After lunch with Mark the other day, we walked over to the
Birmingham Museum of Art. It's only a few blocks from his work. The weather was nice so it was a good little stroll. I remember so vividly visiting the Museum of Art when I was at UA. There was some extra credit project for my art history class. I had to come to the museum and write about a few of the pieces. I remember driving up on a Sunday afternoon by myself and walking around for a few hours. Never would've thought this would one day be my city. 8 years later I've now been in Birmingham longer than Tuscaloosa. And I never would've thought I'd be strolling my toddler inside either! :)
I'd heard about their kids' area from a few moms on Facebook, but we've never tried it out. I was pleasantly surprised. It was awesome! And yall, it's FREE! No sweeter words to a budget minded, stay at home mom.
They have a little kid and big kid side. We just happened to head to the little kid side first and we were the only ones in the place. Very fun to be able to explore on our own. Sam first headed to the 'I Spy' display. Lots of fun toys and items glued inside with a list nearby of things they should try to spot. Sam just thought all the toys were awesome and wanted to play with them all. He kept beating on the glass and looking at me like 'get them out lady!' He went back to this area a few times to look at all the fun things.
They also had these cool over sized tribal masks with a cup of dry erase crayons nearby. You could draw all over them and then they wiped clean with a wipe. Sam really liked the chunkiness of the crayons and drew quite a bit after I encouraged him. I had a lot of fun with these too. :)
There was also a light table. Sam has played with one of these at the
McWane Science Center as well. He didn't spend too much time here because there was SO much to look at.
He ran over to the shelving area where there was tons of puzzles, books and bins of awesome toys. He went straight to the big drawer full of puppets! He loves playing in the puppet bin at the library. The museum even had a lot of the same puppets as our library. He pulled out this crazy chameleon for me to try. He was a little scared once I started moving his tongue and eyes around! Fancy puppet!
His favorite, by far, was the llama. I can only assume because he looked so much like his beloved Murph dog. :)
There's a big swirly table that's half chalkboard surface for drawing on the table or coloring the Bart Art sheets. They have bins of chalk out for either. I never thought to color sheets with chalk, but it worked great! Much richer colors than regular crayons and they were easier to draw with for Sam who can't apply too much pressure right now. I love seeing him sit in little chairs. He looks like such a big boy!
Coloring his sheet. Notice the tongue. He always does this when in concentration. :)
They had this great magnetic wall for kids to hang their artwork. I pinned Sam's up. He immediately decided ripping everyone else's art down was the most fun ever and went to town. We got them all back up and decided to head to the 'big kid' side.
There is an amazing hallway dividing the two sides. Lighted branches hang from the ceiling along with paper stars. The walls are lined with beautiful mixed collage of trees and wildlife. It's SO pretty! They should put in benches for parents to sit and gaze while their kids play.
The big kid side is really cool. I could've spent a lot of time in here. First off, they had these HUGE touch screens that you could 'paint' on! Sam could barely reach, but once I showed him what they did he painted a bit on the edge.
I didn't take many more pictures of this kid space. They had a worker on this side at a desk and Sam wanted to explore EVERYthing so I had to stay close by. But other things to note...there was a DIY station where they had items to make your own bookmark (lots of different papers and embellishments), a Japanese water painting station ( I think? No time to read with a toddler on the loose!), super cool big kid blocks and toys, books, and a cool photobooth where you can have your picture put into a great work of art!
We did participate in that. I tried to take our picture probably 15 times (I'm sure the girl at the desk was having a good laugh at us.) Not the best, but we tried! Once you take your photo, you can email it to yourself! I sent ours to Mark to say 'hey!' I thought this was so cool....despite ol' dude in the painting giving us the side eye. That lady knows what it's like toting your babe around close to nap time. She's just smiling and saying 'bless your heart'.
When we left we walked past the waterfall installation outside the museum and Sam literally clapped with excitement over seeing and hearing the water.
We loved this place and will definitely be back. I already have plans to make this a weekly stop for us and we'll probably have lots of picnic lunches with Daddy since it's so close. Finding little gems like this makes me love Bham that much more. Thank you sweet city for thinking about our kiddos!
Also, I should mention, they have a little craft every Saturday in the big kid area. The project rotates monthly. I'm sure we'll stop by this sometime too.
