Crown Center Field Trip

Keeping with my goal of a "field trip" or two during the week we headed down to Crown Center today. The kids were excited because there is so much to do when we visit! The plan was to meet my friend Audra and her daughter Reagan; eat lunch at Fritz's, head over to Kaleidoscope, then as the grand finale play in the fountains. The day was a success and the kids had fun even though the grand finale didn't turn out so grand.

Our first stop was lunch at Fritz's, with a little detour to the candy store. That is a must. That candy store has been there forever! I can still remember all the barrels of candy they had when I was a kid. It is a little more modern now, but hopefully the kids will remember stopping there when they get older. With any luck it might still be open for their kids.

Lunch at Fritz's is always fun. Where else can you order your food by phone at the table and a train delivers your order? Plus you get to wear a fun hat. This was little Evan's second time at Fritz's, but his first time being able to take everything in and process what he was seeing. The look of wonder in his eyes as he watched the train delivering food to different tables was great. One of my favorite things is watching my kids as they experience something new. It's so real and awesome to them. That raw joy and excitement seems to loose it's appeal as we get older (at least in my experience). Guess that is something I need to work on...

Kaleidoscope was our next stop. This was Tatum and Evan's first time. Tatum really enjoyed the crafts and hanging out with Reagan. Eli did his own thing. He had been earlier this year with his school so it wasn't as cool to him. Evan did what he does best which is running around and screaming. If he wasn't screaming he was hanging out in the noise submarine.

Eli was most excited about the dark room. It was pretty cool. Typical looks and poses for Eli and Tatum...cool guy and princess.

Hey kids where is the water? When it was time to head to the fountains I thought we were either being Punked or we were secretly reshooting a scene from Vacation. I was waiting for a security guard to show up and say, "Sorry folks, fountains are closed. Moose out front shoulda told ya."

They were VERY disappointed. The Center was setting up a street fair in the fountain courtyard so the fountains had been turned off. When we arrived earlier they were up and running, we were even talking about them as we parked. It was so hard to explain that to Eli and Tatum. They kept asking me to, "go and ask them to turn the fountains on." Apparently they think I have some super powers and can make things happen just by asking. Wish they thought I had that kind of power when I am asking THEM to do something.

Here they are with their disappointed faces. They were truly upset. Eli said, "this is the worst day ever." He can obviously be a little dramatic. I told him the way I see it, "it's all good. You get to come back next week" and I have a no brainer field trip.