Storyville

About an hour away, there's a little place called Storyville.

In Storyville, kids have the opportunity to play pretend in a grand environment.  There's a kitchen, a post office, a store, a dress up loft, a water area, a puppet theater, a baby garden (where babies play, not where they're grown), and more.  It's incredible.

And?  It's free.

Anyway, here are some fun pictures of our trip:

 

Bean was intently watering her "garden".  The garden itself was rubber mulch and there were baskets of reinforced plastic flowers that you could "plant" in the garden.  Totally ingenious.   Oh, and she's wearing a princess outfit courtesy of their dress up corner.  Of course.

  

I posted one of these pictures in C's monthly update.  There was a small gated section called the Baby Garden where kids under 1 can play freely.  There are plenty of soft, tactilely oriented toys to play with along with a veritable library of board books.  On the floor there were about 8 plastic mirrors that a sitting baby can look into.  These were a HUGE hit.  Above the mirrors are giant flowers with a padded handle bar for new standers to hang onto.  Super fun and well received.

Bean's cousins were there and were trying to get her involved in playing "The Three Little Pigs."   Bean just wanted to be the cat.  She kept insisting that the cat wanted to visit the pigs.  Hey, can't blame her for improvising.  

  

H is taking a ride in a VERY cool rocking wooden boat in the nature/water area.  That area had a huge log to crawl through and a little cave area with a ceiling illuminated by constellations.  

  

The shopping area had three registers where you could ring up your pretend purchases.  The kids did great taking turns, which SHOCKED me.  I think it was because there were so many cool things to touch.

 

That's a very cute baby in a produce bin.  She's much sweeter than the sweet potatoes.

  

H was VERY intent on giving exact change.  

  

Ahem.  My diva found a full length mirror and without an ounce of prompting, she began to twist and pose in front of it.  Oh my word.  She's such a girlie girl.  It's hilarious.

  

R and T are super proud of their giant block tower.  They also had a section where you could create a track on a magnetic wall for a ping pong  ball to roll down.  Most of that was for older kids, but I definitely sat and played with it forever.

 

These crazies jumped in front of the camera.  Don't know who they are. 

Ok, just kidding.  I love them and they make me laugh.  

And they do a really good impression, no?

Storyville is attached to a local library, so it's not very big.  To combat huge crowds, they only allow a certain number of people in at a time.  I LOVE THAT.   It was really nice to have a good amount of people without feeling overrun.  

  

And we'll totally be going back.