Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. (Mansfield, MO pt 1)

I have been itching to start visiting Laura Ingalls Wilder sites so I planned a trip to Mansfield, MO where she lived as an adult and is also home to the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. This was our first stop of the day. They have animals, gardens, a donation only restaurant, a bakery, an apothecary, a blacksmith and several other authentic pioneer buildings they had relocated to this property to create their own pioneer village. Oh and I can't forget the biggest thing they sell - SEEDS, over a thousand different kinds! We first ate a beautiful lunch in the restaurant. They only serve vegan meals but if your a hard core carnivore you would never know! We feasted on veggie lasagna, eggplant cutlets, coleslaw, herbed breadsticks, and zucchini cake. My hubby practically licked his plate clean and the girls and I ate most of ours. We did after all have a 3 hour drive to get here so we were all rumbly in our tumblys ;). We went back out and saw all kinds of chickens, some sheep, a donkey that apparently bites (there's a sign, thankfully none of us were gnawed on by said donkey), some ducks, and peacocks. We decided to make our rounds in the village and started at the Mercantile. It was a charming store with old fashioned candies, candles, toys, and bonnets which each of the girls ended up with. My were they adorable in their prairie bonnets! We looked in the apothecary and I was rather overwhelmed with how many loose teas and herbs they had. I saw a sign advertising cinnamon rolls in the Flour Mill (bakery) so we made a beeline there and wow, those rolls were enticing. At almost 3 inches tall and glaze dripping over the top and down the sides I put my name on two of those and we had them wrapped up for later that day. We finished up looking around the village and taking in the scenes of the peaceful property before we headed into the seed store. Be prepared to pick your jaw up off the floor, with over a thousand varieties of seeds you can choose from it can leave your head spinning. I surprisingly didn't even buy one package because I didn't know where to begin plus I still have seeds from last years (failed) garden. They also sold a variety of gardening books and magazines and their very own cookbook. It was a wonderful visit and I'm so glad we were able to stop in. Driving away down the dirt road and over a couple streams made me even more steadfast in my mission to own a small farm like property, my own "Eden" if you will. Farewell simple life, until we meet again.

rareseeds.com

Crown Center Fun with friends at Kaleidascope and Funville

Kaleidoscope is one of those precious treasures for families in the Kansas City area. Not only is it free but it's a ton o' fun! The decor is brilliant and oh how I would love to have the designer come create a play room for us. If you have never been it's basically a free for all art studio. There's a glow in the dark art room, a painting room, a sticker table, several odds and ends art stations, a small library area, a cut out wall with a mirror behind it that you peek through, and of course the beloved puzzle station. You (well, your kids of course ; ) can draw your masterpiece and put it through the puzzle machine that cuts it into pieces with a crown in the center. Both my girls love doing this and no visit here is complete without making one of these puzzles. After our session was over we headed downstairs to the Funville play area. Every several months they change the theme and as always they are amazing. Funville is based on the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" so there was a bakery, a pizza place, a news station, and about half a dozen other rooms that I couldn't get a glimpse of due to the volume of people. It was VERY crowded so keeping track of my two was just about impossible. Being so cramped makes me very anxious and claustrophobic but I put on my big girl pants for the sake of my kiddos and took a deep breath and in we went. The girls had a blast playing in all the exhibits. I had to keep reminding Princess Tiger Lily to not put the toys in her mouth, ugh! All the kiddos were having a blast while I kept getting bumped into and bumping into people/kids/walls lol. Picasso was with her friend and since there's only one exit I stepped outside with Princess TL to get a breath of fresh air. My friend was already out there with her littlest one so we had snack time while letting the older girls play awhile longer. I finally saw Picasso dart by the door so I snatched her up and had her sit down with me. Once all the kids were wrangled up we said goodbye to our friends and made a pit stop in Topsy's popcorn. We left with a bag of the mixed popcorn (caramel, cinnamon, and cheese) and the original butter. MMMM, the mixed was my favorite!! The cinnamon wasn't too hot, the caramel wasn't too sweet, and the cheese was perfect to balance out the the other two. Cheers to not losing any kiddos or my sanity in the Spring Break craziness, here here!!

hallmarkkaleidoscope.com
crowncenter.com

Moon Marble Co and Leavenworth, MO

I have to say, I truly love the kcparent.com website! It has so many great resources with one being the out and about section. I get pretty much all my ideas on where to take the girls from there. One of the blogs posted about Leavenworth and it sounded interesting enough to make a trip so off we went in the Odyssey. Since it was en route to Leavenworth we first made a stop in Bonner Springs to visit the Moon Marble Co. I highly recommend coming here! They have the largest selection of vintage toys I have ever seen and of course the marbles, oh so many pretty and shiny marbles. My girls couldn't keep their hands off, not that I blame them. It was so tempting to just reach right in basket after basket to hold the smooth round orbs. Before I allowed them to pick out some we went to the back room where the owner was giving a marble making demo. He does this every Saturday so I would advise going then to watch him masterfully mold the different colored glass into a 4 leaf clover marble or whatever his fancy for the day. It was fascinating to me but not so much to my dear two year old so we went back to the marbles and they each picked out a tube full. With both girls happy with their selections we jumped back in the van and headed to our awaiting destination. We started at the C.W. Parker carousel museum and took a tour. We watched a not-short-enough-for-my-two documentary on the history of carousels and then good ol' Jerry took us upstairs to see the majority of the memorabilia. Jerry was the best! How he loved to share his vast carousel knowledge with us but unfortunately the girls didn't appreciate all the details he so willingly shared. I didn't get any pics because I had to keep Princess Tiger Lily from knocking over the antique horses from over a hundred years ago. Boy, I had no idea on the intricacy of the horses and each company's specific designs. The museum housed a large amount of old horses and three full size carousels among other carnival collectibles. One carousel was the first one ever made in Maryland around 1847 I believe. It was all wooden and had to have two men hand crank the machine to make it twirl around. See Jerry, one of us was paying attention ; ) We finally went downstairs to the promised carousel ride. This one was from 1913 and was still a well oiled machine. It was surprisingly fast, I suppose these were mustangs we were riding on. I had a death grip on Princess TL since she kept sliding and there were no seat belts. Picasso rode in the spinning tea cup so she was safe, phew! We finally came to a stop with crazy wind blown hair and after smoothing our manes we made our way to the gift shop. Who knew the girls would want one of everything but I put my foot down and only allowed Picasso to pick out one thing. It was a puppet marionette that she once had but got it so tangled I had to throw it away. She has been asking for one for the last 3 years and finally we found the long awaited toy. We were hungry so we headed down the street to the Corner Pharmacy, a soda fountain and lunch counter that has been there for over a hundred years. We walked in and sat at a booth by the window since all the counter seats were taken. To my surprise we could purchase a hot dog, fries, AND a soda for $2.49! You can't even get a happy meal at the golden arches for that price, man oh man did we find a treasure. We had these wonderful hot dogs, a chocolate malt, and a piece of blackberry pie, mmmm 'twas old fashioned heaven!! After we finished we hit the pavement and toured downtown. We stopped in a few stores but I heard rumors about this fabulous tea shop and we saved that for last. It's called the Queen's Pantry and it's all about proper English tea. They had beautiful (and expensive) tea cups and pots, tea diffusers, scone mixes, curds and jams, and all the tea your heart could desire. Loose teas galore and a fine selection of tea bags were sitting so pretty on the shelves. I chose a dozen different tea bags and picked up a tea magazine also. By this time I knew we were going to have a major meltdown if we didn't jump back in the Odyssey so we said goodbye to Leavenworth (the first incorporated city in Kansas) and headed home. I am planning on bringing my mother in law when she visits so hopefully I will get to snap some pics and share with you then!

moonmarble.com

Missouri Town 1855

I think I would have loved to live as a pioneer. Yes I know there were trials and hardships like no other but how I love the 1800s. I can just picture myself standing barefoot in a flowing pioneer dress churning butter, the laundry hanging in the sunshine, herbs drying, and the venison stew slow cooking in my cast iron pot on the fire. I think its the simplicity of life back then that is so attractive to me. I am intrigued by history and the story of triumph and success that accompanies this part of our past makes me so happy to live in an area that has abundant pioneer sites and resources that I can learn more and see for myself what a one room log cabin was like. So the girls and I make our pilgrimage to Lee's Summit where this Missouri Town 1855 lies. It is a collection of authentic pioneer buildings that were brought to this property to recreate a prairie town. We drive a good ways into Fleming Park and finally all the memories of the modern world are gone, well aside from the vehicles in the parking lot. We paid and started our long journey down the gravel road to step back in time. I listen and there's a quiet that I'm not privileged to hear at home, it's the sound of unadulterated nature. We come to an old barn by a pond and hear the frogs croaking in the noon day sun. We see pasture and there's no lack of room to roam so I let the girls run free for a spell. We walk a bit further and come to a big old house that I yearned to peek into but it was locked and the windows had interior coverings, oh the agony of my curious nature. We found a cow named Pet and an ox named Newt and Picasso promptly told me she needed an ox, ha! He was docile and friendly when the girls were able to pet him and then we watched a lady give him a bath. We toured a mercantile and peered in several homes. One house we could explore had stairs that were so steep I was grasping that rail ever so tightly while holding Princess Tiger Lily so as not to loose my footing and fall. I don't know how anyone ever lived with those terrible stairs! A snack break was in order so we found some log benches and the girls enjoyed a rest from walking. We roamed around a little more and they found the most perfect patch of mud to create a stick garden in. I was so enchanted with all the old buildings I didn't care that they were getting dirty. After all, if the great outdoors was good enough for the pioneers then it was good enough for my kiddos too! Get in that mud girls, show "them" you're not afraid of getting your hands dirty, humph! Hmmm.... I'm not sure of who "they" are but just roll with it. I did get the girls to stop mud wrestling so we made our way back down the long gravel road to modern civilization. It was rather hot by that time and thankfully I had plenty to drink in the air conditioned van. Good bye paradise, I will be back to your peaceful tranquility and blissful quietness.

jacksongov.org/missouritown

12th Anniversay Train Ride to Union Station and Science City

I know what you're thinking, the Hubs and I don't look old enough to be married for TWELVE whole years, but tis the truth. I do not lie. We were but babes when we said "I Do" and even through a bunch of changes - jobs, states, kids, waist lines, hair colors, etc we still like each other and are enjoying this journey. To celebrate our union we decided to take the girls on a train ride. This is something we have been wanting to do for awhile but never signed the papers. We started in Lee's Summit and took the Missouri River Runner (Amtrak) through Independence and on to Union Station in Kansas City. The girls were so delightfully excited to hear the train and board those steps. We sat down and the conductor checked out tickets which made it even more official to Picasso and Princess Tiger Lily. We looked out the windows in awe at the scenery that you typically don't get the joy of viewing from the road with a car full of (screaming) perfectly well behaved children. The ride lasted about 45 minutes I think and we stepped off the platform and into the grand Union Station. We have a pass to Science City so we headed upstairs to partake of scientific edumacation. Science City is brilliant, just brilliant! You enter into a music garden and can walk across the keyboard on the floor, play drums, wave your hands over the gravel and make sweet symphonies on unorthodox instruments. There's a dinosaur dig area with a view of the fossil laboratory. You can climb the steps of a massive tree to learn about birds that make their home high in the tree tops. There's a soft play area, a crime scene investigation area, a sewer type area where the kids can slide down through the sludgy (not really) pipes. There's also an animal area filled with hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, snakes, fish, turtles, lizards and all sorts of creepy, crawly beings that I prefer to see behind the glass of a nice, safe enclosure. You can peer out the windows and look upon the train yard with frequent trains passing by. There is even a train exhibit showcasing the history of these enchanting machines. We didn't have long to play so we soon had to head back to the station and board our train once again. On the way back to Lee's Summit we hit the snack car and shared a soft pretzel with cheese sauce. It was so much fun to sit at a table looking out those windows and truly enjoying each others company. Once we arrived at our stop we said farewell to Thomas and picked up a delicious dinner from Free Birds Burritos in Summit Fair (which I think is possibly better than Chipotle, what WHAT?!?) Please excuse the profanities, I understand this is a family blog but sometimes you have to call it like you see it. There's freedom in choice and oh the choices they offer. Several flavored tortillas, a few more meats, more rice and beans, more toppings, more more more!!! And oh so good good good! Did I mention they have bacon?!? Salty, crispy bits o' heaven that makes any burrito a Betterito. I know what I'm having for lunch tomorrow and I bet I may see you there too ; ) Well until next time, Happy Travels!

amtrak.com
battleofthebrainskc.com
unionstation.org