I hadn’t left the house since Monday except for one meeting and one preschool pickup, so with hubby still in the field working long hours, I asked his blessing to take the kids to St. Paul. On our agenda: three “boo” activities.

I had read about the ZooBoo event at St. Paul’s Como Zoo, and when researching it as an outing, I came across a post at minnmoms.com about Grand Avenue’s Boo Bash. At the bottom of the Grand Avenue brochure, Boo-ology at the Science Museum of Minnesota was mentioned. All three were come-in-costume, trick-or-treat activities, and the times actually looked workable: Boo Bash from 10-2, Boo-ology from 1-4, and ZooBoo from 4:30-7:30.

After supper last night, we scrambled for costumes so we’d be ready bright and early for the two-hour drive to St. Paul. The kids were up before our alarms went off, so apparently they were looking forward to the day. I had in the car a caped person of some sort, a red M&M (ironic since he’s allergic to peanuts and can’t eat M&M’s), a princess (likely Cinderella), and a cow (or calf, as her older brothers liked to specify). I was either a scarecrow or the cow’s farmer, depending on who looked at me. (Raiding hubby’s closet was a last-minute move, and it actually worked out pretty well.)

We got to the parking garage at Victoria and Grand just after 10:00 and headed to the Red Balloon Bookshop, where author Rick Chrustowski would be reading from his new book, Big Brown Bat, at 10:30. What a delight! He not only read from the book, but answered audience questions about his start in illustrating, why he writes children’s books, and how he does his drawings, but did a drawing of a bat on the spot and gave it away to one of the children. He was entertaining to watch and listen to, and it was a great start to our day.

Then we headed east down Grand Avenue, stopping in businesses that had trick-or-treating signs. Segments of the route were quite crowded, and I was glad we had decided to leave the stroller in the car. Not that keeping four kids corralled and remembering sidewalk courtesy was easy, but the stroller would definitely have complicated things. We ended up walking as far as Hamline Street before heading back on the other side. I don’t know exactly how far that is, but the round-trip took us 3 1/2 hours. At 60 degrees and sunny, it was a beautiful day for a walk.

Buckled into carseats and the go-ahead given to eat a few treats, we wound our way down Summit Avenue to the Science Museum, where there were several activities and treat stations in the entrance area. Inside the museum galleries, they weren’t handing out treats like they had last year at the Science Center of Iowa, but they had some good activities going on. The kids participated in a costume contest, and there was a very entertaining “Spooky but not Scary” magic show that garnered a lot of smiles and laughter from both the kids and adults in the audience.

At 4:00, we moved toward the parking lot for the trip to Como Zoo. We drove through the Como Parkand past the zoo, but instead of parking far away and walking to the zoo, we kept going toward the fairgrounds to the free park-and-ride lot. There we were met with a line of about 150 people waiting to board school buses. I quickly calculated the number of buses we had already met en route, the fact that it was just 4:30 and the crowd would continue to grow, and the price of admission, and broke the news to the kids that we were going to change our plans. I’ll brave a lot, but a big crowd of people, most in costume; four kids and one set of adult eyes and hands; and darkness not far off were enough for me to back out. Sure, I went to the state fair with the kids and we did fine, but that was in broad daylight.

I broke the news to the kids, and we were all disappointed, but we agreed that we’d already done two things today that were a lot of fun. The promise of supper in the immediate future helped to curb their disappointment.

By the time we got home, three of the four were asleep and ready to drop into bed. (I actually really enjoy it when that happens; it’s so sweet to carry them in the house half-asleep and tuck them right in.) I told my youngest, who was awake, “You were a good little cow today,” to which she replied, “Trick or treat!” A treat it was indeed to spend such a nice day, once again, with my little ones.

Did I make the right decision in not going to the zoo? Have you done any fun Halloween-before-Halloween activities with your kids?

See also:
Science Museum of Minnesota
A Special Day Out
Star Wars at the Science Museum of Minnesota

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