Minneapolis

Spring break we decided to sneak a little get away in so we headed to Minneapolis for a few days. Though we had a great time, we definitely should have traveled south instead of north as the first afternoon we were there we were greeted by blizzard warnings. Since it was chilly and snow was on the way we bypassed our favorite zoo and instead checked out family day at the Minnesota Institute of Art. The MIA was busy as Guillermo del Toro's "At Home with Monsters" was on exhibit (which would have been so awesome, but it was rated R and we obviously had the girls). However, the museum had so many great activities for families all while checking out the art. 

We started in, 'clay monster making' where the girls got to mold their own monsters. They LOVED this and it was a great place to start so they could see how art is born. They sketched out their ideas, grabbed their supplies and started molding. From there we learned about costume making and how masks are designed for movie sets. This was especially intriguing to Emma who just watched Harry Potter and was questioning how they make quiddich brooms fly, invisibility cloaks work and house elves so small. They even got to try on some of the costumes. Then we were off on a scavenger hunt through the museum to find highlighted works of art. There is no doubt who our 'artsy' kid is...Emma could have spent many more hours exploring this place, but we knew the blizzard was on its way, so we headed out. Our 15 minute drive back to the hotel lasted about an hour. Good thing we ordered some pizza to get delivered to the hotel so it didn't interfere with our swim time!!

The next morning we headed out for a day at the MOA. Of course, the first stop had to be American Girl. Every year they love their dolls more and more and I love that they still get excited for a visit here.

We then hit up our second favorite spot...Legos. Ironically, we ran into our nextdoor neighbors while we were buiding in the bins, so they shot a quick family picture for us. 

These goofballs had a blast at MOA and enjoyed lunch at Rainforest Cafe (Emma found a new fear of gorillas here) followed up by tons of rides all afternoon. 

We then headed back downtown to the Target Center for our first NBA game! We had awesome seats and our row was chosen as "row of the game" so we got lots of fun goodies and the girls loved that we got to be on TV! 

They were super excited when Crunch the Wolf stopped by to make fun of us and mess up my hair. He was a good sport though and the girls loved getting to take pictures with him. It was a fun quick get-away to celebrate the hopefully soon arrival of spring! (No worries, we hit up Ikea the next morning before we headed for home!)