As the calendar flipped to October, you may have been like me, wondering how did we get to this part of the year already? Summer flew by and we barreled through September with the start of school. I was exhausted as I looked ahead at gearing up for an active school year and the holidays! It turns out a quick road trip was the best medicine to recharge and refocus on what is important.
Via Twitter, I had stumbled upon the grand opening of the #DocMcStuffins temporary exhibit at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis and I immediately knew this would be the first blogger trip for the Messy Mommies. I called my blogger partners in crime, Holly and Brooke, and asked if they and their families wanted to do a quick road trip to Indy. They replied they were in! As we discussed work and school schedules, kid’s activities, and other details, I realized that our road trip would be epic. For our three families, our calendars would always be packed. But, sometimes you need to carve out a tiny bit of time to break away and recharge.
My four-year-old twins, Sophia and Stella are huge Doc McStuffins fans and the opportunity to visit the new, temporary Disney Doc McStuffins’s clinic and hospital was mind blowing for the girls. Brooke's daughter, Sofia (5) is a giant Disney fan and was excited too. My niece, Eleanora (9) and her friend Courtney (10) also love Disney and were fired up about the museum.
A good road trip needs a good goodie bag for the kids so I turned to Pinterest for inspiration. I loved our Kraft marshmallow “cotton balls” and Snyder's pretzel “Q-tips”! We had Hershey kisses for “boo-boos” and gummy Doc McStuffins “vitamins.” Party City helped me complete our doctor’s kits with awesome name badges, notepads, and pens. Holly discovered that the day of our visit to the Children’s Museum was also Talk Like a Pirate Day. The girls loved Holly’s pirate treasures! The girls were so cute in their pirate eye patches and loved eating the Pirate’s Booty! Especially my Sophia, her favorite snack!
Via Twitter, I had stumbled upon the grand opening of the #DocMcStuffins temporary exhibit at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis and I immediately knew this would be the first blogger trip for the Messy Mommies. I called my blogger partners in crime, Holly and Brooke, and asked if they and their families wanted to do a quick road trip to Indy. They replied they were in! As we discussed work and school schedules, kid’s activities, and other details, I realized that our road trip would be epic. For our three families, our calendars would always be packed. But, sometimes you need to carve out a tiny bit of time to break away and recharge.
My four-year-old twins, Sophia and Stella are huge Doc McStuffins fans and the opportunity to visit the new, temporary Disney Doc McStuffins’s clinic and hospital was mind blowing for the girls. Brooke's daughter, Sofia (5) is a giant Disney fan and was excited too. My niece, Eleanora (9) and her friend Courtney (10) also love Disney and were fired up about the museum.
A good road trip needs a good goodie bag for the kids so I turned to Pinterest for inspiration. I loved our Kraft marshmallow “cotton balls” and Snyder's pretzel “Q-tips”! We had Hershey kisses for “boo-boos” and gummy Doc McStuffins “vitamins.” Party City helped me complete our doctor’s kits with awesome name badges, notepads, and pens. Holly discovered that the day of our visit to the Children’s Museum was also Talk Like a Pirate Day. The girls loved Holly’s pirate treasures! The girls were so cute in their pirate eye patches and loved eating the Pirate’s Booty! Especially my Sophia, her favorite snack!
On a bright September Saturday morning our crew piled into our minivan with Brooke and Sofia. While we were bummed Josh had to stay back for work, we promised to update him on our adventures. Holly and her crew piled into their SUV and off we all were to Indy! We met up at Mimi Blue Meatballs for an awesome lunch. Check out Holly’s review and if you’re in Indy be sure to stop by this fabulous restaurant!
If you have young kids, you may find yourself on the children’s museum tour. I feel like the Messy Mommies are pros with all the great options in the Chicagoland area. The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis is awesome! As we turned the corner to the front of the museum and the girls saw the dinosaurs climbing into the museum they started screaming! As soon as they saw the Disney Doc Mobile parked out front Sophia and Stella went crazy!
If you are a Disney Junior fan you really should visit the Doc McStuffins temporary exhibit! The magical exhibit is a great example of the power of collaboration. Disney Junior, the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, and Riley Children's Health created a dynamic environment to help teach children health and wellness skills while having fun. For our girls, it was so cool to be able to walk into Doc’s clinic and see all their familiar friends, like Lambie and Stuffy. They immediately went into the new operating room and conducted a group surgery. The sweet nursery is exactly like the new shows which delighted the girls and the blue bubbles water station was a hot spot for kids. The highlight for our messy crew was going into hospital room where the kids received a toy that needed a checkup. Stella and Sophia had a ball taking care of Banjo the Bear and Eleanora, Courtney and Brooke took great care of their sweet puppy. The girls mended their pets and loved entering information into the iPad Big Book of Boo Boos. The Doc McStuffins visit was everything I had hoped for and so much more. As our Messy Mommy team of doctors explored, it was just magical – from watching the girls light up at familiar Disney Junior faces to the intrigue of solving the pet checkups to laughing together as we played.
For Disney Junior fans this is a must visit place! And, the great news is that the #DocMcStuffins exhibit will be traveling around the country. We also had a great time visiting the train and space exhibits, the Warriors, and scuba diving. We could have stayed for days and will be back again!
If you have young kids, you may find yourself on the children’s museum tour. I feel like the Messy Mommies are pros with all the great options in the Chicagoland area. The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis is awesome! As we turned the corner to the front of the museum and the girls saw the dinosaurs climbing into the museum they started screaming! As soon as they saw the Disney Doc Mobile parked out front Sophia and Stella went crazy!
If you are a Disney Junior fan you really should visit the Doc McStuffins temporary exhibit! The magical exhibit is a great example of the power of collaboration. Disney Junior, the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, and Riley Children's Health created a dynamic environment to help teach children health and wellness skills while having fun. For our girls, it was so cool to be able to walk into Doc’s clinic and see all their familiar friends, like Lambie and Stuffy. They immediately went into the new operating room and conducted a group surgery. The sweet nursery is exactly like the new shows which delighted the girls and the blue bubbles water station was a hot spot for kids. The highlight for our messy crew was going into hospital room where the kids received a toy that needed a checkup. Stella and Sophia had a ball taking care of Banjo the Bear and Eleanora, Courtney and Brooke took great care of their sweet puppy. The girls mended their pets and loved entering information into the iPad Big Book of Boo Boos. The Doc McStuffins visit was everything I had hoped for and so much more. As our Messy Mommy team of doctors explored, it was just magical – from watching the girls light up at familiar Disney Junior faces to the intrigue of solving the pet checkups to laughing together as we played.
For Disney Junior fans this is a must visit place! And, the great news is that the #DocMcStuffins exhibit will be traveling around the country. We also had a great time visiting the train and space exhibits, the Warriors, and scuba diving. We could have stayed for days and will be back again!
Thanks to Holly and her fabulous hotel research, we scored a great rate at the JW Marriott in Indy! The hotel was stunning and the girls loved playing in the beautiful pool after the museum. The Marriott has a great #travelbrilliantly campaign and we love the tag line. They sure helped us travel brilliantly on our road trip! Be sure to comparison shop on your next road adventure, you just may be surprised at the great deals you can find for amazing hotels with a little searching!
Tony was a champ on our Messy Mommies weekend! Matt had to work in the evening so he stayed back at the hotel. We decided to all pile into the minivan to go to dinner and Tony started playing cash cab with our messy crew. The girls were in fits of giggles as Tony asked them to name 6 Disney princesses, to name the characters in Doc McStuffins and other Disney trivia.
I had looked at several best restaurant lists in Indy and had picked a fun place for dinner with a kid friendly menu and that had cute shops in the area. While I had tried to make a reservation, the restaurant had assured me that the restaurant wait would be about 20 minutes. We had fun checking out the shops but with the packed restaurant patio we quickly realized the wait was going to be much longer. We knew the kids needed to eat sooner so Brooke pulled out her phone and booked a table immediately on Open Table with Buca Di Beppo. We jumped in the minivan and headed over. Our whole crew had not been to a Buca restaurant in a while and it was just great. We had a huge table for our group and swiftly ordered mounds of meatballs and pasta.
Since we started the day with a three-hour drive and were crazy snapping pictures and videos at the museum almost all of our devices were out of juice by the time we arrived at dinner. The girls squeezed in some fun snap chat pics before we lost power. They then asked what were we going to do in a distraught tone. Laughingly, the parents replied that we were going to all talk! The horror! Eleanora suggested we play telephone and we played for a good 20 minutes. It was hilarious and the whole table had so much fun as we whispered Disney themed messages to each other. This simple game filled with giggles was one of my favorite moments from the weekend.
Our worn out crew went back to the JW Marriott and piled into Brooke’s room for an amazing apple pie that Holly had baked. The next morning, we set off for Fairoaks Farm for another excellent adventure and were so happy that Josh met us at the farm. More about the farm adventure in another blog post.
While we were all exhausted from our whirlwind trip, we were recharged and joyful. Carloads of laughter combined with our Doc McStuffins and Indy exploration made for very happy little doctors and parents. The stress from everyday busyness had slipped away and had opened up time to focus on what is really important – friends and family. We enjoyed every moment we had together during our action packed quick adventure. Our road trip was the best medicine and I hope you take a dose soon too.
Tony was a champ on our Messy Mommies weekend! Matt had to work in the evening so he stayed back at the hotel. We decided to all pile into the minivan to go to dinner and Tony started playing cash cab with our messy crew. The girls were in fits of giggles as Tony asked them to name 6 Disney princesses, to name the characters in Doc McStuffins and other Disney trivia.
I had looked at several best restaurant lists in Indy and had picked a fun place for dinner with a kid friendly menu and that had cute shops in the area. While I had tried to make a reservation, the restaurant had assured me that the restaurant wait would be about 20 minutes. We had fun checking out the shops but with the packed restaurant patio we quickly realized the wait was going to be much longer. We knew the kids needed to eat sooner so Brooke pulled out her phone and booked a table immediately on Open Table with Buca Di Beppo. We jumped in the minivan and headed over. Our whole crew had not been to a Buca restaurant in a while and it was just great. We had a huge table for our group and swiftly ordered mounds of meatballs and pasta.
Since we started the day with a three-hour drive and were crazy snapping pictures and videos at the museum almost all of our devices were out of juice by the time we arrived at dinner. The girls squeezed in some fun snap chat pics before we lost power. They then asked what were we going to do in a distraught tone. Laughingly, the parents replied that we were going to all talk! The horror! Eleanora suggested we play telephone and we played for a good 20 minutes. It was hilarious and the whole table had so much fun as we whispered Disney themed messages to each other. This simple game filled with giggles was one of my favorite moments from the weekend.
Our worn out crew went back to the JW Marriott and piled into Brooke’s room for an amazing apple pie that Holly had baked. The next morning, we set off for Fairoaks Farm for another excellent adventure and were so happy that Josh met us at the farm. More about the farm adventure in another blog post.
While we were all exhausted from our whirlwind trip, we were recharged and joyful. Carloads of laughter combined with our Doc McStuffins and Indy exploration made for very happy little doctors and parents. The stress from everyday busyness had slipped away and had opened up time to focus on what is really important – friends and family. We enjoyed every moment we had together during our action packed quick adventure. Our road trip was the best medicine and I hope you take a dose soon too.