HANDS ON! THE ONLY WAY TO GO!

Today we found ourselves at the brand new Children's Museum of Phoenix. My friend and I decided we were going to take the gals on a dad/daughter afternoon as school lets out at 12:30pm on Wednesdays.

This fantastic hands-on place opened in June in the freshly rennovated historic Monroe School in the downtown area. This city is totally under construction and we get excited when things like this open!


This is the old Monroe school revamped to house the museum. It's very industrial and hip inside. A very hands-on-run-around-touch-everything-nothing-can-break sort of place.

In the jungle gym when we arrived. I forgot my darn camera, so the cell phone photos were all I had. Everything was so sensory.



Hattie and her friend Vivian F. These two served the entire museum patrons play ice cream cones. They were addicted to this booth. Behind the wall was literally a mock grocery store where they could shop, scan and bag items. It was incredibly brilliant - everything was done so well. They even could make pizzas in a fake brick oven that looked pretty real (even with the wooden pizza pallets too!).

There was a line for Hattie and Vivian's service. These two were cracking me up. On the 2nd floor they had a wooden house the kids could really paint - that was a favorite! Also, a crafts room (Vivian is wearing a headband she made). Other art below:

Hattie's self portrait.

Neeley's (aka Picasso) Self Portrait

These kids didn't even make it home awake. They played so hard. We are simply thrilled we found a huge place where we can go while it is still 110 degrees outside.