Children’s Museum of Denver 2016

Gosh, sometimes I feel like we took for granted all of the things we had to do when we were living in Denver. We are still only 40 minutes away but it’s not a hop, skip or jump there like it used to be. Now we carefully plan and make a day trip of it but we did that a few weeks ago and I’m so glad we did. We hadn’t been the Children’s Museum of Denver since 2014 so we made a family day out of going a couple of weeks ago and it may be A’s favorite place now. It had changed so much from the last time we had been there. They had the vet exhibit still which was fun. We do lots of check ups at our house because of A’s imagination and love of playing & animals, so it was fun to play in a different environment. We also had a great time in the Firefighter exhibit which we didn’t explore last time because she wasn’t very interested but she did enjoy it this time quite a bit. Climbing in the truck, carrying around the big Dalmatian. Naturally, A was drawn to the Kinetics! exhibit filled with pipes and balls. It was a hit when we went last time too.  I loved seeing how much she thrived inside of the exhibits compared to our last visit being that she was older now. 

We had a bit of time to spare before our scheduled cooking class, so we checked out the camping exhibit which had a tent and play fire. We sat back and watched A interact with the other children. We are so hands on with her that sometimes we remind ourselves to step back and just see how she is interacting with others. She constantly surprises us with her gentle, giving nature with other children. She was kind to the girl that was really possessive and unkind, she was constantly working with the other kids exercising great team work by picking up the wood pieces and handing them to someone else to stack on the fire. Proud mama moments. 

I was excited to see that they had cooking class for kids now which is completely new from the last time we were at the museum, so we tried to make the first class – specially for toddlers – but it was full, so we signed up for the next. The kitchen was beautiful and the sweet gal running it let me step in to watch, which I really appreciated. I get to do so much in the kitchen with A at home I wanted to make sure Ryan was hands on for this class. So, B and I lingered around watching and then he eventually fell asleep in the wrap. We weren’t quite sure what to expect from the class or how long it would run. We assumed an hour but really it was about 20 minutes. The class was really basic allowing the kids to talk about the ingredients used in the soup recipe, the opportunity to measure spices, scoop out the cooked sweet potato and to zest an orange. Then at the end, they got to try some of the soup made from the ingredients the last class prepped. Funniest comment of the situation came from A when we got the soup and we said “here’s the soup! You just made this!” and A goes “I did not make that.” There was no fooling her. So we explained that the last class made it and it was a bit different than cooking at home where we get to do it all from start to finish. 

After cooking class we took a break for lunch and went down back upstairs to the art studio. The art studio was all new and in a different area this time complete with the option to play with clay and she got to paint again. She enjoyed playing with the clay and you have the option to let them fire it and come back in two weeks but we opted out this round since we aren’t right down the street and she had more fun playing with the clay than making something she would later want as a fun keepsake. So, we played and then let them recycle it. My little creative spirit had so much fun and took some convincing that we needed to check out some other exhibits. 

 Next up was the Center for Young Children exhibit. We had a lot of fun in that exhibit last year and knew it was going to be a great place for B to get out of the wrap, stretch and scootch around for a bit. B had a lot of fun in the baby area and Ryan and I took turns taking A to the exhibit for kids up to 3. Last time we were there they had a mini house set up, mini garden, etc. which A really, really loved but they switched out that exhibit for a dental exhibit. We were probably more bummed than she was knowing how much fun she had in it last time but she had a lot of fun pretending in the play dental office in the exhibit. I also tried to replicate the photo of A from this post, which kind-of-sort-of was a victory – heh.

After that exhibit, we headed to the new Box Canyon exhibit which had a kayak, a small climbing area that looked like boxes as we went through to the brand new Water Exhibit. The water exhibit was really neat. It was full of so many fun activities like geysers, water jets, rivers and more. A had so much fun in the exhibit and we let B splash around in the water a bit too. So much fun for both of them, although we’ll be bringing an extra set of clothes for both kids next time before we hit that exhibit again. 

We finished out our trip with the Energy Exhibit that was way cool and a great new addition from the last trip, the Bubble Exhibit, the Big Backyard exhibit and the Marketplace Exhibit. We didn’t get photos from those exhibits, or at least not many, but the Bubble, Big Backyard and Marketplace exhibits were hits again with A just like the last visit. We spent the least amount of time with the Energy exhibit but that was mostly because we were on our way to the bathrooms to get the kids dried up a bit from the water fun and didn’t make it back before heading back home after a long day of fun.    We had so much fun at the museum and the next day A was asking to go back. It was such great fun seeing the level of fun she had this time compared to the last time. The experience made me wish we were closer to go all the time because it’s always that much fun. It’s always filled with so much learning and imagination! I was really impressed with how many new exhibits they had this year compared to the last time. We missed out completely on the new outdoor exhibit Joy Park, because of the snow but I’m sure we will be going back again this Spring or Summer for another visit!

Tell me: Do you have a fun place for kids around where you live like the Children’s Museum? If you’re in Denver, have you been to our Children’s Museum of Denver?