House of Brown: Warning: Excessive Pictures

For as long as I can remember, there's been something of a rivalry between Memphis and Nashville over size and some other stuff, and generally which is better. Being a native Memphian living in Nashville, I have my biases of course. But, as the Activities Director for Little Critters in my family, I can say with a hefty dose of objectivity, that Memphis has the upper hand on kid-friendly places and adventures.

Fortunately, my parents and the rest of my family live in the area, so we have lots of reasons to make the 3-hour trip.

Our recent trip was necessitated by the adoption of a buffalo named Buzz (Lightyear) and free babysitting provided by g-parents.

We rode the heatwave of 2012 into town, dropped off our stuff, picked up more (sand-digging) stuff, and headed to Shelby Farms to visit the aforementioned buffalo. And the jaw-dropping new park there.

These pictures don't do it justice, but there are three giant pits with different things to play on and do in them, appropriate for all ages. I mostly get suckered into sliding with people.

The weird cage-like fence surrounding the play areas will eventually be covered in vines. Right now, though, the place is like being in a giant frying pan.

The next day, we hit up the Pink Palace. I have no excuse as to why I have no pictures of the outside of the building, but it's so pretty. There is a special exhibit about megalosaurus or something, so some of us wanted to check it out. Some of us, but not Sarah.

My kids are into dinosaurs (real original, I know) in different ways. They both enjoy pretending to be dinosaurs, but Sarah is scared of the animatronic ones and dino skeletons. I have taken this challenge as an opportunity to discuss carnivores (animals that will eat us) and herbivores (nice animals who only eat leaves and plants).

She doesn't mind excavation, though.

Dad and Will got into dinosaur rubbings.

Look, Mom, somebody else made this!

Mike beating the toddlers at their own game.

We couldn't peel Will away from this gigantosaurus for very long.

Meanwhile, Sarah just wanted to get away.

My favorite part of the whole museum is the miniature circus, carved entirely by hand by one man. It's nearly 100 years old, and I can remember looking at it for what seemed like hours when I was little. Things have changed since then, and you can't push a button to make it come to life anymore, but it's still spectacular.


The Big Top

My kids were less impressed. Another change at the Pink Palace from my early years is that you can't "shop" at the old-timey Piggly-Wiggly anymore. Bummer. The Civil War exhibit is just as creepy as ever, though. I've got one word for you: leeches.

In an effort to escape roaring robot dinosaurs and scary skeletons, we went down to the permanent exhibition of quiet robot dinosaurs and regular skeletons.

Flamingo and teensy-tiny Hummingbird skeletons

The Berenstein Bears: Too Much Junk Food has Sarah pondering her innards, so maybe some of the human skeletons helped illustrate one system of the body.

This triceratops used to greet visitors at the front door, but she's been retired. I think she and Sarah made friends. Will staged the introductions and tried to climb up and pet her.

"Diamonds, Mommy!"

"Can I have one of these for my birthday?"

Will's favorite might have been this Wooly Mammoth. He seemed to think those giant tusks would be fun to try swinging from.

After a full morning of evading dinosaurs, Sarah just really needed a pedicure. Thanks to my mom's Caribbean blue nail polish, all three generations of girls got twinkle toes.