NY Trip - Let's Play!

During our stay we took a trip to Rochester to visit the National Museum of Play. My sister had told me about this place and I'd seen many pictures but really, all the details and pictures I'd heard and seen could not do it justice! Just imagine the words National, museum and play in one sentence and what kind of place that would be! It was like Discovery Gateway on major steroids. Let's just say we were there 5 hours and saw maybe 2/3 of it. It was crazy! Best things about this place: 1. They had "guest rest" areas throughout the exhibits where you could sit and nurse a baby or let kids unwind for a minute. The whole place was very overwhelming (and can we say sensory overload!?) and so it was nice to have a place to go unwind. 2. It is also a library. Pretty awesome. They had random bookcases throughout the whole museum where (if you were a resident of Rochester) you could check out books and then return them there or to any library in the city. I thought that was pretty cool. It really was a spectacular place. You can read more about it here or here.

This picture is out of place but this is looking up onto the 2nd floor. Our first stop was Sesame Street.

The kids had a blast here and I know mine could have spent the entire day here.

We had a fun time in Elmo's World talking to Mr. Noodle

And playing with Dorthy. If you put in the puzzle pieces around the big fake Dorthy, the fish tank on the left lit up and you could see the real Dorthy inside. It was pretty great.

Here's James and Lilly in the Taxi with Elmo and Cookie Monster. What a fun ride! Here we are serving up some hot dogs and ice cream. Mabel thought the mayonnaise was a giant bottle.

After Sesame Street we went shopping at Wegmans. Ok, all you east coast folks who are lucky enough to have one of these grocery stores (a real one) near you. I am so jealous! Here's Lilly filling her cart.

And scanning her items. The cute cash registers even printed out a real receipt!

Here's Sophia getting ready to check out.

Behind Wegmans they had this cute little TV studio set up where you could teach a cooking class or forecast the weather.

Here's the cooking Divas up on the screen

and Mabel predicting the weather.

They also had these awesome craft areas where kids could stop and make something. If anyone knows Sophia at all, you can guess how excited she was about this! It was so hard not to stop at every one.

Here's James in Peter Rabbit's garden. And all the kids taking a ride on the train.

They also have temporary interactive exhibits placed randomly throughout the museum. My sister said they change all the time. The day we were there they had this fun maypole. The girls had a fun time taking a turn around it.

We then took a trip into the storybook exhibit. This was a cute display of things from fairy tails. There's the Three Bear's bowls, Rapunzel's hair, the glass slipper, the princess' pea, the apple from snow white, the Seven Dwarf's spoons, and I'm not sure what else. Pretty cute idea though.

Lilly spent some time playing in the giant's (from Jack and the Bean Stalk) playroom. She played a fun game of Connect 4 and played his harp. This harp had no strings but still played music. It was pretty cool.

In that same exhibit they had a place set up where you could make a crown and then take a picture on the throne. All the girls had a blast doing that. Here's sweet princess Kate.

And her majesty cute Karen.

Although she has no crown, Mabel still makes one cute princess!

After that we went down the superhero hall. While we were there I took a minute to climb up a building. At the end of that hall we went into the Butterfly World. Sophia said this was her favorite part of the whole museum. It was this beautiful garden full of butterflies. We got to spend 15 minutes in there enjoying the butterflies and flowers. Mabel had a butterfly land on her hat twice but I missed getting a picture both times!

It was huge and so beautiful! Lauren, I thought of you the whole time. I wish you were there to tell me what every flower was!

Here's all the cocoons waiting to hatch? Is that the right word?

Our last stop downstairs was to Berenstain Bear Country. They had so many cute displays here including a quilt shop and farm.

Upstairs there was a big exhibit on arcade/video games.

They also had the toy hall of fame. It was pretty incredible. It was just cases and cases of every type of toy. Including Barbie. The barbie section was huge! This case was all the different bride Barbies. This was one of the cases of dollhouses.

and Beanie Babies

and yo yos. They also had tons of cases of old porcelain dolls. This particular doll happened to belong to the woman the museum is named after (Margaret Strong). Her name was Mabel so I had to get a picture. The only creepy thing is that her hair is Margaret's hair. Kind of creepy but still a beautiful doll.

We topped off a long day of playing (we did take a break for lunch. This place had a Pizza Hut, Subway and Taco Bell inside - I'm telling you, it was huge!) we took a ride on the carousel and then headed back to my sisters. It was seriously such a fun place and I hope I can go back someday to see the rest of it. If you're ever in Rochester, NY be sure to stop at this museum!