Kid-Friendly

 

Ding dong the witch is dead! (love these little actors)

   When you visit another town you expect to be entertained by its special attractions and tourist destinations. But, you also expect to be let down by at least 20% of what you see and do, mainly because nothing can be as interesting and exciting as the guidebook describes.  I say that only because I’ve taken a look at my own city’s “Best Of” ideas and some of them are far-fetched.  It cracks me up to see a Pearland Hotel tout itself as being merely miles from NASA space station, a great tourist destination. If “merely miles” in traffic means 45 or more minutes, than I suppose the advertisement isn’t lying, but to me, that’s bending the truth a bit.  I agree that NASA is a great place to visit, but there are some questionable ones.

       But all of this to tell you that after a day in Kansas City and a day in Omaha with Kenny's parents, kid-friendly was the name of the game.  If you happen to be headed to either place with kids, I suggest Kaleidoscope at the Hallmark center in downtown KC and The Wizard of Oz at the Children’s Museum in Omaha. 

     
     The best part of Kaleidoscope is it’s free.  You have to come at certain times, but even though we arrived a bit late, they let us walk right in.  It’s a fun house of all kinds of arts andcrafts, black lights, make-your-own crayons and puzzles.  Their website says they let “children use their imagination to make art with left-over materials from Hallmark.”  How clever! And so environmentally sound. And did I mention free?  

     By itself, the Children’s Museum in Omaha is an above-average go-to kid place.  It’s bright, colorful and the different stations kept my kids content for hours. Plenty of the usual pretend activities, a Mad-Hatter tea party, and science stations that used a major pulley system and plastic balls.  Unlike some other children’s places I’ve been to, there was actually a goal that all the kids in the area worked toward –furiously pushing balls through the pulley system so a lump sum of them would be heavy enough to fall from a net.  Put a goal, a race, balls and my son together and there’s paradise.   The face-painting station wasn’t as good as some of the others, but that’s a small complaint because how many times can you make a kitty cat face look different from the time before.

Oh, Dorothy, It's a twist

    What really tipped the vote for great Museum experience was a trip down the yellow brick road.  We headed upstairs to visit Dorothy and the Wicked Witch. Lanie did NOT want to see the wicked witch, but after much convincing that she was just a nice girl in green, she grabbed Dorothy's hand and the fuzzy picture was snapped. They made necklaces in the Emerald City, walked through the witch’s castle, and a favorite – stood through a tornado tunnel.  ($2.00 extra)

         All in all, both days totally lived up to the hype.  This is a very good thing because after this SO MANY FUN THINGS TO DO some-what vacation, it’s back home to slip-n-slides and pb&j's.

Grammie, Grandpa, Elijah and the scarecrow