Secrets of the Children's Museum

The Children's Museum in Phoenix is great, but a little pricey, which is why we pretty much only go there when we can get in for free. They have free admission every first Friday night of the month, so we try to get there as much as we can. (This used to be the night that Craig took the girls by himself so that I could work on homework and/or veg, but since school is basically done and my nerves are in better working order these days, I have been tagging along.)

We discovered the secret to getting the most out of the museum (since just about everyone in Phoenix with children seems to show up on these nights) is 1) to have Craig leave work a smidge early so he can get in line outside before they open the doors at 5:00, and 2) to hit the quickly-crowded/most popular areas first and then meander aimlessly for the rest of the time. This means that when we go to the grocery store area, the girls all get a chance to get their own shopping carts and shop at their leisure, (a luxury sure to disappear once they have their own children) and when we hit the pizza restaurant room, there are actually plenty of "ingredients" (i.e. random scraps of fabric) for the girls to use for their pizzas. The rest of the time doesn't matter as much then, because we have already hit the areas where they really want to be, and by then we have all had our fill of play groceries and fake pizza, which puts us all in good spirits.

Just a few highlights from our last visit:

(sticker earrings in the arts and crafts room)

Oh, how we all heart a (free!) Night at the Museum!