Tiny Cupcake Bites

My nephew and godson, Matt, has been begging me to make my Mini Cupcake Bites for almost 2 years.  It's not that I don't love them, it's just that they take time to make.  And since Clara was born, I just don't have that kind of time.....unless it's for Matt's 16th birthday!

I surprised Matt with nearly 100 of these little bites of heaven on our family's annual vacation.  Happy birthday to my favorite godson!

Click here to see the full recipe!

STL 250 Cake Quest - Kirkwood

It took us two days to see the cakes in Kirkwood.  The locations of the cakes make for great outings - I have such great memories!

DAY 1

If you haven't been to the Sappington House Museum, it's definitely worth a visit.

The Sappington House and gardens appear as they did nearly 200 years ago. Built with slave labor, it is thought to be the oldest brick home in St. Louis County.

The grounds around the Sappington House are beautiful.  There is a pond with a fountain and a restaurant called The Barn.  We came back to eat at The Barn on Day 2 (below) and it was amazing!  I can't wait to come back - it's very kid-friendly and they serve breakfast all day!

Next we headed to the Kirkwood Train Station.

In 2002, Amtrak was on the verge of closing the Kirkwood Train Station. The City of Kirkwood negotiated with Amtrak to purchase and staff the station and has done so since April 2003. The City then issued a call for volunteers, and nearly 200 people responded.

We also stopped by the Farmer's Market.

Here are some upcoming events in downtown Kirkwood that you may be interested in:

Halloween Walk
Thursday, October 30 @ 5-7pm
Put on your costume, grab your bag and head to Downtown Kirkwood for trick-or treating! Participating Kirkwood businesses will be handing out treats from 5-7 p.m. Don't forget to stop by Greentree Community Church office on West Monroe for its annual Harvest Party during this time.

Holiday Walk
Saturday, November 22 
Spend the day strolling through Kirkwood, enjoying free refreshments and entertainment. Take photos with Santa and hear stories from Mrs. Claus. Take advantage of specials in Kirkwood shops and restaurants. Santa will arrive at 9:30 a.m. at Kirkwood Train Station.

Photos With Santa
December 4th and 11th from 5-7 pm and December 12th from 11am - 1pm
Santa will be at the historic Kirkwood Train Station to meet you! Bring your own camera to take a free photo with Santa. On December 11, one of Santa's reindeer will be there too!

Downtown Kirkwood Winter Fireworks Festival
Saturday, December 27
Entertainment at Station Plaza begins at 5 p.m.
Fireworks display at 6:30 p.m. from Kirkwood City Hall, located at 139 S. Kirkwood Road.

DAY 2

I decided to buy a membership to the Magic House when they had their annual 50% off membership deal.  I never take the girls because it's a lot of money for a family of 5 to go just once.  Now I feel like I can go whenever and stay for just an hour or all day! And the best part is my membership came with 10 free passes for guests so I got to bring my mom and two nieces with us to the Magic House!

The Magic House is celebrating it's 35th birthday this year!

We worked up an appetite playing around so we headed over to The Barn. Ava really enjoyed her dessert!

The Magic House offers Free Family Nights on select nights.  Click here for more info.  And to see a list of Special Events at the Magic House (for members and non-members), click here.

PS - If you want to see some of our other STL 250 cake quests, click here.

Holding out Hope

This headline caught my eye and stopped my heart:

"Scientists May Have Discovered How to Stop Your Peanut Allergies for Good"

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU NYU Medical Center Scientists!!! Parents all over the world are breathing a sigh of relief knowing that your smarty pants brains are all over this. We believe in you! Keep up the good work!

PS - My Sidney is also allergic to dairy and eggs.  Her sister Clara is allergic to eggs too.  We don't think it's life-threatening, but I'd love to bake a giant, buttery, fluffy cookie for them with real butter and real eggs and milk chocolate chips. Or even just take them to a restaurant and order from the menu. I totally get that there are much bigger problems in the world than this.  Just if you get some extra time...maybe you could find a probiotic cure for that too ;)

Top 10 Go-To Art Projects

We had such a fun and busy summer finding STL250 Cakes that we had no time to do art projects.  Now that Ava is back in school, the little girls are having a tough time adjusting to her being gone all day.  

On Ava's first full day of school, Sidney threw herself on the floor and said, 

"I just don't know how to play without Ava." 

Ava is the best play mate that Sidney and Clara could ask for and they are quickly finding out that Mom is not nearly as much fun!  So I've been searching through our art closet and looking online to come up with some ideas for when the kids are bored.

1.  PAINTING
Painting with kids doesn't have to be messy.  Sometimes we get out all our paints and paint brushes and art smocks and go to town painting, and sometimes we just get out water color paints.  Even Clara (who is not yet 2) paints with water colors and doesn't require a huge clean up. Since school has started back up, the girls get out their watercolor paints almost every day!

If we have more time and I'm prepared for the girls to get a little messy, here are some more fun painting activities:
- PAINTING WITH PAINTERS TAPE

- PAINTING WITH ANYTHING BUT BRUSHES

Also try combs, rocks, toilet paper rolls, etc.

- MARBLE PAINTING

2.  MELTY BEADS

3.  SALT DOUGH

4.  SUN CATCHERS

Or make your own!

Leaf

Kite

5.  NATURE ART
- BIRD FEEDER

- IMPRINTED LEAVES

- WORM CRAWLERS

6.  SPACE GOOP

7.  BODY TRACING

8.  STAMPS

9.  DRY ERASE FRIDGE ART

10.  CUT & GLUE
- RAINBOW

- SNAIL

- HELP YOUR CHILD LEARN THEIR NAME

Welcome back to school!!

STL 250 Cake Quest - Creve Coeur Park

I can't believe that we haven't spent more time at Creve Coeur Park. It has so much to offer! 

Here are some of the highlights:
- 320-acre lake with a sand beach along north-east shore and "Dripping Springs" waterfall along south east shore
- boat and bike rentals 
- fishing
- 4 playgrounds
- restaurant
- paved walking and cycling trail
- picnic pavilions
- athletic fields 
- Go Ape! Zip Lines

We started out by finding the cake, which was located by the entrance to Tremayne shelter near the boat ramp.  You can practically drive right up to it.

This is the map I used.

Click here for a printable PDF version.

We drove around and saw the four playground and the best one is located all the way at the end of Streetcar Drive (Location 2 on the map).

One of the best things about this playground is that it's really well shaded (at least it was when we went in the late afternoon).  It also has playground equipment for little kids and big kids.  And there is a sprayground although it was not working when we were there.  There are some playgrounds that I feel like I can't safely take all 3 kids to by myself.  This playground is totally manageable with all 3 kids.

PS - Click here to see some of our other STL 250 Cake Quests.

STL 250 Cake Quest - N. Grand Blvd.

It was a seriously hot day but we decided to go look for cakes anyway. North Grand Blvd has 8 cakes within walking distance of each other, which made for a fun afternoon.

Click here for a printable PDF of this map.

St. Louis University

Founded in 1818, Saint Louis University, a Catholic, Jesuit institution, is the oldest university west of the Mississippi. SLU has campuses in St. Louis and Madrid, Spain.

 This is the most iconic intersection on SLU’s campus. The corner is home to one of the University’s distinctive fountains and in the shadows of the rising white steeple of St. Francis Xavier College Church as well as Jesuit Hall.

Centene Center for the Arts & Education

The Centene Center for the Arts & Education houses many cultural organizations including Arts and Education Council, African Musical Arts, aTrek Dance Collective, Bach Society of St. Louis, Cinema St. Louis, Circus Flora, Gateway Men's Chorus, HotCity Theatre, Jazz St. Louis, Prison Performing Arts and St. Louis ArtWorks (to name a few).

Big Brothers Big Sisters

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri is celebrating their 100th birthday this year. The headquarters is located in the Woolworth building, a historic location in St. Louis. During the turbulent 1960s this building was a site of historic civil rights pickets and protests.

Nine Network

Nine Network, one of the nation’s most watched public television stations, will mark its 60th birthday in 2014 with the opening of an innovative outdoor public media commons. The Public Media Commons is intended to become a major destination for engagement and creative activity with large-screen projections and high-tech interactivity. The site lies between the Nine Network and St. Louis Public Radio. The construction site is behind the fencing that is next to Tim.

In 1968, the Public Broadcasting Act had created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to dispense annual federal appropriations for public television.  In 1970, when PBS began operation, the idea that television could help prepare children for school was innovative.  

In 1978, Channel 9 became one of the first PBS stations to receive programs via the Westar I Satellite.

Fabulous Fox Theatre

The Fabulous Fox Theatre opened on January 31, 1929 and was billed as “St. Louis’ largest and most magnificent temple of amusement”. After nearly 50 years, the theater closed in 1978. In 1981, the Fox was privately purchased by Fox Associates and an incredible one-year restoration project was launched. The Fox reopened its doors with the musical “Barnum” on September 7, 1982 to a capacity crowd of 4,500. Since 1982, more than 15 million people have passed through the brass doors of the Fox.

There are tons of shows in December for families.  Here are a few that I'm excited about:

Annie

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Story

Also, Cinderella is coming in January!

Powell Hall

Powell Hall, home of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, was built in 1925 as the St. Louis Theatre. It became known as Powell Hall in 1966, named for Walter S. Powell, a St. Louis shoe manufacturing executive whose widow gave the Symphony a charitable trust, helping to match a $2 million Ford Foundation grant.

The St. Louis Symphony has great concerts for families. I'm really excited about these concerts:

Circus Flora + STL Symphony: A Winter Fable

Friday, December 12, 7:30pm 

Saturday, December 13, 2:00pm & 7:30pm 

Macy’s Holiday Celebration 

Friday, December 19, 2:00pm & 7:30pm

Saturday, December 20, 2:00pm & 7:30pm

Sunday, December 21, 2:00pm

Pixar in Concert

Saturday, December 27, 7:30pm

Sunday, December 28, 2:00pm

Click here for more info on the family concert series and click here for the PDF brochure.

Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis

Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis was founded in response to the 1917 deadly race riot in East St. Louis where between 40 to 200 blacks were killed. The riots began when white East St. Louisans attacked black workers and migrants. During this time, thousands of black migrants traveled to East St. Louis, a predominately white city, seeking jobs. 

Today, the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis serves 80,000 residents with economic empowerment, meeting basic needs, educational quality and equality, civic engagement and social justice programs.

The Sheldon

The Sheldon opened in 1912 and is known around the world for its perfect acoustics. The Sheldon Art Galleries contain seven separate spaces devoted to rotating exhibits of St. Louis artists, photography, architecture, jazz history, emerging artists, and children’s art.

On Saturdays through August 9, 2014 from 10:30am - 12:30pm, kids can do crafts and a scavenger hunt in the galleries at the Sheldon ($3 / child donation for crafts).  We were the only ones there. Good thing because the table could only seat 4 people!

One of the exhibits, St. Louis at 250, is a culmination of a citywide photo contest. The contest garnered over 500 entries and 100 were selected for the exhibit. An accompanying book with all 100 photos was published by the Sheldon Art Galleries. We loved the exhibit so much that we purchased a book. As we were leaving the Sheldon, we met one of the photographers. Two of her photos were selected for the exhibit.  She offered to sign our book!

If you are interested in buying a book (above), click here to purchase on Amazon or click here for a mail order form. You can also purchase them at the Sheldon.

PS - Click here to see some of our other STL 250 Cake Quests.