Great Skate - Glendale

Best. Skating. Ever.....

....according to my 11 year-old daughter, Erica, and her 11 year-old friend, Kaylee, at the conclusion of the Glow Skate evening at Great Skate in Glendale last night.

I had bought a Groupon (Groupon deals for Great Skate seem to come up frequently) for $16 as Kaylee's birthday present from us.  The deal included two admissions, two skate rentals, two slices of pizza and two sodas.  It did not include the $1 charge for a spectator.  Great Skate does, however, take that $1 you pay to go in as a spectator and gives you a $1 voucher for their "cafe".

The reason that the word cafe is in quotes is because I don't consider it a cafe.  You can buy things like pizza (microwave quality), nachos, pretzels, Slushees, and cotton candy.  When I think of a cafe, I'm thinking about sandwiches.  Nonetheless, since I didn't have my youngest daughter with me, I didn't ask about whether or not an exception to the "no outside food" would be made for people with food allergies.

That being said, we arrived early for Glow Skate and still ended up standing in a line.  We made it inside, and Erica got the rental skates.  The girls headed off to the rink while I made myself comfortable at one of the many tables.  Great Skate offers "trainers", which are basically like a walker on wheels, to rent for those who are unsteady on their skates.  The music was pounding, and certainly would've been better (in my never-to-be-humble opinion) on Sundays when they play Christian rock.  The lights were flashing.

I'd brought along some work I'd hoped to get done while the girls were skating.  Stupid me, I wasn't thinking about the volume of the music or the number of times my table would end up getting bumped by skaters careening into it.  Great Skate has free WiFi, but it was simply too loud and too chaotic for me to concentrate.

After a while, Erica and Kaylee came back....hungry.  They took their vouchers and went for their food.

Like any entertainment complex, Great Skate offers an assortment of coin-operated games that spew out tickets, which can them be redeemed for prizes.

And these were their prizes....

The evening came to a close too soon for them.  Adults and kids of all ages had fun out on the rink.

PlayGrounds Fun Zone

Honestly, I cannot believe there aren't more places out there in Arizona like PlayGrounds Fun Zone in Glendale.  This place is fantastic for the under-8 crowd!

PlayGrounds is a brightly colored, clean, 3500 square foot indoor play space for young children, including a special place set aside just for toddlers.  Admission is free for adults and babies under 1.  Your first child is $10 and subsequent siblings are $8.  My friend and I brought our 4-year-old daughters and turned them loose to play while we visited.  We hardly saw them!  They were so busy climbing, sliding, and zipping around in Little Tikes cars.

It's more than that, though...It's also a cafe that offers free WiFi. Even better, the food is good, much healthier than places like McDonald's that have small play areas for kids, and affordable.  I ordered a $4 breakfast croissant sandwich and was pleasantly surprised by how good it was.  My daughter has food allergies and they allowed me to bring in her food.  My friend and I saw our girls when they would zip back to the table for a drink or a bite....

So, moms and dads....grab your laptop, your Kindle, or a good old-fashioned book and bring your kids here.  You can sit and read or work while they play in a gated play area.

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.

Cabela's

I'm not sure if it's just my kids who get giddy at the prospect of going to Cabela's in Glendale, but I had to share it here simply because:

1. they are ALWAYS thrilled to go (especially when their daddy takes them).

2.  like my 4-year-old was saying in the video above, they have sno-cones...and what can beat that?  The sno-cones at Cabela's are a special "daddy" treat; I don't buy them when I go.  So....our kids always prefer to go with my husband.

3.  it's indoors, and you can go without spending any money.  It's a nice, local, "beat the heat" field trip.  Folks in Arizona can appreciate those.

4.  besides the items Cabela's has for sale, there are lots of things to look at.  My littlest used to call it the "dead animal store".

Those are two of the big displays in the store.  There are heads decorating the walls all around the store.  They even have a small wildlife education museum.

And, going back to the video at the beginning, they have the "talking deer".  It does!  It talks to you.

5.  there are actually things you can do there (besides shop).  They have a very small indoor archery range, a laser target shooting game, and even a cafe (which is not pictured).  Kids can have birthday parties there (my oldest daughter actually had her 10th birthday party there) and enjoy a scavenger hunt.

Power Hour at Oasis Gymnastics

Living Social recently had a fabulous deal on passes for open gym at Oasis Gymnastics.  Several friends and I each bought some passes, and today we brought our kids.  Undoubtedly because school is out, it was a lot more crowded than it normally is during the school year but that didn't stop our kids from going wild and having a ton of fun in the gym.

It was the perfect way for kids in Arizona to blow off some steam indoors during the summer heat.

Regular price (without the deal from Living Social) is only $5 per child, so it's a great deal.  Power Hour is Monday - Friday from 10-11AM.  My kids' only complaint?  It was only an hour!