Museum of Nature and Science

The Museum of Nature and Science is a great place to have a membership when you have a large family. They welcome all of the children living in your home, and that includes foster children. When you have a membership it's great because you don't  feel like you have to see everything that  the museum has to offer because you can visit other exhibits at a later time.

We met up with friends at the museum and while we were waiting we explored the space exhibit. We don't usually spend much time here because the children usually like going to the same places over and over. On this particular day we explored what life was life was like on different planets and saw a mock space walk area.

The Discovery Zone opened in the spring and our children love this place. They can pretend to dig up dinosaur bones which is pretty much like playing in the sand.

  

This thing here was a team effort to move the balls down the obstacle.

There was even  water station where you could build dams and control where the water went.

The children were all soaking wet after a lovely time in this area.

We also spend quite a lot of time in the Discovery Health exhibit. The children love tracking their progress with the little cards they are given. Elizabeth is measuring body temperature here.

There's even an area  to measure your height and arm span. The girls were sitting so still to get a heart rate measure while the computer discussed what a heart rate is all about.

Making a skeleton move, and rock climbing were great fun and exercise all in one.

Checking out how your pupil changes in different light was also on the agenda, but we had a hard time figuring out how to use this machine.

There was even a game you could play to see how relaxing your mind can move a ball.

Oh! We saw some animals too! These walruses were huge.

The museum is a great place to visit during the colder months. It will keep your children occupied for hours.

Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Back in May I purchased a little point-and-shoot camera and it's been my go to camera ever since. It's so much easier to carry around, but the pictures definitely aren't as nice as my big camera as shown above in this blurry action photo. ;) With 11 children in the house we decided to get out and play, so we headed to the museum. 

There's a fun exhibit called Discovery Health where the kids learn everything about their heart rate to how their bodies regulate temperature and how their bones and muscles work together. It's pretty fun. We could spend hours just in that exhibit.

Another area had them digging for fossils. Sand and digging can keep a child occupied for hours too. Just sayin'. 

Puzzles for all ages and things for sensory play were also availbale.

Older children can also put guts back into a body. ;)

There's a drawing table and your drawing can also become a masterpiece on their wall.

We rode the elevator down to get a photo with this dinosaur! It's nice to have a family pass to the museum because there just isn't enough hours in the day to see and do everything there is to do.

Elves Live At the Museum

We had so much fun at the MythBusters event that we didn't have time to tour the rest of the museum. This meant that we had to make another trip, only this time a lovely volunteer informed us that there were elves hidden throughout the museum. It was sort of like Geocaching, except that we couldn't get up close and personal iwth the elves. They were all behind the glass.

We stopped to learn about Africa in our quest for elves. Other cultures are so interesting to me, perhaps I should have been a sociologist.

Can you spot the elf among the stars? It's kind of tricky.

We took a tour of the dinosaur area and found this elf going for a ride!

This lady lured our children over to her little exhibit. I'm sure she was trying to tell them that the dinosaurs lived millions of year ago.

We got them away to from that sweet, but mislead woman and checked out some fossils around the exhibit.

We caught a little elf snoozing in a tree as we continued to wander around the museum.There was an exhibit showcasing animals from the Rocky Mountain region. I think it was more interesting to look at how the terrain used to be and how it is now.

This little elf was a tough one to see. He's not painted on the wall, but an actually tiny elf. Can you see him?

You'll have to look closely or get a magnifying glass to find this guy. He's hidden well among the brush in the background.  We found all, but one of the elves. Hopefully, we'll make another trip soon. Finding that last little elf is high on my children's priority list. 

MythBusters

Have you ever heard of the TV show called MythBusters? I hadn't heard of it until we decided to attend this exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. 

If you've seen the show you might recognize some of the props above since they've been used in the show at one time or another. Before we went to the exhibit I had to search for a few episodes on TV, so my children could watch it. They loved it and keep asking to watch more! It's a pretty entertaining show. They take different hypotheses and prove them right or wrong by actually doing experiments. The episode that we watched used a lot of explosives, so watching things blow up was pretty fun. At the museum the children got to test out their own hypotheses. This experiment asked whether one is more wet when they run or walk through the rain. Rain was simulated and on one side you ran through it while on the other side you just walked through leisurely.

   

The black light shows all the areas that got wet from the rain. This would have been a fun experiment except the children all thought it was so cool that they kept running through the rain over and over agian unitl they were pretty wet. Hmm . . .

If you can't locate your darts go ahead and just pull out a deck of cards. Depending on the angle in which you toss them they'll splice their way right onto the board.

If you were to fling buttered bread off a table how do oyu think it would land? Butterside up or down?

After much testing we concluded that the butterside up is the way the bread fell most of hte time.

How long can you hang from the ledge of a cliff? It's easy for the little ones, but a little more difficult for the bigger kids.

   

I can remember what this swing is all about, but the girls sure look sweet, don't they?

This experiment tested a person's reaction time when shot with a paint ball. You're supposed to move out of the way.

This person didn't fair too well, but we sure enjoyed watching him get shot. If the MythBusters come to your town you should check it out. The children keep begging to go back again!