Crown Center Day of Fun!

WARNING 1: This posts contains lots of pictures
WARNING 2a: You may be jealous of our super fun day
WARNING 2b: …Especially when you realize that all of our fun didn’t even cost us a single penny!

Belle spent the day with my parents, so I planned a “big kid” day for Jackson and his friend Sean. First stop, Kalediscope. If you don’t know what it is, you can check out it out online… but basically it’s a Hallmark owned kid destination that fosters creativity with the scraps from Hallmark’s operations.

Here’s where they painted their glasses

And the boys enjoyed waiting for their finished masterpieces to come across the drying belt {this contraption is genius!}

Next was some sticker fun

This is Jackson’s completed sticker art

We did several marker activities, including 3D fish…

And the coolest part about Kaleidoscope—making your own puzzle! Here the boys roll their artwork through the puzzle machine.

And wha-la! It’s a puzzle! This is Sean’s puzzle and he said, “This means I love my Mommy!” So sweet!

We stopped  by the dark room right before we left and the boys enjoyed painting neon fish under a black light.

We made a stop by Hallmark Visitors Center right next door, and a trip to Hallmark just isn’t complete without watching the machine make a bow {or five}.
   

We stopped for an {indoor} picnic!

And then we headed to the Dinosaur Exhibit located in Crown Center until September {when another free exhibit will come!}

The boys got to ride a T-rex,

a baby Stegosaurus,

a Troodon,

and climbed around an Edmontosaurus.

{Yes, be proud. I did that all from memory. And I can pronounce and spell them all correctly. I read a lot—A LOT—of dinosaur books with all their ridiculous names and spellings.}

Anyway, the boys played with Troodon eggs.  

And sat still for 2.5 seconds to look through some flash card books. 

Next, they played with dinosaurs

And then the cutest thing—they dug through “dirt” to find some fossils!

And {almost} lastly, we stopped by the Crayola store where the boys did some more coloring and played with

{Jackson said he drew a ladder!} 

Our trek back to van ended up to be an adventure of it’s own as Jackson tumbled down the escalator and scared the bejeebies out of me. I’m so grateful for the kindness of strangers—a lady who stopped Jackson’s fall, the restaurant manager from Crayola Cafe who SPRINTED to our rescue, and the Crown Center security who made sure everyone was alright.

But besides the little “eskimo” incident {as Jackson’s calls it} our day was a total success. And totally free!!! I’d love to visit the new acquarium and Legoland that opened this year, but tickets to both will cost nearly $50 per person! So for now, we’ll stick to these long-standing KC favorites!

Custom Artwork... again.

People have been more than generous with giving me a helping hand since Derek's been gone. People have mowed my yard, watched Jackson, cooked dinner among many other things. Well, the other day at church a couple of ladies who clean houses by vocation, came up to me and asked if they could come and clean house-- at no cost every couple of weeks. I was around a ton of people, having a rather not-very-good day, and it literally took all my effort not to cry as I said, "Uhm... yes, please!"

So, they came over yesterday morning. They tackled the kitchen, dining room, living room, the bathrooms, all the bedrooms. I mean, it looked spectacular. I say looked because I have since cooked and Jackson has gotten out all of his toys, but it's only clutter. I can see out of my windows, no grimy fingerprints. I'm no longer distracted by the dust on my picture frames and shelves down the hallway. The crayon all over the bathtub (it's allowed) is all cleaned up and so is the artwork on the wall where Jackson redecorated the week before Derek left.

They ladies spent several hours here in the morning and left around the time I was getting lunch ready for the kiddos. Jackson was having a meltdown, "I waaaant a baaanaaanaaa" and I was willfully ignoring him. I walked in to put their plates on their table* to find an entirely new piece of artwork on my wall by a very pretty, little cutie who just likes the color purple.

Seriously!?! The cleaning ladies had only been gone not even seven whole minutes. Jackson had carried in the box of crayons in the midst of his fit and I just placed them on the counter. I did not think to count them. Clearly, there was one missing and was used to add some flair to my dining room, yet again. At least the ladies told me how to clean it off and maybe I will actually get it off before they come again.

*I've been looking for a new table for the kiddos to use. The table we were using only had one chair and the kids were able to knock it over pretty easily. I had been browsing craigslist for a few weeks and found one close by and at a good price. They used a cell phone to take a picture and I was under the impression that I was on my way to pick up gray and hunter green table. Much to my surprise, it was purple, teal, and pink. Oh well. It works!