AmaraLand

If I ask Amara what she wants to do tomorrow you can almost be sure the answer will be “Go to Pretend City”! So we had made plans to meet Celia and Miss Monique there this weekend. Pretend City is an amazing kids’ museum, rated the 2010 Editors Choice award by Orange County Parenting. Here kids can pretend to be anything they want from an artist to a farmer! All this pretending is even more fun when you have a friend there to share it with and Grandma Kc was glad to have someone to share it with, too.

Our visit started with a stop in the Art Studio where the girls got to be creative. They have a glass wall where they can paint anything they want, and then wash it off and start over again. The child-height craft tables are loaded down with everything you could need to create a masterpiece — glue, buttons, colored pop cycle sticks, gold and silver beads — the girls were inspired! There were even mannequin heads with some kind of sticky little beads that you could use to create hats and hair and even earrings!

Our next stop was the grocery store complete with shopping carts and every imaginable plastic food. Celia played the checker and operated the cash register while Amara went running around the store filling her basket with fruits, vegetables, 2 kinds of cheese and 3 pieces of cake! Celia rang it up and gave her back her change.

One of Amara’s favorite areas is the Amphitheater. She loves to perform! There is a huge stage with colored lighting, music, lots of costumes and even a soundboard (which always makes me think of Heather). The girls picked out their own costumes and danced for us. They were in their glory! Amara had informed me when I picked her up that she was wearing a tank top because it would make it easy to put on the costumes!

Later the staff used the stage to gather the kids for story time. One of the great things about Pretend City is that they have different activities every time you go. This weekend popcorn was the theme and the story was about a popcorn machine that went crazy and filled the town with popcorn! Next up, the popcorn hat races! The staff tied little paper plates on the kids’ heads and then put a handful of popcorn on top. Everyone got a prize and Amara was so glad they did that – everyone was a winner!

The girls spent a lot of time playing in the area called "Our Home". Everything in the Home is kid-sized. There is a kitchen, 2 bedrooms and a living room with a TV. The attention to the details really lets the kids stretch their imaginations. The bedrooms have closets with shoes and clothes to wear and a kid-sized bed to lie down on — which they did. The kitchen is complete with a frig, stove and cupboards with foods and pots and pans, all of them at kids-height.

They pressed all of the buttons in the 911 station.

The Restaurant is another favorite place and Celia kept bringing us plates loaded with Mexican Food! Amara was quick to grab the mop and start cleaning the kitchen. She looked so cute in her Chef’s Hat!

Pretend City also has a farm where the girls were able to dig up carrots, pick apples, lettuce and lots of strawberries. They filled the produce truck and when it over-flowed they replanted everything and started the harvest all over. Celia found this cowgirl costume and looked right at home.

Our last stop was the post office where we got postcards to take home and mail. Celia looked so cute in her postal inspector’s hat. It was a wonderful time. I don’t think we made it out of the parking lot before Amara asked “When can we come back, Grandma?”