Hi!
This week we made it to the Brooklyn Children's Museum, so excited to have shared that with Mark Jacinto since last time I was there, he was at school. My awesome friend Nora, (my respects to that sister who I consider her to be a great mother), gave us our first introduction to this amazing museum!
After lunch and some much needed apartment cleaning, we headed to our museum adventure. You have no idea how much I'm enjoying this summer with them! We are getting to have leisured breakfasts ( my favorites) and have a wonder approach to what we do each day. We do have a certain level of structure but given that it is summer, we are doing things in a more relaxed manner. We are starting to get free from the stroller as well, taking little steps of freedom each day.
As we arrived to the museum, Mark Jacinto spotted giant and colorful paper flowers at the museum's entrance. He was fascinated since he says that he loves art and wants to be a "game artist" when he grows up. Miss Dominika went a step further and asked to take them home, haha.
As soon as we entered, I saw the glow in their eyes. I knew it would be a fun time. But first, a potty break.
We have only explored the lower levels of this museum, because it has that much to offer. Below is the sensory room in which they let groups of people for a set time and no shoes allowed policy.
The kids got to jump on top of a giant bean bag over and over again at the sensory room, can they make this for adults please!?
Learning about insects and plants.
The museum also has a nice area to eat. You can eat at their indoors"food truck" or bring your own.
Learning about dough, and the steps to make bread.
One of my favorite things at the museum was their around the world markets and areas were the pretend play is at full bloom. They could have stayed there for hours. I specially enjoyed seeing older kids enjoy themselves and working together for the greater purpose of the grocery store.
I heard things like" I'll take the register, you please answer the phone!" "I have a customer waiting". I love that.
Our second favorite was the pizza place were they got to make pizzas, eat gelato. I got into the role and started answering the phone and saying: " No, sir, sorry for the delay we'll get you a refund immediately" I guess I liked it that much.
I think what I'm understanding about this pretend play childhood thing is that sometimes as adults we stop using our imaginations and that is quite sad. Our imaginations are powerful agents of change, and if we just live in the practical and pragmatic 24/7 then we are robbing ourselves of a much richer life experience.
Because yes, we must be doers and be active participants of our beliefs, but the permission to imagine of what could be and is not, is just too good to pass.
After much play and me starting to actually believe we were in a pizza place, the time when the museum was closing came up. Kids were sad.
We headed to the gift shop to let each child pick something they like. And what was the result? Dominika picking up a herd of stuffed animals;-) Needless to say, she had to pick one.
Mark Jacinto has been talking about pizza for the last couple of days so we decided visit our local pizza place.
I love that as such tender age Dominika enjoys flowers and stops to smell them and touch them, admire their color and comment on their beauty. I pray my children's eyes are trained to always seek the beauty and goodness of all living things even if at times may seem very difficult to do.
And to seal the day with fun, we went to our local coffee shop for an iced dirty chai and heart cookies.
Au revoir!