Filed under: St Paul
On Sunday the girls and I went to the Minnesota State Fair with someone who loves the Fair as much as we do – Anita. We saw a ton – we even hung out at the seed building. We were on the look for things for a scavenger hunt for next weekend (which I still need to pull together). I don’t want to give too much away but our highlights included:
The Eco Experience Building – tons of fun things for kids. Plus if you make a video of your favorite food experience you get a free deck of local food hero playing cards. I’m thinking of drawing Uncle Billy into one of the cards.
The Miracle of Birth Building – we saw three pigs being born. Definitely gross and cool and the same time. The girls wanted to hang on for births two and three. Pigs are only pregnant for about 16 weeks – but they give birth to about 12 at a time. Anita is our new hero as she emerged from the barns and had a pork chop – now that’s tough!
Food glorious food. We had cheese curds, mini-donuts, hotdogs, egg rolls (different but still OK at the International Bazaar), and cookies.
Sesquicentennial – and it’s not just because I do the web site.
Filed under: St Paul
On Saturday we had our annual black party. It started around 5:00 and ended around the bonfire around 1:00. The game of the party was “What in the Greenheck is it?” (The Greenhecks live on the block. Pete G. has a great sense of humor – maybe too good as we were all a little nervous about the game but it turned out to be great.)
There was also a baking contest where everyone was declared a winner. The contest is generally judged by viewing the treats, not tasting them. Think icing! There was a talent show; maybe we’ll get Simon Cowell to scout for talent next year. And the grand finale for those who are tough enough to stay awake is the bonfire.
One of our neighbors has a driveway (otherwise we all have garages in the alley.) So we always cook on their driveway. Lucky them, they got back from their big vacation in the UP just in time for a burger. (Imagine coming home after a long drive to have your home and yard invaded!)
It was a perfect ending to summer!
Filed under: St Paul
Today the girls, grandma and I went to Rondo Library for DigiDaze, a community computer fair of sorts. The girls got to see a few fun things the most fun was creating tiny movies. There was a camera that would take freeze frame shots and turn it into a video. I have their videos below. They also got to play digital music by playing the circuits inside an electric keyboard. I had heard digital music before but hadn’t known really how it was played. Connecting circuits is sort of the basest way to create the music.
I nearly forgot to mention – Lily won a flash drive while we were there.
{youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZIKbA_CQgQ]
Filed under: St Paul
The Minnesota State Fair started on Thursday. But the girls, Grandpa and I got a sneak preview on Wednesday night. I do the web site for the Minnesota Sesquicentennial (150th birthday). They have a big presence at the fair. So we got super special tickets to the preview event. We got to see the band play that will be playing 3 times a day in the Sesqui Big Top.
We got to meet Orlin Ostby. He walked with an oxcart from the Northwest corner of Minnesota to the State Fair. It took six weeks; it was 400 miles. Can you imagine? You can see a picture of the girls with the ox – and we got buttons.
There is also a computer exhibit in the same area. We got to see a vintage hard drive. I don’t know who enjoyed that exhibit more – Lily or Grandpa. We are hoping to go to the Fair all day on Sunday. Let us know if you’re going too.
Filed under: St Paul
Our time at the Irish Fair was short but sweet. We started with dinner at the Donwtowner Woodfire Grill with mom, dad, Katie, Dan, Patrick and me. The food was good. Everyone seemed to have at least one funny store.
We went with Kate and Dan to see Flogging Molly on Friday night at the Irish Fair. The weather was perfect, the band was fun, and we scored some free beers. I took some video of the band. We were pretty far away – so if you have a slow connection, it’s not worth the wait to see it.
Filed under: St Paul
We held the annual Saints game party a little later than usual due to our Irish trip. Every year we get a bunch of tickets to a Saints game. The Saints are the minor league baseball team in St Paul. The saints are owned by Miek Veeck, a great baseball promoter, Bill Murray, the actor. Billy cooks up brats and burgers and we hang out.
We had about 100 people come to the tailgating before the game and we definitely used the 60 tickets we had for the game. It was great to see everyone. The big news is that the neighbors (Greenhecks and Howards) ended up in the Saints hot tub – lucky bugs.
The Saints didn’t win, but that was OK. At the bottom of the ninth they were behind by 4. The bases were loaded and there was a full county. Sean pointed out that it was just like the Cubs-Orioles game earlier this year. (I had to trust him on that one.) Unfortunately we did not get the grand slam homerun we needed.
Filed under: St Paul
I was going to try to be better about maintaining the blog once we were home, but I haven’t been. I’m going try to catch up today while I’m in the car on the way to Fair Hills Resort.
One day we went to Como Zoo with Grandma. We love Como Zoo; it’s only $2 per adult and $1 per kid to get in. If you haven’t been to Como in a few years – you should go. They have fixed it up a lot. For summer they have a big butterfly house. I tried to take pictures but they are pretty fast. Our favorite butterfly was the Blue Macro – as the name implies, it’s blue.
We also saw a puffin – up close. It reminded us of our trip to the Aran Islands. This one didn’t fly or swim so that was a little disappointing – but it gives us a good excuse to come back.
We started the day at the St Paul Farmers’ Market, which is always fun. I had to laugh to myself when we were there as a just thumbed through my friend’s copy of Stuff White People Like and farmers’ markets were pretty high on the list.
After that we had lunch at Bruegger’s. I feel like that too could make the white people list.
Then we headed to a Bastille Day party at the Jeune Lune. I think it was done by the Alliance Francaise; well I hope it was a fundraiser for them. It was super expensive. Unfortunately there also wasn’t a ton of things for the kids to do.
After the event, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa for dinner and a game of Clue. That darned Kate won again!
Filed under: St Paul
The girls and I went to the Dragon Festival at Phelan Park on Saturday. They made dragons out of egg cartons, which they enjoyed. We saw a few martial arts exhibits. It was interesting to see and hear how the roots of what we saw really started with self defense, but the movements have become very fluid and calming. We saw a few dances, mostly Hmong dancer – but I think that was out timing. The costumes were beautiful.
Sadly they had run out of egg rolls been the time we wanted to eat – but the good new is that there were plenty of mini-donuts.
The 4th of July is always a tricky holiday with kids – you just never know who’s going to be able to stay awake for the fireworks. You spend half of the day hoping everyone makes it and the last two hours praying that everyone falls asleep.
We spend out day at Minnehaha Falls – an offshoot of the Mississippi. We forgot the camera – but we’re bringing it next time. They have fixed up the park a lot. We had lunch at the restaurant in the park then we walked down the creek to the part where we could do wading.
On the way home we stopped in at Wabun Park, where they have built a new wading pool. Next time we head out to Minnehaha we may rent a big bike, ride around, skip the creek and go wading in the new pool.
We did manage to get to the fireworks at night.
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