Spring Break Staycation Fun!

Every year, spring break falls right in the midst of tax season, Steve's busiest time at work, so we are unable to go away for spring break.  The last year or so, I have taken the week off work and the kids and I have made it a fun staycation spring break!  We had lots of fun this year!

The kids had March 24th off, but I still had to work that day, so they all went to Trevor's swim lessons, got hair cuts, and hung out at home.

On Saturday, March 25th, we had a pajama day and game day at home.  We played Go Fish, Skip Bo, Zingo, Labyrinth, etc.  

The kids also read a lot in the books they have been enjoying. Austin has been devouring the Percy Jackson books as well as others by Rick Riordan. Sarah is reading the Goddess Girls series and she and Austin have been talking about Greek mythology together!  That night, we had a movie night and streamed the movie "Sing" at home.

On Sunday, we went to Mass, headed home for lunch, then off to the movie theater to see the new "Beauty and the Beast" movie.  We really liked it!

On Monday, Sarah had dance class and Austin had soccer winter training, so we made some yummy corn chowder in the crock pot so we could come home to a hot yummy dinner.  Trevor was my little chef putting everything in the pot and stirring it all up.

On Tuesday, Daddy got to take a day away from work and we had a really busy fun day at Mall of America!  We went to the Sea Life Aquarium, the Crayola Experience, and the Amazing Mirror Maze before heading to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner.

Trevor was very excited about the pirate ship at the entrance to the Aquarium!

 We got to touch some sea creatures in the cold water touch pool.

Then we saw the rays.  Last year when we visited, we were able to touch the rays, but this year, the rays are expecting babies and they carry them on their backs, so we can't touch them for fear of harming their gestating babies.  There were also some sharks in this tank this year.

How cool is the Octopus?  It was fun watching all the legs moving around.

I love the jellyfish room, where they have mirrors and changing colored lights to highlight the jellyfish in their tanks.

The seahorses looked like they might be carrying babies too - they were a little extra pudgy up front.

Little Nemo fish (aka clown fish)

The kids got to go in the bubble inside the tank.

Then to the long tunnel...

 We saw lots of sharks!

 Check out those teeth!

 This sword fish was laying on the top of the tunnel.  Sarah was excitedly pointing it out in this photo.

 Trevor was excited to find a turtle and he found a really big one!

We found a fish that looked grumpy and Sarah wanted to make sure we took a picture for Grumpy Bear.

 I don't remember what Trevor was pointing to, but I love how excited he is in this photo.

 For some reason, the tropical section of the aquarium had green lighting.  Here are my green kids!

Trevor checking out the little frogs through the glass.

 I love how these blue frogs look!

"Look Mommy, its Tick Tock Croc!"

We had lunch, then spent a few hours exploring all the fun things to do at Crayola Experience!  The kids count it as their favorite part of spring break.

The kids wrapped their own crayons first. They got to pick out a color, then design the wrapper with their names on it.  Then we tried a photo booth that made a coloring page with your picture. Each kid made one with a crayon friend background, then we made one together as a family.

Then we went to the area where the lights were down and they had neon coloring boards that are black, but glow neon where you draw with the special markers.

They had screens that showed the Crayon friends and when you danced or moved, they would do the same movement you did.  Here are the kids making the Crayons dance...

Sarah doing her ending pose for her jazz dance with Purple Crayon.

 They also had games on the floor that you interacted with by stepping on the projection on the floor.  They really liked the little air hockey game.

Then we got to make designs and color pictures on a screen and have them show up animated on the big screen.

 We had fun using the Crayola Model Magic to make all sorts of shapes.

 They had lots of fun crayon facts on the walls.

We saw a show and demonstration about how they make the crayons.

Then did some more fun projects...

Sarah did some painting.

Austin and Sarah drew pictures, then put the through a crank machine that made them into puzzles.

Sarah and I colored fairies and Austin colored a pterodactyl, then we put magnetized clips on the bottom and they danced and lit up on stage.  Here is a video of Trevor making a Crayon dance, our colored creations dancing on stage, and playing in a cascading colors.

They had a fun playground to climb on.  While the big kids did some of the other projects, Trevor had a blast climbing and playing.

The big kids had some time there too.

 Then we colored on the chalkboard and white board town.

 We got to color pictures and have them animated with chosen backgrounds on screen.

Trevor made a dragon.  It is so fun to watch him coloring because, until recently, he has had very little interest in coloring.  Now he is doing so well with it!

 Austin made a Medusa (in keeping with his Greek myth theme recently).

 Sarah made a beautiful fairy.

 Daddy made a dragon too.

 The pink and purple unicorn is Mommy's.  I rotated and moved the unicorn, but every time, the rainbow appeared to be coming out of its rear end!

The boys also designed cars and Sarah designed a dress and we got to see them come to life with special effects.

Austin's truck and car he designed.

 Trevor's car.

Sarah's dress on the runway.

 We got to use melted crayons to make art projects, molded objects, and spin art!

We had a blast at Crayola experience!

After that, we had a walk through the mirror maze in which each of the kids at one time or another walked right into a mirrored wall!  (I'm a terrible mother for laughing at their goofy expressions when they smacked into the wall! Don't worry - no injuries!)

We had a little time to kill before our dinner reservation, so we stopped by the Disney Store and got to stay for the Disney Trivia. The kids enjoyed it and got a lot of the questions right. 

Then we headed to Rainforest Cafe for dinner.

 Sarah got a massive dessert (but shared with Mommy and Daddy).

Trevor got "Lava Mud" (aka chocolate pudding with chunks of Oreos and gummy worms on top - basically the Rainforest version of "Dirt and Worms").  He had fun eating the gummy worms with style!

Austin got a big root beer float. Yum!

On Wednesday, we needed a day to recover after that busy day!  We had a little bit of mellow day, but did run a few errands.  We went to the My Pillow store (the company is based in Shakopee!) to get some new pillows for the kids and I.  Sarah goes to bed with her hair wet and her pillow molded!  Austin and Trevor's pillows have gotten very flat!  Daddy has a My Pillow pillow and liked it, so we got new ones for the kids and I.  So far, everybody likes them! Sarah had dance that evening and worked hard getting ready for her competition later this week!

On Thursday, the kids and I went to the library in the morning to stock up on more books (the kids were flying through books over break!).  Then we spent the afternoon swimming at Chaska Community Center.  The kids love the pool, water features, and water slides there.  We spent a few hours there and Trevor is now tall enough that he can touch the bottom of the splash pool at the bottom of the little water slide and he is getting so good at swimming that he can swim to the side even if he couldn't touch the bottom!

Austin caught Trevor this time so I could take a photo, but most of the time, Trevor didn't need to be caught at all.  He just swam off on his own.

Sarah only did the big water slide once because she couldn't use her goggles on the slide and she didn't like landing without goggles.

Austin had fun going down a few times and tried the rope swing in another area of the pool too.

 Austin and Trevor had fun together at the dumping buckets too.

 Watching...

 And getting dumped on!

I couldn't take many photos, as I was supposed to be in the water with Trevor at all times.  Sarah was all over the pool, so it was hard to catch her!

On Friday, Trevor had swim lessons in the morning.  He did a great job and enjoyed the big cannon ball throw at the end!  That's pretty impressive height!

Daddy had the day off on Friday, so after swim lessons, we spent the afternoon at the Science Museum of Minnesota to see the Mythical Creatures and the Sportsology exhibits.

 The big dragon in the Mythical Creatures exhibit.

 And the unicorn with the giant horn.

The kids did spring races at the Sportsology exhibit.  Austin and Trevor raced a T. Rex and Sarah raced a WNBA player. 

Trevor exploring the balance balls and pods.

Austin practicing his throwing accuracy (with moving targets!)

 Sarah working on her vertical jump. Trevor almost made it to the 5' ball.

 Austin tried really hard to get to the highest balls, but isn't quite tall enough yet!

Trevor found the "tick tock crocs".

I enjoyed seeing the "Quackery Museum" full of crazy medications, supplements, treatments, etc that have been used over the years. Some CRAZY stuff in there!  Amazing what people will go for without any evidence that they do anything at all!

 Sarah getting her head evaluated.

 Austin trying out the vibrating chair that is supposed to cure all sorts of ills!  What?

Saturday, we had "Donut Saturday" with Nanny and Grandpa before Grandpa headed off to Florida that afternoon.  After lunch, the kids and I met Daddy in downtown Minneapolis to go to the Orpheum for "Matilda the Musical"!  It was Trevor's first time at a major theater like this (he has only ever gone to Children's Theater or Stages Theater), and he did a great job behaving for the 2.5 hour show!  We all enjoyed the show!  It was very well done!

What a spring break week!  Now we need a break to recover from our busy break!  Now it's back to school for the kids and back to work for me.   Sarah has her dress rehearsal on Tuesday and her first dance competition on Friday!