City Museum St. Louis - Take 4 - the Roof

Ahhh....City Museum.  If you missed my previous posts on City Museum you must read them here:  TAKE 1   and here: TAKE 2 and here: TAKE 3    It will explain this crazy place!!!!

We began our day on the roof so we could beat as much of the heat as possible.  As always....this place is so cool I can't even explain it!    Here is one view of the bus and elephant and fun climbing things!!!

This is a photo of one of those climbing items.  I took it from across the roof.  Kennedy and Jeff are playing inside!

This amazing tube and slide - well, just look at it!  The top half is where you climb up to the top.  Once at the top (by the enormous praying mantiss) you slide into the underneath part and slide back down!!

This amazing tube and slide - well, just look at it!  The top half is where you climb up to the top.  Once at the top (by the enormous praying mantiss) you slide into the underneath part and slide back down!!

Here are Quinn and Daddy at the beginning of the climb.  Kennedy was already WAY ahead!  Poor Jeff climbed with Quinn to the very top - he had to hunch way down.  Half way up Quinn was over it...she would have liked to get down I think!  So Jeff had to encourage her the rest of the way up!  Jeff and Kennedy went down the slide, but not Quinn!

Kennedy just about to go down the slide....

...here is she is 3/4 of the way down!!

This is yet another slide.  But first you must climb up using a rope!

Next we have the huge dome.  They have hung a rope from it, painted a large circle on the floor and just let people swing all day!

There is also a Ferris Wheel on the roof!  All four of us rode it!  Quinn hid her face most of the ride but didn't make a peep!  At 10pm that night Kennedy and Jeff went back and rode it again!!

Now I bring you a few shots of the outdoor fun!  These are at the entrance of the museum and it is called MonstroCity.   There are 2 old planes you can climb into and through, tons of cages and tunnels, a few slides, a tree house,  2 ball pits, part of a fire truck, and 2 stone turrets!  We didn't get many photos here because it was getting hot and there aren't good place to snap photos.  Below is Kennedy and myself climbing around!

 Quinn loved the ball pit!  The museum has one for kids 6 and under and one for older kids.  That was wonderful for her!

Hope I persuaded you to check out City Museum next time you are in St. Louis!  I am sure we will!

City Museum St. Louis - Take 2

Ahhh....City Museum.  If you missed my previous post on City Museum you must read it here:  TAKE 1    It will explain this crazy place!!!!

These photos are still from the 1st floor (and some of the caves underneath in the basement).  In the above photo, the girls are looking at the HUGE fish and turtles in the tank!

The next photo is taken looking down one of the tunnels....Kennedy is on the left looking into the other side of the huge fish tank. The tile work in this place is stellar!   In the next shot, I stood by Kennedy and took a photo of Jeff coming into the tunnel!  She is screaming in excitement!

I am actually surprised this photo turned out!  We had gone through the tunnel and into some caves.  It was so dark in some of them you couldn't really see!  The girls' eyes are so big because of the camera flash!

Another underground tunnel.  There are so many interlinking stairs, slides and passageways that you can easily lose your children!

I wish I had more photos of the caves, but it was very dark and super twisty-turny!

City Museum St. Louis - Take 3 - The Toddler & The Bus

Ahhh....City Museum.  If you missed my previous posts on City Museum you must read them here:  TAKE 1   and here: TAKE 2.    It will explain this crazy place!!!!     This first shot is of my sweeties outside the museum. Look on the roof of the building....yes that is a school bus. More on that in a minute!

On the 3rd floor of the museum there is a Toddler Room.  Quinn and I spent about 20 minutes there while Jeff and Kennedy explored outside.  After 20 minutes she was over it.   :)

Cool steps, eh?!  Wish I knew where they found those fun cylinders!  These steps led to a tube slide, a ball pit and some climbing tunnels. 

Yeah baby!   BALL PIT!!!!!!

Luckily there is another ball pit outdoors....Quinn now LOVES them!  This one was about 3 feet off the floor. 

Happy face!

This photo was taken from the museum's website. It is the roof of the building - 11 stories up.  I think it is old because many things are missing, including the ferris wheel.  But I wanted you to see the school bus!  It hangs over the edge!

Going for a ride!!!!!

This s a total blur, but it is a photo taken out the door of the bus looking down to the parking lot.  (Yes, those are 2 airplanes in mid air. More on that another day!)

Bus Driver Kennedy!!!!  Looking out over the city!

Jeff got this shot from the parking lot....the underside of the bus!   Good times!!!!

City Museum St. Louis - Take 1

This was hands down the BEST stop on our trip to St. Louis!  The CITY MUSEUM is a kid's paradise - and there really aren't even words to describe it!   You can check out their website here: City Museum.  If you are ever in St. Louis, you absolutely MUST go.  Even if you are an adult!  You can easily spend an entire day there.  We went on Friday and they are open from 10am to midnight...no joke! And they held a wedding while we were there...such a cool place!

I will do my best to describe what I can.   Basically, it is an old 11-story building in the heart of downtown St. Louis which was once the International Shoe Company.  They have filled the first 3 floors with these incredible caves, treehouses, tunnels and things you can't describe.  You walk into a tunnel and can spend 30 minutes in there before you find a way to get out - and there are probably 20+ different routes to take once you are in that tunnel!  There are slides and ladders and tunnels everywhere.  This is one little excerpt from their website: 

Cassilly and his longtime crew of 20 artisans have constructed the museum from the very stuff of the city; and, as a result, it has urban roots deeper than any other institutions’. Reaching no farther than municipal borders for its reclaimed building materials, City Museum boasts features such as old chimneys, salvaged bridges, construction cranes, miles of tile, and even two abandoned planes!

The above picture is of Kennedy coming out of the bottom of a HUGE whale!  You can climb inside the whale and take different routes outside of it....here are my favorite people exploring the whale's innards!

The is under the whale's tale.  Jeff (in the blue shirt) and Kennedy (in the pigtails) are watching a huge drum of water fall into a pit!!

It is really impossible to get great photos in this place!  It is spectacular, but my photos don't do it justice.  You could spend so much time just looking at this room before you ever explored it!  The white stuff at the top of the photo is what is hanging from the ceiling on the main floor.  So I am up high taking this photo.  You can see part of an enormouse tree house here.  And the metal "cages" coming from the left of the picture??  See those? They are everywhere and it is how you get around in much of the museum.  Jeff and Kennedy are climbing through it!  See his blue shirt and khaki shorts?  Kennedy is in front of him with a green shirt.

Here is a close-up....see little Miss Quinn in there?!  She loved this place!! That girl has NO FEAR!

Another view near the ceiling....Kennedy!!!  She is climbing in that thing!!!  It is sooo small!  Some teenagers started climbing in it coming from the other direction.  I seriously thought they might get stuck!  Kennedy had to turn her body around and climb out the way she had come in!  

The next photo is part of the tree-house....I honestly can't even explain what you are looking at...other than it is a "tunnel" of tree limbs!  So cool!  The spaces are so cramped it was hard for me to get good pictures!

This is just one part of the museum!   I will share more later.  But I wanted to leave you with the museum's description of this floor.....

Perhaps one of the most visually stunning areas in the museum, the First Floor is part undersea immersion, part treehouse hideaway, part cave adventure, and all City Museum. Above you, visitors pinball through tunnels in the ceiling, giving them a birds-eye view of the beautiful and elaborate mosaic floor. Stroll through the life-sized bowhead whale and you may hear whale songs blending in with the crashing waves of water dumped out by the “Puking Pig”- a boiler tank perched atop an 1880’s fire pump that dumps water into the wave cave below. Fish fanciers will enjoy the 5000 gallon fish tank, filled with fish native to Missouri waters.(Look out for the 39lb catfish!) And when you think you’ve seen it all, dig deeper, because several underground passageways still await you, taking you under the floor, or work your way through the treehouse and up into the ceiling again. Can you find the pump room slide?

Horses & Corn

I have no idea where she learned how to drink from her bowl.  -sigh-




 Quinn has been enjoying the play horses lately.  She rides on Kennedy's 'big' horse and says "Go Go Go!"  And we ride the stick horses around the house.  I say "Giddy-up" and she says "Gup Gup Gup!"

 Yum!   Corn on the cob!  Quinn really wanted to eat it - just like her big sister.  Kennedy LOVES sweet corn!  She is a great role model in showing Quinn that veggies are yummy.  Too bad Quinn doesn't really care.  She kept trying to eat the corn but once it was in her mouth she would make a disgusted face and spit it out.  Maybe some day she will eat vegetables.

For the Love of Animals!

Hooray for a trip to Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead!  We love this place!  Kennedy even had her 4th birthday there!!!  Come see the fun we had!

 I just love this first photo - for so many reasons!   #1 - my bff taking photos of the girls from the other side! #2 - these 3 girls are so close and I love that!  #3 - Taylor had to borrow her mom's sunglasses to "match" Kennedy! #4 - The happiness of summer and exploring on their faces!  #5 - they had no idea I was taking their photo!

We always get photos taken in the butterfly garden!!!!

Quinn was so taken with the animals!!!  She couldn't get enough of the goats!  The older girls fed the goats while Quinn squealed and giggled.  She even was brave enough to hold out her own had to feed them.  So I decided she would do well in the enclosed goat area!

What do you think?  Did she like it?!

It goes without saying that Kennedy loved feeding them as well.  This has been a favorite part for her for years!

We were able to hook up with some more friends while there.    The big kids got Discovery Passbooks where they have to look around the Farm for hidden questions and then search for the answers.  Kennedy and Owen went crazy over answering the questions and filling out their books!!!!!  Here they are coming out of the General Store!

It was a great day!