Filed under: Minneapolis
The Bakken Museum is a “one of a kind museum exploring the mysteries of our electrical world.” We had never been there. It’s in a beautiful old house near the lakes in Minneapolis. They had a happy hour there and I decided it was OK to bring kids because they also had the Raptor Center there.
It’s very cool. There’s a super cool exhibit on Frankenstein – but it was a little too scary for Aine so I wasn’t able to hang there too much. We got to see a very early pacemaker and try some electrical experiments.
Filed under: Minneapolis
In the Twin Cities there’s a great May Day tradition in and near Powderhorn Park. There’s a big parade with floats and stuff, then there’s a big production by the lake, and a festival. The theme this year was the environment and the people versus the big corporate bail outs. The weather was amazing.
Heart of the Beast puppet theater is responsible for much of the cool activities on May Day. People are welcome to come into HOB week leading up to the parade to help prepare the various floats and costumes. We don’t’ usually participate to that degree but we do enjoy seeing it all.
Filed under: Minneapolis
One of the nice things about our area in the summer is going to hang out at the Minnehaha Falls. There’s a fun restaurant called Sea Salt – and you can eat in the park. We went over Memorial weekend and had a really nice time. The Falls are pretty weak this year – a sign that we need rain desperately. The Falls should still be pretty impressive at this time of year.
We climbed all around the Creek. They are actually working on it – and it’s going to be nice. They are building up the ad hoc swimming area, which is fun but has always been pretty muddy. We actually walked from the Creek around to the shores of the Mississippi. We could see the big dam.
Next time we go we’re going to get there early enough to rent a bicycle build for 4!
Aine graduated from preschool. They have a nice celebration. Only she and her friend Rain were graduating. We heard some songs; we saw some slideshows. There was a bouncy castle. Who could ask for anything more?
Filed under: St Paul
At Nativity, each fourth grade class researches a country. Lily’s class researched Spain. We got to go for a night of presentation on different countries. The students work a long time on their projects and they all did an excellent time. Lily got a good speaking part where she told the story of St Caslida.
Also each class prepares treats. This is when it’s super helpful to have an uncle who is a chef. Uncle Billy made 450 profiteroles con chocolate for the event. They were really good.
Filed under: Minneapolis
So my hope is to go back and post articles from the last month. I have the photos; I just need to get the time – but I have to talk about our strange day in Minneapolis today.
Let’s start by saying we didn’t know where we were headed when we got into the car. I don’t know if you ever do that – but it’s not the best start. Some people think we’re going to Minnehaha Falls; some people think we’re going to the Open Eye Figure Theatre.
After much heated debate we head to Open Eye. We don’t really have good directions; it’s not really in a great part of town. But we find it. Then we have to grab a quick lunch before the show.
We drive down Franklin and see the Franklin Street Bakery. Score! I’ve always wanted to go there. They have parking, they have sandwiches, they have amazing cupcakes and they have tables on the sidewalk. Score!
We set up to eat outside – and see that there is a fight just down the block. A real fight with grownups. So, undeterred we move inside. We squish into a small table and start to hear sirens. So I guess the fight 10 feet away got a little heated. Lily is beyond nervous, Kate’s a little curious and Aine’s a little oblivious (thankfully!).
So we eat quickly and drive around (the not great neighborhood) for 30 minutes. Then we go to the theater. Patrick is crabby! But the theatre is very cute. Your ticket in is a balloon. The theatre seats fewer than 150. We’re going to see Dummy, which is billed as a vaudeville sort of thing, which makes us nervous but we’re excited to see the show.
I have to say that the show was brilliant – very, very funny! It’s part hokey, part really impressive, mostly very funny facial expressions and clown-type improv. Ten minutes into the show the clown needs a helper/target and selects Patrick. Aine and I (3 seats away) were laughing so hard I was crying.
In retrospect Patrick was lucky. He never got out of his seat and he never had to imitate a chicken – unlike the last volunteer they pulled from the audience.
Filed under: St Paul
We took a trip to the Science Museum. We went for the show on water and to see the Omni movie – he Lewis & Clark show. The girls thought it was interesting that while there were whole crews on the voyage that only Lewis & Clark get credit. Also Sacajawea did the whole trip with a baby!
I was feeling a little behind at work – but then I was thinking about what it might be like to lead a group into the wilderness. To have to decide which way to go at every fork in the river and to know that every waterfall you went down, you’d have to go back up to return home. So I was feeling a little bit better about people having to wait for the web site updates.
Filed under: St Paul
So we’re trying to fit in a lot of our summer activities into spring since we’ll be in Dublin for most of the summer. Naturally that include a quick trip to Como Zoo. Sadly, the polar bears have been moved to Detroit while their St Paul homes are being refurbished. And then the puffins were asleep. So those are my favorite things at Como – but that was OK.
It was just nice to be outside and we got to see some baby animals. That’s the advantage of going in the spring.
Filed under: St Paul
We did not win any awards through the Pioneer Press contest but today we dropped off our Peeps Dioramas for display at the Artist Mercantile, it’s a cute shop in the Hamm Building in downtown St Paul. We were so excited to have a place for our materpieces!
Plus I overheard another shopper say nice things about our work!
Yesterday we went to the annual egg hunt on Princeton (the block next to ours). It’s always fun. The kids get to hunt for Easter Eggs; the adults take pictures and eat donuts. Often – very ofte – the Easter Bunny makes and appearance too.
The nice other nice thing is that we get to see each other. Three seasons we’re a neighborhood that hangs outside together but after a long winter it’s fun to see how tall everyone has become.
After the egg hunt we went to see Alice in Wonderland at the Minneapolis Community College. I hadn’t been on campus since I taught there 10+ years ago. So that was fun. They had a smart deal where tickets were free but they asked you to bring in a nonperishable food product. So it was a nice way to let a bunch of people see a free show and collect food for an area food shelf.
The show was very good. Alice was good – but the caterpillar and Cheshire cat were our favorites. I don’t know that Aine followed everything that happened – but then again I’m not always sure that I follow everything with Lewis Carroll either. It’s probably a good sign if you don’t get it all.
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