A Fun Family Night

Because of work schedules, it is not often that I get a night with the family. I swapped nights with a coworker because I had hoped to go to a daddy daughter dance with Ella. Tickets went fast and I was put on a wait list for that, and it never panned out. However, the program that is helping Andrew with his speech had a family night scheduled at one of the local museums, and we went there instead.

I hadn’t been to the Sloan in some time because Dante’ and Dimitri are older now. A couple years ago they had something on the ballot about funds for the Cultural Center area. I voted for it and it passed. So they put a bunch of funds into it and the newly opened Sloan Museum of Discovery was part of the results.

Thursday evening was our first visit there and the renovations are just amazing. They brought over some of the stuff from the old museum, but also added SO much more! Only parts of the building were open that night, so I hope to be able to go back and check out everything we missed.

There is an entire area of water play that the kids just loved!!

The water room was long with a TON of things to do. In the above picture, the water in front of the kids has smoke under it. When you turn the orange thing in front of that, the water turns off and the smoke rises. It’s actually very cool.

In the middle of the water is a little “Michigan” with trees and clouds to make rain. It is the little details that I was really impressed with.

Another new addition to the museum is a HUGE tree house. Both kids played in it, but Ella loved climbing up to the top!

One of the things that came over from the old museum was an ambulance. This one may have been a newer model than the old place. Andrew spent a lot of time in it!

All of the switches do something. Some turn on the siren, some turn on the flashers, some turn on the dome lights, etc. Andrew was just happy to be at the wheel!

Another things that came over from the old museum was a “car” that you can work on. Ella wasted no time tackling the battery on it!

They had crafts set up for the kids to do when we arrived. One of them was “marble painting.” You took a piece of construction paper and put it in a tray. Then you put drops of paint on the paper. Then you rolled a marble all over the place and the marbles “painted” the paper. They really came out neat.

They had a place to make friendship bracelets, but Ella saw the water room and that was where she wanted to be! At one point they gathered the families who were there into an area in front of the tree house for story time. They read a book and each kid got to take a copy home. Ella was angry that she had to stop playing for the story. All she wanted to do was run around and play. When we tried to get her to sit for story time – she dropped on the floor and it was obvious she was not happy!

I shouldn’t laugh, but this is my favorite photo from the night!

Her and I ended up walking away from the story and she played in the “store” at the museum. They have food items you can shop for and a cash register where you can scan items and pay for them. They also have a “post office” there where you can address envelopes or boxes. She kept very busy.

Andrew stayed for story time and they had some music to dance to afterward. It truly was a wonderful night out with the family. There is a planetarium nearby and I would like to take them there when Andrew is a little older. We are lucky to have such a cool place nearby!