Whittle Valley Shortline Train Store

We visited this fun little train store in Valley Park this week. We met up with our friend, Luke and the boys enjoyed a little train play and a little puzzle play. Tyson was the one who really got into it, though. I think he could have played all day.

 The store is located in the Old Frisco Hotel Building, built in 1880.  It is located across from train tracks and was built to house railroaders who were passing through laying tracks. Later it became a commercial hotel. It has a lot of character!

 Here is Logan playing with his friend Luke. They are always on the move, so difficult to get a picture of them.

 The biggest train table in the store has space for kids to play on the outside of the table or to crawl under and play on the inside of the table.

 Of course, my little book worm found the book basket. He also found a sunny spot to read!

It is free to play at the store, but they do have a place for donations. After seeing their BADLY beaten up book basket, I was thinking we might just bring books to donate to the book basket on our next visit ;) Seriously we could not find a book that wasn't ripped or missing half the pages. At least they are well loved.
I hope we can go visit this cozy play spot again soon.

E is for Eckert's

On Monday, we took a trip to Eckert's Family Fun Farm in Millstadt. Generally admission is $10 per person but on Mondays it is free. Granted, the rides and the entertainment are closed, but it was perfect for the boys. There was still plenty for them to do and I'm pretty sure Tyson couldn't have ridden the rides anyway. The best part was that it was empty. We had the run of the place. There were probably only 10 to 15 cars there when we left. (When we arrived there were about 5 cars!)
We rode the wagon out to the apple orchard. (This was actually on the return trip, they never would look at the camera... too many distractions).

Tyson ate three apples while we were there. Now that we're home, he could care less about the apples.

Logan picked apples and carried the bag.

I let Logan buy taffy hence the green thing in his mouth.

 Since the shows were closed, the boys did their own shows on all the stages.

 They played on the playground area.

 And got dirty in the hay and the sandboxes.

 They even drove "tractors"... well John Deere tricycles.

 Most of the tricycles didn't really work but since they were the only ones riding, they could try out all of them!

 Both boys loved feeding the animals. Logan liked this antelope. It was very gentle.

 This little guy was not so gentle. However, he wasn't as tough as the big horned sheep that rammed Tyson's hand into the metal fence. His little hand was stuck between a horn and the metal. It was so red when he pulled back, poor boy.We didn't buy any food for that mean sheep. (or goat or whatever it was-- we didn't take its picture either).

 They loved all of the little houses.

 And they had fun in the corn maze too. I was a little worried about getting lost in there so we didn't go too far.

 Logan did this giant underground slide. Tyson would have loved to try but I didn't let him.

 We had such an amazing day and we' ll probably do it this way every year until the boys get a little older and can handle the crowds. Next year, we may go every Monday!

A is for Arnold Rec Center

At the beginning of summer, we joined the Arnold Rec Center. It has been a lot of fun for our family.  Greg and I can now work out together every night and Logan and Tyson love going to "Kidzone"-- the gym childcare. Logan loves it because they have a Wii and Tyson loves to terrorize the babies. That's right, he is the gym bully. He tries to hug all of the babies that are littler than him and knocks them down!
Not only is there a place to work out, there is also an indoor pool and and outdoor pool. Both pools have small slides for the kids and also larger waterslides. They both have whirlpools and lazy rivers. The boys LOVE it!
The outdoor pool is so much fun! I feel like we are on vacation every time we go there... which is a lot. (It's been a relaxing summer, I guess).

Even the baby pool is fun. There are fountains all over the place. These pour into the little baby pool. The other side is a zero entry-- great for wading.

There is also this fun "castle" to play on. Of course, when we took Nick and Alex there one day, Nick called it the "jail" not the castle.

There is a small blue slide that Logan loves. It's made for little ones, you have to be under 48 inches to go down it but I never let Tyson go down it because they move pretty fast and it pushes you under the water. Well, we went with my dad and guess what? Grandpa let Tyson go down the slide. And he loved it!

There is also a three story water slide that Greg and I both took a turn on. My dad tried to get Nick to do it with him but once Nick got to the top, he thought it looked a little too scary.
Logan has learning how to swim "under water"... well at least with his face in the water.

We've had a lot of fun at the outdoor pool but the best part is, we'll still have the indoor pool when the weather turns cooler!
And our boys love swimming so much, that when we tell them it's time to go swimming, they will work together to get dressed  (or undressed first) and out the door!

T is for Tower Grove Park

Logan has been to Tower Grove Park several times with Grandma and Grandpa but I hadn't been in years so I really wanted to go check it out this summer.
Tower Grove park is located in South St. Louis county. It is a very large park with lots of large green fields for play. They also have a children's wading pool/ fountain. On the weekends the pool is filled with shallow water but through out the week, they drain it and there is a large fountain and pop jets.
We took our "new Aunt",  Kari, out with us for the day. (She's actually been around for quite a while but since she just married the boys' Uncle Brian, they title of "Aunt" is new to her.) The boys adore her and I was happy for some company and help with the kids. She is also new to St. Louis so I thought it would be fun to show her around.
Both of the boys enjoyed the pop jet fountains.

At first Logan was scared to go under the large fountain but he warmed up after a while.

Actually, we all "warmed up" it was a HOT day. Kari and I didn't mind standing in the midsts of the fountains and getting a little wet ourselves.

Looks  like Tyson made a friend.

After we played in the fountains, we ate a picnic lunch.

Then we let the boys play on the playground for a while.

The good thing about Tower Grove park is that they built the playground around old, large trees. What is with the trend of knocking out all the trees on the newer playgrounds?

The boys had a lot of fun on the playground, but even with shade it got too hot after a while.
I tried to take Kari home a different way... should have brought a GPS because we got a little lost in South City... ended up on Grand... it started looking a bit ghetto so I turned the minivan around! I did get us home safely in the end.

The boys were pretty tired after their outing with Aunt Kari!

M is for Magic House

For one of our Summer Fun activities we visited the Magic House. My college, Missouri Baptist, was having a FREE alumni night at the Magic house. My sister is also an alum so we both signed our families up for the event. Logan had the stomach flu earlier in the week and Tyson had a cold but by the night of the event everyone seemed fine. We had been fever free for 24+ hours and vomit free as well. We stayed vomit free until the ride TO the Magic house. I looked back and Tyson was losing his lunch about 1/4 a mile from the Magic House. Luckily since Julie was coming too, Greg just dropped off me and Logan. Julie and the boys were nice enough to give us a ride home! We waited outside for Julie to get there. There was a nice picnic area with this water feature. Since it was about 104 degrees, no one else was out there with us.

We had to wait outside so we could put our carseat into Julie's car.

When Julie and Nick and Alex got there we went inside. We started in the Alice in Wonderland area. Here are our very tall boys! They must have eaten the cake. (Is that what made Alice grow?)

Logan, Nick, and Alex playing on the mushrooms.

After pretending to be Alice for a while, they assumed the identities of Jack in the beanstalk and the giant. Nick was the first one to be brave enough to climb to the top.

Logan and Alex quickly followed!

Since it was Mobap night, the whole magic house was closed to the public and open to only Mobap alum! The Spartan was there to celebrate the night. Ok, I know we were the Spartans when I went there but I do NOT remember a physical mascot ever appearing. Is this new? I'm sure I would have remembered something this scary. Logan waved to the mascot from a distance but would NOT go near him. (Smart kid.)

Nick's picture with the Spartan landed on the top of the alumni newsletter. Probably because he is so cute!

Alex may be try to take out the Spartan???

I LOVE this picture of Logan being a tough guy hockey player. They have a really cute hockey reading area. There is this "locker" plus a hockey net. And a bookshelf. Wouldn't that be fun for a classroom and totally motivating for boy readers? They could read by the locker or read in the hockey net. I might have some hockey connections that could hook me up with a cool sport themed reading area?
 Then the boys tried to make a giant bubble that would encompass all of them. fail. but they had fun!

Logan's favorite area is the fishing pond. He would stay there all night!

I'm thinking one of these would look great in our backyard.

All of the boys liked the grocery store.

I told Nick he could pretend like he was working at Grandpa Bradley's cucumber stand. He got a little excited... or maybe he was excited by all the $$ in the cash register?

Logan also loves the baby hospital. They get to take care of the babies and then put them in the bassinets for their mommies. This baby is kind of barring all... they are very "correct" little babies!

The boys had a lot of fun playing together at the Magic House. Just don't tell Tyson how much fun it was...