by Malena Larsen | May 1, 2023 | Featured
My love for the outdoors started when my dad took me on our first father-daughter camping trip when I was a kid. It ended up becoming our summer tradition. We camped in must-see Minnesota spots, from Stillwater to Alexandria to Taylors Falls. Now, I can’t imagine a...
by Malena Larsen | Mar 1, 2023 | Uncategorized
Even though spring is a time of newness, it’s a season that always makes me feel a little nostalgic. The chirp of black-capped chickadees, a newly bloomed lilac bush and petrichor take me back to my childhood home—the home where my mom homeschooled me, where my...
by Malena Larsen | Jan 1, 2023 | Uncategorized
Happy New Year, readers. Welcome to our premier 2023 issue, which also happens to be my premier issue as editor of Maple Grove Magazine. I am delighted to have the chance to delve further into the places, stories and people that are integral to this city. I know we...
by Ava Diaz | Nov 1, 2022 | Uncategorized
Thanksgiving brings loads of festivities, and of course, food. Each November, my immediate family heads to Illinois to spend time in my great-uncle’s basement. A space that is essentially a 1970s-time capsule. Wrapped in chocolate brown paneling and adorned with...
by Ava Diaz | Sep 1, 2022 | Uncategorized
In the pile of plushies in my family’s former basement playroom, lay my older sister’s cherry-red Tickle Me Elmo, an iconic toy box staple for children in the mid to late ’90s. I recall the screws of his hidden battery pack having a faint dusting of orange rust over...