Sunny Days, Chasing the Snow Away

Kiki's Play List Heads West

We escaped the arctic freeze and headed west to the sunny warmth of Arizona. It was a series of adventures and misadventures. And I'm fairly certain Clark Griswold has nothing on us; although no dogs or maiden aunts were injured along the way.

But I'll just stick to our adventures as we had a great time checking out some local places.

Children's Museum of Phoenix

YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY!

The museum was much larger than I expected, and we actually only made it through the 3rd floor in our two hours. We raced cars, cooked in the restaurant/ kitchen, road motorcycles, ran through a car wash, played in the supermarket, and enjoyed the toddler/crawler section. I was so happy to find the toddler/crawler area because it had a lot to hold my toddler's interest while allowing me to sit and feed the baby. Plus, it was completely fenced in so I could rest assured my son wouldn't dart off at any moment.

It was very clean & the staff was extremely helpful and friendly. I just wish we had budgeted our time better so that we could have seen the entire museum.

Fashion Square Mall

YAY!

This mall has every store under the sun, and every high-end store you can imagine. I assume they have to compete with Las Vegas for tourist dollars and so have created the ultimate mall. It was actually a little overwhelming, but certainly a great workout. We were all exhausted by lunchtime!

While some of the stores are on the pricey side, I was able to find cold weather clothes at a discount. Surprisingly enough, heavy wool sweaters are not in high demand when it's 74 degrees outside!

But if you go, dress well. I did not, and I got some nasty looks from older patrons. I wanted to say, "hey, you're lucky I showered!" But that's probably not modeling very good behavior.

Hall of Flame Firefighters Museum

YAY! YAY! YAY!

A treat for parents and kids. This museum has original firetrucks from the 19th - 21st centuries. It was really quite interesting to learn about the evolution of the fire truck and firefighting, not something I had really thought about before having two boys.

The building itself was so unassuming that I was afraid we were in for a dud. But the museum is really quite amazing, featuring hundreds of perfectly preserved and restored firetrucks. I was blown away by the elaborate and beautifully hand painted early 19th century firetrucks. And surprised to learn that some were actually pulled by men instead of horses.

It's also interactive. They have a fire truck kids can board and drive. And then a good sized play area where they can dress up, play in a fire station, drive a firetruck (one motorized and one pulled by horses), & slide down a fire pole.

And at the end of the tour is a moving tribute to the firefighters who died on 9/11.

McCormick Stillman Railroad Park

YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY!

We actually spent two days at this park because it was too much fun & had to much to see and do. The park features the original Paradise Valley train station as well as the original train and train cars. They have did a phenomenal job mixing the history with playtime fun.

Kids can take a tour through the original train cars which carried four presidents. They can see model trains whiz past them and watch them being constructed. They can take their own tour of the park on a kiddie train complete with a conductor and crossing guards. Or hop on a vintage carousel. And if that's not enough there are three jungle gyms and a wild wild west playground. You can see why it took us two days!

The carousel and kiddie train ride cost $2 for kids over 3 years of age and adults.

Sugar Bowl

I don't usually recommend restaurants, but hey we're on vacation! This is an institution so if you're in old town don't miss it. It's been around since 1958, and I swear they haven't changed a thing in 53 years. It's fun, family friendly, and the ice cream is amazing!

Overall, Phoenix was a very family-friendly town, including all the restaurants we visited. There was almost too much to do.

We couldn't see everything. So here's a list of what we missed this trip, but hope to see next:

• Arizona Science Center (across the street from the Children's Museum)
• Phoenix Zoo (near the Hall of Flame Museum)
• Tempe Center for the Arts (I was very disappointed to have missed the theatrical production of "Go! Dogs! Go!")

Off The Beaten Path

Where To Go When There’s Too Much Snow

Having finally dug ourselves out from SnOMG (a.k.a, Blizzard Charlie Sheen), we found it nearly impossible to venture more than 10 miles from home. So after re-visiting our local kids places, we decided to get creative and find some other quasi-educational/quasi-entertaining (quasi-edu-entertaining?) places. Here’s what we found in our neighborhood:

• Mall walking (it’s not just for 80 year olds! But be warned, you need to speed walk past the lego stores, toy stores...well, you get the idea. That will surely burn extra calories, though. And swim suit season is just around the corner...)
• Pet store (if you can’t get to the aquarium or the zoo, this is the next best thing. Since we don’t have any pets at home this one can be tough. It sometimes ends in tears when we can’t take home the kitty, the puppy, or the lizard...)
• Guitar Center (a great option if your child loves music like mine. They have guitars, keyboards, drums - the works! But be warned: they aren’t a fan of toddlers!)
• Best Buy (a little boy’s dream come true - enough said.)
• Ice skating rink (even if your child is not old enough to get out on the ice, s/he will be enthralled by the figure skaters and ice hockey players)
• Car wash (really any kind of car wash can be both educational & entertaining, assuming you explain what’s happening. And, let’s face it, all that salt & snow has to go!)

Those are some of our “less traveled” ideas. Please share with us some of yours...

Agua Viva

Sea Jelly Family Event

A Sneak Preview of the Sea Jellies Exhibit at The John G. Shedd Aquarium

YAY! YAY! YAY!

We are big fans of the Shedd Aquarium so when we were invited to a Family Event previewing the new sea jelly exhibit, we dove at the chance!

The event was held in the Polar Play Zone, and was attended by kids of all ages. In addition to the permanent exhibits, we saw the sea jellies (a.k.a, living water or agua viva), pet a tortoise, and worked on a fishy crafts project. And for adults, an open bar stocked with beer and wine made my husband happy.

As always, my son had a great time. And we look forward to the opening of the exhibit Friday, April 15, 2011.

We saw renderings of the exhibit & it looks beautiful. It will be in the standard exhibit space across from the Oceanarium. The layout looks like a sea jelly and you curve around into three unique rooms. The further you progress, the more the more in-depth the information. As always, the exhibit has a strong interactive educational component for children.

At opening, it will feature 11 different types of sea jellies, and these will change periodically. The first exhibits will include jellies from around the world: west coast sea nettles, moon jellies, and blue blubber jellies. The blue blubber jelly may prove to be our favorite as they bounce off the walls like ping pong balls!

So celebrate Emancipation Day, take a break from your taxes, and check out the sea jellies!

To Allstate Arena & Beyond!

Disney On Ice: Toy Story 3

YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY!

We are all for trying new things this winter, and really when better to start than when it’s a herculean effort to get out of the house! Our big new thing? Reviewing children’s events!

Ok it’s not woo-hoo news, but we’re excited. We had to do something, we were starting to run out of indoor play places. Plus, I have a review contest running that I don’t want to compete with.

Our first review: Disney on Ice.

There is something so magical about sharing Disney with your kids. I remember my dad’s excitement whenever we visited Disneyland. He got to be a kid all over again! And I have to say that I felt the same way seeing “Disney on Ice” with my son.

The show was wonderfully executed as we’ve come to expect from any Disney production. It moved at a good clip to keep the kids interested, and threw in some comedy to keep the parents interested; my personal favorite was Barbie working out to the Go Go’s “We Got the Beat.” They blended all three movies into this production so it moved through the narrative very quickly.

The set design was fairly basic, but I think that allowed the audience to focus on the production, especially the wonderfully choreographed dance numbers. The skaters were simply excellent, and showcased some pretty impressive skills. The costumes were good for the most part, although Mr. Potato Head looked a little off and the giant wooden kids from Sunnyside Daycare were terrifying.

Mickey Mouse & the gang opened the show, which absolutely delighted my son. He hadn’t seen Mickey Mouse outside of a television screen, and his smile was ear to ear.

I was pleasantly surprised that the show did not end with “You Got a Friend in Me.” Maybe we’ve heard the song just one too many times, but that was a nice change of pace.

All in all, an excellent production. We highly recommend it for all ages.