We took a bunch of pictures of the event and I figured they needed their OWN entry! So enjoy!!!!
So many people and beautiful bags!
A little music on the side of the hill
A big of a Mardi Gra feel?
So many bags to choose from and amazing donated produce etc!
In among the shiny rocks
Choosing a bag of seeds
The belly dancers
Our chosen bags!
And our pixie who loves them
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
After discussing our local squirrel population and putting pencil and crayon to paper to create an image of one what better is there to do than read about ANOTHER squirrel… Thanks to Karyn for the wonderful SIGNED copy of the book, Scaredy Squirrel continued our furry critter trend. A much more… neurotic squirrel we join him with his party planning and come along as he celebrates his very own birthday. I had the boys ALL draw a picture and then the twins and I went through the Who, What, Where, When and Why of the story. Emanuel opted to write the name Scaredy Squirrel all by himself and then we talked about what HE remembered from the story. So much fun and some really creative pictures! The actual book is called Scaredy Squirrel Has a Birthday Party. I need to unearth our other book in the series and maybe hunt down the cartoon Wiki talks about HERE.
What with Ken’s folks on their way out of country and continent early tomorrow morning I kept it rather basic with the schooling so that we could just go with the flow… so instead of a lot of written work the boys set to work on some special Perler bead patterns… the Canadian and US flags by Zander and Gavin a lovely Hello Kitty for Trinity. You can find these patterns and more HERE. Emanuel opted to go through one of the idea books and made his very dinosaur.
Beading
The boys came across a new tv series they seem to really enjoy – Wild Kratts. The combine animation and real life portions to create a wonderfully educational show about animals and environmentally sound behaviour. With gadgets and such to boot! This is right up there with Dino Dan. A terrific Dinosaur themed live action (and computer graphics) show. This one is created with the assistance of the Tyrell Museum (remember our Jimmie birthday??)
Even more amazing… Echo’s newest word, while she refuses to say BABA she went so far as to say BUBBLE when pointing at our ocean in a jar! She is growing up so quickly!
Wednesday was Trinity and Emanuel’s turn to play Clue Jrwith Daddy… I think in this case it was more of an educational lesson for Daddy on keeping his temper and not getting frustrated even though he won in the end. I think they all had fun! At least they wanted to play again though we ran out of time and couldn’t do so.
Clue Jr.
Thursday marked the start of Nana and Baba’s 3 week vacation and our day of do nothing. Well nothing but the basics… no organized schoolwork (which is hilarious as it seems like all our friends back home are STARTING this week), no massive cleaning, no errands… just sit about and enjoy the day. I actually found it harder than I thought… this doing nothing is a definite art! So of course a nap was in order… the kids just loved being inside playing, outside playing and of course watching some educational tv.
Wearing Nana’s shoes
I did break my goal of doing nothing in the evening and with good reason! Shandai (my best friend all the way back from high school if you can believe it) is a pro at knitting and crocheting AND as an added bonus, like me SHE is left handed!! We sat at a table and chatted and caught up and worked on our projects… met some new people and were a part of the SWATCHcommunity. The bag Shandai made while we were sitting there will go toward Saturday’s installation. I am really excited that we will be able to take the kids to that!
A start!
It feels good to find a new interest… and luckily my mother in law already had the necessary supplies so I could dive right in. I need to practice for consistency in the tightness of my stitches but I am enjoying it so far! Something new to do that is portable is ALWAYS a good thing… now I just need to learn how to turn!
Today we worked hard on having fun… the kids all did a bit of workbook work as we are still working on review work… this ended with Zander FINISHING his review math! He was so proud and now I have a good idea on what ideas and concepts he needs cemented.
Sudden Workbook time
Completion!!
Then it was time to pull out the original spirograph! They even remember that Uncle Wayne was the one who gave it to them! I love that the things we HAVE saved in our move are so treasured. Though only ONE of the kids actually had something to show once they finished with it this time. I think I need to take advantage of the sales and get some more gel pens.
Busy hands
A few attempts
Our weather is still absolutely brilliant. I booted the kids out in the afternoon to run and climb and burn off energy and apparently race Trinity around in a stroller with giggles following along with them!
They’re off!
I have found our fun USA book to add to our Minnesota unit and a box full of stickers now collected together. We are definitely a work in progress on the planning, but my desk is uncovered and I have high hopes of getting a chair in front of it and the laptop or netbook or both booted up on there for the kids by the end of what I am NOW remembering is a long weekend! Regardless we will start our September with our Back to School books, continuing the unfinished from our previous year and of course MINNESOTA! I got wonderful news this morning that I won a draw for our very own Wonder Box! I am sure people who check back here often know of my love of the site Education.com… well I cannot wait to receive our box and blog all about it!!!
Hug the dolly