A Trip to Fort Wayne, IN

This week Tyler had another business trip to Columbia City, IN. The nearest big city is Fort Wayne, IN, so the whole family tagged along. This is about three and a half hours away. I thought even though it would be a lot of work to bring Ava, she still would have a good time in a different setting. Our room had a jacuzzi tub in it which provided minimal entertainment, and other than that the kids and I colored, stacked dice, threw dice, watched cable, went to Wal Mart, dressed baby dolls, didn't take naps, and best of all, discovered an amazing library.

Our local library is very nice, but the Allen County Library is amazing for small children. You could tell that whoever designed it knew exactly what they were doing. They had a huge separate room for children to play in and even had an area for non-walkers. They had tons of dress up clothes, a puppet stage, a play house, a train set, cardboard books, a store area, coloring stations, a play tent, a huge magnetic wall for letters, a walk-thru fishtank area, a playscape for kids and a larger one for ages 7-12 where the kids can climb up the playscape and sit in a nice chair to read. On the wall in the kids area were some of my favorite quotes, "An involved parent is the best toy a child can have," and, "Play is a child's work."

There were a lot of kids there and a librarian even invited the kids for a story time in the next room over. This never happens at our local library because pre-registration is required weeks prior and each child needs a library card in order to register. (Don't get me started on this one) I tried to get some good pics online of what it was like, but I could only find the above pictures. Our camera was out of batteries!