: Look Who's Living in Trees" and "Science Steve" (a humorous STEM entertainer who brings science to life with fun experiments).

 When we arrived, Ramsey immediately wanted to bypass everything to see the two tree houses.    The tree house display is a traveling exhibit from the Science Center of Ithaca, NY, featuring stompable buttons on the floor to hear various tree-loving animal sounds (woodpeckers tapping, turkeys gobbling, bears, etc).

 There were things to learn about sustainable logging, designing and building model tree houses, and learning how to track animals (bears, raccoons, skunks, various birds, etc) based on their footprints.  There were fun puzzles and videos too.   They had butterfly and eagle costumes/wings for kids to put on and play with.

 And, there were periscope-like displays for kids to see "who lives in the tree/hole".  Here, it was a striped skunk.

With SO much to do, Ramsey wanted to experience everything.... right away.  Science Steve was in the middle of his first presentation, but Ramsey went in and plopped himself down and watched for a few minutes.  I really thought he'd enjoy this, but it didn't keep his attention long.  He wanted to go back and see more of what the museum had to offer (being this was his first trip there!).

We walked through a room all about local football history.  I showed him how to do a vertical jump.

And he was happier using the tackling dummy as a punching bag instead!

When we had first come into the museum, Ramsey had seen a display with early American Indian tee pees and stick/mud houses.  That was his next mini adventure!

In and out he went, coercing me into the huts with him, loving the buffalo hide rugs on the floors and beautifully painted walls.

Nearby was a room filled with early communication hardware; telegraph machines and telephone switches (that actually still work!).  I looked at my cell phone and took a brief second to ponder how far we've come in just a little over a hundred years.

And the WILDLIFE area was nearby on the first floor as well.  This was a room I remembered as a child.

Lions and tigers and bears - oh my!

And back up to the tree houses!

We then found the "Frontier Rooms" which were basically STEM play rooms for kids to role play, play with train sets, play "house", "plant" crops and gardens, dress up on play clothes, etc.

Ramsey was enthralled with the loft that looked like a covered wagon!

Before he knew it, he had a TON of new friends to play with.

There was a pulley system in place for kids to use which moved an overhead "cloud".  The kids used it to warn each other when a storm was coming!

And, there were buttons to push which made overhead "stars" in the sky light up.

On the other side of Frontier Village was a "house", with a window sill to plant flowers.   Ramsey picked flowers for me and other girls.   (We're teaching this kid to be a gentleman! *wink*)

Inside, he was one of the "children" while a new little girl friend played the Mommy.

Planting turnips, onions, beets, and carrots was super fun!

We stayed in these rooms for about two hours!

Of his new friends was a little girl about his age.  They had the best time and "us moms" were busy chasing them from room to room, once they had decided they wanted to roam.

Before we left, we had to make one more trip back to the tree houses.  When we departed, the kids gave each other hugs and said they'd hope to see each other again soon.

When we were leaving, Ramsey went up to two of the museum curators and told them he had "an amazing time".  He told one of them it was "the best day of his life"!   

For a day where I thought we'd be at the museum maybe an hour, we spent three (Momma was pooped!).  We'll definitely keep the museum on the return trip list!