BV1: The Crayola Factory

Outside the Crayola Factory

Let me preface this blog entry by saying that my mother is a retired art teacher. Furthermore, she was Art Director of the South Country School District for over a decade. Mom has always wanted to work for Binney & Smith (the Crayola company) as a product demonstrator.. She was totally stoked to go to the Crayola Factory. Honestly, I think she was more excited to go to the Crayola Factory than the kids!

The kids & their new friend, Big Red

My kids love art. They love being creative. They are only three, but since Gramma was an art teacher, they have already been exposed to pretty much every art medium there is: sculpture, painting, drawing, watercolors, fingerpaint, you name it. My kids are really creative, which is wonderful (especially since I can only draw mutant stick figures). I honestly thought that the Crayola Factory was going to be just that-- A factory where they made all Crayola items. I thought there might be a tour and some samples, maybe spend an hour or two there.  Boy, was I wrong!



Gramma and Catherine at the coloring station.

When you first see the Crayola Factory, it doesn't look like much. It looks like part of a building with crayons falling off the roof (see photo above). Inside, however, you will find three floors of colorful fun. There are all sorts of different work stations where visitors can do Crayola crafts, a demonstration area on how crayons are made, a mini-museum, vending machines (which contain art supplies, not candy), a play area and a lot more. The kids went nuts over it. My husband says that it was his favorite part of our vacation.



Charlie coloring a masterpiece.

What was really cool about the Crayola Factory was that the admission price ($9.25 with AAA) included some handy-dandy paper bags to hold all of your Crayola creations that you made while visiting the Crayola Factory. My kids made paper bag puppets, construction paper disco balls, watercolor paper ties, colored pictures, sculptures and had a blast doing everything. We could have spent the entire day there, but were there for maybe three hours. We arrived at about 2:00 and the Factory closed at 5:00. next time, we will get there early, leave for lunch, and return afterwards.

Hershey's Ice Cream at Ice Cream Junction

Afterwards, we really wanted to go to the Purple Cow Creamery for some ice cream. Unfortunately, it is closed on Mondays. We found a great place, Ice Cream Junction, about three miles away and took the kids there. The prices were great, the ice cream (especially the chocolate peanut butter shake I had) was fantastic, and there was a model train set up in the window that my kids loved. It was the perfect ending to the perfect day.