Day 25

After a night of constant rain (is it just following us everywhere?), We got up and headed back into St Louis for the day.  On the list was the Magic House Children's Museum, the arch, and possibly the Science Museum.  Look, we really are in Missouri!

Magic House far exceeded my expectations.  We spent the first 30 minutes wandering around just to figure out where everything was - this place is huge!  Our first stop to play was the Magic Treehouse area.  The girls aren't as familiar with the books as Brayden, but they enjoyed dressing up in the period costumes and playing with all the props.  Brayden enjoyed relating all the books he has read to the areas they had set up - Thanksgiving on Thursday, Tornadoes on Tuesday, etc.

There was a very cool beanstalk the kids could climb up and down instead of using the stairs.  I need one of these in my house!  I don't have any stairs, but I do believe the kids would have played on this for hours.  Next up was a three story twisted slide.  I think I might need one of these in my house too!  Of course, Dave and I would probably be using it as much as the kids!

There were all kinds of science and math areas as well.

I think the area the kids enjoyed the most as in all the other museums we've been to was the dramatic play area.  They had an attic full of old trunks, auto service center (we need a mechanic in the family too!), ice cream stand, library, pizza parlor, hospital, a river-fed fishing pond, grocery store, bank, and veternarian office.  I believe we could have stayed there all day.  And the next day.  And the next and never gotten tired of playing.  I suppose I should set something like this up in my house too!

After purchasing Brayden his third pair of flip flops and Ryan her second, we headed to McDonald's for a little ice cream, a chance to update two days of travels and play in the giant playground.  There wasn't time for the science museum, but we did hit the arch next!

In kid's words:

Brayden "What?"
Laney "That is definitely taller than our house."
Ryan "Woah".

We spent some time in the visitor's center looking around and getting the kids National Parks passports stamped.  All the kids got up the nerve to take the ride to the top, but when they found out it would be at least 3 hours until we got home for dinner (about 8pm), they opted out.  Conveniently.

We headed home for a light dinner and another visit to the playground.

Day 25: Fun on the Town