The Summer Family Fun Series at the Missouri History Museum is one of our favorite things to do during the summer. On Mondays and Fridays they have activities from 10am - 1:30pm (visit their Family Garden, Storytelling with a craft, Make-and-Take activities in the Schnucks Learning Center). On Tuesdays they have special events starting at 10:30am. The best part is that it is all FREE!
It's very low key and kid-focused. You never need to worry about your kids acting up or being too loud or crying. You'll just blend in with the scene! I show up with my three kids and our double stroller and many bags every Monday. Ava wants to do every art project they offer. She is frantically hoarding all the stickers and crayons and "sparkles" she can get her hands on. Sidney just wants to glue stuff together and eat crackers. And I have to hold Clara off with a Baby Mum Mum or else she will eat all the craft materials. It's pure chaos but we love it and no one there seems to mind.
Here are some of the fun projects we've made over the past few weeks.
Football-themed crafts
Football-themed crafts
"Bug Out" week
"Bug Out" week
Fourth of July crafts
Fourth of July crafts
Fourth of July crafts
Afterwards, the girls love to walk around to the fountain and trolley car. Sometimes we eat lunch outside, other times we just run around. One day there was a duck cooling off in the fountain!
Also, there is a playground connected to the Missouri Department of Conservation which is right behind the Missouri History Museum (a very short walk). It's open to the public year-round.
We have a tradition of going to Ted Drewes for Oreo Concrete afterward!
Sidney can't have frozen custard so I bring her a treat.
YUM!
Side Story:
This past week when we were at the History Museum someone stopped me in the parking lot and asked if my daughter's name was Ava. She recognized Ava from my blog! She said lots of nice things about my kids and my blog and then she said that I'm such a great mom. That just made my day and I wanted to tell her THANK YOU! I love little random acts of kindness like that.
It may seem like things are always rosy over here because I only blog about the good stuff. I don't want to be misleading though. My kids are no different than your kids. They fight and cry and complain and talk back and all the other frustrating things that kids do to drive us crazy. And while I try to be a good mom, I have many shortcomings and often worry that I'm screwing my kids up.
We had a "family meeting" with Ava last night (We'd planned to have Family Meeting night with Ava on Friday nights to give her some one-on-one time with Tim and me to talk about things that were on her mind - so far we've had 2 meetings...). We talk about the things that we do well and the things that we need to work on. I let Ava tell me the things that I needed to work on. First on her list (yes, there was a list) was that I needed to be more patient. She's right about that. I'm starting to worry that I'll never be good at it. Second was that I needed to stop saying "Oh my God". I don't let the kids say that because I just don't like the way it sounds coming out of their mouths. But yesterday it slipped out of my mouth when I was upset. Ava recommended that I say "Oh my gosh" or "Oh my goodness" or "Holy Cow"! That cracked me up! Anyway, the moral of the story here is that I have a lot of things to work on. Nobody's perfect.
