Minnesota Children's Museum 2009

If you enjoy the Iowa Children's Museum, be prepared to be blown away by the MInnesota Children's Museum. Nora and I planned on going while we were in Minneapolis on our Spring Break. The decision was based upon the fact that we were able to go for FREE! Our museum is a member of the Association of Children's Museums and since we belong due to our membership with the ICM then we automatically gain entrance to all the other museums within the ACM due to reciprocity. This is the coolest reason to belong to the ICM. Bret is already looking to see how many free museums we could hit on our way to Colorado if we take a road trip this summer. Click on the link to see all the museums included! It is amazing and I want to see several; on my list is Denver, Brooklyn, Navy Pier, and some in Wisconsin. Did you know Lacross has a children's museum?

Well, the MCM was fantabulous! We began on the fourth (yes Fourth!!) floor and worked our way down. You will see highlights on the Earth Room, Clifford Room, and Waterplay. I left out some of the city (which was pretty cool too!) The younger kids enjoyed Habitot which explore habitats of Minnesota in a kid friendly way! Even Hazel got in on the action. The kids loved working with conveyer belts and I was amazed at the ant tunnels that Ella and Alice crawled in for quite some time. Lars loved making frogs and tadpoles jump in a real like creek with Greta. But I think bigger than life Clifford was a highlight! All were exhausted by the end of our morning. It was a full day and I would guess we only saw about 1/2 the museum really had to offer! What a great time!

This museum catered to a wider age range than our own. Each room has a variety of activities to engage kids of ages 1-10. I would think some older kids might enjoy it too! What I can't wait for most of all is going back when we visit our friends in Minneapolis!

Spring Break 2009- Decorah

This is a view of the kids descending the trail. You can see from here how steep and windy it was. They absolutely loved it and I must say it was really pretty. I would love to come back here in the fall sometime.

Nora & Hazel in front of the waterfalls mouth. Here is where Nora jumped the fence to take a closer look. Later Lars told Nora he did not want her to go with us. Turned out he was mad she "broke the rules" and jumped the fence.

The waterfall was fed by a natural spring and had a beautiful little creek with clear water.

Running on the bridge. I love Lars' floppy hair in this picture!

The loved the little hike, although we may not have been dressed the most appropriately for this trip. It was about 10 degrees cooler in the shade of the trees. This caught all of us by surprise. About halfway up the stairs, Ella's little silver slide-on shoes stayed behind in the mud and her foot kept moving, thus getting her tight covered foot covered in the same sticky mud. I, of course, had whining and tears but she put her shoe back on and continued up the path. Getting to the top was way worth it!

Ella, Alice, Elyse
They all have become such big girls since their first days as preschoolers at Willowwind!

Here we are in front of Elyse's house. We do not exactly look like we are ready to go hiking do we? The girls and Lars had just has a splendid afternoon playing throughout the house and we had a delicious lunch of pizza, chicken fries, fruit and veggies.

The reason we came was to see the new baby, Ole Hans Storjle.
He was a good little baby, sleeping through much of the commotion of the kids playing.
It was fun to meet him and Patty & Elyse again!

Spring Break 2009- Elkader

Needless to say our trip began after a quick run to the pharmacy to get my kids both medicine for having strep throat. Lars had all the classic symptoms- a strawberry tounge, a red rash and a a high fever. Who knew? I asked Nora if she was comfortable having my kids int he car with hers and she knew Hazel was on antibiotics and we figured Alice had all ready been exposed, so we went for it and left that afternoon. The girls were so excited to be buddies and sit by each other in the back of the van. Lars understood we were going to see Nana but he was learning how to say MInneapoils and only could get out "appleis" or "applemini". Adorable!



The kids did sleep some of the way to Elkader. Everyone was excited about the plethora of cows and pigs (Alice's favorite!). When we arrived in Elkader and saw Nana's house or should I say Victorian B & B, the kids could not wait to run around and check everything out. Tours were given and I laughed as all the kids ran towards the toy closet immediately and began to play. Busy bodies had taken over Nana's house and they were having fun. Ella and Alice set up a dining table and began serving us all sorts of food. Brenda prepared us the kids a dinner of mac and cheese and hot dogs. Alice seemed to eat and eat! When they were done we got jammies on and let them play while we ate pork, walnut salad, with pesto pasta. Brenda never fails to spoil her guests. This was really a welcome and great start to our many nights ahead. We knew we had a long trip the next day so we all turned in at a reasonable hour but I enjoyed the wonderful conversation we all had. It was wonderful for me to be surrounded by 2 of my favorite women in the world for one night!

In the morning, the kids slept in til almost 8 am! Is this Heaven? No, it is Nana's, but close. I love hearing their pitter pat in this house as they run down the stairs and exclaim "nana" at the top of thier lungs. Truly a greeting of love and excitement. More playing ensued... I loved seeing Hazel sitting on the floor in the kitchen looking like a little cherub or a 20's baby. Her brown curls on her head and her angelic smile just make her one of the sweetest babies ever. Brenda could not quite get over how good she is! I told her that is is Hazel...that is how she is. After a breakfast of pancakes we began packing the car. Next we had a quick tour of Brenda's store, Willowcreek. Check it out here if you'd like to see it up close.


It really was a great night and morning. Thanks to Brenda for her ultimate hospitality. We felt so at home!

Minneapolis

• sleeping over at Nora and Jeff's house
• yummy sprinkled donuts
• cartoons on the DVD player with friends
• playing Light & Dark or Red Light, Green Light, Sharks in a basement with no furniture
• The Hannah Anderssen outlet mall!!!!
• lunch at Wendy's
• consignment in Minneapolis
• Oilily finds!!!!!
• quiet time by all
• pizza & pop!
• watching the pizza dude throw pizza in the air as the kids clap and cheer
• baby Thomas! awwww
• riding a motorcycle - it looked dangerous and I heard it was too
• drawing on the huge chalkboard
• answering 70's trivia by Tom
• winding down with friend's
• wine & beer & March Madness basketball on Nora's red TV/pirate streaming
• A possible revelation. Change is a comin'!
  
• A fun day to be had by all!
  

MOA 2009

The whole gang left from Iowa around 2pm after a wonderful waterfall hike. So after a short car ride, we arrived at the vast Parthenon of the MOA- Mall of America. I saw IKEA beckoning me from afar but it was not meant to be.

We entered the enormous parking ramp and settles on the Florida or as the kids called it the alligator section. A few of the kids did not have tights or pants or socks on due to mud (see prior post) so we had to get them all dressed. We were so excited to see what awaited us ahead.

As we entered the building, Ella and Alice were aghast when they viewed the Nickelodeon Universe. We told them it would be our activity for later. Then we set out to find at look at the Hannah Anderssen store. The kids all measured themselves as we window shopped. Maddie called us to say she would join us with Greta soon. So we worked our way towards the North food court and spied Beatnik Bead Store where Nora got the kids all a bead and made them necklaces.

Greta soon joined our crew and it was clear she had missed mommy and her friends very much. We all sat down for a bite to eat and no sooner than a few minutes we were joined by another Iowa family, the Keplingers! Lars was blown away by this! We all then decided to wander downstairs to try out some of the rides.

Melanie & Miranda, Karin's daughters bravely took my children on many rides. We explored Diego's Bus RIde Adventure, then Swiper's Car Ride and the kids all screamed their little hearts out! Lars and Greta then went on the Azule Train ride, to which Lars thought went tool slow! Nora and I took Alice and Ella on the Backyardigan's swings. We found out they were actually tall enough to go by themselves- which we found hard to believe. The ride goes up pretty high but both girls loved it even though Nora and I felt a little green towards the end. Lars finished with a one on one balloon ride with Karin and when I informed him we were going home I had some serious protests by him. He did not want to leave the Universe and certainly did not want to leave Karin. Our night was getting late and we still had to unpack the car and get to Nora's home about 20 minutes away.

We bid all farewell and toured the American Girl store on our way out. Ella really did not understand why she could not get a "girl". We discussed how these were very special dolls and were for a special reasons, possibly like if you stop sucking your thumb. Ella was excited to this possibility. She did remind me about this in the morning when she woke up as she informed me that she did not suck her thumb and would like to get a girl. I giggled at her memory and told her that it would need to be along time of no sucking before that would happen. I guess it was worth trying.

I might be doing these out of order, but picturetrail is not cooperating with me!

Swipers Ride at MOA

We just returned from our vacation to Minneapolis. I will have much much more to post. But a teaser of the girls on the ride at the Mall of America at Nickelodeon Universe. Nora and Greta are right behind them. The screams by these littel ones made us all laugh so much!

On the Road....

I have been indulging myself in time with my kiddos and am soon to embark on a road trip with Nora and our kids! Bret joked that his spring break is us leaving. He will be preparing for his upcoming baseball draft (yawn)!

We plan to hit (not necessarily in this order):

• Nana's B & B in Elkader
• Meet Ole (pronounced Ollie) and play with friends in Decorah
• Head north to Minneapolis
• Hannah Anderssen outlet
• Nickelodeon Universe & M.O.A.
  
• IKEA!
• Minneapolis Children's Museum
• More babies
• and more shopping and general fun stuff!

So more will be coming! With 2 women and 4 kids I am sure I will have plenty to write about!