Filed under: St Paul
On Sunday we went to the Science Museum; we’re members. We went specifically to learn about lakes because Lily had a test on lakes later in the week. Well, we didn’t know it but the Omni movie was on the Great lakes. So, we went to see it – because as members not only do we get free admission, we get free tickets to the Omni Theater. So you can quiz us on Sturgeon and what they are doing to ensure that their survival in the Great Lakes.
Otherwise we just enjoyed all of our favorite things at the Museum. (Aine is still waiting to see herself on the news – based on the Museum’s newsroom.)
Filed under: Minneapolis
OK I’m going to try to be better about keeping up the blog. With any luck I’ll catch up tonight…
A couple of weeks ago I went to a great conference put on by the Daily Planet. I wrote about the conference one of my work blogs so I won’t say too much here except … it was great to see some friends there, some I only knew online and I was really impressed with Robyne Robinson from Channel 9 News.
The conference was at the downtown Minneapolis library so the family met me there. At the conference I heard about a fun (or so I thought) art exhibit. The idea of PostSecret was that people sent in their secrets on the backs of postcards. So it turns out that a lot of people have secrets that aren’t really family-friendly. Who would have thought? So that was reminiscent of our time in the phone box in London.
The family-friendly secret I did like was the woman who still deletes two messages a week from her ex-boss’s voicemail. Also there was one that included a map of some sort and the person said they’d go to that spot if their card made the exhibit.
To top off our day we went to the Groundbreakers Battle, which was also downtown. It was a Hip Hop break dancing contest. We were not actually participating in the contest but it was very fun to see.
See more breakdancing videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNueWteP9kk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsDUXHipxE4
Filed under: Minneapolis
On Sunday we went to see Dan Israel at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. We used to go almost monthly to the MIA but we hadn’t been for a while. It was really nice. He clearly had family in the audience so I think that made it even more fun for our kids.
After the concert, we went to see the Vincent Van Gogh. Lily had just seen a video on VVG so she was able to tell us all about the painting. Then we went to see the Egyptian art, which both of the big girls wanted to see.
Filed under: Minneapolis
Patrick and I went to the Black Forest Inn for dinner because I think you should have super heavy, yummy German food about once every 5 years. Also they were celebrating Oktober Fest with a Burlesque Show. Long time reads may remember we had a fun time as at a Burlesque show in Belfast last December.
It was a beautiful night. There was a great crowd. It didn’t take too long to get a table – but it took forever to get food and we got the appetizers and meal at the same time. Patrick had placed a piggish order – a huge chunk of pork for dinner and a plate of drumsticks to start. You’d think that maybe someone would figure out that no one – not even Patrick hungry – wants that much food all at one time.
But we didn’t really mind. The atmosphere was fun. The burlesque was fun – not too risqué and several singers had learned German songs – well they told us it was German, we wouldn’t know the difference.
So I think we’ll be ready to go back to the Black Forest Inn in about 5 more years.
Filed under: Minnesota
Last Saturday we went to Nelson’s Farm in Litchfield with Grandpa. The weather was perfect! The girls enjoyed the baby kittens best. Grandpa and I didn’t. But there were other things that we all liked. My favorite part was the corn maze. I always love those. I think Kate really loved it too – because we were able to turn it into a competition. She was storming ahead to help us find our scavenger hunt items and then get out.
I think Grandpa’s favorite part might have been the trebuchet that catapulted the pumpkin into the field. There was a playground/playset with a cool, long tube slide. There was an area where you could pan for jewels and marbles. Really just being outside on such a beautiful day was nice – especially for the hay ride.
On the way home we stopped by the World’s Largest Ball of Twine in Darwin, Minnesota. I hadn’t seen it since I was a kid. Now there’s a little gazebo-type thing built around twine-ball. It’s fun. Then the kids and I played at the park with Grandpa went to the cemetery to see the graves of my Grandma and Grandpa Treacy. Lily kind of missed seeing that so we all stopped by cemetery on the way home and realized that Lily was born right about the time her Great Grandpa would have turned 99.
Here’s a video on the catapult. I hope it works. It doesn’t work for me today:
Filed under: Minneapolis
Every 5 years or so, we go to a Vikings game. We picked a great one this year – they won! We went to see the Vikings/Panthers game. It was pretty dismal until five minutes before half time and then it got good.
We were lucky enough to win 8 tickets. So we went with a group and met some friends there. It was a perfect day so we stopped by Kieran’s on the way in (and out) for a beer.
Filed under: St Paul
Last night I went to the River Rocks Festival with Anita. The weather was perfect. We got free tickets. The bands were super fun. We saw a crazy woman who tried to tell us that we were standing in her space. I’m not sure that she quite understood the nature of an outdoor concert – but mostly we were glad not to be her.
I took some video mostly of Mike Doughty and Semisonic. I would have taken more but my batteries were running low.
See the other Semisonic videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw9jiBxEJgI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KViD_-SGKGc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GmQjXJo_oQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk83MPuCFcg
More Mike Doughty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD38veejZuQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiizzBdKCuM
And one of the McNally Smith bands:
Filed under: St Paul
Today we went to the Merriam Park Library for some chemistry experiments. They stuck a skewer through a balloon to demonstrate the elasticity of polymers. The heated a wire into a new shape because it is created with an alloy that was formed at a very high temperature. In a cooler temperature the atoms become flexible but once heated the atoms again become rigid and sort of snap back into shape.
So now I feel like we could all pass a high school chemistry test – well maybe not quite, but I’m hoping that when some of us take high school chemistry that these experiments will come back to them and help them pass some test or get some scholarship.
It was a fun day.
Filed under: St Paul
Last weekend was the Nativity County Fair. It’s the big fundraiser for the girls’ school. Sadly it rained all weekend. But we were up there a lot. The last year we were in town we helped out a lot. But since all of our phone numbers changes while we were in Ireland we were not called upon to help with anything. We were just patrons.
We played a lot of bingo. Lily won a game. We did the Twinkie Walk; again I think Lily won once. Kate and Aine went on the Tilt-a-Whirl. They played a lot of kid games. We wanted the talent show in the rain.
I nearly forgot – we also did the fun run before the Fair. So we ran a mile around the Fair. Aine and I were the last people to finish. In fairness I think she was also the youngest runner. The big girls did a good job. I’m not sure they ran the whole mile – but they beat us.
Filed under: St Paul
OK I’m way behind on the blog again – despite the fact that we’ve done some fun stuff. On a Saturday we went to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. It was Irish weekend. So we visited our friends and neighbors who edit and publish the Minnesota Irish Gazette.
The weather was perfect! There were about a billion cars – but it’s way out there so there’s plenty of room and they do a great job with the traffic.
Our most fun thing – Kate, Aine and I rode an elephant! Aine also rode a llama. Lily was the official photographer.
We saw the jousting match, which is cool. No one gets killed but it looks pretty real. I just finished The Other Boleyn, where they joust and stuff so it was particularly fun for me.
We saw the snake farm. The girls were very brave about petting the snakes.
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