July 1st

Yup, nearly a month behind STILL but here we are at our personal celebration of Canada Day. Of course our day started in our red and white glory with any and all decorations I have saved or in the case of paper chains – the kids have made out for display. Thanks again to Karyn who got us some of these patriotic pieces on her trip down here last year.

This year we had a super special addition – a full on Canadian flag thanks to Facebook friend and twin mom Cyndi! The kids were so pleased to have what they consider THEIR flag out in the front yard for the day!

What with it NOT being a holiday here we had to make our own special adventure. And we certainly tried our best. We took all the kids out to the mall with the beloved Carousal. And the kids ALL went up to the upper level to enjoy the ride.

As a special treat Echo and Trinity got to ride on one of the coin cars… they seemed much more amazing when I was little.

We took some lovely pictures in front of the mall too.

Our next stop was a nature center where we had our lunch in the van.

Then into the center for a potty break only to go out to walk and Geocache EXACTLY when it started raining! Plan change – time for dancing in the rain instead!

We made a special maple leaf wreath…

Stopped at the library where I totally caved and got books in their on going book sale. I seriously cannot resist!

That was quite the special day for 6 and a half (the kids say Ken is HALF) Canadians out of their element in Minnesota!

And now for the adorable red and white overflow!! Sorry about the excessive images but we have some VERY proud little Canadians who wanted to share!!!!

More with the pretty and lovely and cute of course…

And mostly of Echo lately little miss party dress… every morning she says PARTY and demands her fancy outfit

Tea Party

This flower always makes me think of the Alice in Wonderland that Disney put out (cartoon)

The mural at the mall

Carousel overflow… enjoy. It really was pretty!

June 10-11

I wonder at the rain in Minnesota. I am told it is NOT normal for the season… our Father’s Day learning is in full swing, we covered the history of and how to celebrate and now we are learning more and more about Daddy everyday. We have had to put up with extremely long hours for Ken lately. The large project he has been working has been a doozy. On the plus side we reaped the benefits of all of that on Tuesday with a TOTAL day off for Ken! What to do, what to do?

Well, we have visited the mall with the carousel in it a couple time.

Sun was in their eyes… note the really neat water feature that plays music behind them!

A rather environmentally friendly mall on the outside!

Last visit we realized that tickets were only 2.00 per kid. Quite affordable for our family to do as a special thing. I took pictures and the kids and Ken enjoyed the ride.

In line

Zander, the only one who rode on a horse

Post ride stamp

Right behind the carousel was a pretzel shop. I am a total sucker for the freshly baked SOFT pretzels. Now add in a special… 1.00 each every Tuesday at this outlet for the month of June and we were in pretzel heaven. Talk about being in the right place for the right day. AND we got to watch them make them all!!!

After our fun at the mall we went to one of the parks local to us for fun AND for a picnic! We made in a half day of work BEFORE we went out… including story time with Daddy listening in.

Local park

Eating the last of our Aunty Xinny treats!

Monday (oops I am writing backwards timeline wise this time) was a day of fun with the cousins. Starting with WAFFLES!

Breakfast with the cousins

After we said good by it was time to go outside…

and bum around playing in the house of course.

Peanut butter face

Emanuel even illustrated our trip from Sunday’s IKEA adventure.

Image on right

What a great 2 days! Especially UNINTERRUPTED time with Ken! Bonus!!!

Sassy