Sea Life Sleepover

 Owen's awesome school, Farnsworth Aerospace Magnet, has overnight field trips for all of the grades.  The Kindergarten and first graders go to Sea Life at the Mall of America for their overnight.

This is Owen's second year going.  Here he is with some of his buddies from his class.

Since Jim chaperoned last year, he decided that this year he would allow me the honor.  That, and it is his birthday - also the one year anniversary of our move to our new house!  And since Christian's mom and I are friends, I thought it would be pretty fun.  She and I decided to be Dej Chia's adoptive parents for the evening since Dej Chia's mother is recovering from surgery.

The first half of the evening was slow and a bit torturous for me.  We spent about an hour in the touch pool room, which included a simulator ride that I do not recommend for any adults over 25.  I thought I could handle it so I agreed to take our three kiddos.  Natalie was smart to say no.  I had to sit with my head down and eyes closed through the whole ride.  For the next hour, I was completely nauseous.

After the touch pool, we spent at least another hour sitting in the conference room.  We listened to the tour guides and had a late dinner of pizza and soda.

 Finally, at almost 9:00, we began our hour+ long tour.

 The kids really enjoyed the jelly fish tank room.

 But the aquariums were definitely the most interesting.  We saw giant sea turtles, guitar sharks, tiger sharks, manta rays, clown fish, a huge fish named Bubba (not sure what he was,) clown fish, muskies, box turtles and much more.

Finally, it was time to change into our PJs, get our mats, and lay out our sleeping bags in the tunnel.  Our group was in the Olympus tunnel.  Tiger sharks, manta rays, sawfish, and sea turtles swam over us as we tried to sleep sandwiched between the restless Kindergarteners down at one end and the chattery slumber party girls at the other end.  Eventually, I did sleep and all too soon it was 6:40.  The lights came on and it was time for donuts.  Coffee never tasted so good.

After breakfast, we watched the staff feed the tropical fish.  Then were free to roam around our favorite parts of the aquarium.  Owen, Dej Chia, Christian, Natalie and I spent most of our time in the tunnels getting as close as we could to the creatures swimming all around us.  What a great experience!

Como Conservatory

Evan had an overnight last night with Grandma & Grandpa. 

I met him and Grandma at Como Park Conservatory.

 It seems like only yesterday Evan was toddling around the conservatory, speaking some of his first words.

The Conservatory is such a peaceful, refreshing, beautiful place.  I need to go there more often.

Welcoming an Early Spring

Spring has come early this year and we are taking full advantage of it.  I did not delay in switching the closets over.  If the breeze is cool, a sweatshirt will suffice.  I LOVE SPRING!

While switching over the closets, I had Mia busy herself with water painting.

Jim and Evan worked on a path around the side of our house.

They also built a fire pit.  We had our first campfire with friends from Owen's school.  The kids rolled down the hill and ran around the yard all night.  When it got too dark, they pulled out the flashlights.  Highlight of the evening was when Christian (seen above) slipped down the dark hill, crashed through a fence, and landed in my garden.  We could only hear what happened.  One moment after the crash stopped, we heard him pop up and holler, "I'm alright!"  He is such a sweet kid.

Mia has sprung new legs over the winter and is making good use of them now that she doesn't have to worry about ice or heavy clothes.

Every day after school Owen goes outside and shoots hoops for 2 or 3 hours.  He comes in, eats, does homework and then heads back out - light permitting.  He's getting quite good, quite fast.

My favorite part of spring coming early is that the birds have returned.  I love walking out the door and being greeted by their song.  It is as if all of my worries and stresses chase their songs into the wind and fly away.  Welcome Spring!  I'm so glad you came early.

Bagpipe Basketball

When do Basketball...

 and Bagpipes meet?

 Right next door.

 Oh yeah.  My awesome neighbor plays the bagpipes professionally.  And even though he was significantly under the weather the day after St. Patrick's Day, he "called" all the kids in the hood to the hoop with the sound of his pipes.*   Big kids, small kids, parents, and neighbors down the road all came and gathered for the unique combination of activity.

(I love the teenagers in our neighborhood.  See the 8th grader helping Evan learn to shoot?)

One community member was a little less impressed.  Actually, she liked it, but it was incredibly loud.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

* I do have a video, but we've been having some computer problems the past few weeks, so you'll just have to check back.

Thompson Park

This week is Owen's Spring Break and although it is early, so is spring.

Today we met Evan's preschool friend and her mom at the Thompson Park over in West St. Paul.  This park is a gem.  Not only does it have a great playground, bathrooms, and shade, but it also has a very nice picnic shelter, a trailhead, and a wonderful lake teaming with well preserved wildlife.

Mia grew a lot over the winter and today gave her a chance to test her new limits.  She climbed and slid and ran and swang on just about everything there.  She played with the big kids and made two new small friends of her own.  Once she went chasing a friend through a zip line area and nearly missed a collision.

Luckily, she has these tough guys watching out for her.

It was so fun to have a playdate with all three of my kids again.  I can't wait for summer vacation.

Mill City Museum Field Trip

 Thanks to my lovely (and thankfully retired) mother and father-in-law who happens to live very close by, I was able to chaperone Owen's field trip to the Mill City Museum today.  The Mill City Museum is located downtown Minneapolis in the ruins of the old Gold Medal Flour Mill right on the Mississippi River overlooking the Stone Arch Bridge.  I love how the old industrial neighborhoods of Minneapolis have maintained the "ruins" of so many of their buildings during reconstruction.  For example, in the picture above, you can see the original stone walls from the Mill countering the new steel framed windows.  And, if that wasn't enough to trigger the nerdy architecture lover in me, check out the glass!  It is as if you are looking through a wheat field!!!  I LOVE IT!  You'll see more of what I mean as you look through the pictures from the museum.  But before you scroll down, look again closely at this photo.  Can you see the reflection of Owen's laughing face in photo glass on the right?  I just love that I captured a glimpse of the eagerness he had as they dashed away from me.

Here is my group.  Owen got to pick who he wanted in our group during conferences.  It was really fun spending the day with the kids he spends every day with.

During our tour of the museum, we got a peek at the history of the development of Minneapolis as a city.  Here Dej Chia, Owen & I are pointing on this old map of the riverside of Minneapolis to where Grandma & Grandpa's condo would eventually be.

My group was the rowdy group.  This was a man powered device that drove the water up a tube to create power for the press... I think.  Anyway, you are suppose to stand still and turn the wheel, but I was all for them running around the wheel to expend more energy.  That is until one of them decided to lift his legs up like it was a merry-go-round and then they all decided to do it and just then a museum employee happened to walk up.  I was not feeling like a very helpful chaperone at that moment.

But, seriously, what do you do in a flour museum when you are waiting for you next activity to start and you have 5 first graders some of which have a lot of energy?  Luckily, two feet away from us were these huge blocks/stools/life sized puzzle pieces printed with a map of the midwest.  I think 4 of the kids would have stayed focused on completing the map, but those 4 were also happy to go along with the 5th who thought they should make a ship instead.  It was completed just in time for our next activity, thank goodness.

The water room has four interactive stations and they are all really cool.  In this station, the kids reconstruct the buildings around the riverfront during the prime time of Gold Medal Flour's Minneapolis Mill days.  It really did take teamwork.

Next the kids got to experience what it's like to be loggers, minus some of the dangers.  The object was to get the color coded "logs" into the right "mill" while the river raged on.  There were also two exhibits about the physics of water pressure and use of that pressure in the mill, which brought out the geek in me.

Next, we rode the Flour Tower elevator.  There are no pictures during this part and it's really, really cool, so you should check it out.  We learned about the history of the mill and the lives of real factory workers, but it was presented in a way that maintained the interest of visitors of any age.

The windows throughout the museum bring in tons of natural light, give you a great view of the river, and allow visitors to really see the history of the building.

Up at the top of the flour tower, you can see all the large machinery left from the mill days and...

you can see an AMAZING view of the city.

(Owen on far right in back.)