Monday, February 9, 2009

A Trip to the Children's Museum

Lawrence and Azaria had gotten some coupons from school called Papa John's circle of rewards. One of the ones included was free admission the Phoenix Children's Museum. My friend Rachel was kind enough to give us their coupon so all the kids could get in for free..yeah. We had planned on going on Saturday before the tickets expired but Lawrence part way there said he didn't feel well so we turned around. Azaria was so sad we couldn't go that day she stayed out in the Van for about 30 minutes crying and pouting (yes I kept an eye on her while she was out there). Then a friend came along and climbed into the open door of the van to talk to her and she decided playing with her friend would be more fun then hanging out in the van.

Since the tickets were going to expire that Wednesday I took the kids out of school early on Tuesday so we could still go and enjoy some time together. They had so many fun things to do we almost didn't know where to start. First we started with the Whoosh, which is lots of tubes connect together with air flowing through them. You can feed scarves into them or light weight plastic balls and you can change their path to send them up different tubes. Then they shoot out at different spots and fall down the the ground. They even have a smaller concept of this with ping pong balls where the kids made their own configurations. It was great to watch all three of the kids work together to make it work. I got the be the official ping pong ball fetcher so they could keep feeding the machine.

Next we moved to the arts and crafts room where they were lots of choices. You could make snowflakes, play with playdough, make a sking penquin picture, play with playdough, paint, or make dream catchers. We didn't even have time to do them all but Lawrence and Azaria made several dream catchers and decided they would be a neat gift for Dad's birthday since they made them. I finally convinced them we should see what else there was to see. Though I think they would have all been content to spent the whole afternoon in the craft room.


Playing with the sand on the lighted table. They made textures, hills, wrote names and more. They even have beach chairs for the parents to relax in while you watch the kids play.






I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for ICE CREAM!!! The kids got busy pretenting to run their own ice cream stand. I got served with all sorts of colorful treats.









This kids watching as they send balls rolling down a obstacle course making things move while they zig zag back and forth to the bottom.











Lawrence seeing how it feels to drive a motorcycle. I'm not sure I'm ready to see my kids driving yet. Glad we have a few years before that all begins though Lawrence already asks how many years until he can start learning to drive.







I would have had to put way to many pictures in to show everything we did. We enjoyed the book corner, the noodle jungle, the grocery store, and microscopes too. Downstairs Lawrence and I bounced balls back and forth to each other while the girls zoomed around on plasma cars. After all that we headed over to Alan's office which was close by so the kids could see where he works. Laurel had been there before but not the other two. The kids can't wait to go to the Museum again, we had a blast!

Azaria gets her ears pierced

Azaria had asked a while back to get her ears pierced but then didn't bring it up for a while. Then this Christmas she really wanted to get her ears pierced. She asked if I could talk with Daddy and decide if she could get them pierced. She is very responsible and we figured she was ready to help take care of her ears. If she really wanted them pierced we figured she was old enough to make that choice and we would get them done. I of course wanted to make sure it was done right so I did some research on where to get her ears pierced. I didn't want them done with a piercing gun but with a hollow piercing needle. We found a body piercing place not to far from our house that someone recommended. Azaria wanted it to be her special date with just mommy but then decided daddy could come along too. Lawrence and Laurel got to go hang out with some friends which they thought sounded more fun anyways.When we got the the piercing shop Azari got to pick out her new earrings. I liked the small hoops but she wanted some bling so she picked a pair of small sparkly jewel titanium studs. She saw pictures on the wall with belly piercings and we asked if she wanted one of those too...lol She said no way I only want one earring in each ear. Glad I won't have to worry about her wanting more piercings in the near future :) Then they took us back to the piercing room where they explained to us what they were going to do. They measured and marked each ear so the piercings would be accurate. Then removed the sterile needles from the package. Azaria at this point was pretty excited but that quickly changed.






This is right after her ears were pierced and she was not happy that it hurt even though we tried to warn her. After the first side was done she wasn't sure about doing the other but we told her at that point she needed to get them both done.









Don't worry the tears didn't last to long because then we moved on to some fun time just with Mommy and Daddy! We told her she could pick where we went next and she thought Cabela's for some yummy fudge sounded good. We picked raspberry/chocolate, cookies and creme, strawberry, and pecan praline fudge after trying a few free samples.

Azaria also wanted to try the shooting range while we were there and had fun shooting at the targets to make things happen. She even got the teapot to spray a bystander. Here is Alan giving her a little help. After Cabela's it was time for a dinner break at Wendy's. By this time she was quite proud of her new earrings but told Laurel she really should wait a while because it hurts!