Late Summer Adventures (& a Giveaway!!)

We've been lucky that (so far) Baby C is a pretty chill little lady.  She's made it easy for us to continue some little adventures with her along for the ride.  Below are a few of our recent adventures, along with a Minnesota Children's Museum giveaway at the bottom!

1. Minnesota State Fair

Family of Five checking out the U of M Building

Future Gophers!

If you're not from Minnesota you may not know that our state fair is a big deal. As I learned after moving here, people are very serious about the state fair. This year the weather for the fair was amazing, so E took an afternoon off work so we could all go on a less busy day (if there is such a thing... this year the fair had record setting attendance).  We ate tasty fair food (the pretzel curds were my favorite!), checked out the animals, went on a few rides and generally explored the craziness of the fair. The girls, especially Little J, loved seeing the animals, especially all of the babies in the Miracle of Birth building. I appreciated the Lactation Station, set up with comfy chairs for moms to use when feeding their babies, and stocked with baby essentials (diapers, wipes, sunscreen, toys, etc).

YUM!

2. Canterbury Park

When E's brother came to visit with his kids on Labor Day we met up for a day at the races. I shared Canterbury Park as one of my favorite Twin Cities places to go with kids, and Labor Day was an especially good day to visit.  There were activities for the kids (pony rides, petting zoo, etc) and wiener dog races between the horse races. Miss A thought those were SO funny.  Little J was in heaven when she got to ride a pony.  She really is an animal lover.

Yes, I pretty much just wear this outfit right now ;)

3. Backyard Movie Night

You can't have a movie night without snacks!

This is the 3rd year we've hosted a backyard movie night.  It is one of my favorite summer activities.  Miss A started planning for this year's event in May because she had so much fun last year.  She told me we should watch Frozen and have juice boxes.  So she was really disappointed when it rained and rained on our original date.  Luckily we rescheduled and many of our friends and neighbors could still make it.  Our backyard was full of little girls (and a few boys) singing and dancing with Anna and Elsa.  So much fun!

4. Minnesota Children's Museum

I've expressed my love for the children's museum several times, and this is no different. Both Creativity Jam and Thomas the Train are leaving soon, so the girls and I headed over last week to check both out one more time. It was a fairly quiet morning, so the girls could really explore everything in Creativity Jam. Miss A found the paper airplane launcher which was so cool! It was great to see her figure out how to make the airplanes go higher and further with each attempt. Little J really enjoyed putting paper scraps in the wind tunnel and watching them wiggle around. Both girls enjoyed having a space to create some projects too. When we got home from the museum, I got an email from MCM about a special giveaway just for friends of Smart Play Ambassadors.  MCM is giving away a Deluxe Museum Membership and 4 Choo Choo Bob DVDs to one luck person.  This giveaway is for friends of Smart Play Ambassadors, so go here to enter!  The giveaway closes September 20, and the winner will be notified on September 22. Good luck!