A Trip to the Museum!

Every year, we try to keep a membership to some cultural destination in our area. A few times it's been the zoo... One year was Frederik Meijer Gardens, another year was Michigan's Adventure (OK, maybe not "cultural", but it was FUN!). This year, it's the Grand Rapids Public Museum. We went there a while back to see a dinosaur exhibit (and if I were handier with this blogging thing, I'd even link you to that post ... but I'm not so handy). The kids and I went back this Tuesday morning, and had a very lovely, quiet, hassle-free visit. The place was very nearly deserted - just the way I like my museums! There were craft activities for kids, and carousel rides were free. Life is good!

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Free Carousel rides! Don't the kids look excited about it? Lily and Gregory rode jeweled horses, while Henry selected a very fine-looking tiger.

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The museum has a "71 Days of Fun" thing going this summer, with a different kid-friendly activity every single day all summer. The day we went there was a variety of paper crafts. The activities ranged from plain old coloring, to making wearable cut-out butterflies and dragonflies, to clever machines that would trace a design from one place to another place...

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... and Gregory's personal favorite, the PAPER

HELICOPTER! He cut and folded on lines that were printed on a slip of paper, weighted the bottom with a paperclip, and voila! A fully functional paper helicopter! He was so cute frolicking around the nearly-deserted hall there, flying and flying that helicopter.

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Henry did a little coloring, a little chalkboard drawing (those deliberate circles and rainbow arcs were done by Mommy, at Henry's request, but he is surprisingly deft at making little circles by himself). He did a very little bit of coloring, then wandered down the hall to check out this streetcar. We really had a fun trip to the museum, complete with lunch in the museum cafe, and a lengthy spin through an exhibit we've not seen before - the historical Grand Rapids furniture exhibit. It was a great way to spend a morning of summer vacation!