State Fair!

This morning, Maisie and I went to the State Fair!

I've only been a handful of times and it wasn't something I ever really loved, but I thought Maisie would enjoy it and it would be fun to see with her. And it was!

The first fun thing we did was to park at the new football stadium, on the U of M campus, for the free park & ride. Maisie thought the bus was great! She was really into the idea of a bus that has a potty in it. (by the way, have I mentioned that Maisie is almost completely potty trained now? Nights and naps are not dry yet, but that's fine. Uh-oh, hope this was not jinxing it.)

Anyway: at the fair, we went on a bunch of rides.

We went on this beautiful carousel twice! We also went down the Giant Slide twice, and through Ye Olde Mill twice, which is this weird tunnel of love-type ride I guess? You get in a little boat together, and ride through this pitch-black tunnel that has like four or five dioramas with painted plywood cutout figures? I have never seen anything like it. It's super weird but people love it, Maisie included!

Maisie has a bee painted on her left cheek here. She got that done at a display by beekeepers. This lovely young woman was painting kids' faces. When Maisie got up to the front of the line, the woman asked her what she wanted on her face. Maisie said, without hesitating, "a spider!!" The woman said, "Oh, I can only do a bee, a butterfly, or a flower." So Maisie went with the bee. The woman looked at me like, a SPIDER?? That's my girl!

One thing people always talk about regarding the State Fair is the food.

Maisie and I didn't have anything crazy - no chocolate covered bacon, deep fried candy bars, or alligator on a stick for us. We stuck with the basics, and had walleye for lunch, followed by a huge strawberry ice cream cone!

We also went through some of the animal barns, and saw horses, rabbits, sheep, poultry, and cows, as well as the new babies in the Miracle of Birth center - we got to pet a one-day-old lamb!

All told, we were at the fair for about three hours. After all that, Maisie was exhausted. When we got back to the car, she said "I'm really sleepy, Mama. I sleep in my carseat!" And she did.

I have two girls.

These pics are clearly pre-haircut, you can see those long unruly curly locks!

Maisie loves to hold Ella.

She routinely demands, "I want to hold my sister!" It's super cute, and you can see she clearly enjoys it - how could we say no? Although Ella seems a little unsure about the whole business. Don't worry baby, we're closely supervising!

Another thing Maisie likes is to note that "you got two girls, Mama." (although she says "girls" more like "gorls," it's cute.) I do have two gorls! And Daddy has three.

Lucky daddy!

Haircut

You may have noticed in recent pictures that Maisie's hair has been getting kind of long and unruly. To be honest, it got long enough that it was getting to be a real pain... it would get in her food and in her projects - paint, paper maiche, etc. - and would get horrible tangles that took forever to comb out.

Enough is enough, so on Saturday we went to Kids Hair to get a haircut.

You may be able to tell that Maisie had mixed feelings about the whole experience. She was into it initially, but got really skeptical up on that chair! Fortunately the people there are real pros, and kept Maisie distracted enough through the whole process that she didn't cry once... unlike our friends Chuck and Christy's little boy Clark, who was coincidentally getting a haircut at the same time. Poor Clark howled through his whole haircut! At least they used clippers, so it was fast.

Interestingly, the Highland Park Kids Hair is apparently at the center of my world. Not only did we run into Chuck, Christy and Clark there, but my mom and Dylan saw my car in the lot and stopped in to say hi!

The nine of us went and had lunch at the Chatterbox around the corner, which was great! Then when we were leaving, we ran into my friends Kate and Ry4an with their little girl Sasha, who was also getting a cut. It was kind of ridiculous. But at least now I know where everyone hangs out on Saturday mornings... Kids Hair!

Once again, Ella was bored by the whole process and slept through just about everything. One day it'll be you up on that chair, little girl! Then we'll see who's bored by Kids Hair.


The finished product.
No tears, a good haircut, and she even got a sucker at the end of the process... we'll definitely be back!

And now it's time to dance!

We realized that not everyone has seen Maisie's lovely dance moves. Still pictures just don't do her justice. So, are you ready... yeah! Let's do it, break it down!



(That's a Yo Gabba Gabba reference for those of you without little kids.)

A wedding!

This weekend, we went to the wedding of my coworker Jeff and his lovely bride Elisha.

Maisie was very taken by the whole thing. Well, she actually thought the ceremony was a little boring. But she really loved the reception! There were people, there was cake, there were "princesses" (bride and bridesmaids). Elisha let Maisie touch her dress, and showed her all the sparkly beaded parts on the bodice, which Maisie thought was pretty special!

We had a delicious dinner, and then we all got to dance! In case you weren't aware, Maisie loves to dance.


Check out Maisie's beautiful party dress... she picked it out herself! The two of us went shopping together a few weeks ago for our dresses for the wedding. I think she did a pretty good job choosing a beautiful and appropriate dress for the occasion!

These are just a few shots of Maisie's awesome dance moves! She had so much fun dancing with me and her daddy, and everyone else there. She learned to do the Chicken Dance and the Hokey Pokey, so now she's ready for all future wedding dances.

Ella, of course, slept through the majority of the festivities. She woke up a few times, and my baby-loving coworkers were happy to play "pass the baby" so that I could eat my dinner with two hands, while Aaron chased Maisie around!

So after all that, Maisie told us that she wants to get married. I suspect she really just wants to have a wedding, which of course is not the same thing! We told her that when she gets married, she can wear a sparkly white dress and have a special dance with her daddy, too... but not until she's all grown up. There's no hurry!

Home and out

Now that Maisie's not in daycare it's a challenge trying to find activities to keep her happy and busy and social. We've visited the MN Children's Museum a couple times in the last two weeks.

Maisie painting her face (I'm NOT allowed to help).

Maisie trying on different career clothes (pith helmet and janitor shirt).

How does Ella deal with all of this excitement? The same way she handles all Maisie's and my screaming and racing around at home.

Sleep.

Art Fair

This afternoon, we went to the Powderhorn Park Art Fair! Friends of ours suggested going to the Uptown Art Fair, but Powderhorn is less crowded, and walking distance from our house. So we said no thanks! to Uptown.

It was a beautiful day for it! The walk was a little long for Maisie, but she got through with the promise of ice cream once we got there. She got strawberry cheesecake ice cream from a vendor who claimed to be the "Midwest Ice Cream Specialist" or some such thing... it was really good ice cream, anyway. We also got some delicious iced jasmine tea and Maisie's first cream cheese wontons from Pham's, a noodle shop at the Midtown Global Market that had a booth at the fair.

We didn't just buy food! Maisie got a handmade mermaid doll, made by a Hmong woman who was selling her work for ridiculously cheap prices.

The walk back was a little far for Maisie, so she rode on her daddy's shoulders most of the way. You can see her mermaid, with her beautiful pink hair hanging down, in Maisie's hand in this picture.

(BTW, you all know that if you click on a picture, it'll come up larger, right? Just making sure... this pic is kind of dark in the small version, but looks much better when enlarged. Just so you know!)

Ella slept through the whole thing... :)

Adventures

We've had a lot of changes since our last post!

I started back at work on Monday, and Aaron's now a stay-at-home dad. So far it's been going really well for all four of us. I'm happy to be back at work (really!), and Aaron, Maisie, and Ella are enjoying their time together.

Aaron plans things for them to do, so they've been getting out of the house every day on "adventures," even if just to go chase pigeons at the park. This was Monday... Maisie was really disappointed that she wasn't able to catch any of the pigeons.

They've also been keeping busy at home, working on art (and other skills, too). Every day I come home to many beautiful watercolor paintings!

Today they went to the Minneapolis Institute of Art - Maisie was particularly impressed by the statutes. So maybe tomorrow, instead of watercolors, I'll come home to some beautiful play-doh sculpture!

Ella's been keeping up with Aaron and Maisie, or at least has been going along for the (stroller) ride. She's doing great - gaining weight, holding her head up so strong, and smiling an adorable little smile. She already seems so big! It's really astounding, how fast they grow.

Just, you know, watch your fingers around her.

Maisie continues to be a fantastic older sister. She's gotten the hang of giving Ella a bottle, and loves to do so. She's a great helper!