10 Questions About…

Everyone is back to school. The big girls seem pretty happy with their teachers and classmates.

Kate is excited because they will be doing the autobiography right away. It’s a favorite fourth grade assignment that was after Christmas. Since we’ll probably be in Ireland after Christmas she thought she’d miss it.

Lily is excited because fifth grade is the year you move from class to class. So she gets to see a wider variety of her friends, which she will like much more than last year’s setup where all of her friends were in different homerooms.

Aine is the big kindergartener. She has been so excited for school. Unfortunately (for both of us) it was half-days this week – but it will be full days starting on Monday! Her big news is that she made a friend. That and her teacher is OK with either a hat or bandana every day.

I love the Minnesota State Fair! On Wednesday night the girls and I went with Anita and Darla. It was fun to go with Darla because we went to places we never go – like Heritage Square. Turns out Darla buys stuff at the Fair. We never buy anything we can’t consume on the fairgrounds.

On Friday, we went with Anita, Rick, Will and Mary. Our timing was perfect and we got to build things with the Home Depot folks. That was fun. We checked out the Eco Environment building. We saw the parade from our super comfortable seats at the Children’s Hospital area. The kids painted, we ate – all in the comfort of our shaded table.

On Saturday, we did our second annual scavenger hunt with the Lynches.

Here’s the food we ate:

• Sweet Martha’s Cookies
• Tom Thumb Donuts
• French Fries
• Pronto Pups
• Gyros
• Deep Fried Mashed Chick Peas
• Cheese Curds
• Malts
• Hot Dogs
• Chicken Gyro

Rides:

• Ferris Wheel
• Swing-Merry-Go-Round Thing
• Ride Around a Ring
• Giant Slide (even Grandma!)
• River Ride (Patrick got soaked!)

Fun Things We Did:

• Got black eyes from the Roller Girls
• Saw the biggest pig
• Learned who was the best hand-washer at the Ag building (Very cool exhibit!)
• Played in the Arcade
• Went to the International Bazaar (our one activity too much)
• Hung out at the Leinie Lodge
• Got our picture-calendar done in the Education Building
• Picked up school supplies in the Education Building

Can’t wait for next year!!

We celebrated the summer and fall birthdays with the Lynches this weekend.

Better late than never. We had a semi-impromptu tailgate party at the Saints game. We only had about 20 people. We only had brats and stuff – but it was fun.

The advantage of going to the game at the end of the season – it wasn’t a billion degrees. SO that was nice. The advantage of going to the last game was the super amazing fireworks at the end of the game. We have never been so close to fireworks.

Next year I’m hoping to have the regular game closer to my birthday – but I think we might also get a group to go to the final game too.

We had a great day with grandma at Como Zoo. The good news is that it was a beautiful day. The bad news is that it was a weekend and everyone and their brother was there. Usually we go to Como on the fakey Catholic holidays when only the girls’ school is out or at least summer weekdays.

The Japanese Garden was open, which was a treat. We hadn’t been in the garden before and there aren’t a ton of places in Como where we haven’t been!

Yes, we really did have to come home from Ireland for the Irish Fair. No, that wasn’t my call.

As a special treat, we brought the Irish weather home with us. It rained the first three days we were home – and during most of the Irish Fair. In fact the fair had to close early on Saturday night because of tornado warnings! (Since then the girls have asked every night if it seems humid – which is code for – do you think there will be a tornado?)

On Friday night Patrick and I saw the Dropkick Murphy’s. That was fun. Lots of stage diving. Not by me, but others. Here’s a video from that show.

We also entertained one of the speakers from the Fair – Ruan O’Donnell (no relation). He’s a scholar who speaks about Northern Ireland – both as a history lesson and current affair. He was really interesting. He clearly has talked to a ton of very involved people and had some great stories. Also I think he made the presentation interesting for the audience since he talked a lot about the impact of Irish Americans on the situation.

Also the girls and I spent a lot of time cruising the Fair. We saw a fun kids play done by our friend Sarah. The girls saw some friends who do Irish Dancing. Here are the pics.

Tomorrow we’re hitting the State Fair with the Lynches. We’re doing our second annual scavenger hunt. Some folks had asked me to share the hunt in advance.