DAY 27 - A DAY AT THE EXPERIMENTARIUM - Friday 20th May, 2022...

 A big few days for us starting today.  We have been keen to give Pete and Maria time to themselves and have offered to babysit the children so that they could have a date night together or even a few nights away together.  Each week we have been giving them a night off and today they feel comfortable enough  that the kids will be fine for us to take them into Copenhagen for a visit to the Experimentarium for the day and then have them overnight whilst they take off and a night on their own...

We have been building the boys up for this for a few days, telling them that their Mum and Dad were going away for a night and that they would be staying with Moppy and Poppy and we were going to have a special day out and a special evening in and they seemed pretty excited about it..

Our day started with cuddles in bed and then Theo sharing some of his story books with Elliot.  Honestly the boys were so cute and so adorable that we couldn't resist taking photos of them reading together...

Sharing a book together.

For our special day out we had planned to take them to the Experimentarium.  We had already bought Pete a child's ticket for his birthday last year.  Apparently, adults can go for free when accompanying a child, hence why we bought him a childs ticket.  Also children under two were free so it meant they could all go for the year ahead and only have to pay for one adult if they all go.  Otherwise, either Pete or Maria could take the boys and it wouldn't cost them anything again...

It didn't take too long to get them ready.  The boys have already been to the Experimentarium on a couple of occasions and Theo was old enough to remember how much fun it was, so it didn't take much convincing to get him to get ready once he knew where we were going...

We had a forty minute drive into Copenhagen, so we had a few books in the back seat for the book to look at to help past the time on our drive in.  Theo also wanted us to open the roof...

We had a good run into the city and found a car park across the road under a building...  The trouble was that we couldn't read the signage for the parking and how no idea how long we could park for and if we were on the right level etc.  Theo on the other hand was super excited and wanted to run ahead and it quite stressful for a while.

In the end another car drove into the car park and parked not far from us,  I was busy trying to keep up with Theo and Steve decided to see if this new comer could translate the danish for us and help us pay for our parking..

He was a lovely man, who was over from England but because he had parked in this park often for work, could tell us what we needed to do and helped us get our parking ticket...

Theo has a mind of his own, so we had some real talking to do to get him to hold our hand so that we could safely cross the street.  Fortunately he loves his Poppy and was quite happy to hold his hand, so we all managed to get safely across the road and make our way towards the Experimentarium..

Heading to the Experimentarium

Ready for a day of adventure..

The entrance to the Experimentarium

Once inside, Steve lined up to purchase a ticket for me whilst I supervised the boys in the Experimentium Shop..

Checking out the goods in the museum shop...

The Experimentarium is situated in Hellerup, just 6kms north of Copenhagen city centre and is  a world class science centre.  It is a science centre built to stimulate the curiosity of all you attend and is also very hands so that one can really learn and inquire through playful science.  It rally is geared to cater for all ages from toddlers to adults and aims to provide hours of fun for the entire family and it really does bring science to life through lots of hands on exploration...

The centre comprises three indoor floors with 18 interactive exhibitions about science and technology, plus an interactive rooftop with the option of open air activities.  There are also science shows conducted at the centre and a restaurant where you can enjoy a meal or a snack..

The Helix Staircase...

The entrance to the Experimentarium features a very impressive 100 metre long helix staircase built from 160 tons of steel and clad with 10 tons of copper.  The impressive structure welcomes visitors inside the museum before spiraling upwards, leading to each of the institution's four storeys.

A helical staircase differs from a spiral staircase in that it does not have a newel (a supporting central post) and handrails are built on both sides.

By the time we had paid for our tickets and got into the museum it was 11am, and as that is normally the time the boys have their lunch, we decided to go find somewhere to stop and give them their lunch.  We had packed lunch and some snacks for the boys before we left home this morning...

On the ground floor, there are some picnic tables, toilets, change tables etc so we settled the boys and had our lunch...

Enjoying lunch at the Experimentarium

Our little sweetheart...

He's one cheeky monkey...

Love these boys...

 

 Once we had our lunch, it was time to have some adventures in the Miniverset (which is the area of the Experimentarium set up for the toddlers...

 Miniverset is a special universe designed for the younger children aged from1-5 years so that they can learn about science through play.  It really is a fun, inspiring and safe environment that nurtures children's basic understanding of science and is a great place where grown ups can both and should play along with their toddlers.  

Children are really natural scientists, they are born to learn through play and every day they discover new thing and learn about the world by experimenting and playing.

 

 At Miniverset, the boys experienced and explored natural phenomena such as wind light and reflections.

One of the things I love about this place is the way the staff interact with the children.  We had a staff member who came and spent quite a bit of time with the boys, showing them how the wind worked on these machines below.  He even threw his keys in there to see how the wind held them shot them up the  tube...

Helping Elliot put the felt leaves into the wind machine...

Theo was also enjoying seeing where his leaves would fall...

From the wind machine, we headed into the play room and the boys had a real ball in here, Theo was cooking in the little kitchen and bringing food for us to eat...  Elliot loved putting all the different shapes into the tree.  He really was quite good at it.  There is plenty of great things for even the youngest of children to do and all with learning opportunities..

I love that through Miniverset, that even the littlies can experiment and explore natural phenomena such as wind, light and reflections, but that they can also explore science through classic children's games, like playing shops, catch or hide and seek.  It make it easy or children to get started a they already intinctiely know what to do.  Miniverst actually consists of seven little universes.  All have their own particular charm and distinct visual design.    They also have a cosy reading corner which was great to give the kids a breather and the chance for us to have a bit of sit down time where we could look through one of the many Miniverse books. 

 Once they had finished playing in the kitchen, and we were all well fed it was time to head into the shop.  Both the boys loved this,  both had all sorts of goods for us to buy and Theo and Elliott were both keen to play with the toy register buy putting blocks in which they pretended were money.  I love seeing the kids use their imaginations when playing games like this.  Makes you wish they would never have to grow up that they could always be this innocent and this playful...

 

From here we moved onto an area that almost represented a mini hospital where we xrays were used to show the boys our bones etc in the body and how they all work together.  Theo was fascinated with it and was dancing around so that he could see how all his bones were working...  He also wanted Steve and I to dance and he was fascinated with the size of our bones in comparison to his own...

Then we had to put the teddy bears under the xray machine to see what they were made off...  Elliot really got into this actitity also.  Elliot also enjoyed putting the teddies to bed..

Theo checking out the inner workings of a teddy...

Elliot checks his bear out also..

Elliot looking after sick little bears...

Theo also likes to put the sick toys to bed.

There was still plenty of exploring to do, it was pretty hard to move the boys on one activity to the other as they were just enjoying playing but there are several levels to this building and there is no way we were going to be able see it all if we didn't try to keep them moving.  I am sure that they would have happily played in this one area for our whole visit..

I love to see them working like this together...

We were learning all about Moles.  This is all new to us as we don't have them in Australia.  They are so cute although the Danes don't share our love of them... They are a nuisance around farms, much the same way that we view rats in Australia...

A cute little Mole.

Elliot checking out Mr. Mole...

Lots of crawling around.  They loved this...

Pretending to be Moles in their tunnels

Elliot even dressed up as a little Mole

So much to do and see in the Miniverset,  here we got to check out mirrors and changing shapes and sizes,  there were also some torches that Theo in particular was quite fascinated with...

Elliot was pretty impressed with all the "Elliots" he could see.

From here we found the hurricane room or the wind room and the boys were able to build structures and then test their strength when the winds or hurricane came.  This was a lot of fun, although Elliot thought that knowing the blocks over was a little more fun, and poor Theo was getting a little frustrated by it...

Poppy was the foreman and doing the supervising

The storm is coming

A willing helper

A bit of teamwork happening

We had pretty much finished checking out Miniverset and thought we had better feed the boys again before heading up to the next level.  We also thought that we should attempt to give Elliot a little sleep although proved to be useless as he was way to stimulated to even want to settle in his stroller.  So I guess we jut preserve and let the boys both have a short nap in the car when we head home.  I don't think there will be any way that we will be able to stop them having a short snooze.

After they had eaten their lunch we headed up to the next level, which had an awesome water play area with lots of hands on activities where the boy could explore different scientific principles such a buoyancy, potential energy from water, water flow, whirlpools, magnetism, bubble formations, currents, dams and so much more...  Theo was keen to explore it all, but Elliot was drawn to all the little rubber ducks that were floating in one of the cascading water activities and we was trying to collect them all.  It didn't help that older children were trying to work with the ducks in some of the whirlpool activities.  There were a couple of duck in particular that he was not going to give up for anyone and it became a bit of an issue when it was time for us to move on...

Elliot's favourite activity..  He loved all the little rubber ducks

So many fun things to do in this section

He loved those little rubber duckies..

The green one was his favourite.  He would not part with this one for anyone...

He is having a lot of fun fishing with magnets

Again we had a lot of difficulty getting the boys away from this area.  They would have happily played in this area for the rest of out time at the Experimentarium but Steve and I were keen to see what else was on offer.

From here we moved into areas that were probably more suited to children a little older than our pair, but Theo was still very interested in a lot of the hands on displays we visited, probably not so much from a scientific viewpoint but he was still having a lot of fun...

This display allowed us to look at energy and temperature levels in your body.  Steve was trying to explain what it was to Theo, but he was more interested in dancing in front of the screen and seeing the moving bodies. 

We then found a dummy which had the different organs that we could lift out of the body and check them all out.  Theo was really interested in this one and Steve was showing him the heart and telling him how it all worked.  We were trying to get him to feel his heart beat in his chest...  Elliot would have loved to get his hands on them also...

This disply also had a dummy with all the muscle areas of the body and a skeleton as well...

Both Theo and I then had some fun on a bucking bull machine...  It was extremely hard to stay upright on the seat.  A good lesson in balance and the centre of balance...

Riding the rocking bull...

So many things to have fun on...

We then moved onto a great display on shipping and how this all works.  To see it in action we loaded ball onto conveyor belts and they would go to little ships that would move around.  Both the boys love this.  They had no idea that it was a transport display it was all about their balls moving around.  Even Elliot loved this, although he would have kept the balls rather than put them on to the conveyors.

The transport and shipping model...

Theo loading his balls onto the conveyor...

Theo and Poppy sent quite a bit of time loading the aqua and orange balls and following them along their individual conveyor bells...

So engrossed with his ball....

We spent a lot of time playing in this area also, and then this led us into a ship simulator where both Steve and Theo had turns trying to steer the big ship through ocean waters, trying to avoid other big ships at sea.  There were a couple of near misses as Steve helped him steer away from other big freighters on the water..

Steering their ship whilst out at sea...

One of the other things I loved at the Experimentarium were the science shows.  I got to watch one of these shows.  The presenter was really good and got the audience involved in his display, unfortunately for me I really couldn't understand a lot of it other than the visual as it was all in Danish and my Danish is not yet good enough to pick up what they are staying when they speak so fast...

One of the many science shows that are held at the Experimentarium..

We still had a couple more levels to explore and we were fast running out of time.  By now it was mid afternoon, so we decided to head up to the next level and have a quick look before stopping in at the restaurant for a ice cream..

Another view of the beautiful Helix Staircase... 

There was so much to see on this level also and we really only had another hour before we needed to leave.  How were we going to keep the kids moving so that we can see as much as we can on this level..

A pretty colourful level of the building...

We got to visit a Winter Olympic display where they had simulators that allowed you to snowboard and ski.  Both Steve and Theo had a go, whilst I remained the official photographer..

You could see how good you could be at snowboarding..

A good ski downslopes...

Theo has a go at snowboarding..

One of the things that Theo really wanted to have a good was was target shooting. Poppy was pretty good at this and Theo was right up there with him wanting a good too...

Poppy at the shooting range..

Theo was also very keen to have a go..

So much to do and so much to see and we just have to keep moving.  I definitely think that this is a place we could come back and visit again and again and I can see why Pete was keen to get a yearly pass to visit here...

We came across a climbing wall next and Theo really impressed us with his determination to scale the height.  He came off a couple of times, and got straight back on until he managed to get to the town.  In the end, Steve gave him a bit of a hand to get there, as we knew we weren't going to keep moving without him conqueroring the wall...

Yah he did it...

The last display we got to check out was the bubbles.  These were amazing and it was a very popular area.  They also had staff on hand to show some amazing displays with the bubbles.  Steve was a big kid here too and got involved in making big bubbles.  We really were here for way too long but it was a heap of fun and even I wasn't in a hurry to keep moving...  Lots and lots of fun...

Massive bubbles

Theo enclosed in a gigantic bubble...

Having lots of fun with Poppy...

Making bubbles together

He is one big kid himself...

So much fun...

One of the Experimentarium staff members showing some amazing things with bubbles...

We had promised the boys an ice cream before we headed home.  The best treat you give Theo is an ice cream.  In fact if you suggest a treat for him, all he wants you to do is take him to get an ice cream.  He is so easy to please.  By now it was almost 5pm and we really needed to get going.  We realized by now though, that we wouldn't get home in time to see Pete and Maria before they headed off on their night away...

Ice creams before we head home..

Whilst Elliot was finishing his ice cream, Steve and Theo had some fun with a few mirrors that were up in the restaurant. 

 One last look at the very impressive Helix Staircase. It really is a standout at the Experimentarium and you cannot help to be impressed by the size of it all...

Having a stroller with us, we weren't able to use the staircase and we needed to take the lift up to each level.  Maybe next time we can come without the stroller and walk it instead.

We will need to come again as we didn't even get up onto the roof this visit..  The rooftop has a lot of hands on open air activities.  You can only access it though from Spring to Fall and it is closed during the winter months.

Fortunately we are coming back in Summer next year so we might start from the roof next time and make our way down to the ground floor.

We were barely out of the carpark when the boys fell asleep, and they slept most of the way home.  This was probably not a good sign for us, as it meant they would not be ready for bed until quite late...

Bath time is always a bit of a drama with Theo, he really doesn't like having his bath or shower so as we were the only ones home with him tonight, we had to think of a novel way to get him in and out of the bath rather quickly.

We decided that we would have a movie night with treats and a picnic dinner on the lounge floor with the boys whilst we watched a movie.  This worked for us like a treat and we had no hassles at all getting Theo through his bath.  It probably did help that he had a bit of a sleep on the way home and was feeling quite refreshed and eager to help.

Whilst Steve got them through the bath, I made a platter of food for their dinner.  We had bought some chicken nuggets and some chips which I quickly cooked in the oven, whilst I chopped up some fruit from them to eat as well.  Pete had left the picnic rug out as we were able to set it up on the floor.

The boys love being able to have their dinner in there as Pete and Maria are very strict about them sitting up at the table for their meals.  (We did get permission from both Pete and Maria to hold our picnic before they left for their night away..

Our movie night picnic on the

Pete and Theo enjoying their first movie night

Elliot enjoying a movie whilst he eats his dinner

I think our movie night with the boys was a huge success.  We were a little late starting the movie but because they had slept for a good 45 minutes on the drive home, we knew that they wouldn't be in a hurry to go to bed.  

Theo was keen for desert and we surprised the boys with another ice block.  I mean what are grandparents for, but to spoil their grandchildren..

Enjoying their deserts.

The day has been a huge success.  We had a wonderful time with the boys at the Experimentarium and they were both so well behaved.  Then tonight, there were no issues with bath time, they loved their Movie night and they went to bed without any dramas what so ever.  So blessed.   We did wonder if they would get upset at bed time when Pete and Maria weren't there.

We decided to sleep up in Pete and Maria's room tonight just in case the boys stirred at all during the evening.  They would normally wander into Pete or Maria and we wanted to be close by to hear them, which we wouldn't have been able to do from our end of the house...    We needn't have worried, the boys both slept soundly throughout the night and didn't wake until after 7am the following morning.  We have had the best day with them, and are so thankful to Pete and Maria for allowing us the privileged of looking after the boys for a night whilst they had a little get away...