**In 2022 the Playhouse Children’s Museum was sold and changed name to the Piney Town Playhouse under new ownership. Click here for our updated review.**

Are you looking for an indoor play place to beat the heat? The Playhouse Children’s Museum in Fuquay-Varina is a great spot to let your children’s imagination run wild! They can pretend to be doctors, construction workers, firefighters, and car mechanics in their very own kid-sized city!

The Playhouse Children’s Museum is seriously a child’s wonderland! My 5 and 4 year old girls were able to play house, run to the grocery store, and prepare a pretend meal. They even started sweeping the floor! …If only I could get them to do that at home!

Fire Truck

My 2 year old boy loved playing in the fire truck. It came complete with a firefighter costume and a roll-out water hose (similar to the one at Marbles Kids Museum but without the flashing lights).

Car Mechanic

My boy also really enjoyed the car mechanic shop. I had never seen anything like this car before! The car engine is made out of foam parts and actually disassembles. You can replace the tires and spark plugs just like a real mechanic! So creative!

Doctor’s Office

The doctors office is where mommy got in on the fun! We all took turns being the doctor or the patient. We had stethoscopes, thermometers, crutches, and everything else to make sure our patient was in tip top shape!

Construction Site

Another unique exhibit was the pretend construction site. There were lots of tools to use, but our favorite was building the brick wall with foam blocks.

Don’t forget to explore the unsuspecting storage bins! Inside one we found lots of foam blocks to build with, and the other had all of the dress up clothes!

The Farm

The Farm area had pretend hay bales and an area to plant some vegetables. There was a jumping horse that the kids enjoyed, but I really wish this area had more farm animals. My 2 year old has been obsessed with animals lately so he would have loved having lots of stuffed animals to play with!

There was a small chicken coop, but you can’t play with the chickens. You can, however, play with their eggs! Place the eggs in the tube and let them roll down into the buckets. This would probably be a great activity for those early walkers! I remember my little boy played with something similar to this at the Kidzu Children’s Museum for over an hour when he was around 18 months!

For those kids who like to do yard work, there’s a small fake grassy area with a lawn mower, leaf blower, and trimmer. Once again, when do this kids learn to actually do this stuff at home?! 😉

Ice Cream Stand

All three of my kids probably enjoyed the ice cream stand the most. They made sweet treats for all of us took my order with glee. It probably helps that they always loved playing with a similar ice cream stand at Party Delights (R.I.P my favorite bakery… 😭). I mean, we love ice cream in real or fake form!

Baby Play Area

For the littlest explorers, there’s a gated baby play area to keep them safe from the big kids. I loved that it was padded, but I wish there were some small toys in there for them to explore. We are thankfully out of this stage in parenting, but if you visit you might want to bring a few rattles or toys for entertainment.

The best part of visiting the Playhouse is that you don’t have to clean up the mess! We tried to put all of the toys back where they go, but the workers told us not to worry about it!

Give it a go and plan your visit today! For some outdoor fun, swing by Bass Lake for fishing, boating, and a walk around the lake!