Como Town

Farmor, daddy and I took the girls to Como Town in St. Paul today.  The weather was hot and the humidity was high, but the girls managed to have a lot of fun in the few hours we spent hanging out there.

Our first stop was to get the girls' faces painted ... however, later in the day the heat and the water activities pretty much erased any signs that this was ever done ... good thing for pictures!

 We also took the opportunity to stop by the giraffe statue to get our annual summer picture.

Then it was right back to Como Town to hit the rides and eventually the water park.  They started out on the bumper cars, which was a lengthy ride with way too many stops for complications, but still, they had fun.

The dragon roller coaster is always a favorite ride for the girls.  They acted like the coaster pros they are and promptly took the front seat for the first ride immediately followed by the last seat on the next ride.

 

I think we are starting to get a little too big for some of the kiddie rides ...

They took right after their Grandpa when the boarded the tea cups and immediately started spinning the cup at stop speed ... making me a bit ill just watching them.

They both earned their "Como Town Driver's Licences" today as well.  Although I think it will be a while before we trust them on the real roads.

Clean faces again after a much needed cool down in the splash zone ...

Lego Fun

Farmor surprised the girls with gifts of clothes and a new Lego Friends car set for each of them.  This morning they spent much time assembling the new Lego sets as well as re-assembling their older sets.  They had a lot of fun and we even managed to find almost all the parts of the old sets!  :)

Farmor is Here!

As if having a birthday party to attend this morning wasn't enough ... we also had Farmor arriving in the evening and the girls were very excited to find her at the airport!!!   We are looking forward to having the next 13 days to spend together!!

Happy 4th Birthday Heath!!

Today Heath turned 4 and we helped him celebrate in true pirate style!!  He had a fun party with a treasure hunt, digging for money and yummy food.

The kids had fun with the first game, which consisted of them trying to find the real money hidden inside a box filled with dried rice and pirate doubloons.

After everyone had a turn, they were each rewarded with a pirates' booty of golden rolo candies and pirate treasure!   Then it was time for the big treasure hunt and the clues took the kids everywhere from the bedroom to the garden and finally to the treasure which included goodie bags and a pirate cake!

Before we could taste the cake, we had to have lunch and the tacos were a big hit with all the kids!

Life's a Beach ...

Crema Cafe

I mentioned ice cream and daddy took the lead and suggested that we head to Minneapolis to try the homemade ice cream at Crema Cafe.  We also decided that we would have dinner there as well since it was quite a drive and was already late in the afternoon.

The cafe is a very small and very cute little cafe with a nice outside garden area that you can also enjoy a meal or ice cream.  We opted to sit inside out of the heat.  The prices were a bit steep, the food was good ... but the ice cream was fabulous!  Here is our little table next to the door that leads to the garden seating area.

Daddy and Madison goofing around while we wait for our food to arrive.

Alyssa and I were a little more mellow while waiting for our food, but we all had a good time!

Daddy tried a pizza, the girls shared a grilled cheese sandwich and I had a portabello sandwich ... all were good but we were anxious to get to dessert, as that is what prompted our visit to Crema.  The girls both chose chocolate chip, I had spumoni and daddy decided on the Crema coffee.  The food was good but we likely will not have a meal there again due to the pricing ... but we will definitely return for a scoop of ice cream, because good ice cream is worth the $4!

Family Story Time at Library ~ Meet Doolittle a Miniature Horse!

Today the story time theme at the library was all about horses and they even had a special guest, "Doolittle", a miniature horse on hand to greet the kids.  It was one of the biggest turnouts for family story time I have seen in a few years and they held it in Pekerna Park just around the corner from the library.  The girls were very excited when they found out Doolittle would be there!

Our lovely librarian, Lisa, read the first book and a special guest reader from England read a second story both relating to horses.

After reading the stories, it was hard to even see Doolittle among the sea of kids surrounding him!

We did manage to get our picture moment alone with Doolittle before the end of the event.  The girls thought he was super cute and Madison insists that he would fit in her bedroom just fine!