Family Fun Uptown

I absolutely love uptown Charlotte. The six of us headed uptown to go to the museum. Since the museum parking is good for the whole day, I always feel obligated to make the most of our day in the heart of the city. We didn't plan quite as well as we should have, but it was a really fun day anyway.

We made the rounds at our favorite exhibits, beginning with the aquariums.

We then checked out a cool interactive area to construct a shelter. James thought this was especially hilarious to crawl under the camouflage netting. Jackson impressed us with his vocabulary by discussing habitats.

Jackson finally got to ride the chair lift.

And we all took turns walking across the rope bridge  in the rain forest.

The highlight of our museum trip was the new guitar exhibit. Jesse and Jackson briefly participated in a  music game show where you had to complete the lyrics to popular songs from the various decades. It was way more fun for the adults in the audience, but the kids were happy to win prizes.

The guitar exhibit had a fun stage where you could pretend to rock out on the guitar, keyboard, or microphone. So fun!

After the museum we walked to First Presbyterian Church. They have such an elaborate, well shaded, completely enclosed playground. If we lived uptown, we would go to this playground daily. The only downside is you can't use it while the preschool classes are outside. We seem to always have great timing, though.

At this point in our day, things got a little tricky. I hadn't gone grocery shopping yet, so we planned to purchase lunch and have a picnic in the park. Jesse took us on quite the detour. Despite passing dozens of restaurants, Jesse got frustrated and wanted to go home. We were only a block from another park, so I took the kids to run under the waterfall and jump on the interactive bells.

It was such an ideal summer day for me--learning, exploring, and playing together as a family.