Entertaining a 3 year old and playing at Gateway

Another week of Spencer in school all day.  Meaning another week of playing Barbies, baby dolls, princesses, dress-up, makeovers, coloring, hide-and-seek, and such.  To break things up I took the girls to Fashion Place Mall, Wal-Mart, and Chick-Fil-A (which besides having the best fast-food chicken also has some of the friendliest and most helpful staff--carrying my tray for me, bringing around mints, refilling my drink, etc.--a fun play area, plastic table covers & Cheerios for the little one, and educational but still fun toys).  I'm actually getting better at playing these girly things.

On Friday we drove downtown right after picking Spencer up from school.  I wanted to let the kids experience the Play exhibit at the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum before it is gone next week.  I've been waiting for a coupon in the Monday ads but all they've had the whole summer is a $10 off a 6-month membership coupon.  Then I remembered I had a buy-one-get-one-free coupon in my Entertainment (Happenings) book.  It didn't specify if it was only buy one get one or if you could use it for multiple buy one get ones so I took my parent's coupon with me as well.  But I didn't need it.  Instead of paying $34 I only had to pay $17 (it's $8.50 per person ages 1 and up).  Still a pricey outing, but I can handle it about twice a year.  I contemplated getting a 6 month membership for the girls and I while Spencer's at school.  With the $10 off coupon it would be $40 for the 3 of us ($15 more to include Spencer).  But I'd still have to drive all the way down there, pay for parking, etc.  I think I'll stick with once or twice a year.

Of course the Beehive was still a huge hit for my kids.  I know I talked about this and posted some pictures back in February but this time Clara was old enough to really get involved.  It's crazy how much she's grown up in 6 months!  She loved putting the balls in places and watching them come out of places.  She screamed and tried so hard to get away from me when we eventually moved on from here.  Here's one picture of Clara's favorite part--the older kids would drop the balls in top and they would roll down and come out the hole by Clara.  Of course the older kids favorite part was still the vacuum tube (see earlier post).

From here we went to the construction site where Spencer played on the crane lifting the foam blocks onto the platform to build something.  We played in the little house and Tessa went shopping in the little store.  We also went to the farm and the bigger kids sat on the big horse.  The kids picked vegetables and drove around.  Clara loved driving the little cars she could walk all by herself. Tessa loved the tractor where she would pick vegetables and then drive them to the horse to feed him.  Sometimes they got in each other's way.

Then we went to the water play area.  In the past they've only had the ping pong balls and the water doesn't really move them as much as it should so the kids get frustrated.  But this time they had all sorts of toys--fish, boats, dragons, etc. so the kids had a lot of fun here.  Clara just plain loves the water and one area was low enough for her to reach in.  Spencer loved following her around trying to help her, while Tessa just worried about herself, which was actually easier for me.

There's a little section for kids ages 3 and under here.  But by the time I started coming here, Spencer was already 4 so I've never gone in this area.  However, I decided to go this time.  At first there was no one else in here so I told Spencer he could come in with us.  Besides, I wasn't going to leave him or the girls where I couldn't watch them.  Maybe it's because we've never been in this play area before, but it was the kids' favorite part of the place.  They played with the little toys and books, played in the little bird house, climbed up and went down the baby slide, and played in the boat.  Clara LOVED it too.  She played by herself most the time and the bigger kids played together here.  Some other kids came in but Spencer didn't seem to take away from their experience so I let the kids keep playing.

Then we went upstairs where the kids made their videos of toys, stamped and colored pictures, and played on the stage.  Last time we were here they had princess costumes, this time they had birds.  Spencer played a bit on the stage but mainly loved changing the lights and the backdrops.  Tessa just loved to dance.  Here she's dressed up as a bird.

We played with the puzzles but someone was hogging the earthquake table long enough for us to play puzzles, waffle blocks, large legos, people in the houses, and magnets, so we moved on without playing the earthquake table this time.  We went out to the helicopter and visited the temporary PLAY exhibit.  At first the kids played on the large backgammon board where each time they stood on a triangle it lit up and made a music note.  They thought it was fun for a little while.

We couldn't figure out the bowling thing quick enough and the kids lost interest and moved on.  We went to the pool table with a giant pool ball.  Online their website said they had 9 pool balls that would make music synchronizing with each other.  Spencer had been excited to hit the balls on each other.  But there was only one quiet ball.  Not too much fun.  The large dominoes were fun though.  Spencer and I started setting them up to knock over, like regular dominoes.  But an employee was trying to build a fort at the same time and was grabbing them as quickly as he could.  So we only were able to line up 6 of them.  Spencer loved running into them--football style--to knock it over.  As soon as they were knocked over the employee grabbed them up to finish his fort.  To give him credit, the fort was also fun for the kids with tunnels on either side leading to the middle.

Then we went into the foosball where they had the foosball figures facing a mirror and you could climb up the steps and stick your face in and see yourself in the mirror as a foosball person next to a few others.  The kids didn't really get this one.

After 2 1/2 hours at the Museum we hurried down to the Apple store to exchange something for Brodie.  The kids wanted to go in the fountains so I told them they could.  Spencer asked if I had extra clothes for them and I said no, but it was okay if they got wet.  I'm not sure if it was the fact that I didn't have extra clothes or that the fountains would spray spontaneously but the kids were a bit hesitant here.  They loved watching the other people and got a little wet, but they didn't go full out.

I'm not used to getting such a late start on Friday fun days, with Spencer in school.  Thankfully Brodie got off work a little early since we didn't get home until 5:45.  Lucky me--I have a wonderful husband who knows how to cook.  So dinner was ready shortly after we got home--Parmesan chicken (Spencer calls this naked chicken because the first time I made him eat it I told him it was chicken nuggets and he said it looked like all their feathers fell off--so he calls it naked chicken, and it's the kids' favorite meal ever), sauteed carrots and zucchini, spaghetti, and corn on the cob.  What a great husband and a fun day!