G.G. and Grandpa Come to Minneapolis for Super Skating Surprise (We Went to Disney on Ice)

My parents are here, that means gifts for the kids.

The first surprise of the weekend. Excellent...

I was planning on making dinkel soup before our night out, but forgot to soak the spelt (yes, you can alternatively use farro). So we got fish from Macs Fish & Chips instead.

The main reason my parents came this weekend was to go to Disney on Ice. However, we didn't tell Meadow (and Theo) why they were coming. After dinner we were like, Let's go somewhere. Let's go to a brewery. Meadow said no that she wanted to go to a playground instead. We agreed.

After parking in the parking ramp we said we were going to an indoor playground. That's when Meadow noticed there were a lot of kids suddenly. We had to wait in line to scan our tickets and go to the metal detector. Meadow started to question why we had to do that.

Once we got through and saw all the souvenirs Meadow figured out what we were actually doing.

Meadow's already been to Disney on Ice twice! This was Theo and I's first show.

Theo sat slumped in his chair because he thought if he sat forward he would fall towards the ice.

Theo and Meadow both got Mickey crowns, which came with a bag of cotton candy. Spoiled by their grandparents.

Frozen was OK, but Encanto really got the crowd going.

The aerial dancing was pretty cool.

Back at home a quick game of Battleship before bed.

I guess she got her Grandpa to play more games with her in the morning.

This weekend also happened to be the Buffalo Kite Festival.

That's Kites on Ice if you're Googling it.

I had heard this one was bigger than the Lake Harriet Kite Festival in Minneapolis and had been wanting to go for years.

Unlike the one on Lake Harriet this one is all giant kites and few people bring their own kites.

Kitty kites for Meadow.

I'll admit it might actually be better than the Minneapolis version.

We flew our dragonfly kite.

G.G. went off on her own to get a closer look while we flew kites.

They also had kicksleds you could try too.

I dared Theo to touch the kitty.

I guess he wasn't brave enough.

It was so cool to see all the different kites.

Meadow was really excited to see the catsuya.

This crab was one of my favorites.

This spinning kite was pretty cool.

Flying pigs, astronauts and sea rays. A strange combo, for sure.

For lunch we stopped at the Choo Choo Restaurant in Loretta.

They had a full caboose inside the place.

We took a quick break at home before heading back into downtown. We had a dinner reservation at 8:45 and stopped at Fulton Brewing for pre dinner drinks.

Pretty sure we are also the only parents who take their kids downtown at night.

Do you people ever live a little after you have kids?

I have been wanting to take my parents to Bar La Grassa for years. Even with making a reservation 6 weeks ago the earliest we could get in was at 8:45pm.

Theo is getting bored of these fancy dinner places taking so long to get our food.

Oh man, their food is so good.

We ordered family style and it was good as we remembered. More than a decade in and it's still amazing.

Lemon poppyseed pancakes for breakfast the next morning.

We had hoped to go ice skating during their visit but the warm temps had all the ice rinks closed. Instead I said we should go to the American Swedish Institute.

I had taken my mom and grandma here years ago, but my dad had never been.

We took the tour while Scott and the kids played.

We had been here recently and figured the kids wanted to have fun.

They had been begging to go back.

Last time the play room was in the basement, but they're renovating the space right now.

Instead, all the dragon costumes and toys were up in the ballroom. I guess they change the kids room theme every so often. It's been viking themed in the past and dragons right now, but we're wondering what it will be next.