Exploring

**  Warning: epically long picture post ahead

There are literally limitless things for kids to do in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota.  In fact, it is touted as one of the top places in the nation to raise children.  Although we are moving to the area, the house we are buying is really too far outside the 'burbs to be considered part of the Twin Cities.  We chose that area for that reason.  However, day trips to the St. Paul/Minneapolis metro area will be still possible for us.  In the future we will probably still enjoy some of what the metro area has to offer, but less of it.

But my parents (where we are current staying until our house sale eventually is completed) do live in the metro area, so any attraction is within 30-40 minutes tops.  So since everything expect minimal toys and clothes are boxed away in storage until further notice, our theme of the summer is "Out and About" to explore the area and keep us busy while we wait for our house to move into.  We've been going places every day since we first moved and I get to spend every day with Sam and Anna.  It is a big change from last summer's learning based project summer, but has been a good fit so far for my adventurous twins.  Here's what we've been up to so far:

On our first day, we hit up Como Zoo in St. Paul, Minn.  It's a free zoo (donations accepted) and my duo are still animal lovers, so it seemed natural for us to do this first.  I remember going to the Como Zoo myself many times growing up.  It's a smaller zoo and we pretty much saw almost everything in one long morning.  I was worried about being on my own with them once I saw the school buses full of kids on a field trip, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well Sam and Anna listened and cooperated.

The next day we went to Teddy Bear Park in Stillwater, Minn. because there was a free Music Together concert being held that morning.  I had heard great things about park, but had never been to the it.  It was crazy busy even though it was a weekday morning (probably because everyone thinks it is an awesome park!), which caused me a little stress to keep track of two three-year-olds by myself, but dressing them in bright color shirts made it easier and knowing that there was a small gated entrance also helped.  Sam and Anna were way too excited to play on the playground so the music concert wasn't a big draw for them this time.  Biggest drawback here- a perfect playground for preschoolers and only one bathroom stall for women?  Epic fail.  Anna had an accident while we waited our turn to use the one bathroom, and so I rushed her into the one men's bathroom to avoid pee soaked shoes.

 

On Wednesday we attended story time at a local library then headed to Daddy's work to have lunch with him.  We are making visiting the public library a weekly summer event that I plan to carry on every summer as Sam and Anna grow up.  Plus, our massive personal library is boxed up and we are used to a much larger variety of books than we current have in our possession.  I think I was happier than Sam and Anna were to have new reading material.

Thursday was a special puppet show at the Maplewood Nature Center.  It was adorable and very educational not to mention free.  We also had fun exploring the animals and things inside the nature center.  After the puppet show we walked around the pond and did a nature Bingo scavenger hunt. 

 

Friday of our first week was spent making Father's Day gifts and checking out a playground I used to play at growing up!

 

We headed to my in-law's cabin for the weekend.  I am thrilled that instead of a 7-8 hour drive it's only a 3 1/2 hour drive to the cabin for us now.  Although it was too cold to swim, we spent a lot of time enjoying ourselves fishing... and of course, s'more eating!

Our second Monday we explored a walking trail near my parent's house and did some airplane spotting.

 

Then on Tuesday we went to the Science Museum of Minnesota for their Preschool Playdate event.  Children 5 and under are free from 10 - noon on Tuesdays and they have special age-appropriate activity stations for younger kids.   There's so much to see, but more to do, much of which was wayyyyy beyond their comprehension, but it was still entertaining and fun to see the dinosaur fossils among other things.  Sam and Anna's favorite were not the complete dinosaur fossils, but changing the size of their shadows in the light exploration area.

Wednesday we headed back to the library  for our weekly visit but this time they had a special comedy performance for their summer reading program.  Loud, but giggle-inducing.  I signed both Sam and Anna up for the reading program while we were there (kids younger than school age can participate too).  Then we checked out Grandma's Target (an adventure as well!) and stopped by Barnes and Noble to buy a new chapter book to read at bedtime and sign up for their summer reading program too (each child can get a free book for participating).

Thursday, I braved a part of town I wasn't familiar with to check out the closest splash pad that was free at Lewis Park in St. Paul.  It was small but we were the only ones there, so it was perfect for my twin three-year olds.  The fountains were also right next to playground equipment so when Sam and Anna got tired of splashing they could just move over to the climbing equipment and swings.

After storms Thursday night left us without power the next morning including drizzle and very humid weather, I decided to go to someplace indoors to play for the morning.  We went to an indoor trampoline park called Sky Zone in Oakdale, Minn.  Oh my gosh, was it a blast and great for burning off excess energy!  We were there for an hour and towards the end, both Sam and Anna laid down on their trampoline section for a bit to rest.  You can bet they took awesome naps that afternoon! 

(Sam and Anna spent the next weekend at Grandma's so we could have a weekend away to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary.)

Our third week started out hot and sunny, so I took Sam and Anna to Lake Elmo Park Reserve's swimming pond.  It is a man-made, chlorinated and filtered pond with a sandy beach all the way around.  We were there for 3 hours and could have stayed longer.  I'm sure we will be heading back there again next week.

The next day was still humid and hot, so we went back to the splash pad.  You can't argue with free water fun!

That Wednesday was our library day, and this time they had a kid-friendly magician performing.

Thursday we ventured out to a new playground in Woodbury, Minn. to check it out and attend a puppet wagon show.  The kids watching the show had the chance to see and hold the puppets at the end.  I fondly remember attending puppet wagon shows when I was little.

 

 

Friday rounded out our third week of fun in Minnesota and the threat of rain drove us inside to check out one of the many indoor playgrounds in the Twin Cities area- Eagle's Nest in New Brighton, Minn.  It was right next to a public library branch so we stopped there before leaving to return books and get a new batch, plus our summer reading program prizes!

 

There are still quite a few things on my list of things I don't want to miss and an endless number of parks to explore... but I bet the splash pad and swimming pond will be regular weekly events along with the public library as long as we are staying here!

Oh, Hai.

Hello, my poor little neglected corner of the Internet.  Yes, I do believe I dropped off the face of the earth there for a good 2 1/2 months.  I come armed with lots of good reasons.  I'm going to try to make this a short version, because I am suspicious that the long explanation I felt was needed was part of the stuff bogging me down and preventing me from starting back up again.

In short:  my last post before this one was April 10th.  We closed on our current home on April 26th.  For the two weeks after that post, I packed like crazy and lived in a bare bones home while a.) teaching kindergarten full time b.) single parenting Monday through Friday.  Most nights I would force myself to pack up until midnight after Sam and Anna's bedtime, then get up at 5 am to start my day all over again.  The week before we closed, we had literally next to nothing in our home- no beds, no TVs, no dishes.  I slept on an air mattress and the kids and I ate out every night.

Then after we sold our house, I moved into a friends apartment to finish out teaching the school year.  She was going to be mostly gone during the month and half that Sam, Anna and I stayed there, so it worked out well.  It was fully furnished so we just had to bring toys and clothes.  I also started to focus on applying for a new teaching position for the next school year.  Although I thought things would get a little easier  for us once the house selling was out of our way, it didn't because I was spending evenings applying for jobs with long online applications and working on tying up the end of the school year for my current students.  I was still solo parenting Monday through Friday, while teaching kindergarten until June 7th.  Throw in a little bit of drama with trying to buy a house in our new area, and I had absolutely no extra time for anything.

After that, I ended up having an interview (4 hours away from where we were currently staying, of course) on the last day of school for my current class, but still had to be back to work the following day.  Stressful on top of an already stress-filled and emotionally charged week with saying goodbye to my students and co-workers on top of prepping to move again.  I did not get the position, nor have I gotten one since then for next school year so I am still carving out time to fill our massively long applications online. That's where things stand on the job front.

The weekend after school ended for the year, we packed up our things and left the state we had lived in for the past 10 years and uprooted Sam and Anna again.  This time (since we had not gotten our home we had been attempting to buy since March) we moved in with my parents.  Originally we were going to stay with my in-laws, but after some last minute drama, we had to change that.  (In other words, my step-father-in-law was a jerk and decided he wasn't okay with that anymore. My husband had been staying there Monday- Friday since January 1st, and he was over house guests.)  So THEN, all of us moved in with my parents in their small one bathroom house which is where we've been for the last 2 weeks. But on the plus side, our 6 months of my husband living Monday-Friday in another state and me on my own taking care of our kids during that time is OVER.  That certainly ranks in the top three hardest things I've ever gone through.  #1- still infertility for 3 years.  #2- uncontrolled reflux until 6 months old for twin babies #3- solo parenting twin 2/3 year olds on my own without family support while working full time in a challenging career.  Never gonna agree to doing that again, I tell ya.

On the house buying drama front, we are still trying to buy the house I originally posted a photo of in March.  It is a short sale and has been quite the process.  We have almost bailed several times, but we both love that house, feel like it is supposed to be the home we spend Sam and Anna's growing-up years in and are trying to be patient.  We have not seen another house for sale since December that we like as much or more in our price range.  Really, it is more house that we should be able to afford.  The latest information we have is that we should be able to close in July, and are in the home stretch of the process.  So that's why we are still homeless and staying with my parents.  I just can't let that house go when we know it will be ours as long as we are willing to wait for it.

After having most of our stuff in storage since the beginning of April, I CANNOT WAIT to be unpacked and settled again.  Sam and Anna have not seen most of their toys for months, so I'm sure it will be like Christmas for them as they see everything come out of boxes.  Until then, I have been trying to keep us all busy doing lots of things out and about, since the few toy staples we have with us (and grandma's toys) have gotten really old by this point.  The long winter we had (snow in mid-May!) did not help matters.  Where we used to live was a smaller city area, and now we are staying in a suburb of the Twin Cities in Minnesota.  The great thing about that is that there is limitless opportunities for things to do with small children.  That also means I rarely have time to hop onto a computer unless to check for new elementary teaching positions or to apply for jobs in the evening.  Plus, all these changes (along with daylight lasting much longer each night and the typical challenges that 3 year olds cause!) mean that sleep for my duo three year olds has been less than stellar so I can not count on much time at naptime or before I go to sleep to be on the computer either.

So that's where I've been, what we've been doing, and why I've been absent for so long!  I'm hopeful that this current waiting period we are in will allow me to carve out some time to post about some of the things we've been doing to keep entertained in the past few weeks!