Saturday, October 23, 2010

Twin Cities Day 2

This morning, Jeff and Marta took us to the train museum. We didn't tell Andrew we were going because we knew he would be too excited. But when we got there and we told him, he was so giddy! Ender just wanted to play at the train tables and didn't care about the model trains. Ripley wasn't feeling too well so she sat on a bench with Jeff. Andrew loved going all around their massive train set up. He was so captivated by it all. It still amazes me how much he loves trains.

We were worried about Ripley and didn't know if Jeff and Marta wanted to take her home so we told Andrew we had to go find them. Thankfully, he didn't put up a stink about leaving the model trains. We walked back to the train tables; and all three kids played there for a little bit. Ripley was a little better, but not 100%.

Jeff and Marta wanted to take us to a scenic overlook of the river that was nearby so we drove over there. Ripley wasn't getting any better and Marta's eye was bothering her a little so they decided that Marta would drive the kids back home while Jeff took us to lunch and the Children's Museum. Jeff took us to a pizza parlor called Punch, which was awesome. Andrew liked his pizza so much he ate the whole thing!! For dessert, Andrew was wanting ice cream, but Mommy had a craving for cake or pie. Jeff thought of a way to satisfy us both. We drove to another street nearby where there was an ice cream shop and bakery on the same block. But as we were parking, Andrew noticed a train store. Hawk eyes, I tell you!

Well, over lunch, we decided we didn't need to go to the kids' museum since Ripley and Ender went home. Andrew had had plenty of fun at the train museum already. Thus, we decided to let him go into Choo Choo Bob's Train Store and see what they had. They had a model train set going on in the front of the store, but in the back, we hit the jackpot! They had five train tables with loads of trains to play with. There were lots of other little kids playing there too for a birthday party, but Andrew played well and there was plenty of track and trains to go around. Uncle Jeff went to get some coffee in the meantime and check to make sure both the ice cream shop and bakery were still open.

After a while, we told Andrew it was time to go and he didn't put up a fuss about leaving thankfully. So, we walked over to the Sweets Bakeshop for some cupcakes. What I really liked about this place was that they had mini cupcakes perfect for sampling!! I wish they had mini cupcakes in Houston (or that I know of a place) so I wouldn't have to buy a full sized one for Andrew! We picked out some cupcakes to take home with us for later (and fyi, the tiramisu one ended up being my favorite).

Next, we walked over to Izzy's Ice Cream. And what was really neat about this place is that you could get an Izzy scoop, which was a dallop of ice cream on top of your regular scoop of ice cream. I was just going to order Andrew an Izzy scoop, but wasn't sure if that would be enough of him. Well, it so would have been!! Oh well. Andrew had chosen cotton candy and strawberry so I ordered the cotton candy as the Izzy scoop. And if he didn't finish it (which he didn't), then there would be more strawberry left over, which is what I preferred to eat.

On our drive home, Andrew fell asleep in the car. Marta had just put Ender to bed and Ripley was in quiet time in her room. Afterwards, the kids resumed playing. Marta opened up a box of Thomas train stuff since the kids had so much fun playing at the train table at the train museum. The kids had a blast! Later, Jeff and I went to the grocery store to pick up some items for dinner (I was going to make dessert). Jeff made us delicious chicken paninis with pesto! We are going to have to make it at home one of these days!

Marta and I had planned on going out with some of Marta's friends while Jeff was going to invite one of his friends to play pool with him and James. But since Marta's eye was still bothering her, we decided to stay in. After we put the kids to bed, we caught up on some football (including a disappointing Longhorn loss to Iowa State), Jeff was pretty tired so he called it an early night. Marta stayed up and we talked some more before we all headed up to bed.

Again, below are some of my favorite pictures from today, but all of the photos from today can be found on our shutterfly site.
























































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