My comrade over at Family Fun Twin Cities did a great feature on the Family Fun Tuesdays series at Caponi Art Park. So inspiring was she that I finally decided to quit putting off the trip (all the way to Eagan) and go the next open Tuesday on the calendar (which happened to be today). [...]

To celebrate birthdays in Emily’s kindergarten class, the birthday child simulates a walk around the sun. One orbit is tread for each year of the child’s life, while the teacher reads aloud personal milestones supplied by parents. It was a fun coincidence that the night before Emily’s birthday walk we attended one of Como Planetarium’s [...]

A family tradition that dates back years before the word “blog” entered our collective lexicon. Not quite as far as the original Highland Games of Scotland, of course, but encompassing many aspects of them: the skirl of bagpipes, swishing of kilts and family members distantly connected to those ancient Scottish clans. The highlight of A [...]

I have long considered being from Minnesota– and specifically, St. Paul, Minnesota – a big part of my identity. Technically, I was born across the river (shhh) but have since spent half my life in St. Paul, bringing all four of our babies home to the house my husband and I bought when we were first [...]

The girls and I popped in the MacPhail early childhood CD on our way over to Minneapolis this morning. We had hopes the Free Family Music Series concert might feature some of our favorite tunes off the disc – and wanted to be prepared to sing backup. Our rehearsal paid off. The girls were delighted [...]

The Minnesota State Fair’s Progress Center was wall-to-wall books today courtesy of the Annual Twin Cities Book Festival. Those who didn’t tow children along might have enjoyed the live readings, browsed for books or met with local authors. Those who did bring the kids probably found themselves looking longingly over their shoulders at the literature [...]

I know this is going to sound mushy, but several moments during Baby Story Time at the Red Balloon Bookshop had me on the verge of tears. All of the other babies and caregivers were laughing and clapping along with Webster Worm, the puppet Pete and singing the “Dingle Dangle” scarecrow song while I could [...]

[The Minnesota State Parks Series chronicles the ever-expanding Kingston family's quest to complete the State Park Passport Club challenge.] I have a 5-year-old daughter prone to dramatics. It wouldn’t surprise us at all if she ended up onstage someday, at least in some capacity. I didn’t expect her acting debut to take place at St. [...]

“How about we head over to the Raptor Center today?” I polled the kids upon picking the older two up from school (full disclosure: I had already made up my mind that we were going to the Raptor Center. They didn’t have much choice.). The girls were game, but Andy groaned, much keener on repeating [...]

Don’t snicker at the idea of taking your kids to see the Roseville Puppet Wagon. It’s actually pretty cute. And it was very painless – the girls plopped down at the picnic table and had lunch while watching the less than 20-minute show. Slight technical difficulties with the sound interfered minimally with the back-to-back classic [...]