Bigass Sledding Hill

The view from below.

Here they come!

Climbing back up to do it again!

January. Pfft.

The blog was awfully quiet in January.  After the business of the holidays we all just wanted to withdraw from civilization and hibernate a bit.  The boys and I did keep busy with school, and Steve with work, but in our down time we retreated to our own corners and spent time in worthwhile pursuits of our own choosing.

Steve and I parked ourselves in front of the television and began watching Downton Abbey together.  We blew through the first two seasons and became quite addicted.  I wish I had just one of Mary's beautiful art nouveau gowns, along with a fancy-schmancy event to wear it to, of course!  Steve's favorite charcater is Carson and mine is the Dowager Countess.  She snarks with such class!  And for the record, I don't trust that Bates.  I think he did it.

Is that a shiv, Bates? Hmmm...

 

 

Ben, having saved up a jar or so of change over the last few years, treated himself to a new guitar in January.  A Les Paul standard.  It is quite lovely and causes much rocking out.

  
 
And finally, Will and Charlie, when not engaged in Minecraft, can be found sledding in the yard. 

 

Notice the half buried sled in the left of the photo.  It snowed again today. Tomorrow's forecast promises a freezing wintry drizzle mix.  We are all a bit sick of winter by now.  Oh well, back to hibernating!

The Great Minnesota Get-Together 2012

When I was growing up, my family lived just about a mile from the Minnesota State Fair fairgrounds.  We could hear the concerts, smell the pronto-pups and even see the nightly fireworks from our house.  It's no surprise then, that the fair holds a special place in my memory, and it also signals the end of the summer in a bitter-sweet way.  

 

 Despite having great childhood memories of the fair, I really let the ball drop on this tradition with my own kids.  Sure, we've attended the plethora of small county fairs in our area over the years, but it has been a really long time since Steve and I have brought the kids to The Real Deal. Years since.

Space Tower

Space Tower Riders

Will and Emmie Enjoying the View

This year, however, I managed to get over my grown-up aversion to the crowds and junk-food focus of the fair, and remember how fun it all is when you're a kid.  So, I grabbed my sister in-law and her family, and we planned a day of food, fun and meandering!

Pianos on Parade

  Here are just some of the highlights from our 8 hour visit...We played tunes on a beautiful piano in the fairground park, watched a First Robotics competition and a beekeeping demonstration (not part of the same activity...although that would have been cool...), rode the Gondolas high above the fairgrounds, enjoyed a Bluegrass show, went 350ft in the air on the Very Cool Space Tower, and managed to run into my brother and his family at one point during the day, despite the sea of 164,694 people!

And yes, of course, We Ate Our Way Through The Fair.

Stuff-On-A-Stick

 We're a pretty traditional group, and stayed with mostly recognizable foods, although we did give a moment's consideration to the Lamb "Fries" from Holy Land Deli.  Favorite picks for us were Chan's Teriyaki Chicken On-A-Stick with Lo Mein, Foot-Long Pronto Pups, Fresh French Fries, Tom Thumb Donuts, Fresh Chocolate Cream Puffs (Oh. My. God.), Honey Ice Cream, Dairy Building Malts, Roasted Corn On-The-Cob, Cinnamon Almonds, and lots of ice-cold Lemonade!

Roasted Corn!!!

It was a fantastic day at the fair with plenty of sunshine and a cooling breeze.  No one got lost, no one got crabby...

Taking a rest after lunch

...and everyone wants to go again next year!

Water In The Park

It was overcast and a bit rainy, but that didn't stop the kids from having fun at the water park yesterday.  We were celebrating three birthdays in the family; sibling cousins all with late August birthdays.

These Munchkins are turning 3 this year.  They actually share a birthday with my Charlie.

And this Guy, my Faaaaaavorite nephew (but shhh don't tell the others), is turning 7.

This is a great little water park right in the heart of the inner city.  Small enough to keep track of everyone, yet providing plenty for kids big and small.

And most importantly, my sister in law had some fantastic cupcakes on hand. My Mom and Charlie show off their ladybug cupcakes (there was a cherry in the center!!)....

...while Grandpa David, my brother Mike and I contemplate the animal on our desserts. After throwing out moose and camel, we finally decided on Giraffe.  So very cute and so very tasty; peanut butter frosting and a chocolate center.

And just because, here's a cute shot of me and my brother.

The end.

Local Baseball

It has been so stinking hot and humid lately that it has been hard to motivate to do much of anything, but we are so glad we dragged our butts out to the ball field to  see some local baseball.  Great turnout, good spirits and hey! admission was free for fan appreciation night!  Score!

I don't know what the motivation is for those guys to put in such an effort in ridiculous temperatures such as we are experiencing (other than pure love of the game!), but man, we sure did appreciate it.  It was not too bad in the shade of the stands and folks seemed to be in a good mood all around, making for a wonderful family night out.

After the game, the kids got a chance to run the bases and then have complimentary baseballs signed by the home team.

Way cool photo by Dad

 (And yes, since you asked, our team won!)

Rhubarb Days

What a busy weekend we had during Smalltown's first annual Rhubarb Days! 

On Friday Ben and I volunteered to run some carnival games for our library's Summer Reading Program kick-off.  It was humid and hot as can be, but all the happy kids made it worth the effort!  Will and Charlie got to go around playing games and winning rinky-dink prizes all afternoon, so that kept them content.

Saturday morning started off with a pancake breakfast and 4H petting zoo.  I almost bought the kids a beautiful, fuzzy lop rabbit there.  I would have, except that hubby stared me down.  Lucky for me, I was able to run right over to the library book sale and console myself there.  My best find was a book titled The Concise Dictionary of Twenty-Six Languages in Simultaneous Translations.  Oh. Heaven.  I am soooo excited to curl up and peruse this book and draw parallels between...oh, nevermind.  I am a complete Word Nerd.

On to yet another petting zoo in Millpond Park.  The library's summer reading program theme this year is "One World, Many Stories" and the petting zoo had animals from around the world to tie in with this theme. Although the pictures I managed to take don't seem to be of the very exotic type.  There was a ring-tailed lemur and a zebu there, though.  Promise.

Best animal on site?  Baby skunk.  Want one. Now.

Although Charlie seemed pretty pumped about the zebra.

Obligatory Feeding of the Goats.

After all the fun was had at the petting zoo, we stood around at the millpond for the "Duck-a-thon."  $5.00 bought you a numbered rubber duckie to be set afloat in the millpond.  First duck over Cascade Falls won $500.00 dollars.  Well, how could we resist?

The ducks started up a ways from the main pond and took a few minutes to reach the breathless crowd.  Here the boys get the first glimpse of the duckies.

There were more than 800 rubber ducks in the water.  Delightful!

Will is sure he has identified his duck! ; )

The ducks approach the small falls that will take them under the street.....

... while adults and children alike enjoy the spectacle...

..until finally they plunge over Cascade Falls, where awaiting children gather them up and cool off in the spray. Nope, we didn't win, but it was worth the $5.00 to be charmed by the ridiculous sight of it all!

We ended our Saturday with a grill-out at our favorite state park, and an evening of local baseball.  We are all beat, but will drag ourselves to the boys' spring piano recital this evening followed by an ice cream social.  Then I think I'll sleep for a week.

Walking On Snow With Shoes

We added something new to our family's winter repertoire this year...snowshoeing!  Charlie is just big enough now to fit the kid-size snowshoe bindings and just energetic enough to do an easy trail...well, mostly!

Our first outing was for the Interstate Park Candlelight Night back around Valentine's day.  The temp was about 44 degrees that night which made for a fun and comfortable walk, aside from the sweating anyway.

Just recently we were invited to snowshoe again at a gathering of William's WISE Kids group.  This trek was a little colder, it was snowing like crazy, and we had a chance to hike off the trails and do a bit of sledding as well.  I took pictures with the naturalist's camera, not my own, so I have only a couple shots that she sent to me.  Perhaps a few more will come along soon.  In the meantime...

Here are Steve and Charlie happily marching along at the start of our journey...

.....and here they are again as we neared the end of the first leg of the walk.  If you can't tell, Steve is pulling Charlie on a sled.  He just needed a little break, ya know?  This actually worked really, really well.  After he rested up for awhile, he was able to trek the way back again.  Of course the promise of chili dogs and a hot cocoa waiting back at the education center did wonders  for motivation!

We took a quick break and detour at an (unofficial) sledding hill in the park before heading back.  Ben looks like he wants to be pulled on a sled too.  Just a little. 

Wish I had more pics!  I know I snapped photos of many of the kids and parents with us in the group, but I guess I'm not sure if I even got one of Will, because he and a friend were hiking at a quick clip, non-stop, at the head of the pack.  Way too into it to be photographed!  Rest assured a good time was had by all!

Duo

Steve finally has someone to jam with on a regular basis!

 

 Ben has been learning to play guitar for about 6 months now and is enjoying sitting down with Steve on a regular basis and filling the house with music.   I'm starting to feel the music bug too, so we may have to think about starting up our own family jug band. Yeah, you know I play a mean washboard......

2010 Parade

Smalltown had its parade today.  Both Ben and Will rode on floats for the Scouts and had a great time.

Ben riding on the Boy Scout Float (left, with his arm over the rail)

The Boys Scouts spent a few evenings putting their float together, creating an olde-fashioned campsite commemorating 100 years of scouting. They were quite excited to be handed such tools as a draw knife, axes and other sharp implements to make the scene come together.  Boys just love makin' stuff outta trees.

Ben Posing before the Parade

I myself do not understand the appeal of parades, but I guess it is fun when you get to ride on a slow-moving vehicle standing up pelting the crowd with candy, eating a great load of it yourself.

Will's Cub Scout Group and Cub Master.  Also pictured, our town's stop lights.

Will is standing up at the back, throwing candy at us.  Yay Will!

Charlie, Steve and I had a spot along the route where there were very few little kids to compete for said candy, so Charlie should be set with sugary crap until Halloween.

Charlie

Clown population at the parade was ZERO, and nary an Uncle Sam on Stilts was to be found.  I'm OK with any parade that can boast that!