National Museum of Play

One of the coolest places in Rochester is the Strong National Museum of Play. Even if you were over the age of 12, it would still be cool. Over the Christmas break, we had a chance to meet up with some very old friends(like back in the day when Wayne and I weren't even dating) and check out the Lego exhibit they have right now. Going over a school break was crazy. The museum was PACKED. And while it's completely cool, I am always afraid I will lose a child or two because it is really set up to inspire children, with little nooks and crannies and places that are kid-sized and not really adult sized and in the blink of an eye, they are gone. Fine if it's not too busy but when everyone else in Rochester is there too, it gets a little hairy.

I may get carried away here with the pics but this artist is amazing! Nathan Sawaya, to give credit where credit is due, is his name. And everything is made out of Legos. It was really cool to see.

The kids LOVE the museum since EVERYTHING is hands on here. And they continually update and change some of the exhibits. There a super-hero section and the cute little boy we were with informed me quite seriously, that he was indeed a super hero and his super-hero talent was to run super fast. It is always educational to see how boys play. My kids really could have cared less for the super hero part but little Noah was enchanted and talked at length about each part of that section. When I told him my kids wanted to check out the Berenstein Bears section he replied, "Well, ok, but I can actually tell you, it's pretty boring." I love 4 yr. olds.

New for us was the arcade room where every guest gets 4 tokens and they have all the old school arcade games. This was an introduction for me since, like most girls, I did not grow up playing arcade games. I think Wayne could have stayed in there all day.

It is interesting to see how the girls respond to video games. Our house, being more into pink things and dolls, we do not own a game system of any kind and Wayne and I often wonder if it would benefit the girls to at least have a working knowledge of the game systems out there. Denver has to be cajoled into trying a game. She really hates to fail, so trying something new and unfamiliar, without knowing how to be successful at it, really stretches her as a person. Willa, being 180 degrees the other way, wanted to play everything and did not mind losing a game within the first 10 seconds. Ady had no opinion.

There is also a kid sized Wegmans. For those of you not from the area, Wegmans is the very best grocery store ever! The kids get to shop for stuff, scan and check out their own purchases, and then reshop their items so everything stays organized and ready for the onslaught of more children. They also had a little pretend set where the kids can make-believe they are running their own cooking show.

We had such a fun time there. And it was fun to get together with old friends.