National Cowboy Museum

Can you guess why we chose to go to the National Cowboy Museum?  Was it the art gallery, firearms, rodeo history, pioneer living or western movies exhibits?  If you guessed all of the above, then you would be correct.  We (Kyle and I) enjoyed it much more than the kids but they did great going thru all the galleries and exhibits.  I think their favorite parts were the rodeo history, western movies exhibit and Prosperity Junction which is a life size western town.  The kids were excited to see stuff on John Wayne since we like to watch his cowboy movies too.

I suggest that if you take children to the museum, have them check out the museum on their website.  They actually have a children's site that gives online tours, songs, games, characters, printables, etc.  Check it out at the Diamond R Ranch.

We spent 3 hrs here and had a great time.  It was the kid's first art museum and I was very proud of them.  They were really interested in the artwork which again surprised me.

Jailbirds

We are HUGE readers in our family so seeing this
 great display of children's books in their gift
shop was awesome!

                                                   

Science Museum Oklahoma

The third museum on our OKC museum tour was the Science Museum Oklahoma.  It is right next to the OKC Zoo.  We considered going to the zoo also but when it is 105 degrees outside, it was a no-brainer to just stay inside the air-conditioned museum.  We actually ended up spending 6 hours at this museum!  But I do not have the pics to show for it because the museum is totally hands-on so I had my camera in my pocket pretty much the entire time.  Since Kyle is an engineer, he was in "hog heaven" with all the physics displays and surprising enough the kids loved them too.

I think our favorite part of Science Museum Oklahoma was the Segway Track.  The kids could not get enough of it and YES they begged to have one when it was all over.  I told them that if they wanted one, they needed to become a mall cop.  Our other favorite part was the planetarium.  We all learned a lot about the Oklahoma night sky.


Other parts we enjoyed were the aircraft display, flight simulator, working train track, huge tree house to climb on, Science Live show, earthquake simulator, magnets and optical illusions.  Speaking of the Science Live show, Kyle was called up to the stage to help to a science experiment.  It was HYSTERICAL cause he does not like doing things like that in front of a LARGE group of people but he endured it.

Playing with magnets

Experimenting with air

Flight simulator

Optical illusion

Museum of Osteology in OKC

On Sunday mornings we usually let the kids watch Outdoor Oklahoma if and only if they are dressed, fed and have brushed teeth before it comes on at 8am on OETA.  Recently when we were watching, they were touring the Museum of Osteology (skeletons) in OKC. My kids were GLUED to the television and in total awe so we decided to add the museum to our "museum tour".

The story behind the museum is just as interesting as the museum itself and it all started with a 6th grader's collection for a science fair.

I have to say that it was just as cool on television as it was in person.  To say we loved it is a total understatement.  There were so many different varieties of animal skeletons that you literally have to sit down to look at each display and really examine them.  I took more pics than I probably should have but seeing all the different skeletons was just so fascinating.  The pics I am posting are those animals that you see in Okie Land.  Also to see all the teeny tiny bones of a mouse or a hummingbird then to turn and see the skeleton of a humpback whale and a giraffe is just crazy.  We are so glad we went there and plan on taking the kids again especially when they are older.  This would be a great place for a science field trip.

Mouse

Turtle

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Raccoon eating Milk Duds...so true

Hummingbird in flight

Hummingbird & nest

Jasmine Moran Children's Museum in Seminole

HUGE maze

Dragon-like thing to climb on

On our mini-vacation we went to Oklahoma City for 3 days and visited 4 very different museums while we were there.  The first one we went to was the Jasmine Moran Children's Museum in Seminole which is just outside OKC.  We have never been there before but last year the first grade at the kids' school went there for a field trip and the teachers, students and parents raved about it so we thought we would give it a try.

Let's just say, my kids were is HEAVEN. When we got there we checked out their outdoor activities first before the heat set in.  They have a train you can walk thru and a train to ride.  They also had this really cool maze that was huge.  We all loved running thru it scaring each other.  Then the inside of the museum was separated into play areas like construction, school, courtroom, grocery store, fire station, hospital, mechanics, and science and art areas.  They also had a large aquarium, place where you could dig for dinosaur bones, they could be a surgeon operating, an airplane cockpit and ambulance that they could play in.  They even had a HUGE dragon-like climbing thing that the kids could not get enough of.  Our favorite part was the bubbles area and then this room that had a glowing wall.

Don't tell anyone . . . but I hope the first grade goes back again this next school year.  I will be going as a sponsor with my 2 first graders and will be taking my big kid too.
.

Future mechanic?

Or maybe a pilot with his crew

Making a big bubble wall around them

The engineer playing

Grocery shopping