Fort Worth Museum of Science and History in Fort Worth, TX

The Fort Worth museum of Science and History is the kind of place you can spend the whole day at and never see it all.  We had fun exploring everything from weather to dinosaurs. 

The part of the museum called the "Children's Museum" is a must-see for kids.  Inside this exhibit are reptile and amphibians to see, a water station, train station, play grocery store, play hospital, and more.  This area alone is something the kids will want to spend hours in.

The dinosaur exhibit includes recreated skeletons, real fossils, and tons of fun facts and hands-on projects.

The Cattle Raisers Museum area has play horses to ride.  There is even a simulated horse ride!

Energy Blast exhibit is for the older kids and adults really.  It includes a short video about energy and a model city.  My kids are young, so this was there least favorite exhibit.

Now through September 3, 2012, there is a mobile exhibit called Grossology.  It is an exhibit that teaches children about why are bodies do some of the gross things they do.  This includes burping, gas, vomit and more.  It is fun and interesting, so I highly recommend you visit before the exhibit is over. 

There are laser shows, movies, and a planetarium, in case you want to check those out when you are there.

Cost:

Child: $12

Adult: $16

End of the Month Giveaway #2: Ripley's Combo Tickets!

I hope you have enjoyed hearing about Ripley's Believe it or Not, Wax Museum, and the Mirror Maze.  There is one more attraction you will find in this one building that I want to tell you about.  It is called Impossible Laser Race.  The Laser Race is extremely complicated for most people that aren't double-jointed.  Basically, you must try to make it from one end of the room to the other without hitting any lasers.  You are, also, timed, so you are trying to beat the clock, too. 

This month's giveaway is combo tickets to Ripley's!  That means you can get into all 4 attractions free of charge!!  I hope you will have as much fun there as we did.  Now, let's get this giveaway rolling...

Here are the details of what is being given away:

2 Combo tickets for all 4 attractions valued at $29.99 each (for a 59.98 value)!

I have a total of 6 tickets to giveaway, so 3 lucky people will get 2 tickets each!  To enter, comment on a blog post, put some of our posts on your Facebook page or pin them on Pinterest.  Then, leave a comment on this post letting us know what you did.  You can get as many as 5 entries per day until the drawing on July 10th, 2012.  For those dedicated readers who come back daily and make sure to get all 5 entries per day, you bump your odds of winning but you may even win more than one pair of tickets if your name is chosen twice from the raffle.  I know some of you have bigger families, so enter as often as possible. 

Good luck!

Ripley's Believe It or Not in Grand Prairie, TX

While on a hunt for the weird, quirky, and unusual, we headed to Ripley's in Grand Prairie.  We found plenty of odd inventions like the rocking chair shown that rocks itself.  It was actually for sale many years ago.  Very odd!

A vest made from human hair... anyone interested in wearing that one? 

People never stop being odd, and because of this, Ripley started traveling the world looking for the oddest of the odd.  Several of these items were added to the Odditorium in Grand Prairie for the enjoyment of the public.

We had a good time looking at how far humanity has come compared to 100 years ago.  The strange people were interesting as well.  We saw many things you would never find anywhere else.

Cost:

Adult (age 13 and up)= $16.99*

Child (age 4-12)= $8.99*

Child 3 and under= FREE

*There are 3 other attractions at this location so there are bundling pricing options as well. I will be posting about the other 2 attractions over the next few days.  You can see the wax museum that I posted about yesterday here,

**All opinions expressed herein are my own, and I have not received any monetary or other gift for a positive review. We were invited to spend the day at the 4 attractions expenses paid, and we have been given tickets for a giveaway! The tickets will be given away this month, so stay tuned!

Palace of Wax in Grand Prairie, TX

The Palace of Wax is a museum filled with over 200 life-like wax characters.  As you can see by the pictures, they have many different types of wax characters.  There are politicians, historical characters, movie stars, talk show hosts, storybook characters, religious figures, etc. 

We enjoyed our visit.  The figures look so real that my youngest got scared by a few.  You could spend a lot of time in this museum looking at all of the details.  I wish I could have stayed longer.  I really enjoyed it.  My youngest was anxious to get away from the wax people because they were too life-like.  If I had gone without her, I would have spent more time enjoying the art work.  It is really incredible!

Cost:

Adult (age 13 and up)= $16.99*

Child (age 4-12)= $8.99*

Child 3 and under= FREE

 *There are 3 other attractions at this location so there are bundling pricing options as well.  I will be posting about the other 3 attractions over the next few days.

**All opinions expressed herein are my own, and I have not received any monetary or other gift for a positive review.  We were invited to spend the day at the 4 attractions expenses paid, and we have been given tickets for a giveaway!   The tickets will be given away this month, so stay tuned!

Heard Museum in McKinney, TX

The Heard Museum in Mckinney is a mixture of zoo, preserve and museum in one.  One of the most exciting features about the Heard is their Animals of the World exhibit.  This exhibit features animals such as the Capybara, the Macaw, the Cockatoo, the mongoose, the opossum, the raccoon, the lemur, the deer and more!  During the year, they have child friendly events where you can even meet the animals up close. 

Starting June 1 until September 30, a beautiful butterfly garden comes to life!  This exhibit is worth the visit all by itself.  The butterflies are plentiful and fun to watch flutter around.  Some are inside a mesh enclosure and others are outside of the mesh with the rest of the garden.  The flowers are gorgeous when in bloom, and you can usually get some pretty good photos in this area. 

The kids like the dinosaur dig that is found inside the museum.  It is like a gigantic sand box.  In the Summer there are plenty of "friends" to play with.

Starting October 2 and running until February 3, Dinosaur Live comes back to the Heard.  This is a great exhibit for dinosaur lovers.  There are enormous animated dinosaurs all over the trails on the outside of the museum.  The T-Rex is 46 feet tall!  I don't want to spoil the fun for you, but one of the dinosaurs will be ready to surprise you, so watch out!! 

Many families come to the Heard just for the nature trails.  There are a total of 8 nature trails around the museum.  Along the way there are birds, squirrels, ducks, and other wildlife to spot.  You can really burn calories here as many of the trails are many miles long. 

Cost:

Adults= $9

Children ages 3-12= $6

Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, TX

There is so much to see and do at the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas. If you want to take it all in, you really need to make more than one visit.

Right now through September 16, they have the Planet Shark which is a full exhibit of shark facts and findings. I printed off the educational material that you can find on their web-site about sharks, and used that to teach my kids as we went through the exhibit.

Another cool exhibit they have going on right now is the Magic School Bus exhibit. This is an exhibit based on the book series. This exhibit focuses on weather and meteorology. A story on weather will be read once a month on Saturdays starting at 10:30am. The next reading will be June 23.

The Dino Dig is always a big hit with all of the kids. It is an over-sized sand box full of fossils to discover. There are brushes and pans to help the kids get the job done.

This museum has a planetarium and an IMAX theater. The showings change every few months, so check their web-site to see what is showing on the day you plan to go.

Cost:

The cost varies so much that I will direct you to their cost table here

Don't forget to enter to win 2 general admission tickets to the museum here! 

End of the Month Giveaway #1

Welcome to our first-ever giveaway for North Texas Activities!!  I am so excited to be able to offer tickets to the Dallas Museum of Science and Nature!!  This is the museum that is in Fair Park.  I will be blogging about the museum tomorrow...

In the meantime, we are going to have a little fun!  I am offering 2 general admission tickets to the museum (a $20 value).  One lucky winner will be drawn from Rafflecopter on May 31.  That means you have from now until May 30 to rack up your entries!  You can receive 5 entries per day for a total of 25 entries, plus one extra entry for signing up to follow the blog. 

To enter the Giveaway, simply click on this link a Rafflecopter giveaway Good Luck!!

National Cowgirl Museum in Fort Worth, TX

For all things cowgirl, you have to visit the Cowgirl Museum in Fort Worth.  There is nothing like it that I have ever seen.  The whole building is packed with history and facts about the American cowgirl.  You will be in cowgirl heaven! 

The things that I found most interesting were the old t.v., the jukeboxes with songs from the past, the black and white movie, and the jewel covered cowgirl saddles.  The girls liked the bucking horse they got to ride.

The best time to visit the Cowgirl Museum is during the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo.  If you visit during January or February, you can get in free to this museum with the purchase of the stock show ticket!!

Price:

Adult: $10

Child 3-12: $8

Child under 3: FREE

*Get 1/2 price admission to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History with paid admission to the Cowgirl Museum

*Get free admission with the purchase of FW Stock Show paid admission!