Staying Cool

Here's a few of the activities that we've been keeping busy with in the heat wave.

Hot August - Castles and Cowgirls

St. Louis weather is back to normal for August as near 100 degree temps and a 100+ heat index hovered over us for the first weekend in August. Not much fun when finding something to do considering Alex's energy.

Saturday, we decided to take the Magic House in Kirkwood. The Magic House is something of a children's science center that just keeps growing. They had a sandcastle exhibit that was ending this weekend, so, it seemed the right thing to do. In addition to the sandcastles outside, the air-conditioned inside of the Magic House held all of it usual attractions.

The Water Table is always fun for her. Putting on the smock doesn't seem to bother her much. Once in a while she needs a boost to reach the water toys. After the water table, we were off to the Market where she shopped away. She even had a nice young man ring her selections for her! It's fun to see how she's opening up to more and more people.

After that, we went to the castle exhibit where Alex first dressed as a medieval carpenter and helped Daddy make a chair. Although she was successful in waking up the inflatable dragon (with a matching game), she wasn't real enthused about hanging around to see him.

We then went to a castle set up where she could build walls and move people around. She then dressed as an elegant medieval lady and socialized a bit with goat and sheep puppets (courtesy of Mommy). Once finished downstairs, we went outside to give sandcastle building a try. She put a few things together and tried find shells in the sand. With the heat, we went back inside and went through the top two floors of the Magic House. There are all kinds of displays set up for discovery of sound, light, color, magnets, air pressure, and an electrostatic ball that makes your hair stand on end!

Sundays adventure was to Eckert's Orchard in Belleville for Barnyard Olympics. Alex got properly dressed in her best cowgirl outfit which received many compliments from other guests at the farm. The games were not well attended. Again, I believe the heat had something to do with it. Alex enjoyed her pony ride and feeding the goats. The baby camel was a little more that she wanted to handle. But, she warmed up to the idea of saying hello after lunch.

We ended the visit with an ice cream cone (big mistake!) and a trip to the country store. She only bought a little piece of candy but insisted on carrying her own shopping basket through the store. I believe we've found another fruit that she likes in blueberries. Of the samples that were out she seemed to like them the best.

Hopefully, we'll get some relief from the heat and get back to doing more fun things later in the summer.