Boston Children's Museum, Boston

I decided to be brave and courageous yesterday and bring the crew to the Boston Children's Museum.  While it's a great museum, and there's lots of fun to be had, this is absolutely not a place that I will be returning too anytime soon, (unless, of course I have extra reinforcements that are totally dedicated to me and my kids!!)

 As you can tell, I certainly don't shy away from exploring the area parks, playgrounds and attractions.  I try to keep calm and not get stressed out because children can feel that stress.  Me getting stressed out makes them worse, and ultimately gets me more stressed out.  So, I generally try to maintain my laid-back attitude when bringing the clan out and about.   It took us a little while to find parking, and get our bearings in the area.  But we found parking ($19.00).  I think it was the closest to the museum.  It was a little tiny lot where the attendant had to park the car for us.  It took awhile to unload.  I decided to bring the double stroller, Baby Bjorn, and the sling carrier.  We also had packed a picnic lunch to enjoy on the waterfront.  

Once we got into the museum, I sensed that I might be in over my head.  It is the end of the school year, and apparently 11am prime time for elementary school field trips.  Can we say chaos?  As soon as we got in, Patrick flew into the climbing structure.  Cecilia made her attempt, but fortunately she didn't have the height to get up too high.  For this age group, and with three kids, my biggest complaint is that I can't see them in this structure.  At one point, Patrick had climbed down, and I saw him come out.  I didn't catch him quickly jump back in because I had grabbed one of the other two.  We thought he took off through the museum.  After what seemed like 15 minutes, and was probably one 2 or 3, our friend noticed him in his neon orange shirt at the top of the structure.  Be aware, this is not something that an adult would want to climb up into, and thank god I didn't have to because I'm not sure what I would have done with the other kids! 

I really wish I could do a better job describing the layout to you all, but honestly it was so tough to keep on top of them (even with help) that I couldn't tell you where anything was!  So here, check out the map! 

We did explore most of the museum, though not all.  We tried the third floor, and then headed outside for lunch.  There's an Au Bon Pain in the 'milk bottle' which would be great on warmer summer days.  It was a great place for lunch even though they were closed.  We then headed back in to check out the other floors.  The kids LOVED the bubble exhibit on the first floor, as well as the water tables on the second floor.  There's a great construction room that Patrick loved when  we went about two years ago.  This time, Patrick was so overwhelmed with how much there was to see that he couldn't pay too much attention here and just wanted to keep moving onto 'bigger and better things'.  At the very end of our visit we learned there was a 0-3 center that was GATED.  I wish I was able to pay better attention to the map when we first got there.  Perhaps we could have prevented "Lost Patrick Round two"!

So the nitty-gritty:

Boston Children's Museum
Congress ST, Boston.
Parking: ample parking at various lots around the museum.  Almost all parking is at a cost.

Hours
Open every day 10am - 5pm
Fridays 10am - 9pm

Costs:  Adults: $12.00
Seniors(65+): $12.00
Children (1-15): $12.00
(0-12 Months): Free!
Members: Free!
United States Armed Forces Active Duty Personnel OR one of their dependents will receive complimentary admission to Boston Children's Museum with appropriate ID.


And Check this out: $1.00 Friday nights from 5-9.  This is sponsored by Target!


There are also library passes that offer a discounted rate.  If you are a member of a children's museum, and have a Reciprocal pass, admission is free. 

Bailek Park, Ipswich

What a great park we went to today!  It's called Bailek Park, and it's on Linebrook Rd, in Ipswich, MA.  We'd never been and decided to go check it out.  It's fun trying out different parks!  Anyways, this has a 'new' section that was built in late 2009, with an older wooden 2-5 structure.  It's a really cool park.  I really can't do much in terms of describing it, but I did remember to take some pictures for everyone.  The kids had a really good time.  Positives: lots of fun structures to play on.  Mostly fenced off from the road.  Parking: today seemed to be plenty of parking, but since this park is with several ball fields, I think it might be a bit more difficult on busy days!   Negatives:  No shade!  We all left with some color, and the baby unfortunately got a bit of a sunburn since she's photo-sensitive due to meds.  There were also a few broken things, the large swing (see pictures below) and one of the play structure had a sign saying not to use until it's replaced.  It did look like a new sign, so hopefully it's fixed soon.

Totplex, Canton MA

I packed up the kids, and headed down to the Canton Totplex to meet a friend and have all the kids play together.  I heard about it from another mom's posts on Facebook.  She really enjoyed it, so we figured this was a good halfway point between our two towns.  The Totplex is actually part of the larger Sportsplex.  They have several programs, but we were there for the indoor playspace.  It was not too far from the highway, but at the end of an industrial park.  We had a very hard time finding it, since I couldn't find any signs saying either totplex or sportsplex.  After driving around and around, I decided this must be the place due to the number of minivans in the parking lot!  We headed in.  Basically, this is a giant complex with ice rinks, indoor fields, locker rooms, etc.  The totplex part of it is actually just a large indoor soccer field (maybe lacrosse) with a bunch of toys.  There were a few inflatables, some infant exersaucers, cars, playhouses, and the kiddie coasters.  It was very wide open with lots of room to run.  I had purposefully dressed Patrick in a neon green shirt for easy watching!  This proved to be useful as he literally ran from one end to the other for the entire time we were there. 

This was a great place for multiple kids, since I could keep an eye on them.  Although, it is a huge place and you could end up with one kid at one end, and one at the other!  What I liked most about this place, was that at the entrance to the playspace, there are staff members who don't let the kids leave!  Everyone has numbered tickets/wristbands that match.  (for example, we were all number 14)  This also proved useful when Cecilia had enough playing and wanted to go home.  Great safety feature that I wish other places implemented.  There were a few downsides, the biggest being the condition of the turf.  It appears to be deteriorating, and little bits of the floor were coming through the turf.  With Riley being such an active crawler/roller, she ended up covered in little black bits.  I thought they had great inflatables, but found that most of the toys were things we had in our yard or friends yards.  Still, this is great for those long winter days.  We won't be there in the summer, that's for sure!

Canton Totplex
 5 Carver Circle •
Canton, MA 02021 •
Telephone: 781 821-0304 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              781 821-0304      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Hours: Monday - Friday 9-2 pm
September 13, 2010 - June 13, 2011
closed on all school holidays and vacations.
Cost:  $8.00 per child.  (Discounted rate for more children)

Discovery Museums, Acton MA

I've been a bit lax in updating this blog the last few weeks, not because we haven't been going anywhere, but more because we've been going everywhere!  We had a whole 10 days straight of heading out an about.  Some of the places I've already written about, like the two zoos, and Ackerman/Boy Scout Park.  And of course we've been off visiting friends.  We did check out some great new places! 


One of those was the Acton Discovery Museums.  Wow!  Can I just say, this was probably the best place I've taken these kids!  It was a little bit of a drive, about 45 minutes from Wenham, but it was so worth it!  Can you imagine, we spent three hours at this very small museum, and didn't even come close to seeing half of it?   There are two small buildings, and actually, we didn't even see all of the smaller building.  There were upset children when it was time to go, and sleeping children the entire ride home. :)

So we met up with two friends and their (combined) 4 children.  Driving down the road, I literally drove right past it. I was looking for a 'building', not a 'house'.  Thank goodness for the giant dinosaur in the lawn!  We turned around and found the parking lot.  It's not a huge parking lot, but I think it gets the job done.  We didn't have a hard time finding spaces.  I was surprised to notice a sign that said "30 Minute Wait".  A museum with a wait?  So we got our tickets.  (Free if you have the Children's Museum Reciprocal pass or a library pass, and can be discounted if you have the Entertainment Book)  We headed back outside to explore.  There's a lot to do in the parking lot.  We hovered around the tree house and ship area, and also the painted 'road' they could drive tricycles on.  I noticed there were other things around the parking lot, but the kids weren't interested in heading there.  They also have a 'classroom' that has some toys in it, and a bathroom! 

The wait ended up being much less than 30 minutes, and when we got in, I could see why there was a wait.  It's a small victorian style house that's been converted into this amazing playspace/museum.  No strollers allowed in the museum, and I'm not sure it's fully handicap accessible. 

The first room was the train room, complete with a large train the kids could go on, a train table, and a ticket counter.  Nothing high tech, and for me not all that exciting.  The kids on the other hand had to be dragged out and into the next room, the ball room.  Now I thought this room was great!  There was a 'loft'-type structure for the kids to climb, some stage type areas, and a fireplace converted into a cozy reading nook.  The entire room was outfitted with different 'tracks' for the balls.  There were large lacrosse balls that you had to climb into the loft to put in the tracks.  The tracks went around the room and hit different obstacles like keys, or dominoes.  This was great for Patrick, and Cecilia loved the lower level tracks for golf balls scattered throughout.  Room 2 was were we lost one set of friends......they stayed here almost an hour!  The next room is the water room.  Pretty simple.  Giant water table, and this giant bubble set up where the kids can stand in a bubble.  They do have 'water aprons' but I would definitely recommend a change or two of clothes per kid!  

Then come the stairway, also full of fun for the little ones.  There's a giant lighthouse they can climb in with a periscope and switches to turn on the light.  Under the stairs is a seat and a TV that showcases an ocean scene.  (No, not a Sponge Bob ocean scene! )  We headed upstairs, there's a bunch of rooms up there, and I know that with the three of them, I didn't really get to explore all the rooms, because it was hard to keep track of them all!  I do wish there was a gate at the top of the stairs.  The first room we went in was exploring colors with a huge wooden puzzle along the wall, and some neat color mixing containers and wheels.  There's also a big wooden bridge that has light-up steps.  The next room was a restaurant set up. This pretty much speaks for itself, but just picture a play kitchen on steroids!  Complete with restaurant booths for us parents to sit and enjoy their creations.  Here is also an unimpressive infant corner.  There weren't too many toys in it, but I appreciated a chance to put Riley down so I could keep a better eye on the bigger two.  Then we worked over to an eclectic area.  There was a puppet theater, dollhouse, and they could climb up into an adventure fort. 

The two other rooms on this level were the safari room, which also had climbing structures and a sensory room.    I didn't get to spend much time in there since I could be in the hallways and keep an eye on them. Oh, and very important to note: Bathroom is located on this floor too, with a changing table!

There is a third floor, but we didn't make it up there.  At this point, we'd already been inside about 2.5 hours!  We slowly headed back outside and went to the 'front yard'.  We grabbed some lunch at the picnic tables and the kids played in the sandbox and on the dinosaur. 

I can not wait to go back!  Not only did we miss the third floor of the smaller building, there's the entire 'science museum' that didn't open until 1 that we missed.  Some of our friends had been here before and the kids really wanted to go there as well.  But rush hours was fast approaching.  We will be going back and planning a full day, so look for the Part 2 post. 

Discovery Museums,
177 Main Street (Route 27)
Acton, Massachusetts 01720
Phone: 978.264.4200 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              978.264.4200      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
fun@discoverymuseums.org

Parking: Ample
Bathrooms:  Classroom building by the Children's Discovery Musuem, and on the second floor of the Childrens' Discovery Museum.  (I don't yet know where in the Science Building)

	Children's Discovery Museum (The smaller front house) Tues-Sun 9-4:30
	Science Discovery Museum Tues-Fri 1-430, Sat-Sun 10-4:30