On Saturday, we decided to take the whole family to a children’s museum in Raleigh (Marbles).  We had heard lots of great things about it from friends who had gone, and we thought our kids would be old enough to enjoy it now!

The first exhibit had tons of fun activities for the kids to do, including a grocery store, cars to drive, an ambulance, a stage, a veterinarian’s office, a school, a fire truck, a bus with a slide, a helicopter, a farm, and more.

Jude was in train table heaven!

Vera liked pretending to be a doctor and administer shots!

CC liked driving the ambulance!

There was a puppet stage with lots of puppets to play with, as well as a larger stage with a bunch of costumes.  Almost all of the exhibits had corresponding costumes, which was so much fun for the girls!

There was a small enclosed area for kids under 18 months, which Jude enjoyed thoroughly!  Part of the wall was a fish tank, and he was really excited about watching the fish swim around!

The veterinarian’s office was so fun.  The kids got to take care of dogs and cats, giving them “baths” and needed medical care!

One of the coolest parts of this first exhibit was the farm area.  The stuffed animals were so cute and the kids enjoyed feeding them with bottles, checking for eggs under the hens, and doing other “farm-related” activities!

There was a little gardening area where you could pick vegetables.

As we moved on through the museum, we came to the splash area.  The girls loved playing with the water at this exhibit!

We went through another couple of exhibits, including a submarine, before we came to the 2-level pirate ship.  How cool, right?

The girls took turns swabbing the deck.

Upstairs there were lots of cool exhibits as well.  The kids really liked the “gym” area, where they got to play on tumbling mats, play basketball, and watch a hockey game (bigger kids were playing).

Another fun area that we didn’t get any pictures of was a room that taught kids about how money is earned.  There was a pizza place where they could assemble pizzas and deliver them on a bike, as well as a pet sitting service, a bank, and a slide!  It was really fun.

Towards the end there were some “bigger kid” exhibits, such as a place to build your own little car and race it, and tool benches with REAL tools!  Vera played with that a little bit while CC and Jude played with the GIANT Legos!

We spent 2.5 hours at Marbles, and we still felt like we were keeping the kids moving along through all the exhibits!  Some families could probably spend all day!  We definitely want to go back again sometime!  It is a really fun museum and we made some great memories.