U.S. Toy VIP Event

McKinley and I attended the U.S. Toy VIP event celebrating the Grand Opening of their new location in Overland Park. And it was GRAND! The new space is amazing, incredibly spacious, and there is truly something for everyone! 

Open arrival, we were greeted by their friendly staff and McKinley immediately took off for their LEGO section! Overwhelmed by their selection of brick sets, he took off for every toy aisle he could find. He selected a plane set, but was then distracted by the Hot Wheel cars. I guess you could say that this was heaven for an eight year old! I personally loved their Melissa & Doug selection, the outside toys, and hands on learning toys. McKinley was still enamored by the planes and Hot Wheels.

We made our way to the snack bar where McKinley sampled their Rainbow and Cinnamon popcorn before settling on cinnamon. The popcorn options are amazing! Pina Colada, Extra Cheddar, Buttery Butter..... I could have a cup of each. They also offer an assortment of ice cream and bottles of soft drinks. It's a super cute set up.

As we made our way around the store, I stopped to look at school work books for third grade while McKinley looked at snakes, sharks, and stuffed squirrels. You can see where our interests lie.... We checked out the party supplies and I dreamed of hosting a backyard luau complete with a pool we don't have. Then McKinley remembered a key word..... "Did they say they have a bouncy house?" Yes, yes the do!

Pump it Up is located inside the store and offers a huge jump area! And they have a black light section too! I think we spent a good 20 minutes in there! When we left, McKinley was a sweaty little mess who sustained an inflatable burn that he didn't notice until we were leaving. The drama that unfolded later was Daytime Emmy worthy! Pump it Up is an additional attraction and costs $10 a child. They do have open jump, so check out their calendar for any closed to the public events on their calendar.

This slide was incredibly fast!! I kinda wanted to try it!

Can you see the injury?? (Eye roll....)

Lastly, we hit up the photo wall and took some fun pics with the cute props provided! Apparently, the red mask was a popular pick among the boys in attendance!

And of course, McKinley took home the plane set! 

The Grand Opening is Saturday June 1st and they promise it to be an epic event! If it was anything like last nights event, we may be spending our Saturday living up McKinley's best life!

XO,

Andrea

TKCM - Summer Bucket List

It may not officially be summer yet, but with school out, it marks the unofficial start of the season. Last weekend, we all put our heads together and came up with our family bucket list. Some things are tradition and some things are new. There's a little bit of everything we all want to do this summer and I think we can all learn something along the way.

Some of the new items that I'm super excited about are Art Course at the Nelson Atkins Museum, a KC Mural tour, the Federal Reserve Bank tour, and checking out the updated Train Garden at the Arboretum. Did you know the Arboretum is free on Tuesdays?! 

We've never been to Paradise Park, but we've heard great things. If you aren't aware, Paradise Park is located in Lee's Summit and offers family, corporate, and adult fun! There are go-karts, mini golf, bumper cars, and so much more! This could easily be an entire day, and evening, of summer fun! 

As with every summer, we will be making our way out East to visit family and McKinley has fallen in love with our annual traditions. We play Putt-Putt with Granddaddy, meet Meme and Great Aunt Myrtle in Bristol for lunch at the old Woolworth's and antiquing on State Street, and dining at the Dip Dog in Marion, VA. 

Our biggest bucket list item is our family trip to Disney World! We leave two weeks from today and we are so excited! Joel and I have been planning this trip since August and McKinley found out about the trip last Thursday! He's popping a balloon daily, his countdown, and I'm feverishly making lists of things to pack, things to get, things to do, and trying to enjoy the entire process!

It's been less than a week since we created the list, and since summer began in this house, and we've already checked three items off!! Per his request, McKinley wanted to head to the new renovated train exhibit at Union Station as soon as school was out, so we headed down last Friday. The space is bigger and I love that they've added old train signs to the wall. I will definitely post pics later! As we move through the list, I thought it would be fun to let McKinley check off the items. Fun stickers make everything more festive, right? 

 Some additional things on the list are the free exhibit inside Crown Center. Beginning June 8th, they will be bringing us Clifford the Big Red Dog and it looks like so much fun! We're planning to see Elephant and Piggie's We are in a Show at the Coterie. Powell Gardens has a new exhibit in conjunction with The Art of the Brick and the pieces look amazing!

What does your Summer Bucket List look like? I would love to hear what you guys plan to do around the city or around the country!

XO,

Andrea

DIY Front Door Mat

A couple of weeks ago, I was on Better Kansas City chatting about how easy it is to create your own front door mat. I see cute ones all the time, but at roughly $40 a pop, it's hard to justify buying a new one every time I see one I want. So, I decided to spend a little on a plain one and make one myself!

I got this plain mat at Joann's several months ago, but wasn't exactly sure how I wanted to design it. Did I want to make a free hand a design? Did I want to stencil a cute saying? I decided to browse Amazon for some fun ideas and stumbled on several different stencils for all seasons! I found the perfect Mid-Century Modern stencil that just happened to be created by a local designer!! Her name is Audrey of the Oh So Lovely blog! How awesome that my favorite new outdoor mat happens to have a Kansas City connection! I can't wait to meet her!

So here is what you'll need to create your own rug! A plain outdoor mat, your favorite stencil design (or a free hand design), outdoor or weather resistant stencil paint, and stencil brushes.

Tape your stencils in the pattern you like best. I originally used painters tape, but that didn't stick at all. For better adhesive, use packing tape!

To get started, put some paint on a paper plate, dab your stencil brush into the paint and remove a little of the excess by tapping a little of your brush onto the plate.

Begin stenciling in a corner and move around the stencil, making sure that you work in a direction where you won't get your hand in the area you've already painted.

As you can see, the mat is pretty porous, so you will need to go back over the stencil with a little more paint. Use a small painters brush and fill in until you've reached a desired deepness.

Here is the finished product! I added a buffalo plaid rug for a little deepth and texture to the front stoop. And, I think it really brings out the design of the rug!

What do you think? Are you ready to tackle your own front door mat? I've got a couple of other mats I made and will share them soon! If summer would ever get here, I have the most darling design that's fun and cheerful. And so welcoming....

XO!

Andrea

Kaleidoscope's Fiftieth Anniversary

Back in May of 2016, McKinley and I visited Kaleidoscope in Hallmark Crown Center for the first time. We had heard so much about it and couldn't wait to get creating. McKinley hopped around from station to station, painting, cutting, taping, and applying stickers to everything he could. Fast forward to later in that same year when McKinley went with his Kindergarten class for a field trip. He told me this wasn't really a field trip for him since we go all the time. Needless to say, he felt like a veteran when showing his friends around the space.

Kaleidoscope is located in Crown Center just outside the headquarters of Hallmark. Their mission is to provide a creative space for children to "make art with materials from Hallmark’s manufacturing processes. Some are cut into shapes, while others are left just as Hallmark sends them. And Hallmark provides different materials so the projects are ever-changing!" And it's FREE! Each session is 50 minutes in total, which is plenty of time to get your imagination flowing, and to take home a bag full of all the pieces your child, and you, have made. 

Fast forward again to this year, three years later, when Hallmark reached out and asked if McKinley and I would be interested in helping them celebrate Kaleidoscope's 50th Anniversary by telling all of you all about it. I immediately said yes! This is such a special space that everyone should know about and I love that I am someone who gets to do just that!

This past weekend, we headed down to Crown Center for a fun filled family Saturday. We kicked it off with a trip to Kaleidoscope where McKinley jumped right in and started out at the puzzle station. He's really into giant squids and had to make his own "super hard to solve" red squid puzzle! Kids can design their own puzzle on a square piece of matte board and then cut it with the puzzle maker machine. If you were going to design a puzzle, what would you draw?

 

 
 
From there, McKinley headed to the paint station and created a piece using watercolors and marker. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but let's just call it abstract art! Graphic design, maybe? Geometric shapes? Whatever you call it, it's so him! From there, he took his masterpiece to the dryer where you simply send your designs through the industrial dryer so you can take it home without a drip or a smudge!

One of his favorite spaces is the floor area where you can typically find giant rolls of wrapping paper, ribbons, scissors, and add-ons galore. In the past, he has created a kite, a crown, a giant Christmas tree, and on this day, a silver monster and dual snakes! 

 One of my all time favorite spaces is the black light room! What fun spot. You can use fiber optic tubes and strands to write all over the large wall on the back part of the room. You can take a photo of yourself and watch it appear on the same wall. You can draw using special markers that appear neon against the black light. And my favorite area....the melted crayon station! It's so cool!! 

I could keep going, but instead, I'm going to show you all of the amazing ways your child can create and imagine cool designs of their very own!

And he couldn't help but make one last thing before leaving! 

 

Doesn't this look like the most fun place to spend time with your family! 

Thank you so much, Kaleidoscope, for having us! We had a blast and will be back very soon!

XO,
Andrea

*This is a sponsored post, but all opinions expressed are my own.