goodbye to the Mississippi Children's Museum

I honestly can't tell you how many times we've been to the Mississippi Children's Museum in Jackson in the past 2 1/2 years since it opened, but I can tell you that it was the best $400 we've ever spent (3 years of membership at $135 per year). The children's museum was our go-to during the summers when it was too hot to be outside, but we needed to get out of the house. We went there for their birthday outings. They never got bored with it. We would usually get there just after noon and stay until it closed.

We've gone to a number of other children's museums for free with the Association of Children's Museums reciprocal membership (New Orleans, Fort Worth, St. Louis, Fayetteville NC, Charlottesville VA ... and we plan to use it in New England before it expires). This has been a big bonus for us while traveling.

Sunny's favorite thing was "going underground." In a downstairs area, there was a spot that represented being underground and talked about water and drilling, and various underground animals. There were tunnels to crawl through, which was the big hit. I don't think I ever got any pictures of her down there because she was always moving too fast for it.

Posy always went to the puppet theater. She loves making puppet shows. She also really liked the story magnets in the reading room. I need to find some of those to put on our fridge at home.

Birdie and Magnolia both spent most of their time in the music room. The huge jukebox had different songs to choose, and our girls always wanted "Hot Dog" by They Might Be Giants because it's the theme song on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. They were hilarious, dancing around to it. My parents went with us to the children's museum every time they visited us, and one trip, my mom filmed them dancing to "Hot Dog" at least 3 different times. I need to get those videos from her. Magnolia's favorite thing was pushing the button a camera box, and then running to the bluescreen area while the music played to see, well, the top of her head on the screen. The music plays for 5-10 seconds, and then she'd run back to push the button again. Over and over and over and over.

We're excited to explore new places and see new things in New England, but we will definitely miss the Mississippi Children's Museum. It's going to be hard to beat.