We were planning to take Connor to the zoo on the Good Friday holiday, however, on the way to the zoo we changed our mind because of the rainy weather. Instead, we decided to spend the day indoors at the Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center. It was Ev’s first there and the last time I had taken Connor, he couldn’t even walk yet. Thus, I was really excited to take Connor again now that he is a little older and more mobile.
Admission to the discovery center for Kamaaina is $8 per person, and our visit cost $24 for our family of 3. A bit pricey, but I think it was worth the price. Connor had a blast.
We started our visit in the Rainforest Adventures room, which has a large water area and an area reserved for children under 3 years old. The last time we visited the Discovery Center, we spent most of our time in the Rainforest Adventures room because it had the most age appropriate activities for Connor at the time.
During our last visit, Connor was too short to reach over the side of the water table, but he was just tall enough to reach over the edge this time. Connor loved playing with the water, and could have probably stayed in this room for the entire time that we were there at the Discovery Center. After about 40 minutes of playing with the water, we ended up pulling him away from the water because we wanted Connor to have a chance to play with the other exhibits.
The Discovery Center is surprisingly big. In addition to the Rainforest Adventure’s room, there are two floors of exhibits in the main room. On the first floor there are areas entitled Fantastic You, Your Town, and Tot Spot. In the fantastic you area children learn about different parts of the body such as the eyes, mouth, and nose. In the Your Town area, there are rooms where children can use their imagination and pretend they have different jobs in the community.
For example, one room was decorated like a doctor’s office where children can pretend to be a doctor or nurse, another room looked like the inside of a bus and children can pretend to be a driver or pretend they are riding a bus, a doctor/nurse, etc. Connor was too young to appreciate most of the exhibits in the Fantastic You and we skipped the Your Town area but I look forward to coming again when he’s a little older.
We did spend some time in the Tot Spot area, which is for children 5 years or younger. The Tot Spot area had a boat and a “fishing pond” area where you could pretend to go fishing with a fishing pole and wooden fish.
The first floor also had a reading room with bookshelves with a bunch of children’s books, an area with a pretend fireplace, and this gigantic chair.
This room was a nice quite area away from the madness of the other exhibits. And we took some time to read Connor a few short children’s books. I really enjoy sitting in the overly large chair. It made me feel little again.
After the reading room, we went upstairs, where there are two themed areas entitled Your Rainbow World and Hawaiian Rainbows. We didn’t spend any time in the Your Rainbow World section because Connor was too young to fully understand these exhibits, but the Your Rainbow World area is broken into exhibits each exploring a different culture.
The Hawaiian Rainbows area has exhibits exploring old and modern Hawaii. To be honest, I think the old Hawaii plantation exhibits were a little strange. For instance, there’s an exhibit where you can dress up in plantation style clothing and pick up plastic pineapples off the ground. The area also has a bunch of plastic/wax-like mannequins that I don’t care for. I have no idea why, but Connor was fascinated with this mannequin with the ukulele. He just stood there looking and babbling to the mannequin for a very long time.
Overall, it was a fun day with the family and a great place to visit on a rainy day. I’m glad Connor was able to play in a few more areas this time, but he’s still a little too young to fully appreciate most of the exhibits at the Discovery Center. Perhaps we’ll consider buying a family annual pass in a few years, but for now we’ll stick to visiting the center a few times a year.
Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center
Hours (Closed on Mondays)
Tuesday through Friday…..9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday……10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Admission Cost
General Admission ……………………..$10.00
Kama’aina & Military (w/ I.D)…………$8.00
Senior Citizens (62+ w/ I.D.)…………$6.00
Children under 1 …………………………Free
Our Easter festivities started with dinner with my family (mom, two aunties and their respective families) on the Saturday night before Easter. My mom was leaving for Las Vegas on Easter Sunday so our family Easter dinner was moved to Saturday instead. Every year we dye an obscene amount of eggs, and this year was no exception (as seen above, we dyed about 4 dozen this year). Here are some my favorite eggs of the year :
On Sunday morning, Connor got to open his Easter basket from the Easter bunny. The basket included a Mr. Potato Head, a 80 pack of Easter stickers, 4 Easter eggs with temporary tattoos, a find and seek book, a pinwheel, and a box of Fig Newtons.
After breakfast, we went to church at the New Hope Manoa Christian Fellowship Church, which conducts its service in the Mid Pack Institute’s auditorium. This was Ev’s first time ever to church so that was pretty noteworthy in itself.
After the service, the church organized an Easter Egg hunt for all the children. The hunt was divided into 4 age groups. Connor was in the 1-3 year old category and there was only 4 other kids in his age division so he had a lot of space. As soon as they yelled go, Connor ran straight to the middle of the field, ignoring all of the eggs.
Connor got his fill of running around and then we got him to pick up a few Easter eggs.
After the Easter egg hunt, Connor got a super cute balloon dog that lasted about a week and a half before we had to throw it away. For a while, the air slowly deflated out of the balloons in a proportional manner, so the dog started getting smaller and smaller until finally, the nose deflated entirely.
We enjoyed bento lunches and fruit popsicles in the cafeteria, and then we went home. Overall, Connor had so much fun at the Easter egg hut with his cousins. Connor gave his cousins a bag-full of candy and came home with a bucket-full of plastic eggs.
