Minnesota Children's Museum

A couple weekends ago we spent the morning at the Minnesota Children's Museum. Thomas was gifted a membership for his birthday which is super fun because we love going to the museum!

The first exhibit was a traveling exhibit, "All About Circles!" We spent a lot of time in this room.

As you can see, Erik and Thomas had a lot of fun spinning wheels!

It was hard to get Thomas to willingly move from one exhibit to the next. 

The traffic of downtown St. Paul was just as fascinating to Thomas as anything else. This boy loves cars, trucks, buses, etc.

Sorting food by color. However, he believes that tomato is a "ball."

More sorting, this time wooden shapes. 

Erik and I were both surprised when Thomas took off through the tunnel without any prompting. 

His favorite exhibit is "Water Works!" After our first visit to the museum, we learned it is necessary to bring an extra change of clothes for this exhibit. So much easier (and more fun) to let him go wild than to try and keep him dry. 

The light exhibit is pretty fun too! A dark room with all sorts of buttons and switches that control different lights. Also a good lesson on mixing colors.

Our hope is to visit the museum once a month, which means we better plan to get back soon! 

A Day on the Farm

Thomas has a book called Easter Babies, which is about new life in the spring time. It was very fitting because the day before Easter we spent the day visiting different farms to see baby animals. Thomas may be growing up in the city but his daddy is a farm boy. We want him to be in touch with his roots. :)

He was very excited about the adventure we were about to go on. We were lucky to have beautiful weather for our day on the farm!

We started out at the turkey farm where Thomas was introduced to baby poults. Erik and his siblings grew up on a turkey farm so they were very comfortable in the barn.

Uncle Peter is currently working on the farm. He gets to tend to the poults almost every day.

 These baby turkeys were eight days old when we visited.

 Kisses for the turkey.

 The whole Anderson clan.

The temperature in the poult barn was 90 degrees.

There were 22,000 turkeys in this barn.

Mama's first time holding a poult! (cheeks are getting rosy)

Next stop, the cattle farm.

Uncle Peter has also been spending some time with the baby cows. This calf was a couple days old and born a twin. Unfortunately, it is not in good health. I'm sure the presence of Thomas only caused it more stress.

 I look like a beached whale but I did manage to hop up on that bale for a "farm day" family pic.

 Outside we got a closer look at the big cows. Auntie Hannah is a farm girl at heart. :)

 Next stop, the sheep farm. This Ewe had just given birth to twin lambs. They were an hour old!!

The lamb in this picture was three days old. Sooo cute! Auntie Lauren didn't want to miss out on this leg of the adventure.

We also swung by Grandpa Fred's work to see some trucks. Thomas seemed pretty comfortable behind the wheel. He was talking up a storm...I wish I had a clue about what he was thinking!

It's always fun for Thomas to see the dog too!

Next stop, Grandma's for a BIG nap!

Easter Sunday 2013

What a glorious day! We had a beautiful Mass with lovely music. It may not have felt like spring outside but the church was filled with luscious plants, so pretty!

Thomas with Rob and Tanya. (Only 8 weeks until their big day!)

Grandma sang in the choir, Grandpa was the reader. Thomas didn't understand why Grandma wouldn't wave back and he clapped for Grandpa as he started the first reading.

When Thomas noticed all the flowers when we first got to church he wrinkled his nose and took a big whiff. He enjoyed getting up close after mass, he only destroyed a couple blooms. :/

Of course Fr. Ilango wanted a picture.

Family pic, perhaps our last photo as a family of three.

 I love finding surprise pictures on my camera. Not sure who took this shot but its a cute one!

Our first meal of the day, delicious! Great company too!

From my parents we moved on to Erik's parents. More great food and good company. Lucky for me, I have a great appetite. I had just finished dessert at my parents when it was time to head to Wolf Lake for dinner. :) We didn't do so well with the pictures here but Erik did get some shots of Thomas with Auntie Stephanie and her kitty cat. He loves animals. Too bad so sad for him, he probably won't have any of his own, at least for many, many years. (And NEVER a cat.)

We're thinking this was our last trip up north, possibly until the middle of June. I hope we get some company in Chanhassen between now and then!