The start of summer is always an exciting time for kids. School’s out! It’s a wonderful feeling of freedom. But for parents, the heat is on to find fun, affordable, educational outings for their kids. Like all parents, I feel the heat, and am always looking to avoid the “Mom…I’m Bored” blues.
So… this year, my friend Amy and I planned ahead. On the first Tuesday of summer break, we decided to take our four kids to The Magic House. My kids (daughter age 7, son age 5) hadn’t been in a while. When I told them of our plans, they all responded in unison with wholehearted, “AWESOME!” — so I knew we were onto something good! Amy texted to tell me her kids were excited too. And by the looks of all the smile emojis, I knew she was excited too! 😊😊😊😊😊
As part of our plan, we decided we wanted to get to there when it opened because we figured with it being summer, it would be busy. I’d say that was a very smart move on our part. Our plan was to visit our favorite parts of the museum first, and then get to all of the new stuff. (And there’s always new stuff at The Magic House).
Once inside, Amy and I quickly put our game plan to action.
We started by fishing in the pond. The kids loved “catching” fish and then watching them swim downstream back to the pond. Back and forth. Back and forth. We must have caught 30 fish that day! And best of all, no worms needed!
That’s a lotsa mozza! The Farm Fresh Pizza Parlor is always one of our favorites! The kids made a few “pizzas” and served them up to us. For once, it was nice not having to be the one making lunch.
After stuffing ourselves with all of that pizza, we headed to The Magic House Hospital where there were some adorable little babies, ready to be held and loved! After bottle time, the kids made personalized birth certificates for each little bundle of joy! My son gave the babies individual checkups to make sure they were happy and healthy. Can you say future doctor, anyone?
We worked our way through to the Wonder Works where the kids were able to color in pieces of paper filled with fish, sharks, and jellyfish. Then they scanned them into a display projector where their underwater art came to life and swam around the room!
As all parents know, there is absolutely nothing more fun to a child than playing in water. The kids got lost in the motion of the ocean as our journey took us to the water room. Creating and then splashing in little fountains, seeing how much water each container could hold, running the boats down the water current. I had to intervene after almost an hour as we had so much more museum to cover!
Once again on the move, we spent a lot of time crawling up and down the Jack and the Beanstalk. So much more fun than stairs!
The Kids Construction Zone was the hit for the boys! They put on all the costumes and went to work moving rock, driving the bulldozer, and measuring different areas. It was awesome seeing the boys put a lot of hard work and effort into what they were building!
This was the main attraction for us on this trip to The Magic House. It was their newest exhibit based on the TV show Clifford The Big Red Dog.
There was a lot to see and do within the exhibit and the kids bounced from one activity to the next. They drew pictures of Clifford, slide down the tail of the colossal nine-foot Clifford statue just like Emily Elizabeth, and even got to try on a red dog suit so they could look like him (much smaller, of course)!
Of course, you can’t go to The Magic House without visiting the Van de Graaf generator (or “static ball” as my kids call it)! My daughter begged me to take her hair down so she could see her hair stand up. I even got in on the action. Hair raising and awesome all at the same time.
The kids then took turns going down the three story super slide… and that’s where our Magic House journey ended! (You might even say we saved the best for last!)
On the car ride home, my daughter told me, “My favorite part was the secret slide and the super slide because you got to climb through the air vent to get to the secret slide and the super slide was so long!”
My son told me, “My favorite part was the ‘dig dig place’ (Kid’s Construction Zone) because of the tape measure and everything!” So, I guess it’s fair to say he thought it totally rocked!
My favorite part about The Magic House was that all kids had SO much fun and it was a great way to kick off summer. This was by far the best time we have had at The Magic House and the kids all interacted with each other throughout the areas. Seeing them have a great time made the experience even better!
