Memorial Day Weekend Extravaganza aka How Much Stuff Can You Cram Into One Weekend?

The answer to the question posed in the title of this post is, a lot. With a 3 day weekend ahead of us and no plans to travel we decided to see what our area had to offer in the way of kid's activities that could also keep the adults entertained as well. The plan was pretty fluid. Day 1 we would go just west of town for outdoors activities, day 2 would be a relaxing day with a cook out at the end and day 3 (Memorial Day) would involve daddy and the girls getting out of mom's hair for a few hours while she steam cleaned the carpets.

The day outside the city was quite a fun time for all. First stop was Purina Farms. The girls love animals and certainly love dogs and cats so this seemed right up their alley. They got to see the traditional farm animals such as goats, sheep, pigs & cows but the difference with the cows was that Purina farms offers kids a chance to milk a cow themselves. The girls were mesmerized watching the cow enter into the milking area and the "farmer" give his talk on the ins and outs of milking before finally allowing the kids to put hand to teat. Grace was watching from the other side of the milking area and apparently at some point she made a decision that she was going to do it herself so like a girl on an unstoppable mission, she made her way to the line without saying a word to any of us and before any of us knew what was happening, she was milking the cow. I managed to get my camera out just in time to snap a picture. Oh yeah, they got to watch a dog show before getting cranky about lunch so we left.

For lunch we decided to head over to Shaw Nature Reserve for a picnic. This was a last minute decision but certainly a good one. Not crowded, beautiful scenery, peaceful setting for picnic. A definite must return. The girls again loved this place and even danced some in the picnic shelter. There are a lot of trails here and Clara isn't at an age yet where she can walk for long periods of time so our stay at Shaw was brief but memorable.

Next on the agenda was Meramac Caverns, Missouri's version of Wall Drug with signs every 1/2 mile on 44 west. The hideout for Jesse James and his crew of bandits was the site of our final stop of the day. The girls enjoyed the caverns but Clara was over the whole walking around on her own thing so Mary and I were forced to carry her for much of the cave tour until Mary had the idea to bribe her with the prospect of ice cream afterwards if she walked on her own. That was motivation enough for Clara so she was a big girl and walked.

Sunday involved visits from friends Laura during the day and Sarah in the evening for a cook out. Sarah brought some flowers & Clara decided to pose for us with them in hand.

On Memorial Day proper, Mary wanted to clean our carpets with our newly inherited carpet cleaner so best plan was to get out of the house once I helped her move furniture. So it was my job to take the girls somewhere fun. They like water and parks but there was no way I was taking them to a water park on opening weekend all by myself so I chose Tower Grove Park in the city. Tower Grove park is a 289 acre St. Louis municipal park complete with a wading pool for hot summer days.

 Unfortunately, because it was Memorial Day, all of the restaurants I was considering taking them too in the Tower Grove area to grab food and bring back to the park were not open so I had to adjust my plan. I knew the Cardinals were in playing at home that afternoon and Union Station usually has it's fair share of activities when Cards are at home so I took them to the former world's largest and busiest train station (The famous "Dewey Defeats Truman" photo was shot here - Wikipedia) that has now been converted to shops/restaurants/hotel complex. Granted, this place is past it's heyday in it's current incarnation but I didn't necessarily want to fight crowds with two tired and hungry girls.

It was shortly after lunch and feeding the goldfish in the adjacent pond at Union Station that both girls decided they wanted to go home even though I had a trip to Dave & Buster's planned for the rest of the afternoon. I guess they were just too worn out from all the activities of the past few days that the thought of spending another minute "out and about" was not appealing to them in the slightest. As expected, they fell asleep on the way home so to buy Mary more time and to allow them to sleep a bit longer, I took a detour at the Lone Elk Park near our home so I could swing by and gawk at some Bison and Elk from my vehicle. I didn't have the heart to wake them up to show them especially knowing this place is 15 min from home.

Tea Time!

It’s funny that some traditional toys are fun through all ages.   I remember having tea parties as a little girl, you see commercials of little girls playing with tea sets and my girls are no different.   They love tea parties too – especially Clara.

We were given our first tea set for Grace by Laura Almodovar.     She found out Grace had been serving us “tea” using mini bar bottles of liquor and plastic cups.    Of course none of the bottles were opened – she just went around to both her parents pretending to serve us drinks.   Laura didn’t appreciate one of her favorite 2 year olds already learning how to go behind the bar so she bought us a very cute and traditional pink tea set.   We use this still today!     Soon we accumulated a birthday cake that fits in the box with the tea party and also another tea set.     

For Clara’s second birthday, we had a tea party/princess theme.    Mom and Dad and the girls all dressed up for the tea party and gifts were princess themed.    Clara has since become the pretty pretty princess in the family and enjoys having tea parties.    The tea party sets are some of the few toys that always go back in their correct boxes and containers when they are done playing with them. 

Today, the girls will invite stuffed animals, each other, parents and kitty to join in the tea party.   Sometimes when kitty joins she will lucky enough to get water in her cup and sometimes she gets cat nip or kitty treats in the cup.   Then she is a very happy member of the tea party.

Soccer Saturdays

Our girls like to play. Some are more competitive than others (*cough, Clara, cough*) but both like to engage in activities with other kids. We heard that soccer is all the rage now in the U.S., which clearly wasn't the case in the 1980's when I was growing up, so we decided to sign them up for it. For approximately 2 months, the girls will be kicking and running and actually learning soccer techniques such as dribbling and passing and scoring. I verified these are actual soccer terms by the way, as I have no clue about the sport. So I go out and buy them shin guards and Umbro shorts and Mary manages to get Grace a hand-me-down pair of cleated sneakers. They are ready to play.

So now it's time, first Saturday of the season. Grace's session with the 5-6 year olds are up first. She shows enthusiasm for the game and playing with the other kids. "This is great", I'm thinking. Even if Grace isn't the most aggressive or competitive kid out there (her mantra is "do your best and forget about the rest") she isn't taken aback by the kids that are. As you might expect with 5-6 year olds, the practice and "game" is pretty scattered and filled with kids that don't listen or try to pick up the ball with their hands or involve a single larger, more aggressive boy simply kicking the ball as hard and as far as he can. Repeatedly. Grace loves playing, loves socializing with the kids on the sidelines during breaks and even won a sportsmanship medal after week 3 for listening to her coaches. Totally worth the money.

Now it's time for Clara's group, the 3-4 year olds. I'm a little nervous on week one as Clara has had to sit and watch her sister for an hour before it was her turn. Repeated proclaims of being hungry, bored, tired and lots of "no's" coming from her mouth didn't give me the greatest confidence that she was going to embrace organized soccer. My fears were justified. She made zero attempt to even get on the field, in spite of my pleas to make me proud, show me how big of a girl she was, etc etc. Nothing but crying, hiding and pouting. She even employed her go-to when pushed to do something she doesn't want to do, throw things. Week 1 was a bust. She probably spent all of 10 minutes of a 60 minute session actually out on the field while I held her hand. Week 2 doesn't go much better. She promises me she will try harder that week but the reality is that the first half hour she spends holding my hand on the sides, agreeing to go out as long as I'm with her and then deciding she's thirsty or doesn't want to participate and we go back to the sidelines again. She latches onto one of  the female coaches half way through and holds her hand while I retreat to the sidelines again. Progress I guess.

Week 3 comes and the 3-4 year old group is thinning. I'm guessing many parents have experienced what I did in those first 2 weeks with their kids and decided it was a waste of time. I, on the other hand, am pleased I didn't do the same (mostly because I'm already taking Grace there anyway and the session is paid in full ahead of time and what a colossal waste of money if I don't take her every week). Clara still insists I go with her onto the field during practice time but she listens to the coaches, unlike all the other boys on the field who just keep kicking and kicking and kicking. During one drill, the coach singles her out to the rest of the kids so she can show them how to properly kick the ball towards a cone, rest her foot on the ball, and bend over and pick up the cone to turn it over. Apparently none of the other kids were doing it correctly. She rocked practice. Game time and the randomness of playing a game of organized soccer with 3-4 year olds is expected. Blue team kicking it into their own goals. Some kids attempt to take it away from their teammates. Other kids stand in place and never move. A couple of larger and more aggressive boys continue to dominate the game and Clara decides this is all just too much and retreats to the sidelines. Even though she is super competitive, she doesn't see this game as something worth her time. However, when the medal is handed out at the end of the session and she does not get it, she cries. There's always next week.

I Feel Pretty!

I have two girls.    This is undeniable when it comes to make-up.    Make-up for them started innocently enough by bribing them to cut their finger nails and toe nails with promises of getting polish afterwards.  (This trick works great by the way if you do have little ones and difficulty getting them to sit still for the procedure.)  Then, they would see me get ready for work and I let them use Chap Stick and the make-up brush to put on powder.

Things became a little deep though this Christmas as they both received full make-up kits in their Santa Sock.    This included lip gloss, blush and eye shadow – and not in subtle colors.   Plenty of experimenting has occurred since then – it especially seems to occur on days daddy is left in chargeJ.    I came home one day (with a friend to show her our house) and Grace’s whole face was purple.    On top of it being purple – she didn’t do it herself; she had let Clara put make-up all over her!

For Easter, Grandma gave Grace fingernail polish.   There is a requirement this is used outside – which they are really good about following.   And I will admit, this weekend when it was beautiful outside and I was getting ready to go to the symphony, I actually enjoyed the time all three of us sat outside and painted our nails together.   They worked together well saying “please pass me the blue Gracie” and “Thank you Clara” just like little ladies.   When they were done, there was polish from their knuckles to the tips of the nails.    Luckily, this washes off easily.

As for clothes, we really lucked out with Grace.    She chooses comfort over fashion (and I use the term fashion very loosely here) nine out of ten times.   Her sister though is a different story.    She chooses pretty dresses most days and is very opinionated about which pretty dress is best.    It got to the point where we now let her pick out her clothes the night before as she is too grumpy and too opinionated if you pick out something for her in the morning.   We do let them both choose their clothes each day so hopefully the daycare and other parents don’t judge us too much on the outfits they sometimes put together.    And I am glad hipster culture is popular now where any combination of stripes, plaid and polka dots is approved.

Of course, there is also the princess dresses.    Any chance to put on a princess dress, Clara is right there.   Grace usually joins her too.    The Saturdays they get to run around in a princess dress are a very happy day.   Clara even tried to convince a baby sitter once it was ok to wear the princess dresses to daycare.    Sorry Clara, that morning mom had to pick out your clothes for you as the princess dress isn’t going to cut it.