Archives Week! My Favorite Post of Angela’s

It’s Archives Week here at SMB and I was asked to comb through Angela’s past posts and pick my favorite. I had to narrow it down to three and then choose blindly because this lady writes great stuff! Angela is the go-to for ‘what’s up around town’. Her posts are always full of fun, new and often free ideas to do with the kiddos. What’s not to love?!

I chose her post “New to Arizona or Just Looking for Some New Ideas? Top Ten Things to do with Your Kids!” . Why? Because I always forget about fun stuff to do like the Children’s Museum and this is a great reminder. Plus? All of her ideas in this post work for every season. The Railroad Park has misters. The splash pad? need I say more. The Zoo opened it’s splash playground for the season which makes a morning run around the animals seem much more manageable when it’s 105. So read on,  get out and enjoy. And thank you Angela for such great ideas! ~Beth

New to Arizona or Just Looking for Some New Ideas? Top Ten Things to do with Your Kids!

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from a reader new to Arizona. She was looking for things to do with her kids. I told her about a couple of places, but since then I keep thinking of more and more places that I should have told her about that offer really great things to do with the family. Duh!

So here is my attempt to redeem myself with a list of 10 fun things to do in the Valley with the kids if you are new to the area or just looking for something new to do!  

1)      The Phoenix Zoo (maybe obvious to you, but there are always new things going on there, so it is totally worth visiting if you haven’t been in awhile)

2)      The McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park– aka The Train Park (I think this is one of the best things we have going on here)

3)      The Children’s Museum of Phoenix (so much to do, you can barely fit it in one day)

4)      MacDonald’s Ranch (great for the horse-loving little ones)

5)      The Simple Farm (Cate wrote a great blog about visiting this place, it is now on my list of favorites –  check out her blog here)

6)      AZ Air Time Trampoline Park (brand new, fun place in Scottsdale)

7)      The Scottsdale Public Libraries and the Phoenix Public Libraries (both have fun story times and great kid sections at their various branches)

8)      Pack a picnic and check out a new park at www.parkgrades.com (there are so many parks here, we could go to a different one every day of the week, and most are within five or so miles from our house)

9)      Visit one of the splash pads (we like Desert Ridge or Scottsdale Quarter)

10)   Plan a trip to the play area at the mall (Paradise Valley Mall has a carousel for the kids or Fashion Square Mall has Nordstrom for me. . . . .this is pretty much a tie in my book)

So, whether you are relatively new to the area or a native, what are your favorite places to go with your kids? Please post below!