Edwardsville Children's Museum

In the last several months, I've gotten less brave about taking both Lilly and Abby to places like museums. Now that Abby is old enough to run (and I mean run), I've been worried about both girls just splitting in opposite directions and having to hunt them down. That being said, although St. Louis has a great children's museum, it's HUGE. There's a much smaller children's museum in Edwardsville, which I love going to because I can easily corral the kids. It's really a big old mansion where the floor space is probably the size of my own house, but the ceilings are like 20 feet tall so it feels really open and big. Although I've liked going there in the past, it kind of had the feel of going into grandma's attic; it wasn't really "professional" feeling, but it had plastic fruit in the grocery section and dress up clothes in a trunk. They recently overhauled it and got sponsors for each section. So, the YMCA did a section on fitness, a local dentist's office sponsored the doctor's corner, a local restaurant sponsored menus and a play restaurant, etc. It's a really fun place to visit with little kids.

Afterwards, I was looking for a place for us to get lunch, and I spotted a Pantera's Pizza. I don't think I've eaten at one of those since maybe 1989. I kind of laughed when I went inside because it really looked like nothing had changed since 1989. What a fun trip down memory lane. They even had arcade games in the corner.

Sometimes I can feel overwhelmed with what to do with the kids for the day (especially since it seemed like we were dealing with constant sickness or teething all winter long), or else I default to the "let's get groceries" activity. It was fun getting out of the house and doing something a little different and fun.