The Greenwood Tea Room at The Greenwood Antique Mall

Since Grandma is in town and she loves tea rooms as much as I do we just had to whet our appetites at the Greenwood Tea Room. I've heard the rumors about how good it is, I've seen people squeal in delight but I've never actually sat in one of their chairs to partake of their delicious offerings. Until this past Friday. We drove down Hwy 150 east all the way to Greenwood, MO. The antique mall was on our left and we entered with high expectations. Even my two year old Princess Tiger Lily whispered in awe, "Wow, this is amazing." It is an antique lovers dream come true. So many knick knacks and furniture and decor and, and, and. So many beautiful treasures. I knew we had limited time before the Tea Room closed at 2:30 so I put our name on The List. While we waited for our table we searched and searched for the perfect memento to take home. I found a tea cup I adored so I remembered which booth it was it so I could buy it after we ate. The girls kept ooooing and ahhhhing over all the pretty pieces. Finally the time came and we were shown to our table. Thankfully we had a side room to ourselves and it was decorated with a nautical theme. The other two rooms we passed through were very victorian and shabby chic. The menu offered several sandwiches, salad, soup, and quiche of the day. I chose the Cashew Chicken Salad sandwich with the Beer Cheese soup. The girls shared a grilled cheese sammy. The Hubs selected the Panini Primavera which had ham, salami, provolone, roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, and basil pesto, with a salad. Grandma decided on the Barefoot Contessa, a beautiful turkey sammy on blueberry bread with scallion cream cheese, a red plum spread, and lettuce, with the Beer Cheese soup. We all were in food heaven. Grandma and I were almost taken back with how good the soup was, neither of us has had it before and we were searching recipes for it as soon as we got home. The Hubs really enjoyed his lunch and dipped the girls leftover crusts in my leftover soup. It's only proper to have dessert in a tea room lest we offend the chef, so we decided on the petite Double Chocolate Soufflé and the Coconut Macaroon pie. Oh. My. Word. The pie was served warm with whipped cream and it was a taste bud explosion! The crust was so buttery and flaky, the filling just like a macaroon, mmmmmmm. The chocolate concoction was warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top which had already started melting a bit making it so gooey and yummy. Sorry for my lack of intelligent descriptions but gooey and yummy are the best I could come up with since my mind is working hard remembering and savoring those delicious desserts ; ) We were so full and satisfied when we left and then I realized I didn't even have a cup of tea, oh the irony. Thankfully I still had tea from my visit to the Queen's Pantry in Leavenworth at home and I did purchase that beautiful tea cup to enjoy it in. I told the Hubs that tea tastes better in a pretty tea cup. We went across the street and searched for more treasures at another antique store and saw so many items I wanted to buy but refrained and saved our bank account from eminent destruction. In the words of Arnold, "I will be back." And in the words of Phil I will be "Happy, Happy, Happy."

greenwoodantiquemall.com

Ernie Miller Nature Center in Olathe,KS

We love nature centers and this is another fun one! While they don't have near the selection of animals and reptiles as other centers the nature trails were awesome and the girls still had so much fun. Just outside of the building are two bird enclosures, one housing an owl and the other a falcon (I think ). When the attendant gave them water Princess Tiger Lily asked if she could go in the cage too, she really is fearless. The owl flew about the cage and put on a show for us when Princess TL got close. We ventured inside to see what creepy things we could find. In the foyer was the front desk, a couple mice, and a frog. Both girls loved watching the mice scurry about. We followed the animal prints down the hall and came to a bird viewing room. It was all glass windows with a couch and some bean bags for the kiddos. We did in fact view some birds and a hungry squirrel eating from the freshly filled feeders. Picasso squealed with excitement seeing the birds darting back and forth pecking at bits of food. We left the birds their privacy and stepped outside in the courtyard to see more owls. One was completely white and kinda looked like a lion in the face. The other had spooky yellow and black eyes and was peering from its branch wondering what we were going to do. We peered back in awe of the creativity of the Lord when making such creatures. Nature truly amazes me and the vast variety and tiny details of each flower, tree, animal, fish and so on baffles my mind. We headed back inside and continued down the path set before us. Those tiny animal feet sure were cute to follow. It lead us to a large aquarium with fish and a turtle and just down the hall were two snakes and two turtles. Same as at Lakeside Nature Center one snake kept going vertical and it was really neat to watch. At the art station the girls made some chalk impressions and of course covered themselves in chalk dust. After they were done making a mess we searched for other animals but that was the extent of it. We decided to take a hike and followed some of the trails outside. We came upon a couple teepees made from branches and the girls practiced their rain dance. We found a pond and they just had to throw rocks in it so we took a break from walking and they practiced their pitch. Once their arms were tired we explored some more and saw some kids putting on a play for their family on the outdoor stage. Since I was in flip flops I didn't want to hike too much more so we turned around and headed back to the parking lot. We said goodbye to the birds out front and Picasso stopped to help a worm get from the puddle it was in on the sidewalk to the cool, fresh dirt. I'm sure it was eternally grateful especially since several of it's friends already met their fate of being squished on the sidewalk. Even though this center was smaller it was still worth the trip and I think if you took a picnic lunch would make for a fantastic afternoon.

erniemiller.com

Lakeside Nature Center KC

We are not strangers to the Lakeside Nature Center. First of all it's free, secondly its awesome, third it's FREE! Who doesn't like free fun (and education)? It's located on Gregory Blvd not far from the Kansas City Zoo. When you first enter there's a great kids area that boasts a library, a coloring table, a puppet show, and a neat "underground" tunnel that has a bunch of buttons that make animal sounds when pressed, and of course the little ones love that! To the left they have a handful of glass cases housing all kinds of neat animal artifacts, a room for parties, and the always important bathrooms. When you go to the right the first furry friends you will meet are the two fox squirrels. They scurry up the sides and defy gravity by walking on the ceiling. It's so much fun to watch those little guys. Just beyond the squirrel enclosure are the cute and fluffy bunnies. They weren't quite as entertaining but they girls still sat and observed them eating. Once you're done ooohhhing and awwwing over the bunnies you'll move on and this is where you'll hear either screams of horror or shouts of "Thats so cool". Yep, its the creepy crawly things. They offer abundant snakes venomous and non venomous alike, insects, and frogs. My girls can't help but look and get grossed out. One very long snake was stretching up, up, up to the high branch and it's tongue was flicking about. It was awesome to watch this mostly horizontal moving creature go vertical. He never did reach the top, bummer. We got our fill of watching the slimy things and moved onto the bald eagles. They are so majestic and fierce! Lakeside also hosts another huge enclosure with other birds of prey. There's a handful of aquariums with swimming things and a large one that holds an alligator snapping turtle. Look close or you might mistake it for a large algae covered rock. I love the touch and see table that has many bones, skins, and shells. I can barely manage to get Picasso to grasp the antlers but she finally does for a quick second. Princess Tiger Lily is the complete opposite and would climb on top of the table to get a better vantage point if I allowed her. We said goodbye to the animals and headed outside for some nature exploration. They do have some great trails! Although since it was still rather muddy from the recent snow and rain we didn't venture far. I would highly recommend this nature center for kiddos of all ages! On Saturdays they even have a (free) story and craft time at 10am. Go check it out and enjoy another of the local KC gems.