A Playseum Trip and Passes Giveaway!

Last week my brother called me from 8^th street in DC. He was on his bike and had passed a new children’s museum so he called to see if I wanted to bring the boys in to check it out. Who doesn’t love a brother who calls out of breath to tell you about a museum? This girl does. I made plans to go into the city with the boys on Tuesday and meet up with him at the Playseum. I had seen the name on local websites but I had never read or heard anything about it. Two days later, SuperNovaMommy offered me eight free passes to the Playseum! Four for us, four for a giveaway. What good luck and perfect timing!

I loaded up the boys onto the bus and metro and we headed into the city. It started off well. Just when I thought we had missed the bus, it showed up a couple minutes late and Clark boldly stepped on. “Hi! My name’s Tlart!” He said to the bus driver. “He said Clark,” Cal explained to the driver as he stepped onto the bus with me. Calvin the translator. At the metro we hopped on the front car again, by the driver, and this time both boys enjoyed watching the tracks and blue lights as we drove along the highway and then underground. 

Clark finds the Very Hungry Caterpillar in the pet shop!

The Playseum is right by the Eastern Market metro station and the place was a big hit with the boys from the start because there are two ceiling fans in the entryway. It was simple to get the stroller and coats put away and to hear about how the place is arranged because they just stared at the fans. Admission for people who don’t have awesome free passes is $6. Infants are free. The Playseum is a children’s used book store with eighteen different themed rooms. The books are arranged by topic or theme, each topic has a room, and in each room are toys and activities centered around the topic. Very cool idea. They call the collection of rooms their CityShops. The first shop we visited was the pet store, where the boys got to touch some bunnies and Clark even held the lizard! They were delighted to find a copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar among the critters, and we read it. The boys painted ceramic tiles in the art studio and learned the word sequin. I’m thinking I’ll use the tiles on a breakfast tray I’ve been meaning to decorate with mosaic glass tiles. In the art shop, kids can buy any number of things to paint or decorate and make different crafts—and 50% of the proceeds go to help an Ethiopian village get clean drinking water. There’s even an Ethiopian hut included in the art shop. 

The list of cool shops goes on: there is a bakery where kids can decorate cupcakes, a salon for kids to get their nails painted, a pizza shop with fixin’s for felt pizzas, a coffee shop, a room set up like a cruise ship, a restaurant, a grocery store, a farm, a sports room, and a couple more. They have some local DC elements, like a little Chinatown and cherry blossom information and murals of the Jefferson Memorial and metro map. My boys’ favorite spot was a mini stage in a room with costumes and toys and books. They think they’re rockstars, so the feeling they got on the stage only added to that belief. I got some curious looks from other moms because they kept singing Jimmy Buffet songs, (they're obsessed) chanting “Salt! Salt! Salt!” and pointing to the imaginary brown-eyed girls in the imaginary audience. The even recruited another little boy to join their boy band for a song or two. We spent at least half an hour there. I had to wrench the guitar from Cal’s hand so we could continue on. 

After our successful Playseum visit, we went just a few doors down to a famous DC hot dog shop, DC-3,  We met my friend Becky, who works nearby at the Folger Shakespeare Library, for a hot dog, fries, and a good viewing of the ceiling fan-ish propeller from a DC-3 (airplane) on the wall. What an amazing place! The hot dogs look like works of art and ours were delicious. (Plus, you can add bacon onto any hot dog for fifty cents. Shizam!)

The only change I will make next time we make the trip is to allow more time for our visit and bring some friends. My boys could play for hours at the Playseum, especially with their friends. You could keep the trip less expensive by packing your own lunch, since there is a room where eating is allowed. 

And now…I’m excited to be able to host a giveaway for four free passes to the Playseum, thanks to SuperNovaMommy! The giveaway begins now and will end Friday evening. To enter, simply respond here with your name and I will do a drawing at the end of the week and contact the winner. It would also be cool if you became a Whispers & Shouts follower, either through Blogger, or the new NetworkedBlogs option, or simply “like” the Whispers & Shouts Facebook page. I’m excited about my growing number of awesome readers!

My two thumbs are up for the Playseum and we will definitely be back. Local parents, get your kids there! They will love it.

Also: Check out my trips to other local spots here.

Clark holds a lizard in the pet shop!

The clown and the artist

Cal paints his tile.

You're my-eye...brown-eyed girl! 

Uncle A and Clark work the counter at the pizza shop. 

There's a little putting green by this Jefferson Memorial mural

The market

Clark rings up the...wine? And Cal is not in the cart...trick photography

Cal wouldn't be beaten; when I took away the guitar he strummed the block.

Pink Cowboy Cal

Reading some farm books in the farm room with Uncle A