Children's Museum of Phoenix

Today the girls and I made a trip up to Phoenix to visit with our friends and former neighbors. We met at the Children's Museum, which offers free admission to members of the Tucson Children's Museum on the 25th day of each month. We had a great time and of course wanted to stay longer to play and visit, but it was a Thursday and that is babysitter day, so we had to be home by 3.

One of the girls favorite exhibits was this mock car wash that you could ride a variety of bicycles through. They must have gone around 15 times, and even Chloe found a push bike that she could ride.

The market and kitchen area were another favorite. Here is Zoe showing off her cooking creation.

Chloe did some shopping while at the museum

School!

School has begun for the big girls, and today Chloe hadn't gone down for her morning nap yet and was not about to be left out of the fun! She got to do a modified version of the fish mosaic that the big girls created, and it was enough to satisfy her curiosity and make her ready for a good rest.

Hello Tarantula!

Today while helping us do yard work, Chloe discovered a furry little creature hanging out under one of the bushes. She reached to pick it up only to stop when daddy yelled, "NO!!!" So what was the furry little critter that she spied???

It was this guy - friendly Mr. Tarantula. We were trimming up the bushes because that's where snakes like to hide, and we've already had one run in with a rattlesnake this summer. We were surprised to see the tarantula - this isn't the time of year that they usually come out. We trimmed around him and left him alone. These furry critters are great to have around because they eat the scorpions! It's hard to tell from the picture, but the tarantula was a little smaller than my hand. In the past, we've seen them as big as dinner plates!

Read to a Dog

Our local library hosts this great program called Read to a Dog. Twice a week children can read to a trained dog that won't correct them, ask them annoying questions or cringe at hearing the same book over, and over, and over. After months of talking about going, we finally made it there.

Zoe read one of her Bob books and was much less shy than usual!

Sophie read a book about Simba, from the Lion King.

The lady who hosts the event wanted to know what grade the girls were in. When I told her their ages, she was shocked! The girls loved going, and we will definitely be doing this again. Although next time I'll have to figure out a better way to occupy Chloe, who loves dogs and spent the entire time trying to climb over everyone so she could pet the dog! Is it too early to teach her how to read??

Hot Day at the Zoo

We're always looking for ways to stay cool in the summer. Today we went to the zoo. It's not the most obvious choice when the temps are in the triple digits, but we made it work and ended up spending over three hours there! We met up with friends from Temple and had a great time.

Zoe found a shady spot to rest and drink some water

We spent quite awhile in the indoor (air conditioned) education room, where the girls got to pet a snake, an armadillo and a chicken!

Here's Chloe feeding the giraffes for the first time - she had no fear and immediately asked to do it again after feeding Denver the giraffe two carrots

Here's the best reason to go to the zoo in the summer: the splash park! In the middle of the zoo is this great little splash pad with all kinds of fun ways to stay cool.

After cooling off in the water, we walked some more of the zoo while the girls' suits dried. It turned out to be a really fun day!

Art by Zoe

We frequently post pictures of Sophie's artwork, but Zoe has shown that her artistic abilities are impressive too! Here is a recent picture she made for Sophie. At the top, she wrote "For Sophie From Zoe". Okay, so she spelled "from" wrong, but who cares? She did it all by herself and I was totally amazed!

Playing Store

Chloe is really into playing pretend these days. Here she is calling for a price check while playing store. She also loves to take care of her baby dolls, and lately she's been spending time crawling on the floor and pretending to be a dog!

International Wildlife Museum

Today we visited the International Wildlife Museum with some friends. The museum is filled with animals found around the world. There were a lot of questions from the children about whether the animals were real. They were, they just happened to be dead, and stuffed. There were lots of things for the kids to touch, like animal hides, tusks, antlers, even a stuffed javalina and a giraffe!

Sophie's favorite part was the lions. Here she is sitting on one of the statues outside of the museum. Zoe's favorite part was the butterfly room, and Chloe really loved the giant giraffe that you could walk under. I didn't get any good pictures inside of the museum. My camera abilities aren't good enough to adjust for the weird lighting, but I can promise that fun was had by all, and I really enjoyed finding another air conditioned activity for the kiddos!