Cheap Family Fun | Farmers Market Thursday

One of my favorite things to do in the warmer months in MN is go to the downtown Farmers Market on Thursdays in Minneapolis.  I love pretty much anything downtown – the hustle and bustle energizes me and it’s fun to people watch.  You can make it a really cheap outing too – if you park at the downtown Target and spend $20, you get your first hour of parking for free and the second hour is just $1.  Since most Targets now have groceries and that’s where we do pretty much all our grocery shopping, this is a piece of cake. 

We did our first big family outing to the farmers market today and it was the perfect activity.  The weather was great – warm enough, but for the most part, the buildings provide just the right amount of shade, and everything smells SO good as you walk around.  We first stopped at Panera for a  bagel and chocolate milk then walked down Nicollet Ave checking out all the booths. 

We had free metro passes and used them to take the girls on a train ride – a first they both shared together!

Sophia was really excited about the “twain wide.”  She loved sitting in her own seat and looking out the window. 

We rode two stops up to the end of the line at Target field and walked around for a while.

Can you find the cutie in this picture?  She’s playing peek-a-boo…


This is the big picture draw at Target Field – sitting in the glove.  We got a picture of Sophia in the glove last year, but didn’t make it to a game as a family this year – sitting in those seats while pregnant didn’t sound too appealing to me. If you’re interested in getting this picture with your kiddos, I highly recommend showing up when absolutely nothing is going on.  Then you won’t have to stand in a long line with kids waiting for you turn and when game day comes, you can save your kids’ patience for the actual game.

There was also a picture of myself and Evelyn (in her car seat) in the glove, but it was not too flattering.  Ev thought her hair looked messy, so I told her I’d leave it out of the post. :)

The babe slept the entire outing, which was perfect.  Sophia has been a really patient girl and handled this whole transition pretty well, so I was glad she got some quality Mommy & Daddy time this morning.  I kept asking her if she was having fun and on the way home she said, “My have a good time!”  Love.

Fun and good memories do not have to cost a lot of money.  We always like to save a bit, but especially with my being on maternity leave, it’s so fun to find activities that we can do as a family that are cheap.  Other than the groceries we bought for our parking (which we’d have purchased anyway) we spent $1 on parking and $6 on our morning snack.  Not bad at all, but if you wanted to make it super cheap, you could pack your own snack and people watch as you ate it.  I think our next group adventure will be a trip to the apple orchard.

Any suggestions for other cheap family outings?