As many of you know, Meghan, Joe, and J.R. live about 270 miles away from us. Because of this, we occasionally meet in Mansfield or Columbus for a weekend or to “switch the kid.” Since we hadn’t seen them since Christmas and didn’t expect to see them until May, we decided to meet in Mansfield the last weekend in February.
We’d done this in the fall, visiting the Barnyard Park, a great place for fall fun, but were looking for something indoor to do with a two-year old. Family friends, Shannon and Sharon, suggested the Little Buckeye Children’s Museum.
Because Ian wanted to work on the house and Krystal was taking continuing education classes in Columbus, I picked up Kairi in Akron on our way out of town. I thought about taking Ady too, but I didn’t think I could handle a two-year-old and two one-year-olds without a double stroller (need to get one BEFORE summer!). Yes, Meghan and Dennis were going to be there, but still…
Dennis was doing a walk-through for The Ohio State University’s Health and Sciences Library, so he was already in Mansfield on Friday night. I found him a cheap room at the Travelodge for Friday night and then we moved to the Hampton Inn for Saturday night (those two rooms earned us 4000 miles on American Airlines, woohoo!). I dropped off the dogs at the vet’s at 8:00 a.m. Saturday and started south. I spent a little longer than expected at Ian’s–he fixed the sound on my computer. Actually, I think he just missed me and wanted to talk. Kairi and I finally arrived in Mansfield around 11:45 a.m. and found Papa D at the Hampton Inn.
Dennis wanted to visit the prison, and since Meghan was also running late, we decided to drive out to see it. The guided tours don’t run this time of year, so we decided to come back in the summer.
We backtracked to downtown and parked in the free municipal parking across the street from the Richland Carrousel. The Little Buckeye Children’s Museum was a short walk.
When we first walked in, the museum really didn’t look like much. There were some tables in the front on one side, a few prepackaged snacks and drinks for sale and a Mr. Potato Head table, coloring area, and Hot Wheels section on other side. Admission was $8 a person for everyone over the age of two. We were pleasantly surprised once we were past the front desk.
Once we actually went in, we were amazed at the variety of activities for little ones. The first “room” was filled with toys for the youngest ones–musical instrument, stacking and connecting toys, things to crawl over and on. Kairi loved it, and Papa had fun playing with her. There was also an area where children could dig for dinosaur “bones” and “dinosaurs” in shredded tire material. One thing that I really liked was that there were BOOKS in each section that corresponded to the topic. Other areas on the first floor included musical pipes, tree house complete with climbing wall and slide, water table, doctor’s office/baby nursery, grocery store, beauty salon, car racetrack, construction area, water table, theater, hair salon, and veterinary office.
They did have raincoats available at the water table, but Kairi didn’t want any part of them. This was her favorite part of the day until we got to the carousel.
Meghan and J.R. finally arrived. J.R. needed a nap and was a little cranky, but he eventually started to play.
Upstairs, there was a room with trains, planes, Legos, and more. There was a camping/outdoor area that was super cute, a dentist office, art area, schoolhouse, mechanic, two-room house (watch for the low ceiling on your way out!), and more.
If we lived closer, I would definitely buy a membership to the Little Buckeye Children’s Museum. It’s great for kids under 10! A family membership is only $100 for the year, and a grandparent membership is $75. This also gives you half-priced admission to 350+ children’s museums across the country. Unfortunately, the Oh, Wow! Center in Youngstown is not on the list. I did feel really guilty that we didn’t take Adelyn. Next time we’ll take all four of the grandkids!
Kairi loved shopping in the grocery store. She also enjoyed driving the different vehicles.
J.R. enjoyed watching the trains. They also had four different tables of Thomas the Tank trains and tracks for the children.
One of the ways you could enter the camping area was through a small tunnel. Kairi figured out that the Little Tikes Cozy Coupe just fit.
Stay tuned for my review of the Richland Carrousel!
Note: The official name of the carousel is Richland Carrousel with two Rs. I’m also still learning how to insert photos.
Great post. Sounds like a dream place to take kids to. Kids visiting it are certain to enjoy the variety of activities.
I love this!! I was really bummed I couldn’t go to see her play with everything but this makes it feel like I was!! Thank you for sharing! It looks like she enjoyed it! Hope I can come next time!