Phelps Youth Pavilion

For a while now, I've been thinking of taking Sullivan to the Phelps Youth Pavilion in Waterloo. He loves to explore new things and tends to get bored stuck at home. My only concern was if it was too advanced for him an not worth the money.

After our venture out on Saturday and early nap again on Sunday, I thought why not give it a try. Mike had a bunch of extra projects he needed to work on and with us three in the house, it can be a little dificult to focus. I packed up the van and Sullivan and I headed to the Loo. I'm not sure if they do this every Sunday, but when we got there it was discount Sunday, score! Normally it costs $5 a person but when we went it was $3. We could spend as long as we wanted in there and they also opened up a mini golf course in the Cedar Falls Crossroads mall. With our $6 paid admission we could visit the youth pavilion and go mini golfing all day long. Sounds like a pretty good deal if you have kids old enough to golf.

This place definitely exceed my expectations. First thing Sullivan noticed was the fish tank. I had no idea he was so in love with fish. Maybe it was the trip to the Dubuque Aquarium? We will definitely have to look for some aquariums near our area for a little family getaway. 

Once I got him in the door a little more, there was a small tractor kids can sit on and drive. This tractor is hook up to a virtual screen so you can steer in the field. They also had a little hay loft with "pillow" hay bales, a cave, little school house, mini grocery store, a fishing boat, a bus, a garden to pick produce and dig, and the most coolest thing ever, a cow to milk. I may have been more fascinating with milking the cow then Sullivan. I'm not sure why, I guess I've never milked a cow before. But this cow squirts out water into a pail that has a drain to recycle the water. Occasionally the cow would "moo" too, which was fun for Sullivan to hear.

The upstairs of the building is geared more for older kids. It has a puppet theater, an art studio where they have classes children can sign up for, a design table, and little niches displaying different countries and ethnicities. 

I'm sure we will be making a returned visit again in the winter when we are all cooped up and bored.

Be sure to check out the video at the bottom! (Click on read more first to view the entire blog post)  :)