crown center

we only had one rainy day during our visit and we decided to use that day to go indoors at crown center in downtown kansas city. i really should have taken a picture of everyone piled into the mini-van, not that we were cramped but because we all fit.

once we arrived we spent some time in the crayola store (think disney store, but with art supplies). they had every crayola product i had ever heard of and then some. not to mention so neat displays of all the crayon colors available.


there was a clifford the big red dog exhibit at crown center that madelyn and mason both really enjoyed. it wasn't very big, but very interactive and we let mason have some freedom to explore. his favorite thing to do was to try and peek into the mailboxes on all the different play areas. he was so cute on his tip-toes. he would open and close each one over and over as if he was hoping that doing so would help him see inside. the other picture shows him playing at a 'sand' box that didn't have any real sand and was, thankfully, mess-free.

after just observing for a few minutes, madelyn jumped right in to the action. she held her own with some older boys working the conveyor belt to bring foam bones into clifford's over sized food bowl. she would race them to get the bones falling into the bowl and bring them back to the bottom of the belt. they were having so much fun we had a difficult time getting madelyn to leave so that we could go see what else there was to see at crown center.

we walked next door to the hallmark building and took a tour covering the history of the company. madelyn was given a 'passport' to stamp at each of the displays which she thought was really exciting. and then they have a machine where she could push a button to watch a ribbon bow made and even got to take it home with her. she was disappointed that the bow was red and not green.

for lunch we went to fritz' which is a really neat train restaurant. matt and i had been there several times when we lived in kansas and i was really looking forward to taking madelyn and mason. besides model trains running around the restaurant and other train decor, the food is delivered to your table by an overhead 'train'. the food is stopped above your table and is carried down by a little elevator of sorts. madelyn enjoyed watching and reporting who was getting there food as the 'train' went around the restaurant. again, i didn't take any pictures!

after lunch we let madelyn get her first gumball from a large gumball machine. we had told her that when she stopped swallowing her toothpaste she could have gum because you don't swallow that either. she has been spitting out her toothpaste for several months now, but hasn't asked for gum. i thought that this was a great opportunity for her first piece. here is video of her trying to chew it up and answer my questions. i was going to bite it in half for her because it was so big, but she just popped it in her mouth. she hasn't asked for gum since. love.