Richmond and DC children's museums

For the 3rd time in less than 12 months, we went to Williamsburg, Virginia and Washington, DC. You think we like those places? This trip, we visited the Richmond Children's Museum and the National Children's Museum in DC, located in the National Harbor area. We thought about going to the zoo, but it was a little too warm for that last week. We were there during school days so we had the buildings mostly to ourselves - love that! They were both fairly small (compared to our flagship children's museum in Jackson, Mississippi) but well presented and the girls had a great time. They were both good places to spend an afternoon.

RICHMOND:

We started with the water area - they could turn a crank to make a "hurricane" in this tank, and they got creative with dropping the ball down it and it would spit out the bottom of the tank. They did this over and over and over for quite awhile, and laughed their heads off.

More playing with water

See? Dropping the ball in the hurricane tank still.

They had a great toddler/preschool area, and guess who had just learned to walk ... and who thinks puzzles are the neatest thing ever. The other girls were off doing other things, so she was able to explore and ponder without big sisters interfering.  

The other place we stayed for a long time - the "apple tree." When your basket is full of red balls, you dump them in this big box like so. Then they go up a corkscrew thing in the squared tower, then roll back down through the tubes to the holes in the "apple tree" and you "pick" them (below). Posy, Birdie, and Magnolia went around and around and around. Over and over and over. 

Fortunately for me, the apple tree was directly across from the toddler area, so I could watch Azalea in one location and the other girls in the other all from one chair. It was great!

And we paid a visit to the dinosaur dig. All my girls hard at work!

WASHINGTON DC:

 Tunnels and other stuff to climb in and around, and then a little slide. Perfect!

In the classroom area, they learned about lungs, then made some from paper and a straw so they could see how lungs inflate. Tricky little craft!

More puzzles for Azalea!

Sunny found a classroom with lots of displays about teeth. The blue tub in front of her was full of sand and shark teeth - she sifted through the entire box (for 45 minutes, until the museum closed) pulling out lots of different teeth and identifying them with a chart on the wall.