Where The Wilde Things Are: Pretend City

Here’s how it works for us: First you get the big things (top three: church, grocery store, library) established, then you expand to playgrounds and walking routes, then you move out in rough concentric circles as determined by drive time. In the 15-20 minute radius, we discovered this gem. Pretend City is a child-size town where kids have free reign. If your kids are a couple years older than mine, they can “work” at the fire station, the restaurant, the doctor’s office, etc. and get their “time cards” stamped which they then take to the bank to exchange for Pretend City dollars to spend at the grocery store, gas station, you get the picture. Or they can just run around enjoying it all and skip the money part. There’s a post office, library, beach, farm (you can sell your “crops” to the grocery store for “cash” too), theater . . . in short a nicely equipped little town!

Naomi walks in and wonder where she can go first, while Logan immediately recognizes that you have to press the button to wait for the walk signal. Oh yeah, they have little ride-on cars and traffic signals too.

Here’s the village square with a little park and playground; the parking spaces for all the vehicles are just on the other (unpictured) side of the square.


First stop: groceries! This is fairly characteristic, Naomi goes for the veggies and Logan heads straight for the carbs. After they load up their baskets, Logan helps Naomi check out.

A lengthy visit to the fire station was expected but, Drew, you should appreciate that Logan also spent a good amount of time at the dispatch center.


Naomi seemed more interested in digging in the sand here than she typically does at the real beach. Go figure! The gas station was nearby, which was good because Logan’s motorcycle was running low.

They had a cute little two-bedroom house, but in the middle of all that scaled-down fabulousness, what do I find my kids playing with but the even-smaller dollhouse. Again, go figure!


Logan put in some long hours on the farm and then stopped in at the cafe for a quick drink.


Naomi completed her shift at the fishery and then headed down to the library where she volunteers, doing a puppet show for the children’s story time.


To cap off the day, Logan worked the sound and light board for Naomi’s show at the theater; she’s currently in a musical where she seems to be providing her own accompaniment.