A Little Exploration on a chilly Friday

Nothing puts fear in a museum curator's heart like seeing 2 double strollers containing a 1yr old, 2yr old, and 2  - 3yr olds come rolling in the door.

Photo courtesy of Google

Earlier this month I saw a post advertising the 3rd Friday of the month as free admission day at Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science.  Sure I'd driven by the building enough times that I knew exactly where it was....but, I'll admit I'd never even thought about going inside (said while looking down in embarrassment).

Holding "clouds" 

Now that the weather is officially "cold" and trips to the zoo aren't so tempting, I figured I'd take the kids to the museum on this beautiful Friday.  I invited our good friend Krista and her daughter to join us on the educational trip.

Neither of us had been there and were a little nervous as we rolled through the doors.  Having small children, it's amazing the disastrous scenarios a mother can imagine involving her children and museum exhibits.

I was surprised as we walked in that the museum wasn't packed, after all admission was free!  The 2 females working the front desk were extremely friendly and explained the layout of the museum to us.  They also provided us with a list of upcoming events geared towards children that sounded entertaining for all ages.

Feeding her "Baby"

The first room we walked in was a hands on room with experiments for even the littlest hands.  At that point Krista and I both relaxed as this place was more kid friendly then we expected!  The kids enjoyed playing in the shadow room, the pipe drums, and pushing any and every button they could get their hands on, regardless of what exactly the button did.

The next room we ventured in was all about food and healthy lifestyles.  I'm not sure our littles took anything educational away from the play food exhibits, but they sure had a great time feeding the puppets, playing with the vegetables, trying out their balance and playing on the sit-n-stretch.

For the most part, those 2 rooms were the "fun" areas for our little group.  The rest of the museum was more interesting for us adults.  We entered into the history portion of the museum which was a glance back at Evansville from 1900 on.

The room was transformed to look as though we were back in time, walking on a brick road and looking into the windows of houses, shops, Dr. offices, toy stores, etc.  We were blown away at how realistic it looked.  A few mannequins standing inside the various windows were a little creepy for my 3 yr old, but after reassuring him they weren't real, he'd get a little closer to them.

Strolling down a street in 19th century America was pretty amazing.  There was also a small portion devoted to Abraham Lincoln and his 1 room cabin which was neat due to his connection with the area.  There was so much detail behind each window, I could have stood there most of the day taking in the exhibits and reading each plaque.

We left the 19th century and headed upstairs to see the more traditional type of museum exhibits; old artifacts and lots of paintings.  As the children began getting slightly restless, it was time for us to whip out the snacks.  I'll never grow tired of how quiet and good children act when they have a bowl of snacks in their hands!

With pretzels and fruit snacks in their bowls, we walked a little quicker through the remainder of the museum, taking in each sight, but at a pace that said "these snacks will only last so long."

There was numerous workers walking the halls of the museum and each greeted our little brigade with a smile and kind comment.

One of the best parts of the museum to the kids was in the building on the other side of the parking lot...The Evansville Museum Transportation Center.  We were able to walk through a 1908 steam engine (and ring the bell!), a 1926 club car, and a 1900 caboose.  It was a little chilly outside so we didn't spend a lot of time walking around the train, but the kids loved it nonetheless.

All Aboard

Inside the kids watched a model train speed around the miniature city of Evansville and attempted to climb aboard an old buggy that was older than their grandparents.

We had now passed lunch and nap time for the little people and exhaustion was setting in.  We saw everything there was to see, nothing got broken, and we didn't leave a single crumb of our snacks.  That sums up a successful trip to the museum for this momma!!

Scott would have loved to read about the history of Evansville and explore the trains and various methods of transportation from the past.  Who knew Evansville had such a neat educational place tucked along the shores of the Ohio??

Until next time!