Children's Museum of Phoenix

Thanks to my cousin Gianna, my sister-in-law and I took our kids to the Children's Museum of Phoenix. See... she told us that they would be having free admission on a certain Saturday... so I decided I wanted to take my kids and my nephew Ducky (I had never even heard of this place). Jen thought it sounded fun too so made a plan to go.

Upon getting there we circled the parking lot a thousand time because the place was PACKED! To be expected since it was free and all... but we found parking.

Since we had to wait to be let in I decided to take some shots of the kiddos. The building is painted bright green so I used it as a background for my photos.

(Unedited in all their glory... still don't have photoshop installed... I will this week I promise!)

They also had some employees of the Museum outside blowing bubbles for the kids. They thought it was awesome because they were extra soapy and the kind that don't pop.




And they were all over the kids hair and stuff...



(Tallynna captured this of me and Alayna)



Then we went inside! The place was so cool! I really liked it because it was educational and fun for all ages! And we had from 11 months to 8 years. Pretty much everything inside was recycled somehow. All the activities, the decor, everything! Want to see more on that CLICK HERE.

They had this tube contraption thingy that you could stuff scarves into and then by opening and closes chutes you could change the amount of air pressure going in making the scarf go different directions... and eventually shoot out of a hole.





Then the kids tried on Shaq's shoes...




This area was Alayna's favorite. They had a table that looked like a Mushroom with toadstool chairs. In the table were buckets with fake flowers. Then directly beside the table was a "flower bed" with holes for the kids to plant and pull the flowers from. Alayna could have stayed there all day with the basket planting flowers.




Next we had to accommodate the 2 babies so we went to the infant/toddler area. Also so cute. Just outside was a stroller parking!



While Arielle was content just crawling around playing with the balls and blocks and such... or tasting them...



Juanito was all over! He planted flowers (and posed for me looking all innocent) just outside the playhouse.




And Brianna pretended to nap on the big pillow chairs for babies.



The last stop was the carwash! Diego said... "Hey my Daddy works at a car wash!" Arielle loved that the best. It was the cutest thing ever! I want my own car wash. LOL







And that was that! We only got to be there an hour before they closed. We didn't do nearly everything but we did see a lot. There are 3 floors of fun there!

I plan to go back another day early and spend more time there. It was fun for all of us and I know the kids would love to see the rest of it. So we are putting it into our calender and definitely going again.

If you live in Phoenix I definitely recommend it. They also have a painting area where kids can finger paint and such. We're gonna try that next time so make sure they are dressed for that!

Awesome, awesome, place.

Alayna's 1st Day in Ballet...

So I signed her up!

We were excited.
She was excited!

We bought Tap Shoes and Ballet Flats.
We bought Tutus and Leotards...
Tights and Hairbows.

She had practiced for a few weeks. It's all she talked about.

Friday was the day. Her first class.

We got there right on time. She looked so absolutely adorable. We walked in. Had roll call. She said Hi to her teacher. Had a quick one on one chat with her about ballet. Then it was time to start.

And that's when she froze...

And that's what she did for the rest of the class. So HOPEFULLY this week is better! Alayna and her stubbornness...

Vegas Weekend Part 2

The night before I started a Video Diary documenting us... so there will be a few of these throughout this post. This first one should have went with the first post on Vegas but it hadn't uploaded in time... so here it is.

The next morning was a bit chaotic. Junior wakes us up and says it's 9:30am we need to start getting ready if we're gonna make our 11am checkout time. So Jen and I lay in bed a little longer when all of a sudden we realize... daylight saving happened over night and it wasn't 9:30 it was 10:30!

Well no time for us girls to even shower... Jr did... but we got ready in a flash and we're out just before 11am. Man, and we needed to hurry because we still had a little shopping to do and we wanted to be out of Vegas early so we wouldn't get home too late. Jen had to work Monday morning and so did the people taking care of our kids.

But I did snap this shot of Jr and I in the mirror before we left our room.

After that fiasco we decided to cruise the whole strip. Again, I've never seen the WHOLE strip before. So another first for me. Now I've seen the whole strip, and I've seen it at night. Score!

Then we decided we were very hungry and stopped at Fatburger for lunch... which was actually our breakfast. Never been there before either! Man I was on a role with new experiences!

Then Jen got mad at me cuz she ordered first... but I got my strawberry milkshake before she got her vanilla milkshake. What can I say... it wasn't my fault. LOL

Now that we were fed we decided to go to this souvenir store and do a little more shopping. It's all we did and we are quite good at it.

Jen tried finding a handsome prince...

Didn't work out... she just got ugly...

Jr searched for the perfect pair of shades... don't these just enhance his eyes?

And I... well... I studied...

After all the fun we hit the road.

Very soon we were right back at the Hoover Dam... that was quick!

Even though it was getting late... we decided to stop and get off this time. Yay another first for me... I was gonna see it up close and personal... instead of from a car window.

It was really windy...

And Jr became photographer and took over taking pictures... a lot times we were his subjects.

But he did get these two AWESOME pictures.

Then I got my camera back once we were in the car. And back in Arizona.

I was sleepy so I decided to take a little cat nap. Umm... BIG MISTAKE!

So after a fit of laughter I decided that I had to pee and we MUST stop!

Jr grabbed some Hot Chocolate...

And Jen played with a machine for like 10 minutes trying to get a soda where the quarter slot was filled with quarters... prohibiting her from getting one.

Then we finally were on the correct road back to Phoenix... doing 90 on the I-17 all the way home... until we got on the 101...

(If you make it through this video you're a real trooper!)

Man that was on adventurous trip home... one will for sure never forget either.