Exploring the children's museum

Finally, we've had a couple Saturdays where we didn't have plans! It was nice after having a crazy busy October. Last weekend we took in a high school playoff football game (for which Allie barely last the first half, now we know!) and this weekend we hit the Madison Children's Museum! We've been members since April, but this was only our third time going!

Allie was really into it this time! We went in and just let her go explore. First we went to the water room.

Then this hut that had all kinds of hut toys (I don't really know what else to call it).

Next was the hut that had all the drums and other musical instruments. There was a constant banging from the big drum behind Allie, kids were always banging that drum! Allie didn't get a chance to bang on it, but she seemed to like the smaller ones better.

Next we found a table with some magnetic blocks. We had fun building with those, but Allie seemed to like the tree stump stools better.

In a corner was a learning spot with cabinets to open to see samples of the leaves and bark of trees that are found in this area.

 And there was also a telescope!

And that was just on the first floor! In the photo below, theres all these wooden tracks that are stuck to the wall by magnets. You can arrange the tracks and them watch the wooden ball roll down. Allie really liked this activity.

Next we went upstairs, where Allie took quite an interest in all these pictures on the railing. One of the pictures turned. I'm not sure it was supposed to, but Allie really enjoyed turning it around and around.

Upstairs is the art studio, which we'd never really looked at before. Allie had fun doing a little coloring here. The girl working there traced Allie's hand to make a turkey. She thought that was really cool.

There are some other fun photos from the art studio that warrant their own special post to be forthcoming.

We had so much fun at the children's museum! But we had to get home for Allie to take her nap. But first we had to quickly head to the third floor, which is actually the roof. Here's the puppy by the elevator that Allie really liked.

There's a clubhouse and garden up there, including a chicken coop! Allie was excited to see the chickens, but they were hiding. We didn't stay on the roof too long and I didn't end up taking any pictures!

But here's the dinosaur bench Allie sat on while waiting for the elevator to go back down!

This was such a fun day. There are so many other activities there that we didn't get to. We really could have stayed a lot longer but we were all tired. Allie fell asleep in the car on the way home. We took Allie home and put her right to bed. We plan on spending a lot of time at the children's museum this winter!