The sweetest museum ever!!

Last time we were in St. Louis, we tried to make it to The City Museum, but it was closed.  One of the artists working there was kind enough to give us a tour.  On our way back through, we knew St. Louis, we knew that we wanted to show the Aussies the sweetest museum ever.  

For those that are not familiar with it, take a look at their website.  http://www.citymuseum.org/

I wish I could have the day to take pictures in there with my tripod.  There are so many dark nooks and crannies that would be a complete blast to take pictures of.  There is also a bar!  Some beer and a tripod is a dream come true.

Some of these were taken with my camera correcting for the light, but you can see how there are lots of little weird shapes and mythical creatures everywhere.  There was a giant fish take that water dumped into every now and again.  It was really cool and really loud and caused one kid to have a complete meltdown.

This place is also a helicopter parent's nightmare!  There are tons of little nooks that kids can fit into but not tallgirls!  The kids went into this weird wedge shaped cavern under the floor that I absolutely could not fit in. THE KIDS WENT UNDER THE FLOOR!  But it all worked out okay.  Eventually we found them.  I only got nervous once.

All of these bars are different cages for the kids and sometimes us to climb up.  A lot of things eventually end in a slide back to some safe point.  

To the right is the giant fishtank.

In another part of the museum is a chamber with sculptures.  it is really dark and incredibly easy to lose your kids.  Again.  This place is not for people who care to be with their kids all the time.  I think that is part of the charm of it though.  The kids are left off the leash to be kids.  And honestly, my kids stayed close to me most of the time.  And they were practically always together. 

This is the monster slide that is supposed to be 10 stories tall.  It was maybe about that tall.  It was also not that fun because it was way too tight of a spiral.  Oh well, our visions do not always appear like we want them to.

Another chamber where there were mirrors everywhere.

Look, I was on vacation too!

The kids were on a hamster wheel with a friend.

I liked this slide a lot.  It went down about three stories REALLY FAST!

The gardens in the front had two ball pits and a helicopter to climb in.

One of my sweet sister in laws.

We paid the extra money and got access to the roof.  There is a giant ferris wheel and more slides up there.

Did I mention it also had a giant grasshopper?  In case you did not notice the 20 foot grasshopper behind Mr. T.

Lastly, they had an indoor skate park for the kids to run around in.  It was really fun!  you could get pretty high on the walls if your ran in a circle up them.

They were pretty tired at the end of the day.  A museum like this makes me want to move to St. Louis.

Recital!

Ms.  Peanut had her recital a number of weeks ago.  I was dreading the recital for weeks!  I was not looking forward to dressing her up or the pressure of a dress rehearsal and... well... the dance instructor kind of intimidates me.  I was never in dance so I had absolutely no clue how the whole thing would turn out.

Of course, I also heard horror stories about how unorganized it was and that we had to stay there until 10 at night and no one would feed us and they let lions loose in the main auditorium to sniff out rednecks.  I made that last bit up, but really, I kind of felt like that.  

And the costume!  OMG!  I was shocked.  I loved it except the for the cut outs at the sides.  AND there was some issue with the costumes being too small so we had to rush order these ones.  The original costume looked like it would not even fit BabyP.

BUT.... It was great!  We had a blast watching her.  We were organized and able to get there on time.   I was amazed at the performance.  The costumes looked great onstage.  There were no lions!  

The poor little girl in this picture with peanut is a string bean.  Her costume was crazy short.  I thought it looked cute on her with the tights though.

And above is about what you can expect from a 6 year old dance routine.  They were all trying really hard, and it was incredibly cute.  We were lucky enough that we only had one costume.  Other people had 2 costumes and a few had two costume changes!

She had a blast.  She was so proud of herself, which is what matters.

Final pose at the end.  She really worked on something sassy, and she nailed it!

At the end of the dance routine, these little girls refused to leave the stage so the boys dragged them off.  Peanut's class was the only one with boys.  I loved having boys in the class.  I think it really added to the dancing and made their performance super cute.  

The theme was Candyland.  Peanut was licorice sticks and nerds.  It was really cute, and we all had a great time watching her.   

Last Day of School

Favorite Teacher:  Ms. Pierce and Ms. Kelly
Favorite Spot in the Class Room: in the library
Favorite Book: books that are over my age that are about Egypt
Favorite Thing to do in school: recess and  PE
Best Friends: Steele and Ross
Best Boy Friends: Ross
What did you learn this year? times tables
What was the hardest thing you did this year? reading
What was your favorite field trip? going to the zoo
What do you want to be when you grow up? Egyptologist
What was your favorite thing you did not in school? going to England
What is your favorite thing to do at home? nap (LOL she rarely naps but is tired now.)

Sometimes I do get good shots of him!

The last year has seen a real change in this little boy.  He has gained confidence and is off like a rocket.

All of that is good and fun, except that it hard to get him to sit still long enough to get a really good portrait of him. 

Sometimes I luck out and I get some shots that show the freckles on his nose and the detail in his hair.

But other times, I just get the back of him as he is running on to his next adventure.

England Photos Post 1- random

Part of the Old Roman Wall that surrounded the city at one time.

Mr. T. and Peanut were called to do some street performing.

Fun at a local part with Aunty and Granny

More Roman Wall

Tired after a long day of site seeing

Paddington Station.  This bear is from darkest Peru.

My sassy little street performer.