Arizona Science Center - Sesame Street "Body" Exhibit

I bought a Living Social deal for the Arizona Science Center recently.  I decided to treat my 4-year-old, my friend, and my friend's youngest daughter to a day at the science center.  The science center has several permanent exhibits and typically one or two special exhibits.  Right now, the special exhibit is Sesame Street's "The Body".  Being Sesame Street, Nikki and I opted to leave our oldest children at home and let this outing be for our preschoolers.

The outdoor water play area is the first thing that kids see as they walk into the museum.  It has all sorts of fun things to do.  Below, Jillian and Kayden are making music with pulses of water striking different spoon-shaped things.

One of the permanent exhibits centers around architecture and building houses.  There are tubs of blocks, tables full of shaped tiles, a child-sized house just for little ones, pipes to take apart and put back together, a shower, and the beams with the level....

I was really impressed with the Sesame Street exhibit for something fun and different to do with Jillian.  I was really glad I'd left my older two at home.  There were many hands-on and age-appropriate activities for the little ones.

The girls had fun with this one.  Pedaling, kicking and jumping made the Sesame Street characters move and light up.

This was another big hit.  You can make a trail light up by walking on the feet (to the left in the picture), rolling the wheelchair, or rowing.  Jillian and Kayden made it a race.

There were magnetic pieces of clothing to peel off and place on Elmo throughout different seasons, and a big pair of shoes to tie....

Finally, a restaurant and a big market to encourage imaginative play and healthy eating habits.

Now for the Low Down From Becky....

My kids always love going to the science center.  I'm generally less enthusiastic about it for several reasons.

The first is cost.  Without a membership, admission is steep and doesn't include any of the special exhibits, the planetarium or any IMAX movies.  For example, if I wanted to take Jillian to the science center and the Sesame Street exhibit, and I didn't have the Living Social deal I'd purchased or a membership, it would cost me $14.95 for general admission for me, $11 for Jillian, $21.95 on top of general admission for me to take Jillian into the Sesame Street exhibit, and $18 for her admission into the Sesame Street exhibit.  For those who aren't counting, that is nearly $60 for one adult and one 4 year-old!

If I had a membership, which ranges in price considerably depending on who the membership is for (a student, an educator, a lone adult, a grandparent, a family) and how many people are on the membership, the Sesame Street exhibit would still cost me $10 for both of us to go in.

If you can find them, many local libraries offer something called a Culture Pass, which gives holders a week to use usually 3-4 free admissions.  That would be general admission and would not include the special exhibits or extras.

The second reason I'm less enthusiastic than my kids are about going to the science center is that there's only one of me and three of them...and guaranteed not a single one of them will want to be in the same exhibit at the same time.  Keeping track of more than one child in there is not easy.  And having a play date there? Forget it.  Not fun.

You will see adults and kids of all ages at the science center.  My personal opinion, having been there when my older two were as young as 7 and 4 themselves and several times between then and now (they are almost 15 and almost 12), going to the science center is considerably more fun - unless the special exhibit is geared toward little ones like the Sesame Street exhibit - with children who are at least 9 or 10, and considerably less fun with kids under 6.  Too much of the museum just goes right over the heads of the little ones.

Parking at Heritage Square is convenient.  It cost me $8 for...mmm...I think we were there for 4-5 hours. The science center validates parking as well.

The center has a restaurant on site.  Nikki and I brought our own food and water, though.  We picnicked just outside of the museum entry.

Phoenix Light Rail and Museum of Natural History

My youngest daughter has this thing about buses.  She loves them.  She always wants to "take the bus".  So, when we decided to head to the Museum of Natural History with a group of friends, we opted to take the light rail from the park and ride near Bethany Home all the way to the museum in Mesa.  One toddler didn't share my Jillian's love of buses, but all of the other kids loved the light rail.  I loved not having to drive the 50 minutes out to Mesa and back.

 This gigantic dinosaur greeted us when we entered the museum.

There's a place to build puzzles....

You can watch a giant storm sweep through a created landscape at regular intervals.  The kids loved that.

There are tunnels and an indoor jail to explore.  My kids could have spent hours playing here.

The outdoor area where kids can pan for gold was also quite popular.  It was another place that my kids could have happily spent well over an hour playing.

Back inside, the kids found this "green screen".  They could act as silly as they wanted to against a green backdrop and it would show up on a black and white screen for their friends' amusement.  I'd have to say that this was the hit of the museum for my crew.

All in all, the kids (spanning in age from 14 all the way down to 1) had a terrific time at this museum.  I would highly recommend it for a fun outing.

Hassayampa River Preserve

We have been to the Hassayampa River Preserve in Wickenburg twice in the last two years with friends.  We typically go in the spring, while it's warm but not yet hot.  All of the trees there provide nice shade.

You enter the visitor's center to pay your admission.  The visitor's center has lots of stuff to look at, including some very nice displays about the history of and the wildlife in the preserve.  The staff does provide a fun scavenger hunt for the kids to do while they're on the trails, if you want to partake in that.  After that, you hit the trails.  As you can see, there's a big map of the trail system, complete with photos.

Most of them are flat, easy to navigate with little kids - although it's nice to have big brothers who are willing to carry little sisters when they get tired!

The kids never got tired of looking at bugs, sticks, rocks...all the usual fun things nature has to offer.

There was one steep trail, that leads to a breathtaking view of the preserve and surrounding Wickenburg.

Both of the 4-year-olds with us that day made it up and down, with varying levels of assistance.  It is a little more treacherous of a trail than the others.  I have slipped on gravel both times I've hiked it.  Meanwhile, the kids beat me to the bottom.

The last place we go to is the pond.  It's a favorite.

It was a favorite the year before, too....

We highly recommend the Hassaympa River Preserve as a field trip for families or groups of friends.

Adobe Mountain Railroad Park

We visited the Adobe Mountain Railroad Park last year and had so much fun that I scheduled a repeat field trip this year.  I simply cannot say enough good things about the park and the volunteers who staff it.

We started the field trip in the Park's Members' building, where one of the volunteers talked to the kids about the Park, the trains, real trains, and train safety.

After our presentation, we headed to the trains...

Even the little kids LOVED the trains!

The Railroad Park has over 16 miles of tracks.  We went out for a ride, going roughly 5 miles per hour.  We stopped and disembarked at the Museum.

After we looked through all of the train memorabilia, the huge electric trains and other items in the museum, we boarded the trains again.  The volunteers gave us two rides!

After the rides were over, the kids got to enjoy a play train, which was the Eagle project of homeschooled teenager Alex Bivens.

This field trip is so much fun.  The Railroad Park is open for public rides, complete with Christmas lights and hot cocoa, several days in December.  According the the volunteers, those evenings are very popular!

Boyce Thompson Arboretum

Ohmygosh, need I say more?  Let's just put it this way, the only thing I didn't like about the Boyce Thompson Arboretum was the drive out there.  From Peoria, it was 79 miles or something like that.  Nonetheless, it's been on my list of places to go for a few years and now that my littlest doesn't scream for the entire duration of every single car ride she goes on, I was ready for the trip.

The view when we got there....

Just inside the Arboretum, heading down the Main Trail...

First stop was a sign that gives visitors more information about getting the most out of their time at the Arboretum...

Different parts of the Arboretum...

My oldest daughter has always had an appreciation for beauty...

My son's favorite exhibit talked about cacti.  I think I agree with him.  I learned a lot at this stop.  I really want to try the fruit of the prickly pear cactus.

Fall colors are not something we see much of here in the Valley.  So, while we were east, the kids played in all of the fallen leaves.

Jarrod and Jilly played Hide & Seek in the bigger palms...

We finished up our day in the Children's Garden.  VERY creative.  It was a big hit with all three of my kids.

There are different stations in the Children's Garden.  The first is the Sounds of the Garden.  There was a giant wooden toad and the kids rub its back.  It makes croaking sounds.  There is a rain-maker, which was neat.  There were wooden windchimes.

The next station is all about Smells of the Garden.  If you look, you can even see the SKUNK in the picture about that station!

That skunk was there for a reason!

The next station was a maze.  My kids went tearing in, quickly losing themselves amongst the vegetation.  I scrept up on them and went "BOO!"  Leave it to my son to say, "Mom's the Minotaur!"  They all thought that was hilarious.  They would've happily spent another 15-20 minutes playing in the maze.

The next station has a sundial clock.  It was surprisingly accurate...

The Arboretum was a big hit with my nature lovers.  My son wants a garden just like it.  Keep dreaming, kid.

My family has a membership to the Desert Botanical Gardens here in town, so I really wasn't sure whether the trip out to the Arboretum in Superior was going to end up being worth it or not.  On one hand, a plant is a plant and desert vegetation isn't always spectacular.  On the other, the serenity of gardens is alluring.  Bottom line, while I wouldn't make the drive out to Superior on a regular basis, I will go back.  In March, actually.  For one of their Homeschool Days.