On July 19th and 20th the Armstrong Air & Space museum in the small town of Wapakoneta, Ohio  put on the Summer Moon Festival celebrating the 45th anniversary of the first lunar landing.

Chad the girls and I met up with my friend Erin and her daughter and made the trip.   It took us about and hour and a half to get there so we made sure to stop to eat lunch before we went over.  There were plenty of places to eat and you could see the Astro Theater from the road! We couldn’t miss it !

  We went in and the kids were immediately drawn to Orbit Table it shows you how the moon and artificial satellites maintain orbit around the earth.   The girls thought it was like an air hockey table (-:  

Dad of two peas made a friend….

Two Peas plus one ….who is tall enough to go to space???

 

The girls had a fun scavenger hunt to do for the Festival, they loved reading about everything to searching for the answers.  Erin and Dylan the most!  The could do a scavenger hunt every where they go….Challenge accepted!  

Future astronaut in there??

The Gemini capsule Neil Armstrong’s first ship~

 

Mr. Armstrong’s Gemini Space Suit….why is this Museum named after Neil Armstrong and have all his memorabilia?? Because Wapakoneta is the birthplace of the first man to step foot on the moon.   ” The museum opened on July 20, 1972, just the third anniversary of the lunar landing. The museum itself is designed to resemble a futuristic moon base. It is most beautiful when viewed at dusk and night.”  – Museum Brochure  

You have to check everything out…but sorry Py you can’t go through that door….

Photo ops a plenty!

Hey what’s in there????

Mr. Armstrong’s Apollo 11 suit!

Hey are you allowed to touch that??

Something in there must have been shocking!

The walk way to the Astro Theater was beautiful, Phoebe called the theater the moon room AHHHHMAZING !

The photographs alone are enough to get you to the museum but learning about them even better.

Captains !

The shop was packed full of the coolest things, of course we bought books, stickers and postcards

Walking out to the rest of the festival was the wall of all Ohio born Astronauts.  That was awesome who knew how many of them were from here!

Outside the Ohio Connection had quite the set up of fun for the kids (and adults!)

The littlest pea stuck to the inflatables since she was just shy of age to do that moon walk the older girls did.

 

The moon walk!

  Over the hill from all the inflatables, the jump thing and the rocket launch were the tents with animals, NASA, jugglers, book readings from Ohio authors and crafts.

Look at all those tents, just full of fun!

NASA was here they showed Py how far you can jump in space!  Gave us stickers and some sweet pictures of the Ohio Astronauts and shuttles too!

NASA printed out pictures of the girls in space!

We saw and pet animals that have been sent into space….not these guys but the breeds (-: 

Made Twirly Birds …

Played Twirly birds!

A book reading by the author Meaghan Fisher.

She signed a book for the Phoebes.

We met Author David Crawford, and had his book Delta G signed for Uncle Fred, he loves Sci Fi!  Mr. Crawford spoke to us for awhile about his book I can’t wait to read it.   You can find it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Played a little corn hole…

Waited patiently for Face Paint….

Round bubbles out of a triangle, yep!

See !

Can’t leave without face paint! Sun, Moon and Stars noooooo  not a Star but a Smiley Face LOL! (there is always that one kid!)

Some last minute photo ops!

   

We had a great time and can not wait to go ahead, be sure to check their website for the movie they will be playing when you go or for any special events coming up like this festival!

For My Scout friends, this place is awesome for learning and earning patches. They have a wall of patches in the shop that you could use as fun patches (Girl Scouts) the Scouts could even pick their own patch if they wanted to.   Not to mention tons of things to do in town here is the brochure for the museum, it has some neat things to go and see: http://www.armstrongmuseum.org/sites/default/files/aasm_bro_2.18.11_WEB.pdf

I hope you get a chance to see this year old treasure you are guaranteed to learn something!

 

Museum Website: http://www.armstrongmuseum.org/  

Social Media Accounts:  facebook.com/ArmstrongAirSpaceMuseum   facebook.com/ohiohistoryconnection twitter.com/ohiohistory instagram.com/ohiohistory