Happy Birthday Barbie!: 2009

Toy & Miniature Museum of Kansas City

5235 Oak Street Kansas City, MO 64112, 816.333.9328

Museum Hours: Wed. – Sat: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.; Sunday: 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Admission: Adults $7, Seniors (65+) $6, Students (full-time) $6, Children (5-12)* $5, Children under 5* FREE

    Last weekend, my mother and I took my daughters to the Toy and Miniature Museum for the opening of the new Barbie Exhibit (on display through July 4, 2011). The Original Barbie was one of mom's most special Christmas presents. She kept her in a small case (about the size of a shoebox) with outfits and played with her in the Barbie Dream House made of cardboard.

    I also loved Barbie as a girl and the Town House, complete with an elevator, was my favorite Christmas gift ever! My collection included Barbie's horses, Corvette, Ice Cream Parlor, remote control Scooter, and more dolls and outfits than I can count.

    When I learned I was having my first little girl, I purchased a Peter Rabbit Barbie for her nursery and each of my girls have the Holiday Barbie from their birth year.

    Barbie truly is a toy for all generations in our family and my oldest daughter was very excited to find grandma's Barbies, several of my Barbies, AND her own Barbies (they had her Peter Rabbit doll on display!) at the Toy & Miniature Museum's exhibit celebrating 50 Years of America's Favorite Doll.

    The exhibit included Barbies from all eras, Barbie games, toys and memorabilia and Barbie Trivia (do you know which city she calls home?). My daughter went from doll to doll asking my mom and I if we'd played with that particular Barbie, what our Barbies were like, how they were dressed, and why grandma's doll didn't bend and ride horses like mine.

    We left the museum with inquiries about our other childhood toys and a little girls' delight to know that her parents and grandparents also loved paper dolls, dollhouses, marbles, and playing kitchen. She expressed deep sympathy for her daddy and I that we did not have a VSmile (still not understanding at the ripe old age of four that VSmile did not exist for us).

    Beyond Barbie, the Toy and Miniature Museum also features a wonderful Marble exhibit with an electric marble track that fascinates my toddler, room upon room of dollhouses where you are gauranteed to discover something new with every visit (we've been to the museum three or four times this year, and my daughter was still delighted to find miniature frogs and milkshakes in dollhouses she hadn't noticed before), dolls (we all share a common Raggedy Ann bond in our family as well), and the train room (my husband's favorite) with a train circling the ceiling creating dizziness for my fascinated two year old who spun around watching it.