FOR PEEP’S SAKE: IT’S A NEW EASTER FREAK SHAKE AT SODA FOUNTAIN AT UNION STATION

Forget April showers, robins and blossoming flowers. Peeps marshmallow candies are the real harbinger of spring in St. Louis.

To celebrate the season and welcome the Easter bunny, Soda Fountain has created a new over-the-top Freak Shake called For Peep’s Sake.

The outrageous sweet treat begins with a banana milkshake and the serving glass is rimmed with green coconut Easter “grass.” The Freak Shake is topped with a Peeps Kabob, a La Bonne Bouchee pastel rainbow sugar cookie, a rock candy stick, jelly beans, whipped cream and a cherry.

The springtime shake will be available throughout April at the popular retro diner located under the train shed at Union Station. Soda Fountain is open daily from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m.

St. Louis Union Station also has debuted a new place to satisfy a sweet tooth. The Cookies & Cupcakes treat shop has opened just outside the entrance to the St. Louis Aquarium.

The shop features whimsically decorated cupcakes — including one designed to look like a shark fin emerging from blue icing waves. The treats are from Jilly’s Cupcake Bar in St. Louis. Fudge is also available at the shop, along with chocolate “Shark Poop.” Cookies baked on site come in a variety of flavors and are served daily along with Kaldi’s coffee and barista-made espresso-based drinks. St. Louis Union Station Cookies & Cupcakes is open daily from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.

St. Louis Union Station is located at 201 S. 18th St., St. Louis, MO 63103. @sodafountainstl; www.sodafountain-stl.comwww.stlouisunionstation.com; @unionstationstl

CITY MUSEUM EASTER TREASURE HUNT

New tours, printmaking class, bird visits and a whimsical Easter treasure hunt top the list of activities added for spring fun at City Museum.

Raptor Awareness Week

On Wednesday, April 6 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. friends from St. Louis’ World Bird Sanctuary will bring raptors for a meet and greet with visitors at City Museum. Every year this amazing organization helps more than 500 raptors at their rehabilitation hospital and care for 200 more birds in their conservation and education programs. Free with general admission.

Easter Treasure Hunt

Avast me hearties! On April 9 and 10, City Museum welcomes all pirates to find a treasure trove of golden eggs hidden throughout the building. Follow the treasure map to explore for prizes that include candy, toys and general admission tickets good for a return visit to City Museum. The treasure hunt takes place from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.on Sunday, and is free with admission. A Bunny photo op adds even more fun noon to 2p.m.each day..

Printmaking Workshop

Central Print comes to CIty Museum on Saturday, April 9 from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. for a printmaking workshop. Guests can design their own posters and use the printing press and repurposed paper to make creations using printing blocks from the City Museum archives. The activity is free with general admission. Central Print is a non-profit organization that promotes the art of letterpress printmaking.

Tour City Museum

Always evolving and always mysterious, City Museum is offering guided tours for the first time this spring. The new tours explore the artsy warehouse and its installations and inner workings. Learn about the lives and materials that helped shape one of the most unique and eccentric museums in the world..Tours are $7 with general admission. After hours group tours also are available on request. For more information, visit www.citymuseum.org/tours.

About City Museum

Explore the unexpected. City Museum is a hundred-year-old warehouse in downtown St. Louis in which artists have repurposed the pieces of old cities to build miles of tunnels, slides, climbers, bridges, and castles. There are secret passages and grand galleries. Playgrounds and ball pits. A circus and a train. A rooftop school bus and a Ferris wheel.

When You Visit

City Museum is located at 750 N. 16th St., St. Louis, MO 63103. City Museum is open seven days a week, Mondays through Thursdays from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m., and Sundays from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. www.citymuseum.org; 314-231-2489; @citymuseum

Outdo Yourself This Easter Holiday With Ease

So Easter is just around the corner, and the kids are nagging at you because they want to do something really fun this year (even though you ensure they have fun every year!). You’re under pressure to make sure that your kids have the best possible time, and what you do will define the experience they have. But there comes a time where you run out of ideas and you don’t know what there is left to do for them that hasn’t already been done before. Having said that, it’s not impossible, you just need to get creative.

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Here are some of the best ideas.

Live show

Whether it be in the theatre watching a play, of your child’s favourite musician playing in concert, have a look what’s on offer in your area. There are plenty of sites that display all the things that are coming up, so have a browse and then purchase some concert tickets and surprise them with a fun evening out. You can make a whole day of it by getting dressed up, grabbing something nice to eat, and then finally spilling the beans on where you’re taking them.

Bunny race

Get out your old pillowcases and give your child one each. The aim of the game is for them to get from A to B first. You can make this more difficult by making a course for them to follow with various obstacles in the way that they’ll need to jump over or climb under. You could even get stuck in with the fun and jump into one of those cases yourself. They are many other games that you can do that are Easter inspired, the same as an egg and spoon race.

Throw a party

If you have a relatively spacious home or garden, then ask your children to invite their favourite friends over for Easter and celebrate in style. All you need is a little bit of music and some snacks and the kids will be happy. You could even hide easter eggs around the house and garden and hold a scavenger hunt. Make sure the easter eggs are only small though so you don’t find children fighting over huge amounts of chocolate. You can even make little party bags to send home with the kids.

Have a picnic

Sometimes it can be as easy as taking your kids out of the house and having a picnic in your local park. It’s simple, but fun. You can prepare sandwiches and potato salad the night before so everything is ready the next day. Then just bring a ball with you down to the park and have a fun kick around in the sun. If you have access to water like a lake, go down there and have a go at fishing. Make a barbeque and invite your friends to come along with their own kids. The more the merrier.

Don’t think you always need to spend a lot of money in order to do things that are exciting, because sometimes, just being with one another is enough.

This post is a collaborative effort by St. Louis Dad.

A Fun Filled Rainy Day at Eckert’s!

with love from the St. Louis Dad familyToday turned out to be an awesome day. Forget the fact that it’s day light savings time and I just lost an hour of sleep. “Spring ahead!” they say… I say ba-humbug to DST. I must also mention that it was raining all morning causing us to be late to Eckert’s. Fast cars and wet roads might be manageable, but with two kids in the back ready for egg hunting. We needed to take it easy on the roads. Things quickly turned around once we arrived in Belleville, Illinois at Eckert’s Farm. It was still sprinkling when we were checking into Eckert’s Easter Egg-Citement event. We figured we completely missed out on the egg-hunt but were surprised to hear that we could participate in the 11 a.m. hunt. Apparently the rain was really coming down during the 10 a.m. hunt, so I guess we kinda got lucky.

IMG_3704Since it was still slightly raining we went over to Eckert’s store to check out the activities that were setup for the kids, but first we had to stop by and see the cutest baby animals ever. Abby and Alex got to see some baby ducklings, baby chicks, and some bunnies! Abby had a little more courage than Alex and sort of held them. Alex really didn’t want them near him, but he liked looking. My wife was asking for one of each. I don’t think we have the room.

After we played with the animals we headed on over to the Eckert’s store. The first thing we noticed was that there were not one but THREE different Easter bunnies there. Two white and one grey. They were taking pictures with all of the kids in a few different areas of the store.

IMG_3644The first station we stopped at had these awesome little balls of soil that kids could plant a bean seed and take home to watch grow. My daughter was very excited to plant her bean. I’m not sure she realizes that it’s a vegetable and not a flower. There was also a station where you could color your own lunch bag. These were sort of like your normal brown lunch bags but a lot cooler. They have a nice seam and a picture that kids can color. Definitely kept my kids busy for 10 minutes.

There was also face painting and cookie icing. You can also check out the store and pick up some goodies to take home, like some delicious apple butter. Mmmm, apple butter, more about that later.

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We had to make a visit with the Easter Bunny. My daughter Abby impresses me more each day and ran right up to him and gave him a hug and got a picture. Alex really didn’t want anything to do with the bunny, so mommy had to get in the picture too. My wife wanted me to mention that her hair was crazy because of the rain. I can agree, it was a little crazy looking. Sorry!

IMG_3713By now it had stopped raining completely and it was time to get ready for the next round of egg hunting. We scurried on over to the designated egg hunting grounds and waited for the countdown to begin. The rules were pretty simple. They have three sections marked off for three separate age groups. 0-2, 3-5, and 6-something. My oldest is five so I don’t remember what the next age group was. Each kid was limited to finding 12 eggs each so it would be fair for everyone. Abby gave me the Robert Deniro look when I told her this but she was a good sport and only grabbed twelve eggs. After the hunt we decided to grab a bite to eat at Eckert’s Restaurant but first the kids needed a little cleaning up from their muddy egg-cursion.

IMG_3656Back at the car we changed the kid’s clothes into something a little less muddy and wet, and a little more clean and dry. It’s always a good idea to pack an extra outfit for your kids if they are known to get dirty. Abby wasn’t as bad as Alex. He is like a magnet to muddy puddles. Abby likes them too but she can show control when mom and dad say no. Alex is just showing off and having a good time. I can’t blame him. I would be doing the same thing.

IMG_3686After cleanup we headed on over to the restaurant. I had never been to Eckert’s before so I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect in terms of menu items. I thought it was very cool that there was a little corner for kids to play with some toys while we waited for a table. The wait wasn’t long at all and we were seated and got our order in the kitchen in no time. You get a nice supply of these tasty biscuits and apple butter. The apple butter is so delicious, you really don’t even need the biscuit. Definitely pick some up if you’re there.

Our meal was very tasty and neither child made a fuss about eating all of their food. Which is a really good thing for us. All of that fun really worked up an appetite. After we finished eating it was time to load up the kids and head back home. Alex fell asleep in the car and Abby serenaded us with her best rendition of Justin Beiber’s Sorry.

Does Eckert’s Easter Egg-Citement Event sound like a fun time to you? Believe me, if we had this much fun while it was rainy and wet, imagine how awesome it would be if it was sunny! Get your tickets today!

Eckert’s provided St. Louis Dad with complimentary Easter Egg-Citement tickets and a gift card for the Eckert’s Country Store and Restaurant in exchange for an honest review and social media postings about the event. Follow Eckert’s on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Wanna see a video of some of what we did today? Watch below! Music by St. Louis Dad / Missouri Mobile Productions.