Indoor Winter Activities

P.,

Applewood orchards has apple picking, hay rides, etc. through mid Oct. http://www.applewoodorchard.com/index.php?pr=Home_Page.

Bachman’s Nursery in Farmington has a corn maze until mid October.

Best free sledding: Crystal Lake Elementary School’s hill at 16250 Ipava Avenue in Lakeville.

Free/low cost ice skating at lots of parks and ponds around town: Don’t worry about falling through the ice in the dead of winter. You will see people take their jeeps and 4 wheel drive trucks out on the lakes and drive around. The ice will be a few feet thick by the end of January.
Bunker Hill Park – 16755 Gerdine Path; Cherry View Park – 7925 175th St. W.;Dakota Heights Park – 9550 175th St. W.;Greenridge Park – 17685 Flagstaff Ave.;Highview Heights Park – 16314 Havelock Way;Meadows Park – 20707 Jacquard Ave.; Parkview Park – 6833 Gerdine Path; Prairie Lake Park – 18179 Kingsway Path; Rolling Oaks Park – 10595 167th St. W.; Quail Meadows Park – 5580 170th St. W.
Ames Arena next to Lakeville North High School also has free skate times. http://www.rinkfinder.com/public_skating/public_skating.asp

St. Paul Winter Festival http://www.winter-carnival.com – I suggest if you go to one of the parades that you watch indoors. There is a Subway sandwich shop on one parade route with a huge window facing the route. The other has a pizza shop with the same set up. Let me know if you want directions. It’s horribly crowded right before the parade and everyone goes back outside once the parade starts. I totally don’t get that, but the better for those of us who want to watch in warm comfort. Subway sells “all you can drink” hot cocoa for $1 or $2 a cup and the pizza was reasonably priced and some of the best I have ever eaten – NYC Italian owner.

Barnes and Noble has a Thomas the Tank Engine Play set. They also do story time.

The Works – Science and Technology Children’s Activity Museum: Get free passes at the library.

Minnesota Children’s Museum in St. Paul www.mcm.org They have free entry one Sunday per month.

Minnesota Zoo – It’s near impossible to get the free passes from the library in the summertime, but in the wintertime, it’s a little easier. Most of the zoo is indoors, so there is still a lot to see. The Imax there is also an indoor option.

McDonalds sells packets of coupons for free apples, juice and ice cream before Halloween. You can buy 10 coupons for $1 or something, so it’s really cheap. You can use them yourself and there’s no limit as long as it’s for the kids. So I buy lots of packets, then every couple of weeks over the winter, I get one treat for each kid and let them play on the toys for an hour or two. Lakeville McDonald’s isn’t very clean but Apple Valley is better. I called and the Lakeville McDonald’s isn’t sure if they are doing the promotion this year. Apple Valley for sure is not, but they will still accept the coupons. I have also seen them do it around Valentine’s day.

Apple Valley and Rosemount community centers have free open gyms. Here’s the info…
http://www.ci.apple-valley.mn.us/Parks/Facilities/Communi...
http://www.ci.rosemount.mn.us/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&...

Home Depot has free “make and take” workshops one Saturday morning a month. They are popular, so you want to sign up ahead of time. http://minneapolis.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/...

Mall of America has a “Toddler Tuesday” with free activities for little ones from 10-12:00. http://www.mallofamerica.com/#/events/home/Main-Home
They also have free movies on Saturday morning on a first come first serve basis. They show G and PG rated kid friendly movies that have recently moved to DVD.

The local Kiwanis group does “phone calls from Santa.” You give them some info about the kids and they call your home at a predetermined time and visit with your children over the phone as “Santa.” My kids LOVE this. You sign up at www.lakeville-rapconnect.com through the Park and Rec department and click on “Programs.” They also do letters for $4 and home visits are $25 for the first child and $5 for additional children.

The Lakeville and Burnsville Libraries have a good children’s programs through the winter. The Eagan library story time guy is so funny, he could have his own TV show on public television. I wish that library was closer!

Hope this helps.
S.

I hate to break it to you but your child may prefer to be outside during the winter time. My son is now 4 but I can still clearly remember the winter he was two when he started to realize that he loved being outdoors so we were outside for 2 hours every morning and 2 hours every afternoon (I could only handle 2 hours at a time because I got cold faster than he did.) The only time I put my food down against being outside was when the wind chill was below zero because I couldn't stand it but he could!!! We spent lots of time playing in the snow.

at the MOA on Tuesday they have Toddler Tuesday, Check the internet or your Sunday paper.

The Eagan community center has toddler time (gym time and time in the climbing park) every morning from like 9:30-11:30.. give them a call to confirm. It is only like 3 dollars per kid.