Filed under: St Paul
So on Thursday I started to get ready for our flight to Dublin on Friday. I imagine my great surprise when I realized the tickets were for Wednesday. Absolutely the dumbest thing I’ve done in a year. We got ready in record time. God love the girls who truly rallied to get ready on time. We went to the airport and more of less begged them to let us on the plane. Luckily there was a big thunderstorm – so we actually made the flight. And on the positive side – it was one less day for me to worry. On the negative side, we packed poorly – as you do when you pack in a rush.
Filed under: St Paul
The last fun event in St Paul was Aine’s Girl Scout Party. Aine’s Girls Scout troop is a great group – we like them very much. The event of the night was bobbing for apples. It must be harder than it looks. But fair play to the girls I think everyone eventually got her apple in the end.
Filed under: St Paul
Aine and I had a great time on Grand Old Day. We met up with some friends for Koo Koo Kangaroo, which is always super fun. And then we walked the Avenue. I’m going to guess that we walked 4-5 miles total. But it doesn’t seem so arduous when you’re nibbling along the way. We notice that they had a lot more happening on the Western side of Lexington, which is usually kid city. The art cars were a fun addition. The kid area was good as usual with pony rides, bouncy castles and other fun games.
It was nice to be home for the opening of the Walker Open Field – even if we’ll miss most of the fun there this summer. Aine and I went for Free Family Saturday. Aine made some nature art. We walked around the sculpture garden, we saw a wedding party we did a quick run through the indoor galleries. Then we ran into friends (the Grassmans) at the Groveland Tap picnic, which was kind of like a rehearsal for Grand Old Day. They (Groveland Tap not the Grassmans) set up some games, had a bouncy castle and a fire truck.
I have a few pictures from different shows and different music festivals. Some of the highlights (in kind of chronological order) include the Women who Rock (esp 5678s) at the Amsterdam (thanks Mary and don’t we look good dressed up?), Koo Koo Kangaroo at LynLake (Nice job Aine for sticking through BloodnStuff in the cold), Los Straightjackets (Thanks Damian – so muhc fun when the bands were outside and nearly as good when they moved inside), and loads of local music thanks to John and Troy (especially enjoyed the David Bowie night, Retribution Gospel Choir – and surprisingly enjoyable given my penchant for loud and fast – Ramona Falls, which also isn’t local!).
Aine made her First Communion in May. It was very nice and after we had a very delicious lunch at the Green Room in Stillwater. Aine wanted a skateboard for her First Communion – so that’s what she got. As you can see it’s a good accessory to the white dress. What’s fun was that Uncle Michael was in town from Australia – so we had a special guest. We had a fun time with Michael. We didn’t do a lot but got in some good walks, drink, food and saw a very fun band (Melosmatics) at the Amsterdam Bar.
Well I had at least a day and a night of playing hooky this spring. Billy and I went to a Twins game. I won the tickets – they were kind of fancy so that was fun. Beforehand we had some snacks at the Capitol Grille – so it’s always nice to combine fine food and sports. The twins lost – but that was OK. We had fun checking out the stadium.
My other skip day was a Summit Brewery Tour to celebrate Rick’s new job. It was fun to learn about the company. Unfortunately the tour part was cut pretty short as they were shipping or something else that meant we couldn’t hang out very long. But we did get free beer. And I got to sneak preview Summit Summer Ale, which I like!
We really had a gorgeous spring, which meant lots of good walking early and thankfully I still have one kid who will walk with me. Aine and I planned a day of walking. Out plan was to go to a Cash Mob up on Grand Avenue. I think it was probably about 2 mile away from the house – so that made for a good walk. For those not in the know – a cash mob is a reaction to the nefarious flash mobs (where people get organized to all run into a shop and wreak havoc). With a cash mob the idea is to get a group of people to patronize a local establishment at a given time. It’s kind of fun – although it seems like they pick some pricey places to visit. We went into a high end cooking sort of store, which doesn’t have a large appeal to either of us. But we were able to buy some tasty treats.
On the way up we ran into the Easter Bunny. That’s doesn’t happen every day.
After the cash mob, we dragged Patrick to The Walker for family day and to see the Reality show – OK I can’t really remember the name now – but the idea was everyday items in different scale. So we saw 3-story chairs and an 8-inch elevator. We also found a friend for Patrick. His comment on the picture – spot the State worker.
Filed under: St Paul
It’s catch-up time for the blog. We arrived in Dublin yesterday – but before I post anything on the Dublin trip I am making myself catch up on the last two months of posts. They will probably be brief.
Peeps – we did our traditional Peeps dioramas for Easter. And like last year, I left it too late for us to get into the Pioneer Press Competition. So we weren’t big winner – but it was fun and it was an excuse to eat Peeps earlier. We also took a trip to the Mall of America – where we visited the Peep Store. Well, we didn’t really visit – but we did at least get a picture.
Filed under: St Paul
It’s been a funny winter. It’s February 1 with predicted temperatures in the 40’s! I think we’ve had 8 genuinely cold days all winter. So we were glad to get out and enjoy the Winter Carnival Ice Sculptures before they melted.
For readers outside of our area… St Paul has celebrated a winter carnival since 1886. It’s happens over the last week of January and first week of February. It is kind of a fun gage of weather. Like trick or treating, I can always remember the weather for Winter Carnival events. Last year it was cold and snowy. And while this winter has been warm, it was kind of chilly when we were looking at the sculpture – but I think that kept the crowds down – or rather moving. I suspect lots of people came to see the art – but hustled right through and didn’t linger.
We saw a few of the sculptures being made, which is always fun. The range of sawing tools, and melting tools and detailed tools and axes is kind of amazing. The sculptors generally appear to be dressed for the weather – in fact I’d like to know where the get some of that fleece – but it seems that inevitably there’s a time when you have to take off the gloves and use your hands. It’s cold work. But as the pictures demonstrate – it’s worth it. The hard thing is that the sculptures are particularly beautiful in the sun – but harder for me to capture on film.
Oh added extra bonus (for us) this year’s Winter Carnival was the Beer Dabbler – think outdoor wine tasting with great bands – except swap out the wine for beer.
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