Family Friendly: Children’s Museum of Phoenix

I can’t begin to tell you how family-friendly Phoenix, Arizona is. A couple of days ago I gave a thumbs to The Legacy Golf Resort for its family fun atmosphere but I didn’t tell you everything we did during our stay in Phoenix. You can read about our first evening at the Botanical Gardens here. On day two we went to the Phoenix Children’s Museum which is as much fun for us grown ups as it is for the little ones. The 55,000 square-foot museum is located in the historic Monroe School building and as soon as we entered the spacious first floor the kids were off to explore. Instantly our two tots became enthralled with the wall of wind pipes, which are several clear pipes blasting with air. The kids put scarves and balls in one end and they come shooting out of the top for the kids to try and catch.

It ends up the fun was just beginning.

Not long after we arrived The Deedle Deedle Dees (a fantastic kids’ band) began jamming, which was great fun for the parents as well the children. The tunes could be heard up to the second floor as we cruised around. The second floor has an art room where children can tap into their artistic side and take home their projects. The house in the photo is painted a different color every day. Fortunately for my daughter the color of the day was pink – her favorite color! Also on floor two is an exit to the outside gated courtyard where the top photo was taken. The kids enjoyed running on the grass until they decided to return inside and continue exploring.

Many hands-on experiments lined the museum halls, including a trike path where the kids could ride around and around. There was a bit of a traffic jam and a long wait to ride, so we moved on to the third floor where there we found a spacious room for infants and toddlers to play safely (our kids are too big but it looked perfect for the little cuties). Past that was an even larger area for the older kids which consisted of a grocery store and kitchen, including a “brick oven” for “baking” pizza! Just outside the grocery store, in the wide hall my daughter had great fun scooping ice cream into cones, passing them to customers, while my son couldn’t get enough of the hundreds of  hanging Styrofoam tubes.

By the end the kids were worn out and so were we – but it was such a great time. I hope we can return to the Children’s Museum of Phoenix soon!