Stepping Back in Time

This summer as part of the summer reading program at the public library, our kids were given a free activity book called What'll We Do? Museum or Zoo. (Myra Millinger is the CEO and President of the Maricopa Partnership for Arts and Culture - the ones who made the book, and used to work with Erik at Flinn). The book lists different culture art places to visit, and has a place for the kids to draw a picture or write something to remind them of what they saw. (Go here www.mpacarts.org/youth.php to download your own copy of the book). Visiting places in the book became our vacation for the summer, as with Erik's blood clots, we were in no condition to travel long distances. We went to the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, The Bead Museum, and the Phoenix Art Museum. Well, this past Saturday we decided to try out a new place, the Arizona Historical Society Museum at Papago Park. This was, by far, our kids favorite museum. If you decide to go, it is free on the first Saturday of each month. It might bother some people that most of the displays where you're supposed to listen to a message, weren't working, but that didn't bother our kids at all. Their favorite part in the whole museum was the wing dedicated to transportation, and that's where we spent most of our time. There was a long car that had been pieced together using three different cars from different time periods. If the museum had only been this car, that would have been enough to entertain my kids. They were able to get in the car and pretend they were driving, and they had a blast hopping in and out of the different time periods. I couldn't resist this shot since Joseph is our year 2000 Arizona baby. Everything was so hands on here, which was a huge draw for the kids. They were able to sit in a real military jeep, and above them, though we didn't take a picture of it, was a real military plane hanging from the ceiling. And then, of course, who can resist a free ride on a stationary horse saddle. . . Or a ride on a tractor? ___________________________________________________________________________________ Caution Hard Hats AHEAD Behind James is a block bridge that James and I made together - trickier than it looks. There were all kinds of activities for the kids to do there, but James loved the blocks and K'nex kind of activities the best. He and Joseph spent quite a bit of time building houses on a grid, using thin pieces of wood for the walls. They had to be the architects and determine what size the rooms of each house would be, and figure out how to keep the roof on top. James had a hard time transitioning away from the building activities; he probably could have stayed there all day.