This and That

My kids are on spring break this week. This makes me very excited because it means it's finally spring and we're going to have fun! I'm not such a fan of winter. I want one good snowman making snowfall, then I'm ready to get back to fun which usually involves parks, the zoo, and warm weather. We've made our snowmen...

and now it's time to blog about some odds and ends from this winter so we can once again have some warm Saint Louis fun!
We did go to The Loop for the Ice Carnival back in January as mentioned in my last post. The Loop always reminds me that I am not young or chic anymore, though I was probably never chic. I am a mom of three young kids, which I'd much rather be anyway. I do plan on making a trip to The Loop with my young, chic sisters, but unless I'm taking my kids to eat at Fitz's, there's no point in taking them there, Ice Carnival or not.

Speaking of Fitz's, most of the businesses had ice sculptures on display.

The kids enjoyed watching a block of ice turn into Peter Pan.

There was some entertainment on the streets.

The Ice Slides were a big hit.

The kids could also collect chocolate coins.

It wasn't a bad trip to The Loop, just one that's easier with one kid or older kids. We still had some fun though.

In eating news, Casey and I checked out Bogart's Smokehouse after seeing it on St. Louis Magazine's best new restaurant list. I think I would love that magazine, but for now I'm just reading it in doctor offices. Located in Soulard, it's set up and tastes a lot like Pappy's (I think the chef is from Pappy's). We still like Pappy's better, but it was fun and worth the trip.

Casey and I also went to the Iron Barley, made famous by Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, with Casey's parents and grandmother.

I'll just call this place interesting, though my husband's family really liked it.
Here's a picture of my Monte Criso hotdog as featured on TV. Though I don't need to have it again, I now think all hotdogs should be served with strawberry preserves.

Pi

Mr. President, we have finally found something on which we can agree...Pi pizza is GOOD!

Friday we decided to send Grandma off with another St. Louis first from the bucket list, Pi on the Delmar Loop. I heard about Pi a couple of years ago when President Obama declared he loved Pi pizza and even sent the owners/chefs to Washington to make pizza for an event at the White House. You can read about it here and here. This was a pretty big deals since Chicago takes great pride in its pizza.

They do have a small picture of them with Pres. Obama in the restaurant, but I was a little embarrassed to take a picture of it (though now I really wish I would have done it anyway). So I have these pictures instead.

This was actually one of the best restaurant experiences I've had in a long time. It wasn't crowded at the time (so I don't know if that would make a difference), but the service was great. Even better than the service, this...

The Delmar

I do think this is the best pizza I've ever had. My mom loved it, too. I'm glad I was with my mom, Casey does not appreciate pizza like this (he thinks $1 frozen pizzas are delicious).

The kids enjoyed their cheese pizza as well. I'm okay that they don't enjoy all the finer things in life yet. It meant more good pizza for me.

I agree with Hailey, I love Pi!

Fitz's American Grill & Bottling Works on The Loop

Aunt Megan's in town! And what a better way to celebrate than by crossing something off the bucket list while sipping St. Louis made root beer through a straw out of a "bottomless" frosted mug.

Friday we headed to Fitz's American Grill & Bottling Works on The Delmar Loop for lunch and root beer. Having lunch with Aunt Megan and Dad should have been a selling point enough for my kids, but when you're not going to McDonald's you sometimes have to sell them on the restaurant as well. Root beer did it!

Though the kids were most looking forward to Fitz's because they were promised root beer to drink with lunch, I was most looking forward to the bottling line. Their bottling line is in the restaurant so you can watch the whole root beer bottling process from start to finish.

It gave the kids something to do while waiting for lunch, during lunch and after lunch.

Besides root beer (which was really good) we enjoyed burgers

and smiley fries.

Then we topped everything off with a root beer float! Free, thanks to a coupon from here.

Though we enjoyed a fun lunch, the weather put a damper (literally) on the rest of our plans to explore The Delmar Loop. The Loop has been named "One of the 10 Great Streets in America" by the American Planning Association. The Loop is home to boutiques, restaurants, entertainment and more. Though it isn't necessarily geared towards families, it did have a couple things I wanted to check out with the kids.

The Loop got it's name years ago from streetcars turning around (or looping) back to the city. Being the nice  mother that I am, I made the kids get their picture taken by the trolley display in the rain. Another shout out to Meet Me In St. Louis, good thing you can't hear me singing the trolley song.

The Loop also hosts a St. Louis Walk of Fame.  It features such stars as Cedric the Entertainer, Robert Duvall, Kevin Kline, The Rockettes, Bob Costas, Ulysses S. Grant, Charles Lindbergh, Dred & Harriet Scott,  Miles Davis, Nelly, Ike and Tina Turner, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and many more. Since it was raining, we only checked out a couple of the stars.

 I must live with baseball fans because I knew all about the next two stars.

But since most of our exploring was going like this...Ethan wanting to be held and out of the rain. I think we'll have to give The Loop a try on a sunny day.

Even with the rain, our adventure was a sucess. In the words of Brenton, "I got to have TWO Root beers!"