Lantern Festival

Friday night Grandma Lang and I took Jack and Charlie to the Lantern Festival at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.  This was one of the activities we had planned during Kelly and Parker's visit, but it was too hot.  Since there was finally a chill in the air Friday (I think the high was only 87 degrees) we decided to give it a go.  Boy are we glad we did - we LOVED it!

It's basically a display of Chinese art, mostly made of silk and all lit up.  It was really cool.  Jack especially liked seeing all the dragons and he learned a new word, Buddha, since one of the big displays was of some Buddha guys.

Jack and Charlie really couldn't have been better behaved.  I changed Charlie into his jammies assuming he would doze in the stroller, but it was pretty crowded (because the weather was finally below 100 degrees), so there was too much to see.  Little man was quiet and relaxed, but never closed his eyes the whole time we were there.  When we got in the car at 10:00 (2.5 hours past bed time!!), he was asleep as soon as I got him buckled into his car seat.  What a trooper!!

Jack was a great listener and enjoyed riding on the sit & stand stroller (that thing was a great invention!).  We also ran into his best buddy from school, Grier, so that was fun.

Jack's favorites were the dragons that blew steam out of their mouths.  They were made entirely of porcelain plates and other cooking utensils.

We also really liked the ship made from recycled plastic bottles:

Jack got to play the gong, throw some coins into a fountain to make a wish and he got a special souvenir for being such a great boy.

We had a great time!!  I definitely recommend this to anyone who lives in the St. Louis area.  The event ends on August 19 and is totally worth the admission price of $22/person.