My contributor Kelly and her family went to Valleyfair for the first weekend of their Peanuts celebration all month long! Here’s her family’s experience:
When my family heard that Valleyfair was going to be celebrating Charles M. Schulz’s classic, Peanuts, we didn’t want to miss it! We found out opening weekend was June 8-9 so we scheduled it on our calendar to join in on the celebration. It was such a fun and heart-warming experience for my whole entire family because I grew up reading the Peanuts comic strip and watching all of their holiday specials on television.
Peanuts has always brought me joy through all these years, so naturally I wanted to introduce my children to Peanuts at a very young age. I can remember the first time our daughter Presley watched It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. She was only 2 years old at the time and she absolutely loved it! Quickly it became an annual tradition in our household – every Halloween we all sit down, snuggle and watch it together.
Peanuts has a very special place in my heart. Every time I watch one of their holiday specials or read one of their books to my children, I am always taken back in time to my childhood – a life without much technology and true youth freedom. We didn’t need much to be entertained – instead we used our imaginations where ever we went to create memories and just entertained ourselves along the way.
Having the opportunity to be able to experience the Peanuts Celebration at Valleyfair with my whole family, made it a day to remember for all of us. Plus, my kids were so excited to go – they couldn’t wait to see their favorite Peanut characters, watch the shows, and ride all of the rides. The excitement only grew as we made our way to the Valleyfair entrance – seeing the peanuts flags waiving in the air.
Once we got there, we got a chance to see the live band, Jelly of the Month Club and eat some of the Peanuts themed food. Our favorite was the Charlie Brownies. They were tasty and so cute!
Next, we got to catch a show. The characters even brought some kids on stage to sing-along with them. It was quite the show – with live dancing, singing and engaging performances.
After the show, we were ready to ride some rides, some of our favorites were the Linus Launcher, where you fly like a super-hero and fly high in the air and Lucy’s Tugboat, where you ride and spin through the waves. We were so surprised by all rides our kids could go at Valleyfair (and they are all in the same area too) because our kids still pretty young – 5 and 3 years old. This was a real parenting win for us because a lot of time when we go to fairs or theme parks, we can only ride a few rides and often leave disappointed.
After the rides, we were ready to take a break, so we sat under the kite eating tree (yes! a tree filled with kites) and enjoyed some peace and quiet. Next to where we were sitting was a huge Charlie Brown comic strip telling the story about the kite eating tree. Our daughter Presley asked us, “What’s a comic strip?” So, her dad read it to her and explained that before ipads, kids used to read the comic strips for entertainment. As we were walking around the park throughout the day, she would often say “Look! Another comic strip! Let’s read it!” So we did, all together as a family.
There were also endless live shows, music performances, Peanut themed craft tents and plenty of photo opts. As we were headed to the waterpark, Soak City, we noticed a short line to see one of our favorite characters, Pig Pen. Pig Pen is the smelly kid in class and he is one of our family’s favorite Peanut characters. The girls lit up with excitement meeting him – and so did I!
It was a hot day at the park, so we brought our swimsuits and spent the remaining of the afternoon splashing in the kiddie pools and cooling off from the to sun. As we were passing through the park on our way back to our car, we got to pass through the celebration once more.
We grabbed some of Patty’s Melt Sliders and let the kids enjoy some Snoopy’s Fruit Juice Soda Pop. Don’t forget the silly dancing we did to a little park music under a tree as we dried off from the water park.
As we were almost back near the entrance of the park, Clara, our youngest daughter spotted the Peanuts Playhouse – an air-conditioned, 1 entry ball pit playground with benches. So, my husband and I sat and snuggled while the girls played until they dropped! Good thing we were near the entrance because both girls fell asleep right away in the car. Thanks for memories yet again, Peanuts! We strongly suggest checking it out – it’s a Twin Cities MUST-DO this summer.
How to Save on Tickets to Valleyfair
- They have a special deal through June – pay KIDS Price through June 30th which is only $35! That’s a savings of $20 per ticket.
- Be sure to use your FREE Pre-K Pass this Summer!
- Sign up for a Gold Pass available for $89 from Groupon. (This is not a discounted price but you can save on it when they have sales like they do right now! Save 30% with code FLASH.)
- Visit my Twin Cities Discount Guide for Families for ways to save all season long.
- Follow me here at TwinCitiesFrugalMom.com for any deals I find!
(Disclosure: Valleyfair provided complimentary passes in exchange for our visit and coverage of the event, and this post contains affiliate links that help support this site at no cost to you. All opinions are 100% ours.)