Botanical Garden Fun!

On Friday, Mom, Hux and I went to the Missouri Botanical Drive-a seven minute drive from our house!  Truly outstanding-Mom bought me a membership to "MOBOT" as it's called-and I got a lovely golf umbrella as a thank you gift.  We also got 20% off in the gift short for the first day, and I bought a great pink pressed flower necklace (the flower was embedded in an epoxy with the backing being a metal bottle cap -so great!

Enjoy the first of many blogs about MOBOT I think.

Although Chad was not present, he has mentioned spying a spherical dome from work (Chad's dream is to live in such a dome)...here it is close up-a rainforest inside, plus a great kids' area!

Okay to translate this picture, Hux dressed up like a turtle and then put himself in front of a green screen which then projects him in various forest settings at the top (see top of photo).

Hux then changed into a wolf costume, so he could be the "Big Bad Wolf" and "Blow the House Down!"

Notice the lips-he is blowing down his blocks down!

Such a cool setting.  The MOBOT has a Victorian garden, Turkish garden, huge Japanese garden, Victorian house, lovely cafe and MORE!  But one more picture of the dome...

Hux in Wonderland

At the end of our time in Magic House, we came upon the special exhibit-Alice in Wonderland.

As Hux's favorite movie/book, he was quite excited.

Enjoy!

The Magic House-or, further speculation on Huxley's career options.

Mom bought Hux a membership to The Magic House-St. Louis' AWESOME Children's Museum -  and we had a great time.  As Hux tried his hand at many different play options, we can all play the game of "what will Hux be when he grows up."

First up-ice cream guy-he was a natural!



Next, he's clearly really into the fishing (see yesterday's post too -hint, hint Grandpa Tom).

Hux didn't really seem all that excited about banking, but perhaps it was because the kids around him were pretending to be bank robbers and just threw some cash at Hux to make him "look the other way."

Hux was very excited about being a pizza server -just keep those pitchers full of water buddy!

Hux tried his hand at doctor once again (see yesterday's post).  

My personal favorite profession is Hux as potential Blue Man Group performer-look at him wail on those pipes!

Hux also makes a great auto mechanic-and that requires a lot less schooling than doctor!

Finally-Hux is an excellent artist!

Science Center & Happy Birthday Sarah!

 The fabulous WUMCHA group (mostly wives of the residents/fellows), had a playgroup outing to the Discovery Room of the Science Center.  Hux and I walked over and went in with lots of moms and kids to this great room specially designed for young kids.

 Samuel was there with his mom and sister and he and Hux played doctor together.  Wonder what their daddies do all day...this looks pretty easy.

  Notice Hux is easily pointing at X-rays and diagnosing problems-why does it take Daddy so long?

Hux also makes a great "Indian" -or "Red Man" as he called himself thanks to the Peter Pan song.

He and Samuel caught fish...
 

...and fried them over the fire.

 Hux can always turn scientist, if doctor gets boring...

...also water engineer is yet another career choice up Hux's alley-or should I say waterway.

When we were done with the Discovery Room, we went to the dinosaurs' exhibit downstairs.
 

Finally, Hux was one of the only kids (and one of the littlest) to manipulate the robot to scoop up little balls from the pit.  Then, it was time to walk home (Hux promptly fell asleep in the stroller!).  I do love the WUMCHA group -such fun playgroups and such great moms!

Mom arrived in time for a great birthday dinner at Zia's-AWESOME Italian meal.  She brought birthday cupcakes-YUM!

 

In case you're wondering

chocolate peanut butter            double chocolate chip

               chocolate chip w/cream cheese frosting            raspberry chocolate

              white cake w/coconut cream cheese frosting  white cake w/yummy frosting

YUP-AWESOME....from a bakery called Sweeterie in Mariemont, OH.            

The Children's Zoo on Friday!

Hux and I met Vivienne, a Brit who has been transplanted in St. Louis because her husband is doing a fellowship at Barnes Jewish (sound familiar, sans the accent?).  So through the women's group through Wash U/Barnes Jewish, I found out that Vivienne was living in the Central West End (CWE) like me, so we met at the library and walked to the zoo (the first hour everyone can get in free to the Children's Zoo part, ride the train etc).  We got there just in time.

Hux loved petting the goats soo much -he wanted to take the brush home :).

This is Vivienne's son Samuel and Hux in the hippo mouth-how cute!

Hux on the blue frog!

Samuel and Hux drivin' the Jeep (it didn't actually move) :).

Kansas City Adventure!

Hux and I roadtripped to Kansas City last Monday (July 11th) to visit my cousin Wendy and my Cincinnati high school friend Cori-crazy that they are now 4 hours away rather than 11 hours!

So we picked up Wendy at The American -the fancy restaurant where she works-and headed outside to splash in the fountains-notice Hux's lovey Batman shirt courtesy of Daddy (look for Superman and Green Lantern shirts in the next weeks-they are almost the only shirts he wants to wear now)...

Afterwards, Wendy, Hux and I had the MOST AMAZING DINNER at the Blue Bird Bistro -the BEST restaurant in Kansas City (besides Wendy's restaurant The American I'm supposing).  We had outrageously good tomato sandwiches on fresh baked bread, amazing hummus on fresh made whole wheat hummus, this truly outstanding mixed green salad with pear, candied walnuts, sweet onions, vinegar dressing, a super yummy tomato, tofu and quinoa entree, and the BEST desserts-honeycake with pecans on top and chantilly cream and house-made blueberry-mint ice cream on pecan cookies.  

Yes-all organic, local produce-can't explain how awesome it was...plus great wine-I had a white wine (gasp!) and Wendy had a white zinfandel (gasp!) and we started a great bottle of red that we corked, and I brought to Cori's house.

Truly outstanding!

Then we drove to Cori's huge and awesome new house.  We spent the night then Cori, son Riley, Hux and I went to the City Science Museum in the old train station of Kansas City-right across from the big IRS building (one of the few spots I never lived as an IRS brat-ahh Kansas City).

You walk in and are greeted by:

Hux is not happy to have to pose -he wants to go play musical instruments. Riley-just wants to look around at all the great stuff to do!

Musical trash cans!

Hux would be a NASA engineer, except for that whole "canceling the space program."

I think all of Hux's relatives will be happy to see this picture of Hux loving the miniature golf -he really wanted to keep the ball and club so I'm sure he'll be hooked up with a set of clubs and golf balls from all his golf-loving relatives in no time!  

In considering other career choices for Huxley besides astronaut and golfer, helicopter pilot comes to mind.  Here he is flying to school to visit all of his friends from Miss Di's (shout out to Zacky, Kyle, Lincoln, Michael, Briden, Colin, Izzy and Ben!)

Look how happy I am that Hux is flying me around!

Tuesday night, Cori made a great quiche and the boys had a great time playing.  Wednesday we drove back home, Thursday we relaxed and Friday we headed off to the Zoo with a new friend Vivienne (see next post!).

Friday Fun at Forest Park!

Hux and I went to storytime at the Missouri History Museum -where he got a lei,  learned "aloha," had stories read to him about water and beaches, and then decorated "sandcastles" made out of sandpaper (precut into castle shapes-thanks MHM!) with foam sea animals and flipflops.

Hux's new friends Rex and Madden (and Mama's new friends Teresa and Summer) shared in the fun-see other moms/kids in the picture behind Hux.

Afterward, we went to the Forest Park's awesome handicap-accessible playground with fun sprinkler water fountain.

 Hux is a natural at the stick-shift-guess he'll be inheriting the Jetta...

 Crazy chime art -cool!

 Look Becky (and everyone else who doesn't teach Special Needs kids)-how handicap accessible it all is-and there is another smaller version I didn't take a picture of...so great!

 This was a two-tiered see-saw that also looked quite handicap-accessible-and gave Mama a great inner-thigh workout pushing the beam up and down!

What a lovely visitor's center-complete with maps and friendly guide and coffee shop with great muffins!

 We encountered a cannon (aka boom-boom) on our walk home-Hux enjoyed the echo when shouting into the cannon.

 Here Hux is pretending to shoot off the "boom boom"-Mama also got to try!

 These are just a few shots of the beautiful scenery of Forest Park that we walk through to get to and from the awesome museums, zoo, etc.  Yes-it's all in beautiful walking distance -it's like we live outside of Central Park -so much culture but without the NY expenses!