The Children's Museum

Tim's parents gave us the BEST graduation present. It truly is the gift that keeps on giving. They gave us cash with a list of all the things we needed to do and buy with it. How fun is that?? No debating whether or not it's worth it to pay for something....it's the stipulation of a gift :) On that list was purchasing an annual pass the The Phoenix Children's Museum and yesterday I did just that.

Having never been to the museum I invited my sister and her cute kids along to be our tour guides. And let me just tell you, this place is magical. Ma.gic.cal!!! My 8 year-old-self was loving it. The entire time I was thinking "who thinks of this stuff". I had heard about the museum before, but I never quite understood the concept. There are tons of different rooms and stations in this large three story building and everything is hands on and you just walk around and play. Think of all of the fun things that you liked to do and pretend as a kid and that is what you get to do right here. They have a grocery store where you can shop and check out, a restaurant where you can make "food" and serve it to your customers, an ice cream stand, a flower arranging station, a car wash where you can right little trikes through, a fort room, the most amazing tree house I have EVER seen, a noodle forrest, and the list goes on and everything is so imaginative and awesome. You may be thinking, thats great for a 5 year old, but Oliver? Really? In each room there is a "baby zone" with things to do for the little guys and there is an entire room just for three and unders that is full of wonderful three and under things. I am pretty excited (can you tell?) to have a little something to do with Oliver and it's nice to have the membership because now we can go for an hour or two without feeling like we really have to get our money's worth.

I tried to take pictures with my iPhone and I had a pretty difficult time convincing any child to stand still for 2 seconds, so there is a lot of blurriness going on. The pictures really don't do the place justice, but you can get the idea.

 Who wouldn't want to drive a pickle or a No. 2 pencil??

 Do you see that tree fort is stuffed fabric? How about the shoe wall? The noodle forrest is awesome along with the felt word wall. And my favorite would be the fish scene made out of old laundry detergent containers and water bottles....so cool!

 And there is an art room. Aside from making individual projects, kids can add there artistic talents to the already painted over a bagillion times rocket-ship. 

 Oliver was so busy and so interested in everything!

 This is the Car Wash. The best part? Elle driving the little boys on the trike with the bench in the back, priceless!

 Oliver and Rhett had lots of fun exploring together

 Crew and Ell loved it!

Are you seeing this fort/tree house amazingness? I still can't fully comprehend it. I know it's a little creepy, but I am loving the legs hanging out of the boat.

The museum is house in the Monroe school building. Once the largest elementary school West of the Mississippi, the Monroe school opened in 1913 and was home to thousands of children until 1972 when the school closed due to a decline in enrollment. It is a beautiful building and so fitting for all of the wonderful activities there.

A big thanks to my wonderful in-laws for giving us such an awesome gift. Oliver and I are so excited to go back there.