The Atlanta Children's Museum

We spent yesterday, outlet shopping at the North Georgia Premium Outlets. The question of the day, came yesterday when the boys and I were walking back to the car after finishing all of our shopping.

Michael very sincerely asked,

"Mommy, can I have the keys so I can drive back to the hotel?"

My Uncle Stephen, who lives here in Atlanta, suggested that the boys might enjoy the Imagine It! Children's Museum of Atlanta. Boy did they ever! We were one of the first to arrive when they opened at 10am and one of the last to leave when they closed at 4pm. The boys ran, played, explored, jumped, climbed, and then did it all over again!

Lil J standing in the middle of a huge train table

An underground exhibit...moles!

Planting a garden!


What boy doesn't love a John Deere?!

Michael loading the produce truck with his harvest.

Driving the produce truck to town.

This was one of the boys' favorite activities...painting the walls. I just kept telling them, "Don't try this at home!"

Giant Tinkertoys!

Fishing in a huge table height pond.

The museum had a traveling exhibit on display called, "Exploring Trees Inside and Out". It was very educational and a lot of fun.

As part of the exhibit, lil J dressed up in a bird costume and got to watch himself "fly" through the trees on a television screen as he flapped his arms.

Michael built a bird house.

Then we moved to the sandbox tables. I was imagining that this would be very messy, but as I watched them play, I was amazed at how the sand held together. Not being able to resist joining in the fun, I began making my own creations. When I brushed the sand off my hands I was amazed at how clean they were. What was this stuff? I asked another mom and she said that it was "moon sand" and is available at Target or Wal-Mart. She looked at me like, "you don't know what this stuff is? where did you come from?" So, I told her we were from Indiana and that seemed to explain everything.

Lil J with his creation on the display shelf.

Michael's work in progress

In the pretend house, lil J went right to work cooking us all some "lunch".

Michael loved the banana slide.

The boys loved helping the museum worker restock the shelves at the market.

Lil J playing some type of instrument. By pressing the large buttons, air was forced through the PVC pipes. (I think he just loved showing me how strong he was)

Michael on the play theater stage wrapped up in some type of a costume. I think he was pretending to be a caterpillar in a cocoon.

Both boys loved twirling in front of the huge mirror on the play stage.

It was a wonderful day...but the all time highlight of the day was playing with the ball machines which used pulleys, conveyors and vacuums to carry the balls overhead and drop them in chutes which then transported the balls to a collection bin. Upon pulling the rope to the collection bin, the bin would open and pour all of the balls into the scoop on the crane. Lil J would then steer the crane over to the floor storage bin, pull the crane rope and the crane bucket would send all of the balls pouring down into the floor storage bin. This is no exaggeration, the boys spent at least 90 minutes playing with this. Lil J was the crane operator and he would keep alerting Michael when he needed the overhead bin emptied into his crane. Meanwhile, Michael and I ran around collecting balls and loading them into the pulleys, conveyors and vacuums to keep lil J supplied with balls. The boys were having so much fun, that the little children around them (and their parents) were all joining in the excitement. We were all like a great big team. There were two seats on the crane, so Lil J whenever another child sat on the crane next to him, he would let them operate the crane and verbally teach them how to operate it. What fun to watch him taking turns and teaching! Unfortunately my pictures and description could never do the exhibit justice.

As we were leaving, the boys hugged this pony in the gift shop.