Make a Messterpiece, Revisited and Reviewed

We have mostly been lounging around during Spring Break. It is a bit cold so we can't do much outside and don't want to pay to do much inside, so lounging it is. I do intend to eventually head over to the Recplex for some free swimming and skating but so far, nope, just lounging.

Well, until today's little excursion. Me and my friend, Amy are always trying to get together and it is so hard to get our schedules to sync up. We are in the same ward, but live an hour apart, each on the extreme borders of the ward boundaries. It is hard to meet up during the week with school and our husbands' work schedules, and Amy works weekends so those are tough too. Sunday is about the only day that works so we try to do Sunday dinner when we can but even that is hard because her husband is on the High Council so he is only around on 1st and 5th Sundays. Sometimes it is months between outside of church visits but we love to hang out with them so when we found out that our school districts both had the same Spring Break we knew we had to get together.

The original plan was to go to the Botanical Gardens but it has been in the 40's this week so we opted for something indoors. Luckily Amy found a fun kids place called Make a Messterpiece in Glenview, Il (North Chicago) and off we went. My review of the place is going to be mixed but my review of the day is TWO THUMBS UP! Love hanging out with Amy!

Make A Messterpiece is a kids art studio with several different project stations. Great idea, right? Love the idea and the name, but there are some flaws with the execution. First of all, for any locals who are curious, the place is way overpriced. Admission is $10 per kid but that only gets you access to the painting tables and play place, which is one slide and a playhouse. To get access to two other areas it is $15 and for access to the whole place? $22. I personally feel like the price should be more comparable to that of a Children's Museum, so $10-$12, all inclusive.

But whatever, we got gouged at the cash register and headed in. We started at the kitchen where we were told the kids would make a smoothie. In reality they sat at a table and learned about the ingredients in the smoothie while an employee came around and measured each ingredient and added it to their cup. We were kind of disappointed that they did not get to make anything themselves, but they loved their smoothies. All it was was 1/2 cup of each, milk, pineapple juice and orange juice, a scoop of crushed pineapple and a scoop of brown sugar but Alex loved it so much that he asked Seth to go buy the ingredients on his way home from work so he could make them at home.

Our next stop was the experimentation station where they did a shaving cream/food coloring experiment about clouds.

We painted pictures with colored bubbles at Bubbleology. The kids really enjoyed this station but unfortunately you were only given one piece of paper and had to pay $5 to add another one so they just kept adding bubbles to the front and back of their papers all day long.

The kids...Alyssa, Kaylee, Chloe, Alex and Aiden...and their bubble projects.

The other favorite station was Drum Roll, where the kids suited up in head-to-toe rain gear and played drums that spray water color paint all over the place.

Kaylee, Alyssa and Alex headed in but Aiden and Chloe said no way...

I was happy to see Chloe suit up and change her mind once she saw the kids go in since I had paid for her to drum.

We took a break and walked to Potbelly's for lunch (LOVE) and then headed back for the rest of the stations.

We made seed bombs to take home and throw in the yard.

Painted in the free paint area. Chloe at the easels...

Alyssa and Kaylee on the windows. Yes, you were allowed to paint on the windows.

Alex was making a cardboard airplane for the cardboard city and Aiden was making a helicopter for the same display. Alex never finished and I saw him pass it on to another kid to finish when we left but Aiden was happy to pose with his finished copter.

And even though I laughed at the itty bitty play place, the kids played in that little house for about an hour, while we sat in the adjoining baby room (Amy has a one year old little boy and I didn't manage to get a single picture with him in it).

At about 3:00 the kids were Messterpieced out so we went down the street to a nice little park. We hit a high of 50 degrees today and I was a little cold but the kids were in short sleeves and thought it was a perfect way to end the day. I decided to keep my camera out of the kids faces for awhile but I did get one shot of Chloe, because she asked me to.

In the end, the kids loved Make a Messterpiece and I would recommend it for littler kids. The age recommendation is 2-12 but I don't think kids over 10 would be too interested. It is really cute and lots of hand on fun for the kids. Amy and I both agreed that we enjoyed many things about it but that it was probably a one time experience type place. Although, they do change their stations often so maybe...but if I went back I would look for an online deal or coupon or something so I guess my biggest complaint would just be that the price was too high for what you get.

But look at this little ding-dong. You can tell they were happy, happy, happy to be there.

This bell didn't have a ringer in it and the kids thought it was so funny to ring it and not have any sound come out but apparently Chloe thought sticking her head up under it seemed like even more fun. Cute, cute, cute!

FYI: For my local friends...Amy informed me that this Saturday is a free day at the Milwaukee Zoo. Seth just reminded me that he has trainings, Stake Conference and other such churchishness all day Saturday so I don't think the zoo will happen for us, but I thought I'd pass the word along, in case any other freebie lovers are looking for something to do this weekend.