Marina's Twin Cities Birthday Weekend

Our niece Marina was turing 11 and had one request: a weekend in Minneapolis with her favorite cousin, Meadow.

Marina made these masks for them. You know this cat lover was excited.

We walked over to Kiniko Kids and they had a Ghibli cookbook.

Meadow wanted this mushroom hat.

Since ice skating season ended early we still wanted to get one last skate in.

Theo tried out his new skates, which needed some adjustments.

I had always wanted to come for their open skates.

Marina did not want her picture taken. But I'm Uncle Picturetaker!

You cannot escape the camera man.

We walked over to Ramen Kazama for a late lunch/dinner, but found out it was closed for a few hours midday. Instead we waited for Meadow to get a boba tea next door at Ichigo Tokyo Crepes.

We debated between happy hour at Kyatchi and pizza at Boludo. Marina picked pizza. I forget how freaking good this place is.

We have a lot of great restaurants within walking distance.

Even Marina liked it.

Theo and I worked on his math activity book that he got for his birthday. I am always blown away when he knows an answer.

Is Theo going to be a Mathelete?

Marina wanted a dragon cake for her birthday this year. We settled on a cookie cake with a dragon on top.

Brittany had a dragon stencil made and painted it with edible paint.

Her one request for her birthday was go to go to the American mall. She got quite a bit of cash to spend.

We didn't have enough butter for frosting but we made do. Not too bad.

Cool cake, Marina.

Then it was Mall of America time. We went into all their favorite stores.

So much shopping.

Apparently this was Jeff's first time at MOA.

We gave each kid $20 to spend. Meadow got this fancy hair clip at Hot Topic.

We then took a lunch break at the newish food court.

Marina's Hot Topic purchase.

Marina also found new charms for her Crocs.

Sorry guys, I had to take this picture.

It's a good one, nice job Uncle Picturetaker.

More Croc charms.

We finished up our day at Mall of America with some treats at Dairy Queen. Well Brooke and Meadow got boba tea.

We ended their visit with dinner to go at La Casa Market but apparently forgot to document it.

Happy Birthday Marina! Come visit us again!

Comments

Backcountry Camping with Kids in Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Day 1 Back in May I stumbled upon Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I had no idea there was a National Park in North Dakota and that it was the northern end of the Badlands. Usually our summer vacations coincide with Scott's work trips. Since he didn't have any this summer I thought we should take advantage of actually taking a vacation. What, my workcations are always classics? I suppose a second real vacation this year wouldn't hurt. We definitely have more time than normal. As long as we took Covid-19 precautions and avoided people. We finally settled on a time to go. Blake joined us so we borrowed our dad's van so we could ride together. Scott had just driven from Michigan the day before. Blake had met my parents in Wisconsin to get the van and then drove from Duluth to pick us up. I offered to drive since I literally only drive twice a month. I was still pretty tired from a long drive home. Since we were near Fergus Falls we had to stop by the abandoned state ho...

Over the River & Through the Woods to Grandmothers House We Clean

My mom had wanted us to come down to my grandparents home to clean for months. Unfortunately a busy summer had kept us away. We finally made it a week after our honeymoon ended. We slept at my parents home in Cudahy before heading down to Racine. We got home from our trip on Tuesday and left for Milwaukee on Thursday. It was almost like an extended vacation. Before leaving the cities we stopped and had dinner at Foxy Falafel. It was pretty good and I like that she uses sprouted chickpeas. I never knew my grandparents on Poppyseed Tuska's side so Grandma and Grandpa Wojcik were a special part of my life. They both passed away last year after living nearly 90 wonderful years. Their home was always a wonderfully warm and inviting place. The perfect place to spend your Christmas Eve in front of a fire place. Since it's going to be sold, Brooke and I took on the massive task of organizing and cleaning the home. When Scott told me h...

Six Months, More Like Six Years

Approaching the 11th hour of this Sunday we finally rolled out of bed. Brooke and I made a night out of our six month since being married. In a way we could be celebrating six plus years together. I met the little lady above in February 2006. Now we garden together. We had a lovely night indeed: dinner at Red Stag and drinks at Aster Cafe. I went outside to show Brooke where our new boulevard tree was going to be planted. We found a love letter in our bushes. Brooke couldn't read it, so we let it dry on one of the radiators. The first page was mostly apologizing for not writing and then the second page turned sour with lots of swear words. We drove downtown to eat brunch. We parked across from this rare small pre-1950s building that has somehow survived in downtown Minneapolis's ongoing urban renewal. We decided to eat at La Belle Crepe since I picked up this for our post-wedding breakfast back on that October day. This creperie is...

Search This Blog