Phoenix Children's Museum

Today we went with our mom's group to the new Phoenix Children's Museum. It was amazing! It's in an old high school, so it's 3 stories high and has seperated rooms with different themes and activities. There were all of these hands-on, child-sized sensory things for kids to touch, feel, and experience. Within the hour, I was so overstimulated that I stopped with the "Look over here - WOW! Check this out...Hey guys...did you see this cool thing?" and had a seat to just observe. If I was getting myself worked up, I can't imagine how the kids were feeling. I was just so excited with all of the fun stuff there was to see and do - I was like a kid myself! I wish it was in the budget to get an annual pass to this place - maybe next year. It's kind of beyond words, so I'll just narrate some of the pictures I took.

There was a child-sized grocery store with mini-carts, full aisles of food and a stock room in the "back"



Complete with a scale with beans and scoops



And 2 full check out counters (Ryan was checking Kaylin out...it was hilarious)



A kitchen, where Kaylin made "pizza" in a "wood-fired oven" (behind her)



An area with tons of contraptions to drop balls through



A designated area for the under 3 crowd with houses and slides and toys and all sorts of balls and stuff (this is Kaylin standing in the flower bed of one of the houses)



There was an ice cream cart with scoopers and cones

A place with musical things (this picture is hard to see, but there are pedals and levers for the kids to press and it bangs pots and pans, symbols and drums on the wall above.

And while Ryan made a monster mask-turned-hat...



...Kaylin added to the building covered in buttons (she loved putting the paper clips through the holes of the buttons...the things this place came up with for their motor skills was awesome!)...



...and painted a house that changes color every day...



...getting paint everywhere, including in her hair



There was an area with sand and rollers and things to "move" the sand (who needs tools when you have your whole body, Kaylin?)



And an area for kids to "drive" (or be chauffeured, as the case may be)



We spent over an hour in this next section...there was an old car and motorcycle for the kids to climb on (and fill with "gas") and a HUGE contraption to race wooden cars through.



We stayed much longer than most people. I brought us lunch, so after taking two food/rest breaks, the kids continued playing and were so well behaved, I didn't see a need to leave! We finally left just after 1:00 and the place was nearly empty. All of the other moms from our group were long gone. We will definitely be returning - Ryan wants to go tomorrow, but I told him we have to save up enough money to come again. We got over 1/3 off with our group rate, so maybe I'll try to get another group together sometime soon? (Local friends...wanna join us? I'll probably set it up for a Monday or Friday so Ryan won't be in pre-school)