Tag Archive | August

Post Party Slow Down

August 19-21

After all the fun celebrating Echo’s 3rd birthday it was back to normal school time outside on the Monday. All this sunshine is so lovely!101_4253

We finally had the time to do our August mini poster.

They got imaginative this month!

They got imaginative this month!

And enjoy another Wild Kratts episode.

Rattlesnakes!!!

Rattlesnakes!!!

On Tuesday the boys wrote their own comic strips… I hunted for some templates online and we went from there. Anything to be creative AND utilize our growing lion knowledge.101_4259

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Don’t forget chatting with Aunty Esther on Skype!!! We miss her soooo much!101_4257

On Wednesday I noticed the neighbours across the way were having another garage sale so we headed right over in the morning to check it out. It was good that we did, we picked up some old National Geographics and books at a great price.

That is a Dr. Seuss book I have never been able to budget in as well!

That is a Dr. Seuss book I have never been able to budget in as well!

We realized that the day was going to get hot fast so we went right from our garage sale shopping to emptying out and refilling the pool in a new location in the yard. Time to put off schooling and enjoy the weather while we could!101_4261

Such active helpers

Such active helpersAnd then a refill and we had a surprise cousin infiltration!

101_4264101_4269These moments are so wonderful. I am so lucky to be home to enjoy and to instigate them!!!101_4267

Our Weekend!

On our crusade to enjoy Minnesota and be a part of the community we accepted an invitation to an event my friend Shandai is involved in… The Abundant Harvest out on the Walker Open Field. But after parking (super affordable – 3.50 for the day, which since we left early in the day we handed to someone waiting in line to purchase their ticket to park.) and unpacking we were first distracted by the amazing statues and modern art in the park area across the street from the actual museum. 

Ken and the kids

There was a variety of modern art pieces… my personal favourite was the giant spoon with a cherry fountain!!

A unique fountain

The boys loved what they called the slides knotted together!

NOT to be climbed on!

And don’t forget the Memorial Garden with the arches and flowers…

Plants galore!

There was just so much to see! And the weather was perfect when we got there for looking… hot by the time we left. I am surprised at how much EMANUEL loved the art, hunting to find the labels to have us tell him about them. I think that he is going to LOVE his Aunty Shandai’s work when he gets to see it! She is very into the modern art and is VERY creative. 

This was another favourite of Emanuel’s

Of course we took plenty of pictures and actually skipped a few exhibits to move on to the main attraction… well almost! First we got waylay-ed by something very important – making our own craft! These kids are always on the look out for a new craft! Today they got to make their own books/journals using paper, a hole punch, rubberband and a dowel. So easy and easily something I can collect the supplies for to make MORE of. So, maybe for Christmas they can make a few for people to receive at Christmas! 

Craft time

Completed books! Bree told me that these are actually done with cheap chopsticks… so now I just need to source some out… and some LARGE elastic bands!

Ken and Echo got bored with the whole thing and wandered off to pillage a closing fitness themed booth that was giving away balls and flying discs. So Miss Echo got herself a to scale (for her) soccer ball and daddy made sure all of the big kids ended up with a disc each to loose er play with. 

Note the soccer ball!

And THEN we made it to the original outting – The Swatch Team‘s Abundant Harvest! There were performers, fresh vegetables and of course handmade bags with tags and food to take home. Each tag was typed on a traditional typewriter… My favourite on ours was “Try Something New” as that has been our motto since getting here! There were so many beautiful and varied bags, one person was talking about how theirs was made out of repurposed plastic bags… We settled on three… a lovely purple and pink larger bag that had actual food products in it and two smaller ones that just had seeds. So we now have carrot and tomato seeds for our garden next summer. 

I am going to put ALL my event photos in another blog entry to be seen AFTER this one!

Trinity and Echo are BOTH in love with their little pink and orange purse with its lovely flower on the front. I personally am dying to find out if the ones we picked are knitting or crocheted! I am hoping that someday I can be a productive part of something as amazing as the Abundant Harvest! 

We of course had to check out the person in the giant costume… And the musicians. It was getting way too hot for us by the time we saw the belly dancers but I am sure they were amazing! Keep in mind this picture and all the others – next entry!!

Belly dancers

So we wandered back through the garden to the van at this point… 

w A wedding party

It was definitely an amazing visit to the Walker Museum and we still haven’t seen the actual museum! Maybe the next free day? The girl at the book making stall thought there was many different free days and opportunities for crafting and such on the grounds. Something to start looking into to be sure as we ALL had fun! 

The night before we made sure we checked out the blue moon in August! The kids worked with Ken on their Mars mini lapbook that we purchased from Currclick until it got dark enough to see the moon outside. It took a little explaining to get them to understand that the moon is not to look BLUE but that it was an odd occurrence to have TWO full moons in the SAME month. So of course it was observation journal worthy! Our family goal is to fill each off the kids’ books with illustrations and descriptions of anything they feel like drawing. Should be interested to see what they deem important enough to be included over the next year!

Today we also uncovered the kids’ desk. I am slowly working at creating a usable space there. After all we need to have somewhere for the kids to access the internet when they earn time. 

With a lovely visit and drinks thanks to Bree my day was darn near perfect! 

Another angle of the spoon

Renaissance Festival

There has been one place I have ALWAYS wanted to go, but never been near one to do so… well today – Sunday, August 26th I finally did it! Ken and I (without the kids) got to go to the Renaissance Festival! In costume (both of us) no less! Although not exactly period in our costume medieval stuff but it is a start! And after going to the festival and seeing what there is to be worn and how people are wearing it my mind is already buzzing with ideas for next year. I am thinking… gypsy or belly dancer!! A costume I can work on creating myself!

A bit more gypsy but there were definite belly dancers wandering too…

Anyway, THIS year’s experience… We made it right around opening so that we could see Shandai (my best friend in high school) dance with her troop… she is also the one who got us the complementary tickets! Talk about a terrific reunion. 

Shandai and I catching up!

There is so much to see even BEFORE you get into the actual venue… I loved the girl with the fire!

A bit fuzzy on her one hand but I love this image

And then, right inside the doorway… so many people and things to see!! And this was right at 9am!

Geese and all!

A wench maybe?

What to do after you  get through that? Wander, shop and enjoy the entertainment and sights… which we did! Oh if Ken was working right now and I had excess spending cash! There was more than a few things I would have picked up without a second thought… BUT what I did get was… a pretty parasol…

I wish I had taken my glasses off for this pic. But I love the design on this parasol. I don’t think that my next costume would go with per say but I would love to have something inspired by.

Ken thought he was funny

Ken got his fried cheese curds…

Cheese curds

And we saw things that would have made Trinity absolutely go crazy in joy! The if only list for ALL the girls in our family is quite long now! There was a pretty mask here, fairy wings there… and entire outfit that I COULD have gotten with 25% down and… yah right. Again WISH LIST!

Some Princess outfits on display

So much whimsy

So we ran BACK into Shandai after we had been travelling rather aimlessly and she took us over to see the mermaids… oh and pointed out her boyfriend who is a real cutie. 

Mermaid

We stopped to watch the knife throwing jugglers (and have a chocolate covered strawberry!) who were VERY amazing. They were called The Danger Committee

Jugglers and knife throwers

At that point we had been there well over 3 hours and it was starting to get hot. So after saying goodbye to Shandai at the booth she works at.. Lady Artisan. With the most interesting bodice chillers ever! And boy do they CHILL. Shandai let me try one out. I figure next year when we plan for the whole day I will maybe purchase one! There were these BEAUTIFUL copper roses I would have loved to have as well at another booth…

Stained glass

Dragon Pets

So really we came, we saw, we walked… we photographed… we fell in love with the entire experience. My mind is buzzing away with ideas for my costume next year… I figure the safest bet is going to be to make my own top out of a nice bra… OH and to get some belly dancer lessons! Just gotta figure out how to get there (no driving comes back to curse me) and afford them and have the guts to do it in the first place! 

Ken dressed to impress

And don’t worry there is most definitely ANOTHER blog entry after this one of overflow images… warning though, lots of them!

VERY talented!

This entry was posted on 27/08/2012, in Uncategorized. 2 Comments