Project Life 2013: July 22, Visiting COSI

These pages are part of several about our overnight trip to Columbus, Ohio for my daughter's seventh birthday back in July.  I haven't shared part 1 of that trip but thought this portion would be fun to share because it uses the new thematic card set that Becky Higgins recently released.  This is the print version Road Trip with some Mini Snippets - Carte Postale by Basic Grey thrown in.

These pages all cover our visit to COSI, beginning with the intro page above.  I made a little vellum envelope to slip the hot pink ticket we had to wear while at COSI.  It didn't really match anything and was kind of bright so I hope the vellum mutes the color a bit.  The city map card it's attached to was perfect, since we were in downtown Columbus. I added some Jillibean Soup letters to the "On the Road" card.

This spread is about visiting the Ocean and Gadget exhibits.

My daughter said the Ocean's area was her favorite of the visit.  Both she, LB, and my husband Brad all liked using the remote operated vehicle and seeing it's camera feed on the screen, especially when they could just make out themselves in the window.  I assume real ROV in the deep ocean have much clearer screens and better cameras because it was a little hard to make out anything.  There was also a little display built to look like a submarine research area that the kids liked exploring.  The "Dad" card is from the Rad Dad digital collection that I had previously printed out and didn't end up using.  It fit here so I used it.

My husband builds and designs laser systems for university research teams and he was very interested in the laser table.  This was a fun section with little seats you use pulleys to pull yourself up on.  Some are easier to use than others and it's tougher than you'd think.  LB enjoyed the ball launch the most, laughing deep belly laughs whenever it shot from out toward the target. 

We got a couple copies of the map and I cut up portions to show where we were for both sides of this spread.  Some of the filler cards in the Road Trip themed card set are basic so it was a nice way to add a bit more interest to them.

This spread is about the Progress exhibit.  It's a neat concept.  You get to see the same street in this fictional town and see how it might have appeared in both 1898 and 1962.

Photos from the 1898 version are on the left side.  Some of the building are open so you can actually walk in and even sit in the buggy.

The other side has all the pictures from the 1962 view of the city. It's a neat way to see how the technologies have changed.  A good next step would be to talk about what types of changes would have been made in a today's version of Progress.  I thought this side had more to do, with a diner you can play in and also a TV studio you can pretend to audition for an anchor position.

After we went through Progress we ate lunch, and for museum/attraction food I am sorry to say, the food at COSI was particularly bad.  I recommend bringing your own food if possible!  After eating ER had a workshop back up by the Gadget exhibit.  She and Brad got to take apart a computer so she could see what the inside looked like.

There is a really great area in COSI called the Little Kidspace and this is where I took LB while ER was up at the Gadget Lab.  I would love to have something like this near us!  It's the perfect way to entertain the under 5 crowd while older siblings visit other parts of COSI, see shows, etc.  It's so much fun that if you had a membership it's worth coming with the littles whenever you need to get out for a bit.  The next spread on our visit is mainly about Little Kidspace.

There is a lot to do there and it takes up almost the length of a whole floor.  A large climbing play area is in the center with slides, a little bridge to bounce across, stairs to run up and down, things to turn and spin, and little areas you can look down at and view scenes.  To one side of that is a pretend area with a helicopter, ambulance, doctor's office, etc to play in.  On far opposite far end from the pretend play areas is a water table area.  LB spend a long time happily playing, splashing, pouring, and making the boats go.  There is more to do there too, like a trains, ride on toys scattered throughout, and a little construction area.  Like I said a lot to do there and a lot of fun!  LB didn't want to go.

On the right side of this spread is half about Kidspace, with the right side of the right half of the spread about the last few things we did at COSI.  We didn't do much in the Space exhibit but even though the day started with a downpour by the end of the afternoon it had stopped raining and I'm so glad it did.  There is a nice outdoor exhibit where you can help lift a car, walk a bit, and few other things. 

Our visit spans across three and a half spreads in our Project Life album and we didn't even do any of the extra things like movies or the special Myth Buster's exhibit or the Adventure! activity.  The last two things cost extra money to go to and with so much to do at COSI, we just ran out of time.  I bet they were both awesome extras and well worth the added cost based on how well the rest of COSI is planned out.  

My husband is a science guy, with a PhD in Chemistry so I initially picked this stop as something for him to enjoy with the kids but I really had a great time too.  It's something we'd be members of for sure if we lived in Columbus.  It's a wonderful resource for the area and we hope to go back again.

I had a couple pictures from the very end of the overnight trip that I put on this half spread; it also serves as a summary page.  We went to the Olive Garden for dinner, it was a nice relaxing way to end a busy day on our feet.  It's E's favorite restaurant and was her request.  I didn't have enough pictures to fill the page, to be honest I'd taken so much over the past day I was kind of burnt out on picture taking.  But I did have a few from the road of LB going crazy waving his new puppy around so I put those in, did a highlights card from a MAMBI travel card set and  I am going to list the places we went on our quick trip to Columbus on the blank Clementine journaling card and then this will be done.

I've shared this post at The Mom Creative.