Playing in an old shoe factory

The City museum in St Louis is a very unique place for kids and adults.  It was once a shoe factory in the 1960's.  Now, it  has been converted into a museum/play area for kids.  We attended with our local homeschool group and after 5 hours I had to drag my kids away.  Another trip is scheduled in January and we will definitely be going as we only saw about half the things there.

The museum is downtown St Louis and I got very lost as the GPS routed me a very strange way and there was tons of construction.  Eventually we made it but just in time to begin the tour

The building is full of weird and interesting things.  Many of the art was using reuseable materials, some from the shoe factory days.

We first had a 20 minute tour to understand the layout and concept of the museum.  My kids and  a few others had a very hard time paying attention and wanted to get moving.  However having this talk did help me find out what was there as there are 4 levels and so many areas that are tuck away that I wouldn't have found them if the kids had their way:)

There is a section of architecture

a Bug room exhibit

Here we found the world record for the largest pencil ever

But the section that enticed the kids the most was the various climbing apparatuses available.  The kids could climb up and dissappear into the ceiling or the floor and come out in a completely new area.  Which made it hard to find them at times.   I really am learning to be less neurotic about where my kids are and just letting them play and find me. Luckily if you do lose your child the museum staff will help you find them via walkie talkies.  I did think it was funny once when my kids told me off for being in a different part of the museum then they were in, but in my defense that was the area they started off in but forgot about.:)

They could climb trees and vines

There is a small aquarium area thru the head of a whale along with a cave system

kids finding a tunnel in the floor 

Kids loved climbing these areas 

There is even a 10 story slide the kids could go down.

When I was able to catch the kids we stopped in at the art center where we tried our hands at clay

Making snow flakes

We found a magic show where Firedrake was asked to participate:0

Outside is a huge tree house with even more climbing apparatuses 

Here is MarioFan climbing the highest point.  Firedrake was very proud of herself for also climbing up that high.

Kids had so much fun that it is going on our schedule to go again and maybe we will even get to see a few more things that we missed this time around.  I am told there is even a roof top exhibit and we didn't even make it to this time around.  Such a great and interesting place, educational and fun all in the same place:)!