A Grands' Trip to the Children's Museum of Houston

A Grands' Trip to the Children's Museum of Houston

(with cousins on holiday from their home in Switzerland)



Daniel and HeyYea wait for tickets and cousins.

Here come Mia, Dodo, and Zoe!
Nana parks the car.

Zoe, Daniel, Mia
6, 2, 4

Let's pose in front of the purple one!

Uncle Steve starts the teasing.



One
 



Two
 



Three
 

Zoe talks to a member of the Justice League
while all of us are assaulted /enveloped
by the colors, sounds, and motions.

A game explained--roll the dice and fill your fingers
with spider rings.  First one to 10 wins.

D's turn.  Put down your cars . . .
 

Four spiders and a race car



Zoe has six now.

The girls spin golf balls into a vortex.
D collects as many as he can hold.

Round and round and round

 

Nana tries to help with Zoe's hoist.

Dodo and Mia are a good team.



See the Giant Phone Man
in the background?

Daniel gets a boost to study
the Giant Phone Man up close.
Entire body is covered with all kinds of old phones.
Hair?  Phone cords, of course!

 

HeyYea shows D how circuits work.
Awesome!

Lights flash and propellers spin when
positive red and negative black get plugged in.
They stop when disconnected.
I've got the power!!

Exploring how a guitar makes sounds
with a moveable fret and a pick on a crank.

Lots of boys building



How about a conveyer belt and shape sorter?

So many moving parts

Testing weight, mass, and density,
D pumps some steel.

A thoughtful look at fluorescence

Spin the discs and watch
centrifugal force at work.

Who knew science was so much fun?!

Make steel shavings climb up
inside the jar with a big magnet.

Texans Nana and Dodo enjoy their Swiss grandgirls
over a hand-pumped rocket launch.

BTW--so many activities didn't make the photo stream . . .

I was too busy helping a dad build castles with heavy foam blocks so our guys could launch balls from a catapult to knock them down.  And you know it takes four hands for a two year-old to cut paper.  D kept saying, "I'm playing with scissors!"  He's been taught well and remembers too; but I encouraged him that it was ok when a big person helped.

At one point, I confirmed the source of that oh-so-familiar, um, odor; I gave D a 2-minute warning to say goodbye to the circuit boards so we could break for the change that refreshes.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw a young mom with babe in arms next to me.  She was holding him across her arm to check the back of his diaper.  I turned to reassure her.  "It's not you--it's us!"  She and I chuckled.  Ah, the things that strangers find to connect over . . ..

Objects were launched, bikes pedaled, atoms built, train gears manipulated, pinwheels constructed, boats floated.  We were all worn down from the assault of wonder.  HeyYea had waved the white flag about 45 minutes in.  D and I found him 'saving us a table' in the hall just outside the labyrinth of exhibits.  People-watching and iPhone Solitaire had kept him patiently and comfortably occupied.

Though the girls wanted to stay and finish constructing a cardstock cube, I told them that Nana had forgotten to eat breakfast (the truth--it happens a lot when herding cats) and was really, really hungry.  Immediately Zoe put down her scissors and was ready to go without a peep.  She and Mia love their Nana!

Team Bingham and Team Beatty parted company at the Pay Station in the Children's Museum garage.  We had a DEFCON 1 Hyundai backseat meltdown over the. missing. red. racecar.  [It was apparently one of the seven D could not possibly hold at the same time].  This was exacerbated by the torture of being safely strapped into a comfortable car seat in a shaded, air-conditioned vehicle.

In all fairness, everyone has an expiration date.  It didn't negate a bit of the wonder-filled morning we spent with family.

Our Friday afternoon agenda:  home and lunch and quiet naps complete with visions of spiders, golf balls, flashing lights, red positive/black negative, spinning propellers, launching objects, guitars, blocks, boats, trains--all floating down from the curly head of the Giant Phone Man.  Awesome!!