My husband and I stumbled across this place while on vacation in Madison recently. We take our boys to get a scoop of ice cream somewhere and this place was lit up at night with an actual functioning old type carousel outside! Crazy! The whole place is packed with whimsical & stimulating things to look at and play with. A kid's heaven. Check out their website under displays tab to see what I mean. And the sundae the 4 of us split was SCRUMPTIOUS! It's also a kosher deli and restaurant, but we just had dessert. We'll definitely go back next time we're up that way.

For all the little boys obsessed with Thomas and trains in general, you have to make this a must-stop store. They carry anything you would want train-related. They also carry other things like Radio Flyer Wagons and Metal Pedal Cars. You can find old-fashioned Marbles and other collectibles, too. They even sell some doll house furniture. I love that they have three train tables set up for the kids to play with the train sets.

This is a great little bakery that has odd hours and I can never figure out when they are open and closed. All I can say is I KNOW they aren't open on Sundays but are open on Saturdays. There's a delicious cinnamon bread loaf they only sell on Saturday mornings, too. They have homemade kolackys and too-die-for coffee cakes both circular and rectangular. Also, they only take cash, but there's a bank just down the street on the corner with a cash machine on premises.

So we went here with the kids when it first opened because we were so excited to have an ice cream parlor in the neighborhood. But I was disappointed when I realized after walking in that the decor was good, but I could tell the ice cream was not made on the premises. Maybe that's my fault for assuming it would be. That's not to say they don't have a good selection of flavors. There's about 30 Hershey's band ice cream flavors ranging from Raspberry Roadrunner to Moose Tracks.

Who can resist this dog show?! It's all mutts. The fee to get in is pretty reasonable (Adults are $5, kids over 12 are $3 and under 3 years are free). Because it's held at the High School you can park in the big parking lot right there. Some of the proceeds raised from the show go to support a great local animal rescue and no-kill shelter, PAWS Chicago.