Kansas City Adventures: Crown Center

Mondays are the best days ever when your husband does security system installs.  We all get to go to bed at a reasonable hour on Sunday night (although Emily chose to wake up every hour last night) and the car is in our city so we can go a play in the morning aka I can get out of my walking radius.  We decided to go to the Crown Center, which houses Legoland, an aquarium, ice skating rink (in the winter), and the Hallmark Visitor Center.

It is a beautiful area with lots of fountains and cool architecture.  We did a bit of exploring outside before heading to the Hallmark Visitor Center.

A life sized lego man. You can’t tell from the picture, but his mouth is hollowed out.  Seriously impressive.

The visitor center is a little museum that highlights the different aspects of Hallmark and its history.  I learned Winston Churchill (the prime minster of Great Britain during WWII) was a painter.  Maybe his artistic abilities are common knowledge but somehow I missed that bit of history. The museum also had some really cool videos interviewing the different artists, writers, and designers that work at Hallmark about their creative process, their tools, and what they do during the day.  What really impressed me was the wide range of ages and backgrounds of the professionals.  Andrew and I decided it could be a pretty sweet place to work.

Then the most exciting discovery of the day.  The desk from The Love Letter, a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie.  Because I actually love Hallmark movies.  I’ve seen this particular movie countless times since I was a young girl (back in the good ol’ VHS days when we recorded it off of TV and it was full of static) and was not expecting to see a key prop.  Here is a picture for my mom and grandma who might be the only other people that are excited about this find.

This machine makes little bows in a matter of seconds and then drops it out for a souvenir. It reminded me of a Willy Wonka contraption, Hallmark style.

Andrew handed a bow to Emily and it went straight into her mouth.  Andrew is laughing hysterically in this picture, and Emily has no idea why and keeps chewing away.

We tried for a good photo but Emily was just too focused.  We took the bow away after a few minutes and her little tooth (she has a tooth now!) scraped away the blue shiny stuff. Hopefully it isn’t toxic.

Our little exploration lasted a total of two hours, car ride included, but I’m pretty sure it will be the highlight of the week! I’m going to love these Monday adventures.