After living in the Minneapolis area for 7 years now, I am embarrassed to admit that I don’t much deviate from the boundaries of our immediate zip code…. Or shall I say our cul-de-sac?  I still use my Garmin to get to St. Paul for MN Wild games, I still have to rely on Google Maps to find specialty stores outside of our frequent visits to Target and the grocery store.  Maybe it is a time thing, perhaps it is a laziness thing, who knows.  Regardless, I packed up the kiddos today and decided to head to the Children’s Museum in St. Paul.  HOLY FUN!!!!!

We spent the morning peacefully navigating through the many exhibits and having an awesome time!  As the meltdowns and unnecessary fights began erupting from the minis, I declared it TIME TO EAT…

Insert Mickey’s Dining Car, located just a few steps away from the museum.  I was nervous about the line, the lack of seating, and the eventual placement of my 2 and 5 year olds on spinny circle chairs at a bar area…… I took a few deep breaths, told myself the worst that could happen is someone falls and cracks their head open (in which case, Children’s hospital is nearby), or I have to pull screaming kids out of a public place because they can’t wait as long as civilized humans yet (in their defense, it’s hard for a two year old to understand patience at a time when they can see everyone else eating and the food IS right there??).  In the end, the kids were AMAZING waiting in line for a place to sit (Brecken even tapped a lady on the shoulder when a seat opened up and asked if she wanted to sit there because she came in the door before us).  The seating was fine (other than an entire plate of syrup landing on my lap).  My kids both loved the spinny chairs but behaved wonderfully in them, as if knowing the slightest turn would send Mommy – and them – back to the van and deplete their options for gooey buttermilk pancakes.

It was a fun morning for all….. Which seems to have led to beautiful naps for all!  Both minis walked straight to their respective beds once home, and laid down without so much as a request for a story!!  🙂