Houston Children's Museum

Houston, Texas (Museum District) - This fun little museum is not so little anymore. We have enjoyed the Children's Museum of Houston for a number of years, and this year was no different.

I don't know if there is a good day to go to beat the crowds. We went on a Monday and the line was out the door. It was crowded, but the kids still had a great time. For Me it was a little crazy trying to keep eyes on my 4 kids and apparently not all parents are teaching their kids to share, take turns and don't take a toy out of another child's hands.

The good stuff, the museum has been completely remodeled. Some of the old time favorites are still there just moved around a bit. Unfortunately, the bubble exhibit and the duck fountain are gone (had boats and ducks you watch float down a raised channel), but the new super sized, mega fun Flow Works outside is a good substitute. My kids loved the new flow works. There was a cool exhibit that showed how waves flow (did not keep their attention long, but I loved it). There were a number of stations to watch the water move and plenty of opportunity to get wet. One section my boys enjoyed was building little dams and structures and then opening the flood gates to see if the structures would survive. They made one structure that seemed to do well, but I guess it is more fun to watch them fall since the boys knocked it over when the water didn't.

Inside there are just a ton of things to do. At admissions we received a pass for the new Power Play and Kid-tropolis. I suppose they are trying to monitor how many people go in. We couldn't enter until the time that was stamped on the pass, but once we were in, we could stay as long as we wanted. The climbing structure in Kid-tropolis was very cool. The 10 year olds did it once and were ready to move on; the 5 year old would have stayed in a very long time. Unfortunately, some bigger kids climbed over him and pushed him and that was the end of that.

Power Play stations, they had some cool interactive stations, but several were too complicated for my 5 year old. He enjoyed the bottom level obstacle course and the scoot board track.

Kid-topolis is a very cool concept. The 10 year olds got jobs, earned pay checks, made deposits and spent money. The 5 year old, of course, did not grasp any of that and just played. The grocery store is half the size of the old one and was too crowded for us, but the 5 year old did go in and play for a little bit. They have a downsized police car and ambulance for the kids to crawl in which the 5 year old loved. It appeared there was a lot of good information about how a city works, but I was chasing the 5 year old and the 10 year olds, well, they are 10.

As Mom, my favorite part was the Invention Station which we almost missed. You have to take an elevator downstairs to it and the elevator is in a hallway off the main exhibit floor. Anyway, we found it and loved it. I enjoyed making paper rockets and shooting them in the cage. The 10 year olds loved making Lego cars and testing them on the ramps. The 5 year old enjoyed the rockets, the Lego cars and the sound exhibit.

The Cyberchase exhibit looked really cool but did not interest any of the kids. There was too much reading for the 5 year old and he was off in a shot. The 10 year olds went in and tried to participate in the exhibit, but again, too much reading and they were done in just a couple of minutes.

Overall it was a good trip. For something, extra special, we recommend the Children's Museum of Houston.

Trip Stats:

Who: Mom, three 10 year old boys and one 5 year old boy
What: indoor/outdoor playtime
When: weekday (all day)

• We arrived shortly after it opened at 10:15 am and did not leave until 4:00 pm. The boys wanted to stay longer, but Mom (me) said we had to scoot to beat prime time Houston traffic which we barely did using the HOV lane.

Where: Houston Children's Museum, http://www.cmhouston.org/
Why: education, exercise and fun

Costs:

• Parking - $7
• Admission - $7/person but we had a two for one coupon from the Entertainment Book.
• Lunch for this family of five was $35.00. The Children's Museum no longer allows outside food and drinks though I did see people who had stowed away picnics in diaper bags.
• Snacks & Drinks - Then we did have an ice cream break which was $1 / fruit cream bar. We did not indulge in drinks from the vending machines which were $2 each. If you decide to get drinks from the Cafe, you will pay $1.50 - $2.00 / drink which for 5 people adds up quickly. The only water fountain we found was on the bottom floor by the bathrooms.