Thursday, March 15, 2012

Play at The Playseum

Ever since I heard about the new Playseum opening on Capitol Hill, I have been excited to try it out.    Yesterday's weather report was looking perfect for a DC day, with temperatures in the 80s (whoa, March) so we drove Mike to work and met our friends Katy and Teddy for some fun.

The website describes the Playseum as a collection of "city shops."  There are about 11 mini-sized themed rooms, including a China town, craft room, pizza shop, sweet shop, and more.  This place gives kids an amazing setting for unstructured playtime.  I especially loved how many of the rooms had a "DC" theme; murals of the Jefferson Memorial, cherry blossoms, a metro map, etc.  For toddlers, it is a great opportunity for lots of new vocabulary too...some of our favorites were "wok" in China town, "kayak", and "guitar."   Chloe's favorite room by far was the Dominos pizza shop!  There was one flat rate to get into the museum, but there were a few things that you could pay just a couple dollars extra for: making a milkshake, lip gloss, painting a tile.  So fun!

I think the best way to describe each part of the museum is through pictures, so here you go!

The first thing we saw: sandbox!

A "pet shop" complete with bunnies, a turtle, lizard, and birds

Making soup in the China Town kitchen

Craft time

Teddy and Chloe do a little grocery shopping.  The food looked so real, they had to taste it.  Yum...

Chloe loved this room, "Grandparents Room."  There was a tea set, record player, old suitcases, shawls, etc.  Cool!

Tiny door for tiny patrons

Practicing for boating!

Pizza in the oven at Dominos!  The "pizzas" were cardboard and felt.  I think we need to make that for home! 

Serving at the mini-restaurant!

And of course, we had to try out the paints!

She played her heart out at the Playseum!

I had about a thousand pictures of the other rooms too, but you get the idea.  You can take a peek at the City Shops part of the website to get a look at all of the rooms. 

Another really cool thing, taken from their website:
"(The Playseum currently supports 40 children who have been taken off the streets in Northern India and placed in loving adoptive native homes, and our DC location is a partner with GTLS a non-profit Organization bringing health and clean water to the Hammar Village in Ethiopia.)"

What could be better than playing for a cause!  The Playseum is an excellent addition to our area.  We had a great time, arriving around 10, leaving for lunch, and coming back to play until 3 pm!  We have rarely stayed somewhere and been entertained for an entire day. 

2 comments:

Dawn said...

LOVE.

Bryana ZT said...

Dawn---let's take the kids there together soon!