Rocco is at such a fun age this year to go on all the adventures we put on our summer bucket list. The summer has been flying by, just as it seems to do every year. With only 3 official summer months in Michigan, we really have to pack in as much as we can in just a few weekends. We've been really lucky to have great weather on quite a few of our weekends so we've been checking off our bucket list items one by one over the past 2 months.
Last month we traveled about an hour and a half away with my brother and sister-in-law (my bff) and their kids to check out the Impression 5 Museum & Potter Park Zoo. Both of these stops were on each of our to-do lists for the summer so it made perfect sense to make a weekend out of it and go together.
The Impression 5 Museum had a really cool website and seemed to be a mix between a children's museum and a discovery center of sorts. Several moms had recommended it on a local parenting forum, so it seemed like a sure hit. Unfortunately I think we built it up a little too much in our heads because we were a little let down almost as soon as we walked in. In all fairness, our local children's museum is amazing and has so much to do for all ages. We can spend hours there weekend after weekend and the kids won't get bored. So Impression 5 had a lot to compete with.
This museum seemed to be more for a little bit older of an age group. There were definitely things for the littler kids to do...but not near as much as we had hoped for. My oldest nephew that was with us is 6 years old and he seemed interested in the learning aspect of everything (how a slingshot works, how electricity is formed, why bubbles float, how to build a bridge, etc). The younger kids (3 under 3) really just wanted to play and had very little interest in listening to explanations.
Overall we did have a good time and the little kids had fun as long as we kept moving to the next thing to play with.
We expected that we would spend half the day there but were in and out in about 2 hours...So we headed to dinner with 4 kids 6 and under which went surprisingly smoothly! Our original plan had been to head to the hotel after what we expected to be an exhausting day at Impression 5, wake up in the morning and head to the zoo. But since we were finished with the museum so early and our hotel didn't have a pool (parental fails all around!) we decided to head to the zoo after dinner so the kids could get out the rest of their energy.
This turned out to be a great plan. We were a little nervous we wouldn't have quite enough time since the zoo was set to close about 2 hours after our arrival but it was the perfect amount of time for the size of the zoo and the age of our kids.
These peacocks roamed free all over the zoo...in and outside the gates..
Rocco loved just wandering around and taking it all in.
The rhino was definitely a huge hit amongst all of the kids...they couldn't get enough of him!
Rocco was captivated by the monkeys for a long time too!
We really are blessed to have so many fun, kid friendly places to spend our weekends. And even luckier to have friends and family to share our experiences with!
Much Love,
B.
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