American Swedish Institute

We spent the afternoon at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. We had not intended on going there today, but the library no longer had passes for the Mill Museum so this sounded like a neat place. We live so close to the Twin Cities and there are so many amazing places to see and yet, we have been here three years and have seen very few of them!

The home is absolutely gorgeous! I did not get many photos of the inside because they did not allow the use of a flash, but the woodwork and the detailing were just amazing. We met our friends, The Wards, who have moved to Hudson, and the kids actually had a great time! They had a little pamphlet about the mansion as told by the resident gnome, a scavenger hunt for the older kids, ornament making and lots of cool alcoves and a solarium which amused the younger ones. In the turret, the children were able to write a letter to the gnome and tell him about their favorite thing about the mansion.
Here is Sophie's letter:

"I love this castle so far. Did you know that my birthday is in January? I saw you out the window. I love you. You looked so jolly" from Sophie

Here is the gnome; he was hiding outside the window.

We could not use our museum passes because they were having some sort of Christmas weekend, but that meant we were able to see the mansion dressed for the holidays. After being in the mansion for several hours, we took the kids outside for a much needed run around the grounds!