Childrens' Museum of Phoenix

While we were in Phoenix, Grandma Ginia took the kids and I and Gabrielle (Chris' niece) to the Children's Museum in Phoenix. It just opened in July and they're still putting the finishing touches on it, but it was a great way to spend an afternoon in 106 degree heat! I look forward to going back sometime, once it's finished and more established. They have a lot of great ideas there for the kids.

Our first stop in the museum was at 'Pedal Power'. There was this little tunnel for the kids to ride bikes through. They had one and two person trikes...

...and these little wooden push cars for the little ones. It was hard to tear the kids away from this display.

They had a couple mazes like this set up. It's kind of like that Price is Right game Plinko, only there's no prizes to win :(

There were little wooden wheels for the kids to send down through the maze, and all the little hooks rotated to change the maze a little each time one went through.

There was an art studio set up for the kids to do art projects. Clara made a hat first.

Jonathan worked on making an Olympic Flag with Grandma Ginia.

and just in case the kids didn't get messy enough, they had a huge house for them to help paint. I couldn't even guess how many layers of paint were on that house.

There was even a room that appealed to Jonathan's shoe fetish!

Taking a break in the bean bag room.

This was probably one of the most popular rooms. It was a grocery store. They had a really cool set up. Children's Museum in Norfolk, VA had a similar room, but this one was much better. First Jonathan loaded up a basket.

Clara found a shopping cart.

Clara got Grandma Ginia to be her cashier and Gabrielle helped bag the groceries

Jonathan was checking the produce, just like Mommy does.

I guess Jonathan was planning to make some lemonade.

Once Clara got her groceries all bagged up, Grandma Ginia asked her if she need help out to her car. She said, "No thank you, I've got it, I didn't bring a car." Little Miss Independence!

The adjoining room was set up as a huge kitchen, complete with pizza oven and corner booth. We all sat in the corner booth and placed our order with this lovely waitress named Clara.

She brought this yummy pizza to our table. How's that for imagination? All the 'toppings' and 'food' in this kitchen were just cut up pieces of fabric and strings of different textures. The kids could make anything they wanted, just using their imaginations!

Our waitress, Clara, was kind enough to snap this picture of us enjoying our pizza.

Jonathan wanted to cook some too, but first he had to wash his hands!

Didn't take him long to find the cooking gloves. He put them on and said, "Hot!"

Apparently, it's more comfortable to take a seat sometimes when you're cooking those big meals!

Just needs to simmer a little longer.

Just outside the kitchen was an ice cream stand. Clara was pretty excited to be the ice cream vendor.

Cup or cone?

Here you go, Grandma!

How cute is that?!

No Children's Museum would be complete without noise makers!

More noise makers.

The last place we visited in the museum was a box car race. They had little tracks set up for you to place your wooden car in,

and then pull the handle to launch.

There it goes. Clara would wait for the purple car to come down every time.

The kids had a lot of fun. We spent a few hours there and I still don't think we saw all of it, and they have a lot of other displays they're still working on. Definitely a worth while visit for younger kids.