The older nieces had been mentioning Pretend City for a couple of weekends. Pretend City is a children’s museum in Irvine, CA. I’ve been to my share of children’s museums (I was a kid you know) but this one is one of the better ones.
Pretend City is a huge warehouse set up to look like, well, a pretend city. They have different sets or homes that represent different places you’d see in a real city. A grocery store, a bank, a home, the beach, the police station, fire station and much more. Below is a map from the website showing the exact set up.
Admission is pretty good, only $10 per person and my SIL gave us a BOGO for a free admission, so we took the older niecies yesterday afternoon.
The girls had already been there once before with their friend Mikey and knew exactly where to go. I think this had Shannon and I at a disadvantage. While we were looking around oohing and ahhing, they had already taken off to the ATM.
Brooklyn went first and then Kalea. Unfortunately, when Kalea put in her timecard, the machine had run out of money. No worries, we went to the bank and Kalea was able to take out her first loan at the ripe old age of 3. Girl, I’m just warning you, pay back your loan on time or your credit will be shot.
With money in our pockets and our debt already existing…we went to the grocery store. I’m proud to say that our baby niece loaded up on the fruits and veggies immediately. She’s also a fast shopper and gets business done FAST.
Once she was done shopping, it was so cute. A little boy was working the register. Kalea put down her basket and then ran away. I thought she was getting shy about interacting with another kid, but she was just running to Aunty Shannon to get her money. She stood patiently while the cashier checked her out-uh her veggies out-and then paid the man for her food. I’m quite certain she under paid but maybe because she’s so cute, he gave her a discount? Or, he just can’t count yet.
After that we moved on the the farm where the produce comes from. Um, Kalea, it’s okay to put your money away now.
In the farm area, the had live chicks. They were so cute and pretty reactive to the kids looking in. The would walk up to the glass window and didn’t startle too bad.
After a trip to the market, we moved on to the home where Brooklyn laid down and Kalea got to work making us a nice vegetarian meal.
We kept exploring and hit up the fire station, beach and marina.
Brooklyn stamped an I Love You letter at the post office and insisted it be left behind to be mailed. Not sure who it was intended for, but I wish I would have snatched it before leaving.
Once we finished, we went to the real store before leaving. Kalea promptly started collecting stuffed animals and pushing her cart around. Uh girl, that loan was only good in that Pretend City. This store takes a different kind of currency. We narrowed it down to a couple of things and then said goodbye to the little city.
