She can’t stop talking about it. For the week leading up to our visit to “the crayon factory”   she had a lot of things to say.

“What are we doing on Sunday?!”

“Are we going in the white car with Mommy AND Daddy??!!”

“I think the crayon factory is a great idea!”

I showed Miriam the videos on the Crayola web page and her smile was instantaneous. What kid doesn’t love these bright, primary colors and happy families and cool arts and crafts? And then she saw it. The real live giant crayon she can hug. Miriam is a hugger. She will hug someone she’s just met if she likes their vibe. She must’ve said “I want to hug that blue crayon!” thirty-five times between Wednesday and Sunday morning. And all my husband I could think was “Oh, God, I really hope there’s a blue crayon for her to hug.”

And Crayola did not disappoint. In any department. For the adults, it was stress free driving with clearly marked signs for parking and how to get in. I’ll admit that sometimes we just can’t figure out how to get in someplace!! It was a straight shoot down the highway for us until we saw the pretty very Pennsylvania-looking steel bridge. The cute town of Easton made me say “Oh, I want to live here!” It reminded me of my five years I spent in Lambertville, PA. My ‘living in a postcard days’ as I like to call them.

There were lockers and bathrooms and a well organized, fast moving line. And when the line got a little backed up with questions, I was happy to see more employees appear quickly to keep it moving.

Miriam is four and a half. We are very realistic with knowing we may not always see as much as we want to when we go somewhere. Because, hey, guess what? Kids are unpredictable. Yeah, earth shattering news, I know. So we started slowly and did a little divide and conquer. My husband went to survey the ‘lay of the land’ and I brought Miriam immediately to the small play area she spotted.

We got some of that “OMG I’ve been in the car for a whole hour” energy out and we then we moved on to the ‘make and name your own crayon’ stations. The writer in me wanted to make them more complicated than they were, of course. But we made great souvenirs with names like “Mommy’s Very Cool Brick Red” “Daddy’s Awesome Royal Purple” “Miriam’s Cutie Patootie Shocking Pink” and without hesitation, we made one for Noah…”Angel Brother Noah Sky Blue.”

 

My favorite activity was ‘Art Alive’ where you sit at a touch screen and color either a coloring page with virtual crayons or draw freehand. When you’re done, you simply ‘send’ your artwork to the giant wall! Once she got the hang of it, it was hard to drag her away.

Miriam danced with virtual crayons that mimicked her every move.

The modeling clay area was fantastic. There were plenty of places to sit even on a Sunday afternoon. Daddy got us packets of colors from the vending machine as we made friends with another family and shared the cutting tools, molds, and rollers. Of course we created our family in clay.

My husband went off to explore the other floors while Miriam and I kept playing at our clay station. When suddenly…THE HUGGABLE BLUE CRAYON APPEARED!!! Relief was my first emotion. No one wants their kids to be disappointed.

 

I was impressed by the “happy factor”. Parents loving it as much as kids and strangers communicating through arts and crafts. Crayola crayon memories are strong ones, as evidenced by ooh’ing and ahh’ing parents and grandparents in the gift shop. The sight of a vintage style tin or anything with a ‘built in sharpener!’ brought us all back instantly.

Oh and speaking of the gift shop…the prices were not bad at all. Whether we’re just used to NYC pricing or not, we were relieved to see that getting Miriam her purple crayon plush toy was not in place of a week’s supply of chicken nuggets and a new pair of shoes. There was even room in the budget for a new mug for Hal, and this fancy lollipop.

We didn’t even come close to seeing everything The Crayola Experience had to do. Miriam was a little under the weather and we decided to head off any meltdown (wax pun intended) by leaving while we were all still happy.

*The annual pass is totally the way to go if you are anywhere within 2 hours of Easton. It will pay for itself with just a few visits and the pressure of doing it all in one visit is eased.

Crayola is doing their First Ever Crayola Summer Camp this year! Oh, how I wish I could do this instead of my retail job! It sounds great!

We will be back soon to see more of what we missed on the first visit and explore Easton a little too! And if you’d like to see what all the hubbub is about and hug a crayon and get your own plush toy and even this super cool lollipop she told me not to eat (but I did anyway after she fell asleep)… KEEP READING BELOW!!!!

 

 

AND NOW THE CONTEST!!! I’m giving away a free pair of tickets (a $40 value) to TWO lucky readers!

1. Share this post on Facebook
2. Like my page Erica Landis- I’m A Writer
3. And answer this question: If you were a Crayola crayon, what color would you be and why?

Winners will be chosen sometime on July 5th. Now get sharing, liking and coloring!!!