Andalo's Clubhouse

Today we ventured out to our local children's museum in Portsmouth which, right now, is under a renovation and expansion project so, they've taken a few of the exhibits and turned them into something they call Andalo's Clubhouse. It's free for the little kids (2 and under) to enjoy and $5 for everyone else. It's pretty small and pretty rundown but the kids had fun so I guess that's all that matters. I don't think we will be going back anytime soon though, probably not until the actual children's museum is done with renovations. Parking was a butt to find, all the close parking was metered and we weren't sure about the parking garages, Portsmouth doesn't make it very clear what's legal and what's not so we parked where we knew it was okay which was a bit of a walk.

The very first room you come to is a Thomas the Tank Engine room.

Then you go through a doorway into a room for 3 and under only, this is the room the girls liked best. It is filled with a bunch of soft blocks and a pyramid thing but nothing really special about it, we spent at least and hour and a half in there. There is nobody watching the room so if an older kid does go in (which there were quite a few) the 3 and under rule isn't enforced.

This was my favorite part. They have a few imaginary places set up (a bank, grocery store, library) and the kids can have fun being a banker or cashier etc. The grocery store was the best, Lexi kept stealing pieces of bread and running away and Charlotte found the feed button on the cash register (a real one) they have and would not stop pressing it!

They had a little room that had some illusions and this contraption you put ping pong balls in. It reminded me of Plinko.

There was one more room full of some sciencey stuff, like Newton's balls made with bowling balls. They had some other stuff like the sit and reach test to see how flexible you are (Travis will be happy to say he reached to 23" which is excellent for a man his age) and also to test your reflexes (which I am happy to say I have better reflexes than Travis!) 

The last room leads you straight into the gift shop and straight out the door which is where we went! Overall I would say that if you live close, know where you can and cannot park and have kids under 2 then it would be worth $5 to go during the day so the kids can play but I don't think I would be paying $10 for me and Char to go so they can play in the one room with the soft blocks, hopefully the actual children's museum is not as big a disappointment Andalo's Clubhouse turned out to be.