Cakeway to the West

In honor of St. Louis turning 250, there is an art display around the St. Louis area. 250 (fiberglass) cakes have been placed , each decorated by a different local artist. Some are all the way out out in Kimmswick, a lot are in Illinois. I have been seeing them around for the past few months, but didn't really think much about it.

Well, Gwyn's (amazing) preschool is getting the families involved. They sent out a letter, asking families to take pictures with the cakes. At the end of the summer, they will have a birthday party/end of summer party and show all the pictures.

I love this. I have been wanting to find the cakes. I like how they are artsy. I love that it is like a scavenger hunt. I love that I am learning about the history of the area. I love that I am having fun with the kids.

Here is the website for the event. I have found out that people voted on the location of the first 50 cakes. The other 200 were selected by the committee. There are 5 categories, each getting 50 cakes. They are Landmark Sites, Heritage and Culture, the Great Outdoors, Local Favorites, and Innovation. The website not only provides a map with all the locations, but it tells you who the artist is, and why there is a cake there. So far, about 240 cakes have been revealed.

So I decided today that we would have a cake hunt. I was more excited than the kids, but they did have fun with it. We found the cakes in St. Charles and the one in St. Peters. (2 were within a mile of our house.) Then we got a few that were just on the other side of the river. The boys started have fun with it, and set our goal at 50 cakes by the end of the summer. Even though the cakes are out until the end of 2014, it is not realistic that we will see all 250. Some are over an hour drive in one direction. I think one day we will devote to a few in Illinois. The boys have mentioned going to see the statue of Robert Wadlow, and now there is a cake there!

Here are pictures from the 10 cakes we found today. My favorite part is looking for the cakes. I don't tell the kids where each one is located, and I try not to read that information. I just go to the place on the map. The kids have fun running around looking for it. The cake that took the longest to find today was the cake by the Shrine of St. Rose. My second favorite part is talking about the history. (That cake was to honor the first school west of the Mississippi that was free to its students. Then Kevin and I talked about why that was important.)

Also, the boys were using Lego men and designs to come up with different poses. (Adorable.)

Centennial Greenway / KATY Trail - This was our first one, and this is how we get to the trail!

Lewis and Clark Boat House and Nature Center - The first of several in old St. Charles

First Missouri State Capitol State Historic Site - Kevin tripped looking for this one, and didn't want to be in the picture.

St. Charles Old County Courthouse

Shrine of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne - We looked around a different statue so this took a few minutes to find.

Lindenwood University - the boys remembered that this is the school I got my Master's from last year!

St. Charles County Heritage Museum at Heritage Park - This backs up to our neighborhood.

Creve Coeur Lake - Gwyn's favorite because it has a purple candle.

YMCA of Greater St. Louis - The best part of this cake was that it was inside, and gave us water and restroom breaks.

Payne Gentry House - Our last stop.

 I know it is a lot of driving, but this was a great event for a hot day!

Lego Movie - Colin Style

Colin wanted to make his own Lego Movie.  The film has a few plot holes, but the story is still incredibly better than anything Michael Bay has ever made.   And I expect many sequels based the fact these plastic legos are far better actors than anything seen in Twilight movies, and they made a ton of those.

The New Batman!

Someone found our capes and masks....

Science Experiments!

On the bucket list for summer, Kevin added science experiments. What he had in mind was explosions, but I can not do more than Mentos in Diet Coke. In response to his request, I am signing both Colin and Kevin up for the St. Louis Science Center science classes at the library. (They are free, and have one on robotics and one on explosions!)

In the meantime, I did two experiments that I was ready for with no prep at all. The first was a chemical reaction involving salt, vinegar, and pennies. The boys made some predictions, and one guessed that the pennies would be clean. Not super exciting, but anything science has a certain interest level.

The second one involved food coloring and celery. (I usually have celery on hand since I like them in my salads.) The boys filled the glasses, made predictions, added the color to two glasses, and of course Kevin put those predictions on a chart. I always have a control, so the third glass is normal water. We only did food coloring, but I am thinking on boring days we will redo the experiment, and add sugar and salt to other glasses to see what happens. (If you caught that, I implied that these experiments will make the day LESS boring.) I love my kids.

 

 When we left for vacation, the leaves had some color in them. It was neat to see the celery with so much color when we returned. Also, we trimmed the red celery and the control celery. I noticed that those glasses had less water after a week. Interesting.... SCIENCE!

We have art!

If you look at our house, it is a constant work in progress. The walls need to be painted (badly), the front porch needs to be redone, and kitchen needs to be remodeled (we are always thinking about that one), the carpet needs to be replaced with hardwood, and so on and so on. However, it just doesn't seem to get done.

What has 6 thumbs and interrupts everything?

These guys. It is them.

So we celebrate when we get some artwork up. It looks simple, but it requires us to agree on what we like, buy it, and then after a few weeks finally hang it up.

Here are the outcomes.

This is actually pretty old. The Family Rules have been hanging in the kitchen for a few months, but I wanted this post to look like we had done more than reality. I love this list though, and have been wanting one for a year or so.

Today we finally hung up some blue prints that we purchased a few weeks ago. There were some pretty fun prints to buy, and I loved to Lego ones. But Kevin and I each chose one print. He chose the Wright Bothers, and I chose the Starship Enterprise. The are hanging on either side of the opening from the living room (tv room) into the family room (toy/Lego/games room). I was too embarrassed to get a picture with all the toys in the background, so you have to settle for this.

 

The other ones we hung today were just ordered two weeks ago. They are movie prints. Again, we each chose our favorite.  They are hanging in the dining room. Do you know what movies they are from?

The blue prints and the movie prints were both purchased from Woot. We are finding out that we love the artwork on that site! We have gotten art, sleeping bags, and a vacuum from there in the last 6 months.

Locks of love

Before...

 

During...

A donation...

The beautiful results