Beautiful places on sunny days, super fun places on get-out-the-wiggle days and favorite indoor places for rainy or mega-hot days, these are 25 of our favorite ways to enjoy spring with infants and toddlers in Kansas City.
- Urban Air Trampoline Park (locations in Overland Park and Lenexa) is one of our favorite indoor attractions in the city. They offer a terrific toddler play space in addition to trampolines and attractions for all ages. Their special Jumperoo play sessions (on the KC Parent calendar) are exclusively for tots.
- Ride the carousel at the Kansas City Zoo. The zoo is always a favorite destination, with polar bears, penguins, elephants, kangaroos, sea lions and hundreds more animals to enjoy. Purchase a FOTZ pass to include rides and visit often, plus zoo memberships are reciprocal with other zoos if your family travels.
- Build a giant Duplo tower at Legoland Discovery Center. Tip: Enter to win FREE passes on KCParent.com.
- Something is always blooming at Family Tree Nursery (three metro locations, FamilyTreeNursery.com). Family Tree offers some of the largest nurseries in the area with wide selections to enjoy through one of the most unique and fun shopping experiences in the city. Little ones love the fairy gardens and displays.
- Meet sea animals face to face at Sea Life Aquarium. Come nose to nose with sharks and enjoy astonishingly close views of everything from starfish and seahorses to graceful rays. Tip: Enter to win FREE passes on KCParent.com.
- Stroll through the free outdoor arboretum at Linda Hall Library a beautiful outdoor oasis right in the heart of the city.
- Visit Science City at Union Station where they offer terrific hands-on exhibits with little ones in mind. The nature center within the museum is home to many animals, including many at eye level for the youngest visitors.
- Play pretend at KidScape at the Johnson County Museum. This 3,500-sqaure-foot indoor play village is an imaginative and interactive experience allowing children to “work on the farm, perform at the theater or the puppet show, teach in the school, deliver mail, care for patients at the hospital or fry up some burgers at the diner.”
- Visit Ceramic Café, where moms and tots can paint something together. Let your little one get creative or design a handprint or footprint keepsake.
- Powell Gardens, the area’s botanical gardens, is a delightful place to spend a spring day. With flowers in bloom, the charming Heartland Harvest Garden (entirely edible landscape), rock wall garden and more, there is much to see and explore—including play areas for children.
- The Kansas Children’s Discovery Center is a 15,000-square-foot hands-on children’s museum with indoor education exhibits, including science, careers, building, art and a Nature Explorer Outdoor Classroom.
- Visit the Native Hoofed Animal Enclosure in Fleming Park. This 110-acre fenced enclosure is home to bison, elk and white-tailed deer.
- Feed fish from the dock at Longview Lake Marina. Purchase fish food for a dollar or two in the marina shop and enjoy the feeding frenzy as carp splash for the food. Tip: Remember life jackets.
- Play at Penguin Park. Penguin Park is one of the most beloved parks in the city, with giant penguins, elephants and kangaroos adorning the expansive playground. This is one park worth the drive for a special playdate!
- Stop and smell the roses at Loose Park.
- Explore Leawood City Park, one of the Variety KC parks in the city featuring a fully accessible playground for little ones of all abilities to enjoy!
- Visit Kauffman Memorial Garden. This free botanical garden offers a beautiful place to enjoy flowers and fountains and is a great spot to take photos of your family.
- Explore at Brumble’s Forest at Meadowmere Park. The forest theme at this park is beautiful and features a wooded landscape that is one of a kind in the metro.
- Take photos in the sculpture park at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
- The Overland Park Arboretum is a delightful place to spend a spring day. With blooming flowers to enjoy and the charming children’s garden, the whimsical train garden and the stunning Monet garden, as well as miles of trails to walk and explore—you and your little ones will have an enchanted visit.
- Visit your local pet store and look at the fish, turtles, birds and other pets.
- Watch the fish at Bass Pro. The outdoors shop features giant fish tanks kids love.
- Play at Wonderscope Children’s Museum. The museum reopened in a brand new space in the Red Bridge neighborhood in October 2020, offering amazing hands-on exhibits specially designed for early learning and play.
- On weekends, May-September, treat your kids to a ride aboard the KC Northern Railroad. Three 16-inch gauge trains restored and operated by volunteers run on a half-mile track through tunnels that are sure to make your children smile.
- Search “Best Parks” on KCParent.com to find whimsical and enchanting playgrounds to explore across the metro.
Some of Kristina Light’s favorite memories are enjoying these great KC places with her girls when they were toddlers. Feeding fish at the lake was a favorite for the whole family.
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Ceramic Café
Pottery painting and glass fusing. Walk-ins welcome. Great for birthdays and group events too.
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Family Tree Nursery Liberty
A beautiful, modern garden center in the heart of Shawnee! Since opening it’s doors as Family Tree Nursery in 1981, our Nieman location has grown a loyal customer base with great plants and top-notch customer service.
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Family Tree Nursery Overland Park
What sets Family Tree Nursery apart is our passion for plants. Our bedding plants look better because they’re grown better – we grow almost every bedding plant we sell at our own greenhouses.
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Family Tree Nursery Shawnee
A beautiful, modern garden center in the heart of Shawnee! Since opening it’s doors as Family Tree Nursery in 1981, our Nieman location has grown a loyal customer base with great plants and top-notch customer service.
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Johnson County Museum staff, 2020
Johnson County Museum
Featuring award-winning long-term and changing exhibitions as well as public and school education programs, the Museum is a great place to spend the day learning about our county’s history and having fun in our hands-on exhibit spaces.
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KC Northern Railroad
Three 16-inch gauge trains restored and operated by volunteers run on a half-mile track through tunnels that are sure to make your children smile.
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Kansas Children’s Discovery Center
4400 SW 10th Ave, Topeka Township, KansasThe Discovery Center features over 15,000 square feet of indoor education exhibits, including science, careers, building, art, and a 4.5 acre certified Nature Explore Outdoor Classroom.
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Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium
Explore the Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium, with nearly 10,000 animals on 202 acres, it's the most affordable family fun for kids of all ages! Travel all over the world without ever leaving Kansas City.
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Kauffman Memorial Gardens
The Ewing and Muriel Kauffman Memorial Garden is a privately-owned garden that is run in cooperation with Powell Gardens. The garden is free and open to the public.
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LEGOLAND Discovery Center
Legoland Discovery Center Kansas City offers a fun, highly interactive and educational 2-to 3-hour indoor experience. Based on the ever-popular Lego® brick, Legoland Discovery Center provides a range of interactive play areas.
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Leawood City Park
10601 Lee Boulevard, Leawood, Kansas 66206This 66 acre park consists of eleven soccer fields, six lighted tennis courts, three basketball goals, two baseball fields, two sand volleyball courts, one all-inclusive NEW playground, one half-mile loop jogging trail, and serves as the trail head.
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Linda Hall Library
One of the world’s foremost independent research libraries dedicated to science, engineering and technology.
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Longview Lake Marina
Conveniences include boat rentals from April 15 thru October 15 (as weather permits), lakeside gasoline pumps and overnight slip rental.
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Meadowmere Park
13610 Byars Rd, Grandview, MissouriMeadowmere Park serves as a central hub Grandview Parks & Recreation Department - long walking trails connect a whimsical playground and shaded benches with quick access to The View Community Center, Skate Park, Community Garden and amphitheatre.
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Native Hoofed Animal Enclosure at Fleming Park
This 110-acre fenced enclosure is home to bison, elk and white-tailed deer. Bring your family to stare a buffalo in the eye or enjoy watching a family of elk playing in a pasture.
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Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is Kansas City’s favorite free attraction, as voted by readers of KC Parent Magazine! Discover masterpieces in the galleries, spend quality time together at a festival or drop in for a weekend art activity. Classes...
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Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens
Savor beautiful gardens including a Monet garden, a children’s garden and water gardens.
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Powell Gardens
Powell Gardens is a not-for-profit botanical garden located just east of Kansas City, Missouri. Our mission: to be an experience that embraces the Midwest’s spirit of place and inspires an appreciation for the importance of plants in our lives.
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