Lowes & Battleship New Jersey

Today was a no workout day, but a fun play day. We started off by taking the kids to Lowe's for their FREE (yes I said FREE) Build and Grow program. It's a free clinic for kids where they get to build a wooden project and all supplies are provided. You just need to sign up on their site online and many times the slots fill up fast. The kids even get a free apron, goggles, and a certificate and patch when finished. 

Today's project was Turbo the snail.

My 5 year old really enjoyed hammering. 

The boys with their finished products!

 Turbo the Snail. And he moves!

I enjoy the projects as it's something different for the boys to do. Some parts you will probably have to do for them (depending on the child's age), so it can be fun for the adults as well. Just make sure you align the parts together correctly or you may have an upset child (speaking from experience) ;). 

Other highlight today was visiting the Battleship New Jersey in Camden. I like to take advantage of the Free Museum Passes at our library and the Battleship New Jersey was one we had not yet visited. I'm not sure about other libraries but the ones in our area (Mercer County Library in NJ) provide free museum passes, which is pretty awesome! Might want to check out your local library to see if they have free museum passes, because it is a great resource, especially if you want to save money!

Visiting the Battleship was pretty neat! It was really cool to learn about the Battleship and explore inside it. We got to see a lot of the rooms and what is in a Battleship.

It is a big ship!

Life preserver and Big guns!

Lots of stairs that you go up and down throughout the ship. The Kiddos enjoyed those parts but have to be careful.

It was neat to see sleeping quarters. I found it interesting to see the differences in sleeping quarters by rank.

I'm not sure what it was, but the kiddos really enjoyed following the red line and yellow lines, since they were what we were to follow for the self guided tour. It's always funny to see what they are excited about because what they like can be such silly things.

We saw the command center.

 In some of the areas, they had mannequins of sailors doing their jobs. It was nice as it gave you an idea of what it looked like when the ship was in operation. 

 The Battleship had a barber shop!

 My 5 year old in the Brig. For those that don't know what a Brig is, it's the military term for a jail/prison.

 Helicopter

 On Deck

We got an awesome view of Philadelphia from the Battleship!

It was a great experience seeing the Battleship! The Kiddos enjoyed it and I thought it was great to see and learn about the ship. It made me think of my dad since he was in the Navy and spent time on a Aircraft Carrier. 

Have you ever been on a Navy ship? What did you think of it?