Phoenix Childrens Museum

For Christmas almost 2 years ago we were given a gift card to go visit one of our favorite fun places, The Phoenix Children s Museum. And we just now used that gift card. In my defense shortly after that Christmas I got pregnant with Lucas and then Pukestock 2013 happened and then that whole "my baby keeps having brain surgery" hiccup happened and we just never used it. But yesterday was the day to use it. Thank goodness it didn't have an expiration date! 

BTW we will NEVER go on a long road trip. In the 35 minutes it took to get there Preston would not stop with the "are we almost there? how much longer? why does it have to be so far away?" comments.

We always start with the scarf tube wall. Such a fun simple idea that brings them so much joy. 

I joined the boys in climbing up the enormous tree house. High five for not getting stuck! Although I almost did once...and I did hit my head once. And I took a blurry picture.

I think the noodle jungle was Jaxtons favorite thing. Every time we would come out of a room on that floor he would run to it and run in it and then run out and tell me "i did it!" 

This was a new fun thing we hadn't seen before. Some small owls could be attached by velcro to a belt that you turned and at the top was a bald eagle who had wings like fan blades that would hit them off. 

Peek-a-boo Jaxton!

Preston made me a delicious hot dog. He even gave me an extra bun because he knows how much I like bread. 

Jaxton had to make sure the flowers were arranged just right! 

Lucas hung out in the kids under 3 only room with me for a little bit. He spent a lot of time looking at himself in the mirror till 2 little twin girls showed up. Then he tried to impress them and pull their hair. 

Preston decided that the "car wash" was his favorite thing to do there. He learned how to peddle a bike at school last year so he just zoomed around. Jaxton on the other hand had a little trouble. 

Then they brushed up on their "Plinko" skills in case they ever go on the Price is Right. 

We ended the day back at the tree house and while the boys climbed Lucas found the cutest little baby ever in the mirror. 

All 3 of them fell asleep on the way home which was so nice and of course they all 3 woke up the second we got home. 

Chuck E. Cheese

Let me tell you a story.
One day we decided to go to Costco & promises were made of "if you are good we can get pizza to eat when we are done." And they were good. And then we checked out and looked up and the food court at Costco was CLOSED. Not just closed but under construction for the next 3 days. What bad timing!! Pizza had been promised and when pizza is promised we can't just NOT have pizza! The next closest pizza place was Chuck E. Cheese. Needless to say the boys weren't too heartbroken over the change in plans. 

Jaxton wasn't too happy at first because...well he's two. He doesn't need a reason to be cranky. 

My love. Hey Patrick, remember how I told you my pictures seemed to be blurry lately? This is what I mean.

After lunch where they magically weren't that hungry anymore they each had a small amount of tokens to use on the games. Best thing about Chuck E. Cheese is that all the games take 1 token. Not like Peter Piper Pizza where some games take up to 4. 

Jaxton and Preston each graciously donated 1 token each to Lucas so he could do some things. Truth is they still don't know they donated a token... Thats what happens when Daddy holds your tokens! 

Preston played some game where he somehow won a lot of tickets. Patrick and I were both watching and have no idea why he got so many tickets as his score was not all too impressive. But he was excited that the tickets were as tall as him. 

And then Lucas and I used his other token to have a seat and take a picture together. Had to have a souvenir of his very first Chuck E. Cheese trip! 

The day we celebrated our Independence!

It's my goal in life to be a fun mom. I want my kids to have good memories of the things we did on holidays and such. And so the 4th of July I vowed to be a fun day. Turned out to be an exhausting day. But fun. A few days prior to the 4th we made t-shirts. Funny how I always plan these activities to take awhile and then 5 minutes later they are done asking what they can do next...

The finished product!

The morning of the 4th my cub scouts were in charge of the flag ceremony at our annual 7am pancake breakfast. The day started out really nice and overcast, albeit humid, but it was nice to be out and not be roasting. Sadly Preston and Jaxton slept through this part. I tried to wake them up, but they were not having any of that, so I took Lucas, who of course was awake and happy and we went to the church. Everyone was impressed that he was keeping his hat on, but really the only reason he kept it on was because he was distracted by his bow tie which he untied and attempted to eat. 

Once he lost interest in the bow tie the hat came off and was smashed. 

When Lucas and I got home Preston and Jaxton were awake and sad that they had missed the breakfast, so I distracted them by making a red white and blue drink and then some red white and blue pancakes of our own. 

Sadly Patrick had to work that day so after he left the boys got dressed and we got ready for our activities. 

First we played ring toss. Not exactly patriotic, but still something fun for them to do. I couldnt find our orange cones so we improvised and used grape juice instead. 

They tried once to throw the rings from far away but then realized it wasnt as easy as they thought and got real close to hit the target. 

Lucas made his way over after pulling out a bunch of dvds as you can see in the above pictures and gave it his best shot. 

My turn. I told Preston to take a picture of me trying to do it and clearly I'm very humble in my winning. 

This is what lunch looks like at our house on the 4th of July. Between the 3 of us we ate that entire bag of bbq chips in just a few hours. The boys would run over to the counter in-between their turn at ring toss and say "wait wait, I need a chip." I decided we would have some snacks since it seemed like they were hungry. 

First we mixed up our pudding and while that was chilling we had a snack.

And then we made a pie! 

I love this picture. Why? Because it shows the imperfections of the pie. It reminds me that not everything has to be perfect. The boys had so much fun cutting out the stars by themselves and pressing the fork into the crust. And you can see the imperfections that show it was their creation. Sometimes I have a hard time remembering to let them be little and things like this help. 

Next we ate and crushed up oreos for our pudding cups. 

Love it! 

We made a fruit flag. Great eye hand coordination activity to get the blueberries on the skewers. And then of course when it came time to eat them they only wanted to bananas. I ate a lot of strawberries that day...

Next we wrapped each other up like a firecracker and then had to explode out! Preston told me this was his favorite thing we did that day & asks all the time if we can do it agian. 

Firecracker Preston! 

Explode! 

Firecracker Jaxton! 

Explode! 

Firecracker Louie! 

Seriously this dog is such a good sport with the kids. 

Firecracker Lucas! 

Sadly there is no exploding picture of Lucas since he was eating the toilet paper and had to be removed from the situation quickly. 

Firecracker Mommy!

Next we played Hide and go Seek with the flag. This didn't last long. They love hide and go seek, but Jaxton gets REAL upset if someone goes after something he wants. So after a few rounds and a few screams we stopped. 4th of July is not a day for throwing fits. 

We decided to try out our pudding cups. Delicious! Lucas shared one with me and it cracked us all up that after it was gone he threw the 1st big hissy fit of his life. He was SO UPSET that there was no more pudding! And believe me, I get it, but I mean the reason its gone is because he ate it! Lucky for him his brothers were willing to share. 

 After Lucas went down for his afternoon nap we did our messier activities. We painted "fireworks" with fly swatters. They looked really good! 

Next we made fireworks on paper with glue. We poured salt on it and had it dry so we could color the salt. 

While they were drying we had dinner. Rocket dogs! 

Then we painted our salt fireworks with medicine droppers and food coloring. 

Once it started to get later & cool off (or at least as cool as it could get) we had a parade. The boys waved their flags and i played patriotic songs on my phone and we walked all around the neighborhood and around the corner on our parade. 

Finally Patrick got home and they could do their fireworks. We had them try the poppers & explained to Preston that you have to throw them to the ground like you are mad so he started yelling "I don't want to" as he would throw them down. I guess thats his go to mad phrase! 

We only did one firework that was actually loud but they covered their ears for all of them. 

And that eventually turned into coming inside and watching behind the door. 

Seriously exhausting day. The next day Jaxton slept in till 8:30 which he NEVER does so I know they were worn out. But it was fun to hear them say things like "I love the 4th of July!" "This is such a fun day!" and Jaxton would chime in with "I'm happy!"
And FYI we did talk about the importance of 4th of July, and Preston memorized the pledge of allegiance and what it means & Jaxton has got about half of it down. So there was education mixed in with all the fun. And food.