Crayola Experience

On Black Friday, instead of shopping, we headed out to Pennsylvania to go to the Crayola Experience. We drive past there almost every time we go to NJ, but had never had a chance to go. Evan's mom had heard that it was completely redone earlier this year, so she thought it would be a fun time to go. Great call! 

The factory was a blast. Each admission ticket gets 6 coins; with each coin you can "purchase" something. We pooled our coins together for the kids, and had PLENTY of them for the duration of the trip.
 We started out with a quick 5-10 minute talk/show where we learned about how crayons are made. The kids then got to print their own crayon labels and wrap up brand new crayons! We then headed over to where they could make their own markers.

The kids took their new markers and some Crayola Model Magic (similar to play-doh) to tables nearby to sculpt and color.

We then headed into a coloring room, where we printed custom coloring pages (you can just make out the kids' faces on Natalie's sheet in the pic below), and colored them.

Then it was over to the "Art Alive" room, where you can bring your drawings alive on a big wall screen! You color on an iPad (Natalie, Henry, Evan, and Lynn are doing so below), and then it gets transferred up onto a giant wall.

In clockwise order, starting upper left: my unicorn, Evan's wizard, Henry's knight, and Natalie's fairy.

We then went out and had some lunch, and returned to the next floor of the attraction. We started with a giant 80 foot water table.

Then headed to the giant indoor playground. Henry didn't feel comfortable going into it by himself, so while Natalie climbed and played, Henry spent some time coloring, cutting, and gluing. Here he is using twistable crayons - they were really cool!

We then went to the "Doodle in the Dark" room, which I think was my favorite place! The room was mostly dark; on two walls were backlit glow boards where the kids could draw. Natalie immediately made her name in very fancy letters (left), while Henry very carefully started coloring in different colors (right).

 

 In the glow room, on the other side, was a motion capture area. You had to stand in a very specific location, and the motion capture wasn't perfect, but we all had a TON of fun playing with the animations!

Then it was up to the 4th and final floor. This floor was much hotter, as it mostly dealt with melted crayons. First we did some drip art; you can see both of the kids' completed spin projects to the left of the spinner (Red: Natalie, Yellow: Henry).

The kids then got to pick a crayon color and a mold, and a machine melted that crayon into a specific shape. Henry made a worm, and Natalie made a ring. They were fascinated by the fact that you could color with them afterwards!

The final melted crayon display were different tanks containing specific colors of melted crayon; below, Natalie is at the "blue" tank. Each color of crayon had a paint brush inserted, so the kids could paint with the melted crayon wax. I thought this was really cool!

Then, last stop was the gift shop. This wall of crayons was amazing. We quickly agreed to let the kids fill up a tin with crayons of their choice - as many as will fit in the tin are yours for one price! We had so much fun picking out our favorites. There's nothing like brand new crayons!