XML : Trouble building associative array from xml

I'm trying to build an associative array from XML. Here is what xml looks like (total of about 70 'item' entries):

  <xmldata>  <source>source</source>  <release>release</release>   <item>    <name>Name</name>    <date>1/1/2015</date>    <time>10AM</time>    <value>24</value>   </item>   <item>    <name>Name</name>    <date>1/1/2015</date>    <time>10AM</time>    <value>24</value>   </item>  etc  ...  </xmldata>    

Here is what I've tried so far:

  $data = file_get_contents("xml url");  $xml = simplexml_load_string($data);  $counter = 1;  $new_array = array();  foreach($xml->children() as $item)  {    if($counter > 2)    {      $temp_array = array('name' => $item->name, 'value' => $item->value);      array_push($newArray, $temp_array);    }  }    

I'm trying to build an associative array that looks like this:

  $new_array = array(array("name"=>name, "value"=>value),array("name"=>name,  "value"=>value),array("name"=>name, "value"=>value), etc);    

Its not working. I try to print the array to see if it is formed, but I get a list of 0-array, 1-array, etc.

I've also tried array_merge(), and $new_array[] = $item, and array_push($new_array, array("name"=>name, "value"=>value));

Is there a preferred way to append associative arrays onto an array? i.e. like array.append(dict) in python? Thanks much!