When it comes to the magical combination of offering boutique and vintage items under one roof, you could call Casie Bateman the Queen Bee.

The Blue Springs, MO, store she co-owns with husband David, Queen Bee Boutiques and The Vintage Bee, boasts a staggering combined 34,000 feet of retail space.

“We’re one store, with two different retail places within the store – boutique and vintage,” Bateman explains. “We are really the only place that does that.”

On any given day, you’re likely to see Bateman working the floor, greeting customers and chatting with vendors while David works behind the scenes, balancing the books. Joining Bateman in what she calls her ‘hive’ are two managers among a little fewer than a dozen employees. Tasked with overseeing the store’s operations and social media and marketing, those trusted managers keep the store buzzing with activity.

David and Casie say they still get plenty of time with their daughters -- Maisy, 12; Story, 8; and twins Delilah and Haven, 3.

“The twins were actually the determining factor for me to start my career up,” Bateman recalls. “I was traveling, doing sales for software companies, and David is a real estate investor. We decided that we can make this amazing thing, and now we’re helping a lot of families by doing this because we have nearly 300 vendors in the store and we have a positive impact on the community.”

That impact is growing quickly. The Batemans just bought the store next door and want to open a bistro in that space within a year. The store has already experimented with offering food, with one of its vendors offering coffee and pre-made meals for purchase. Eventually, Bateman says she and David would like to add live music nights and board game nights to enhance customers’ shopping experience.

Bateman says her store’s impact also extends to helping others in Blue Springs learn new skills, as well as the ins and outs of entrepreneurship.

“We partner with Hillcrest Transitional Housing. We even give one of its residents a free space; she is housed in the The Vintage Bee, and she makes candles,” Bateman explains. “All of her sales go back into her own pocket.”

Later this year, too, Bateman says, the store will partner with a local high school to create a program similar to the TV show “Shark Tank.”

“The kids will make things and become entrepreneurs,” Bateman says of the upcoming Hive and Thrive Mentor-ship Program. “So we have been doing things with Hillcrest for months now, and the high school program will be this fall.”

Second Saturdays at The Bee is Kansas City’s newest must-visit shopping event, happening every month at Queen Bee Boutiques & The Vintage Bee in Blue Springs. Each Second Saturday transforms our 34,000 sq. ft. shopping destination into a vibrant, community-focused experience featuring live music, food trucks, and an ever-changing lineup of pop-up vendors. With over 250 local makers, boutiques, and vintage curators all under one roof, shoppers can browse everything from fashion and home décor to rare antiques and one-of-a-kind gifts.

Every month brings a fresh theme with special activities, photo-worthy moments, and surprises, plus a huge plant sale hosted by Pop-Up Plants KC. It is the perfect outing for families, friends, and anyone who loves to shop local.

Queen Bee Boutiques and The Vintage Bee are open seven days a week; for more information, call 816-988-8023 or visit www.facebook.com/queenbeeboutiqueskc.

New Orleans' Mardi Gras festival has been in full swing since Jan. 6 with revelers whooping it up ahead of the Lenten season, which is just weeks away.

The Louisiana city's final celebration takes place March 4 on Fat Tuesday. The day before the start of Lent is filled with parties and celebrations throughout the U.S., and even in many other cities around the world.

Mardi Gras is rooted in the traditions of various cultures before the solemn season of Lent.

Mardi Gras season began Jan. 6, the Epiphany, but its duration changes each year based on Easter. It always ends on Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, which marks the start of Lent.

Fat Tuesday this year falls on March 4. Mardi Gras is French for “Fat Tuesday,” according to Merriam-Webster.

Historically, on Mardi Gras, people were meant to use “all the fats in the home before Lent in preparation for fasting and abstinence,” Britannica reports. Christians would consume rich, fatty foods, such as meat, eggs and cheese, before the period of Lenten fasting, according to the History Channel.

The first Mardi Gras festival in what is now the U.S. may have taken place on March 3, 1699, where New Orleans was founded, Mardi Gras New Orleans says, but other think it began in 1703 in Mobile, AL.

Catholics also call Fat Tuesday Shrove Tuesday or Shrovetide, the conclusion to Ordinary Time.

Famously, Brazilians and Venetians celebrate the holiday with parades, masks and costumes. In both Italy and Brazil, the festival is known as “Carnival.”

Most visitors to the Historic Square in Liberty, MO, walk past the old museum building at 14 Main St., unaware of the treasures of local history housed inside. Many stop to admire the window decor-ations created by a dedicated team of volunteers depicting various themes and changed periodically. A block on the side of the building indicates its origins to be 1877 – but that was the date of the building’s remodeling, after a fire damaged the original 1850s structure.
For most of its life, the building served as a drug-store, beginning in 1856 with the first druggist, W.A. Hall. Daniel Hughes Jr. partnered with Hall in 1870, bought him out in 1873 and remodeled the building four years later. In 1877 he sold the building to Joseph C. Simmons, whose name remains on the entry tiles.

Simmons installed a soda fountain just inside the front doors, but discovered it was more work than reward, and replaced it with a candy stand. Today the original soda fountain’s stools can be seen, and the candy stand has become a gift shop with a large variety of books featuring area history.

Dr. William H. Goodson practiced medicine on the second floor for 64 years. When he died in 1963, his office was preserved as it had been in 1920, with his original medical equipment, including many instruments the doctor fashioned by hand. It remains a popular visitor attraction.

The Clay County Museum Association bought the building in 1964. Today it is filled with historical artifacts from throughout the county. Its three floors preserve the memories of those who visited the doctor, bought penny candy or just stopped in to chat with the druggist around the old pot-bellied stove in the back room.

Artifacts include arrow points from area Native Americans, military items from the Civil War and both world wars, old appliances, musical instruments, toys, historic photos, posters, and much more. A rare harp piano can be seen on the second floor, along with a doll collection, period furniture, old documents, and other fascinating items. The lower level displays include a diorama featuring workers assembling stained glass in an early-day factory, an old-time loom, farm equipment, and a variety of interesting household items.

Visitors are greeted on the first floor by a centuries-old Spanish cannon from the Phillipines that once graced the old Court House lawn. In addition to a piano purchased in New York and brought to Clay County in the 1850s on a steamboat, visitors can see old toys, telephones, early-day costumes and countless other items to whet the appetite of any history enthusiast.

Closed in January, the museum reopens in February. Admission is free (with cash donations gladly accepted). Hours are 1-4 Monday – Friday and 10-4 Saturdays. For more information, visit www.claycountyhistoricalsocietymuseum.org.

The hayride is a fun autumn activity to enjoy with your family or a group of friends, allowing you to enjoy the countryside, the changing colors of the leaves on the trees, and a beautiful sunset on a cool night. The activity isn’t as nearly as old as one might guess.

Hayrides have been around since the 19th century, when innovations in transportation allowed people from urban areas to vacation in the countryside. Farmhands would transport hay bales using horse-pulled wagons, and farmers conceived of the idea of the hayride in order to celebrate the arrival of the autumn season. More recently, they’re organized to make a little extra money for their farms during months that might see little to no activity.

In those days, visitors would sit atop the 15- or 20-foot-tall bales of hay piled onto the cart pulled by the horse – sounds like a recipe for accidents, doesn’t it? In the decades following, they would simply sit on a surface strewn with straw, the carts now pulled by tractors.

“Back in the day, especially in small-town America, there were family farms everywhere. If you didn’t live on a farm, you almost certainly had an uncle, neighbor, or friend who did,” writes a blogger who only calls herself ‘Staz’ and manages storiesbystaz.com. “They’d fire up the tractor, hook it to a wagon, and throw on a few bales of hay or straw for seating, and you were good to go.”

Much like a trip to the beach, after which you’d end up finding sand in your clothing for days, hayrides offered a similar pitfall – hay everywhere when you’d return home.

“Of course, the hay or the stray didn’t always stay neatly tucked in each bale. After a hayride, you might find pieces of straw in your shoes, your hair, or even in your underwear,” Staz writes. “Those pesky little straws and hay bristles might be sticking in a few unmentionable places. All that jostling around on the wagon could get those tiny straws stuck in the most unusual places.”

Though a sunset hayride would offer a picturesque view of the horizon, the blogger says hayrides after dark are especially exciting, especially around Halloween, with the possibility of spooky mischief peeking at you from behind each tree or over there in the pumpkin patch.

“Sometimes we went on hayrides to a pumpkin patch, or we had what were called haunted hayrides. There were hayrides with bonfires after the ride, or Halloween parties,” she writes, adding that if you were lucky, you might even get to ride through a covered bridge. “There were late-in-the-season rides and the adults would cut down a Christmas tree and tie it to the wagon for the ride home.”

Though hayrides could provide a good jump-scare or two during the autumn and Halloween, they also make for a romantic date for a pair of sweethearts.

Sally Smith had lunch in Belton, MO, nearly 14 years ago and stopped by a flea market to ask about renting a 10’x10’ space.

She ended up buying the building.

“(The owner) talked me into buying her business,” Smith explained. “I’d never worked retail before.”

Smith named the new 3,600-square-foot store Whistle Stop Antiques, and after more than a decade in business, she reflected on all she’s learned and the memories she’s made.

Whistle Stop Antiques, so named because Belton was a whistle stop town and the railroad runs directly be-hind the building, was a new venture for someone who loved well-used treasures.

“I had owned a company that did estate sales, so I had the antique knowledge but never had worked retail,” Smith said. “At the beginning, it’s always dicecy, and you wonder if you’re going to make it or not.”

But Smith needn’t have worried – shoppers were instantly drawn to the store’s variety of inventory and its small-town charm. The business’ popularity has increased so much over the years that she bought the building adjoining her store, bringing her total space up to 7,000 square feet.

Smith said the area in which Whistle Stop is located has long been associated with sales.

“This entire block was at one time owned by a wo-man who sold children’s clothes,” she said. “(The buildings) were built in the late 1800s.”

At Whistle Stop, Smith said she prides herself on placing her focus on offering quality antiques, with all other items a secondary concern. And whether customers come in with an intent to buy or simply wish to do a bit of browsing, they’re always welcomed warmly and greeted with Smith’s signature smile.

“I have people who come in to regroup; they just wander and look and calm down. I try to set things up so it’s not too crazy,” Smith said.

There’s plenty you’ll find at Whistle Stop that you won’t find anywhere else – including, Smith says, live music on evenings when the store hosts its regular concert series.