Strong National Museum of Play

On Tuesday morning, we all drove over to the Strong Museum.  This is another tradition; we always visit the Strong Museum.  It is one of the coolest children's museums I have ever been to.

Remember I said this museum is a tradition?  Well, here is a picture of Tyler and Auntie Karen in that same Big Bird nest about eleven years ago!

They both look so young!  I'm glad I found this picture - too cute.

The coolest part of the Strong Museum is the mini Wegmans grocery store.  Reagan could not wait to get in there.  It wasn't the first part of the museum we explored, and that was a mistake because she kept asking when we were going there!  All of the grocery items are in real packaging and the cash registers print real receipts listing the actual items rung up by the child because the upc codes actually scan correctly!!!

The conveyor belts work too!  The whole process is so real.  I wish I enjoyed grocery shopping as much as my children do!

 There are many other fun and exciting parts of the museum to explore.

 Collin played Fur Elise from memory for Auntie Karen; that is his favorite music to play.

 Kate may not like real sand, but she played in this fake sand (tiny plastic beads) for quite a while.  It was in the arcade, and she played in it the entire time Collin and Reagan played video games.  Reagan liked the "sand" too.

The museum also has a butterfly exhibit that is very nice.  It was a bit stressful with Kate though!  She kept pulling at flowers and leaves, and trying to grab the butterflies.  She also wanted to get in the water with the turtles.

We spent five hours in the museum and I don't think we saw half of what they have there.  I also think that is the longest amount of time Kate has ever spent anywhere out in public!  All of the kids were great there, and they had a lot of fun!  The adults had a good time too; it's a fun place!

Upstate NY - day two

C and R first visited the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY last summer.  It made quite the impression on them because they both talked about it all year and that was the one thing I knew we had to do during this visit.  They love the whole museum, but their favorite part is the grocery store.  It is pretty amazing.  Our local children's museum has a grocery store, but it is nothing like the one at the Strong Museum.  Wegmans is the very popular grocery store chain in that area, and this exhibit was produced by Strong National Museum of Play in collaboration Wegmans Food Markets and is made possible by Wegmans and their vendor  partners.

The mini Wegmans is fantastic.  Upon entering, each child takes a shopping cart and shops the different areas of the store. 

Each aisle is set up just like a grocery store with real product boxes (the products have been removed from the boxes and each box is wrapped in shrink wrap). 

There is a meat department (can you see those pretend hamburgers in the shrink wrap in the above photo?), seafood counter, freezer section, produce section, and bakery too.  At the front of the store, there is a microphone that can be used to make announcements. 

My favorite part is that you can really check out your groceries on a moving belt with a scanner that actually scans the correct item and you can print your cash register receipt that details exactly what you purchased. 

Why don't we have Wegmans in Massachusetts?  Sigh. 

There are many other cool things to see and do in the museum.  Some of our favorites are:

The Strong Express train,

The Carousel, and 

the theater complete with stage, curtain, and fun costumes. 

I cannot end this post without a quick story about the dress R is wearing in the above photo.  She found the dress and put it on after commenting about how beautiful it was.  She then went behind the curtain of the theater and an older girl asked her for the dress.  Well, R gave it to her and came out close to tears.  We decided to leave the area and come back in a while so she could wear the dress again, but every time we came back, someone was wearing the dress.  I knew we could not leave the museum without R wearing the dress for just another minute, so when we were ready to leave, I asked the girl wearing the dress if R could have a turn (I should note that this girl had been wearing the dress for a long time).  She said yes, but then ran off.  C and R followed her for a minute, but she disappeared.  Finally, my sister saw that the girl was about to leave with her group and asked her for the dress.  Phew!  R was thrilled to put the dress on and pose for a quick photo.  We were able to leave the museum on a happy note! 

See you next year Strong Museum!