Best of Missouri

For the past few years, I've been meaning to go to the Best of Missouri Market, an event held at the Botanical Garden every year. But things have always come up and we've missed it. This year, we headed out early to get in during the member hours, 7-9am. Despite being on the road by 8am (a Herculean feat for our family), the parking was already full. Luckily, Tom dropped us off up front and then found a killer spot only a block away. Charlotte was anxious to get into the backpack (her new favorite thing to do), and Nicholas was anxious to get inside the Garden itself. Seemed I'd done a very poor sell job with him. He has a very specific idea in mind when I mention the Botanical Garden, and wandering through tents of Missouri-made products wasn't really his idea of a good time. So we basically skipped the entire shopping portion of the market (darn!) and headed for the Kids Corner.

Yes she's wearing her jammies. It was chilly out there in the early morning!

These sheep sculptures were en route. I've always wanted pictures of the kids on them! (They're made to be climbed upon)

In the Home Depot tent, we picked one project to complete there, and one to take home for another day. We worked on a Home Depot race car, and brought a birdhouse kit home.
Each child could pick from a HUGE pile of pumpkins and decorate to their heart's content.

Ta da! Sadly there are only 11 googly eyes on his pumpkin. Nicholas was adamant that it needed 37, but I convinced him we should leave at least a few for other children.

There was cow milking and donut decorating as well, but they didn't start until 11am, and we had to get Charlotte home for a nap so we missed them. We did get an ice cream sample from the Blue Sky booth though. When I asked Nicholas if he wanted one, he replied "But Mama, ice cream is for dessert!" Not today, my boy. Not today.

Our one and only purchase. HUGE, huh? Tom planted it in the pot on our front step. Perfect for Fall.