MSP ComiCon

Sunday (yesterday) we woke up to thunderstorms. I wanted to do something fun, but being outdoors was not an option! So after a quick Google, we decided to take the girls and Dylan to MSP ComiCon!

 Put on by the Midwest Comic Book Association, MSP ComiCon is an annual event held at the State Fair grandstand. There were a bunch of tables with comic book dealers, publishers, writers, and illustrators selling their merchandise. In addition there were some kids' activities, a costume contest (and a bunch of awesome cosplay!), and cool Lego displays!

I loved this cosplay! (Deathstroke and Black Canary, from Green Arrow. And if you don't watch Arrow, I highly recommend it!!! Past seasons are on Netflix!)

Maisie and Dylan spent what seemed like hours looking at Pokemon cards, trying to decide which ones to buy. The prices ranged from $0.50 to $30 per card!!!!! which seems insane to me.

They picked out a couple of cards that were more reasonably-priced, and were very happy with their purchases, which is what counts.

At one point the rain let up and we stepped outside for some ice cream, and saw a photoshoot!

I believe these folks are part of MN Superheroes United, but I'm not 100% sure. What I AM sure about is that I love the Kamala Khan Ms. Marvel cosplay happening on the left of the group there. Also, it was pretty windy, which made all the capes look awesome!

It was a very fun event! It was less interactive and more shopping-focused than CONvergence, but still a really good time. We'll definitely be returning!

Salolampi weekend 2015

After missing a year due to scheduling issues, Minnesotan Suomi-koulu returned to Salolampi, Concordia Language Village's Finnish village, for a relaxing family weekend!

Last time we visited, which was two years ago, there was tons of snow on the ground. This year, the weather was more cooperative - it was in the 60s and sunny during the day, and not too cold even at night. It was perfect!

We arrived on Friday evening and got situated in our cabin, Savo.

Maisie was excited that this was where we'd be staying, because it was one of the boys' cabins last summer when she was a Salolampi camper!

She was also excited in general to be returning. She took a lot of pride in showing us around - this was my cabin, this was where we hung up our swimsuits to dry, this is where I had class. It was great to see how excited she was about Salolampi!

Friday night was pretty laid back - we just hung out and played games in the main dining hall as we waited for the families to arrive. There was fresh-baked pulla and lots of coffee and tea, so the adults chatted and snacked, and the kids played outside.

Saturday morning was sunny and warm! After breakfast, some of us decided to check out the hiking trails.

The trails are well-maintained, nice and flat, and made for a beautiful walk through the woods - even for little legs! Ella and I were joined on our hike by her B.F.F. Lillian, Lillian's little brother Oliver, their mom and dad Tonya and Reid, and Reid's mom Roxy.

Roxy is a member of the Minnesota Mycological society, and a naturalist, so she knew a lot about all the different things we were seeing in the woods! Ella especially enjoyed learning about some of the different kinds of mushrooms that were growing out there.

Roxy found a lot of a kind called "chaga" that grows on birch trees. It looks like it's charred on the outside, but when you break it off it's orangey-yellow. She said you use it to make a very healthful tea - just pour hot water over it. We all learned a lot from her!

There was time for a few photo ops...

And then we were back at camp. Time for some Finnish schoolyard games!

Maisie, it turns out, is aces at kyykkä!

Check out the arm on her!

While Maisie and I played, Ella and her friends (with parental guidance) went down to the beach.

They found all kinds of cool shells, and generally had a good time until someone threw a rock at someone else, which put an end to the beachy fun. Lunch, naps, and sauna followed.

Later in the evening, Maisie and I headed down to the beach with some of the older kids.

We found shells, driftwood, and even some bleached bones that we thought might be from a deer. When it started to get dark, we headed back up to the main dining hall for dessert, tea, and silly selfies.

Soon the little ones went to bed, while the older kids stayed up and watched movies.

Sunday morning it was time to hit the road and head back to real life. Sad! We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend at Salolampi. Maisie's more excited than ever for her next summer session (two weeks!) and Ella wants to go now, too!

We can't wait to go back!

Sunny Sunday

It's another beautiful spring day here in Minneapolis... 40 degrees and rainy! What the heck. When summer finally comes, it's going to be such a shock to everyone!

Fortunately, we've had a few beautifully springy days here and there. This past Sunday was absolutely gorgeous - 75 and sunny! It was the perfect day to be outside. The girls played outside almost all day, while I relaxed in the hammock.

At one point, Aaron and Maisie went to run an errand. Ella wanted to stay home and play, so she and I stayed outside, me still in the hammock. It wasn't too long before I had some company, though!

She climbed in there with me, laid back, and enjoyed swinging gently in the sun.

Well, for about a minute. Then it was time to start making silly faces for the camera!

Silly pictures were followed by her jumping off and digging in a little dirt pile. She poured water into the dirt to make mud, then made up a game that involved throwing it at me! I was still in the hammock so I tried to wrap it around myself, but she managed to get the mud in anyway. I climbed out to brush the mud off while she laughed hysterically. "I got the mud on you! It looks like poop! I get two points!!"

Then, to add insult to injury, she got in the hammock and told me I couldn't swing anymore because I had to push her.

So I pushed her for a while, until she was ready to go in for a much-needed bath.

It was a beautiful way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Willie the Millipede

This winter is really really reluctant to give up its hold on us. Every time I think it's finally over... we get another round.

Thursday April 3.

Today we're looking at a high of 38, but it was only 28 this morning at the bus stop... with a wind chill of 10. Tomorrow's forecast says "chilly with snow and rain." SNOW!

One side effect of the never-ending winter is that when it does warm up outside, however briefly, everyone immediately runs out to take advantage of the sun and warmth... and we're no exception! As you may remember, Maisie loved biking last year, but never really got the hang of it on her own - she either rode on the trailbike behind me, or used training wheels. This year it's a different story!

She worked and worked and worked at it until she mastered the art of the two-wheel bike! She was bound and determined to figure it out, and didn't stop until she got there. Now it's all she wants to do.

Saturday wasn't the nicest day ever - overcast and maybe in the 50s or low 60s - but it definitely felt nice compared to where our weather's been. So when we got home from Girl Scouts and Suomi-koulu, the girls headed outside to play almost immediately. They rode their bikes around the block (Ella's doing great on her two-wheeler with training wheels) and played volleyball and soccer with the neighbor kids. After a couple hours of that (seriously, HOURS), they ended up in the backyard where they climbed trees, dug holes, made mud, and found some little bug friends!

First the girls found a roly-poly, which they attempted to sneak into the house so they could keep it as a pet. I explained that it wouldn't be happy in the house - we didn't know what it eats, and the cats might get it, so we needed to put it back outside. They reluctantly complied... but we had to have the conversation again when they found a little millipede.

They really, really, really wanted to bring the millipede inside to keep as a pet of their own. They even named it Willie! Ella especially was unhappy when I said no way, absolutely not, Willie needs to stay outside. So I suggested we write reports about millipedes that they could take to the Science Museum to get points at the Collectors Corner, and that seemed to make everything better.

You may remember that Maisie did this once before, with her pine cones poster. She's also brought in small fossils that she found on the Mississippi River banks. Ella hadn't traded before at the Collectors Corner, so she was excited to get started!

The next morning the girls worked on their reports, using their observations and information we learned from a U of MN Extension website.

Maisie's had more text...



Millipedes have 400 legs. They curl up when they are scared. They are small. They eat leafs that are falling apart. You find them in damp places. They are dark brawn. from Maisie


while Ella mostly drew pictures, and then told me what to write for the captions.

They are long and skinny. They eat crumbly leaves and grass. They curl up and they go straight. This millepede is on my hand.

bonus pic, with Ella's new short haircut

At the Collectors Corner, the Science Museum staff asked the girls a bunch of questions about millipedes and their presentations... What kind of animal is it? How do you know it's not a bird or a mammal? Does it have a skeleton? How did you learn about it? Where do they live? Why does it curl up when it gets scared? The girls did great, and were each awarded 2,500 points. They now busy planning their next reports, so they can get more points!

We had plans to go to Gramma Liisa's house for lunch, but we had a little time to stay and play at the museum. I think the highlight for Maisie was getting to be the helper at the Science Live! show about cryogenics.

She's holding a ball and describing its properties (soft, squishy, bouncy) before it takes a trip to "Liquid Nitrogenland."

It was a great weekend of outdoor learning. I was (am!) so proud of how hard they worked on their reports. The Collectors Corner is such a cool resource, and a great way to get kids interested and motivated in learning about nature and science!

Vacation: Duluth

This past Monday, May 6, Maisie had the day off school for one of those random record-keeping or teacher in-service days. I figured I might as well give myself the day off, too. So we headed up north to Duluth, where we'd made a reservation at one of the girls' favorite places - Edgewater Resort & Waterpark. We stayed there Saturday through Monday.

We had a blast playing in the water park! You'll have to take my word for it, though - I didn't manage to take any pictures.

I did manage to get some pictures on Sunday afternoon, though, when we took a break from playing in the water to head down to Canal Park, which is a semi-touristy area right on the waterfront.

 One of Duluth's unique attractions is the aerial lift bridge. When a ship needs to come through that's too tall for the bridge, instead of it breaking in the middle and the two halves pulling up, the whole bottom part lifts straight up!


Ella as "Balance Panda"

So first, of course, we had to watch the bridge go up and down as a ship came through. It was kind of chilly, though, so once the bridge was on its way back down, we headed indoors to the Lake Superior Maritime Museum, which is far more interesting than I thought it would be. It presents the history of shipping on the Great Lakes. So on the top level, there's telescopes so you can watch the ships come in, and some fun hands-on exhibits.

Shipping on Lake Superior is not without its tragedies, of course. The museum displays multiple artifacts that have been recovered from shipwrecks... including this very famous wreck.

Once we'd had our fill of the museum, we went down to the lakeside to climb on rocks and to look for additions to our rock collection!

There's a wooden lakewalk that goes quite a ways down the length of the waterfront, and then these HUGE boulders all piled from the lakewalk to the shore that are oh-so-tempting to climb on.

See? really huge!

Some of the rocks have these holes drilled in them. I wasn't sure what they were from at first, but I think I figured it out.

A sign said that the rocks were from when MN-DOT was finishing Interstate 35's route through the east side of Duluth. So my guess is that the holes were drilled for blasting through the hillsides. What do you think?

As we walked, we all looked at the little rocks, too, for interesting additions to our rock collection. We found a LOT of different rocks (and I emptied a lot of rocks out of the girls' pockets!). Here are the ones we ended up bringing home:

Clockwise from the top: sea glass, gabbro, an agate!, quartz that might reveal some hematite bands if we take a rock hammer to it (a.k.a. stealth agate!!), red & black basalt? rhyolite, and either basalt or flint.

Geology rocks!

We headed back on Monday after a fun, relaxing long weekend. And for all the fun we had at the water park, Maisie and Ella both said that their favorite part of the trip was climbing on the rocks. It was a great time, and we're already planning our next Duluth adventure.

Camp Lakamaga

I think I've mentioned here that Maisie joined Girl Scouts, right? Maybe?

Maisie joined the Girl Scouts this year! She's a Daisy, which is the level for girls in Kindergarten and first grade. She really enjoys it. They meet twice a month and pretty much just do craft projects. Sometimes they do other things, too - there was a trip to the zoo for Scout Day, cookie sales, and caroling at a nursing home this year. This past Saturday, we had another special adventure: all the troops from around Lake Nokomis were invited to Camp Lakamaga for the 2013 "Encampment." (I don't think I'd ever seen the word "encampment" before this past weekend, but Google tells me it's a legit word that means "a place with temporary accomodations, usually huts or tents, typically for troops or nomads." So there you go: encampment!)



"Go Confidently in the Direction of your Dreams" - as you leave the dining hall

 Some troops of older girls spent Friday and Saturday night there, but for us, it was just a one-day activity. We arrived bright and early, ready for our scheduled fishing activity at 9:00.

Unfortunately, the weather didn't really cooperate... so the girls just played outside for like an hour and a half instead.

It was a LOT of playing outside!

Then we had a snack and played outside some more, until we headed up to the dining hall for lunch at 12:30.

There was a little display of old Girl Scouting artifacts just outside the dining hall, which included this little diorama. I liked the gigantic coffee pot and the adorably tiny badger. So cute!

They also had posted the Girl Scout Law. So just in case you were wondering, here it is:

"I will do my best to be:
Honest and fair,
Friendly and helpful,
Considerate and caring,
Courageous and strong, and
Responsible for what I say and do,
And to
respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place, and
be a sister to every Girl Scout."

Admirable goals, I think.
So - waiting for lunch to be ready, and then waiting for our turn to eat, was booooooring.

We passed the time by making faces and taking silly pictures.

After lunch, the girls had a dance class, which was going to be followed by an arts & crafts activity. But by 2:00, mid-dance, it was pretty clear that our Daisies were starting to wilt. It was a long day!

The camp staff had told us to each bring one item of clothing that they'd silkscreen the camp's logo on. So while the troop was dancing I headed over to the Old Lodge, which had the arts & crafts studio, to pick up our troop's silkscreened items. They weren't quite done, so I hung around for a few minutes while they finished our silkscreens. I saw some cool things posted in the cabin, and asked the staffer about them and about the camp's history.

She told me that Camp Lakamaga has been around since the mid to late '50s. The Old Lodge, the cabin we were in, was one of the oldest buildings at the camp. I'd figured that out from this piece of birchbark nailed to the doorframe... it's older than I am!

If you can't quite make it out, it says "Troop Stay Staff 1965" and then lists names. They're mostly silly nicknames - "Cutter" and "Needles" and "Sparky" and so on. (Cutter and Needles? Man, that is one tough Girl Scout troop.) But I think it's really neat that it's still up there from 1965.

The cabin is also ringed with these square tiles that have designs in the middle of them, each with the name of a country. The staffer said that they're also from the 1960's, and are Girl Scout or Girl Guide insignias from the different countries' girls who'd visited Camp Lakamaga.

Obviously I had to take a picture of the Suomi Finland one!

Anyway, after dance class, Maisie and I headed home. A few girls stayed, but I think most of the other Daisies in her troop left then, too. It was a long day already, and almost an hour's drive back to Minneapolis. I was pretty wiped out, and I hadn't even danced or sledded!

Maisie had a lot of fun, and proudly wore her silk-screened Encampment shirt to school on Monday. I don't know how long she's going to want to stay in Girl Scouts, but for now, she really loves it.

Weekend update - Salolampi edition!

This weekend we did something different from our usual trips around town to the zoo or to the museum. Along with several other families from Suomi-Koulu, the Finnish language school, we all went to Salolampi, the Concordia Language Village's Finnish language village, for the weekend!

This was in our cabin. Love it!

Salolampi is just outside Bemidji, about a four hour drive from Minneapolis. And while I thought that we had snow... I had no idea just how much snow they still had! We had plans for nature walks, and Ella wanted to climb trees... instead, the girls spent a ton of time sledding and building a snowman and looking for animal tracks and just generally having as much fun in the snow as possible.



Spring in Bemidji

So, I have two stories to tell from the weekend. The first is kind of scary. SPOILER ALERT: everyone is fine.

So, some of you know that Maisie's had allergic reactions to tree nuts before. We had her tested and nothing came up, but her pediatrician advised us to err on the side of caution and avoid nuts, so that's what we've done. She knows that she's allergic to nuts, and we put it on all her health forms. So when we were preparing for this trip, I told our group's leader about her allergy, so it'd get passed along to the kitchen staff. Well, there was a slight communication breakdown, and at dinner on Friday night, Maisie turned to Aaron and said, "this cake is making my mouth all itchy." I went to the kitchen to ask about ingredients, and turns out the cake had ground hazelnuts in it. GAH!

Fortunately, there is a nurse on-site whenever there are kids at the camp, so she came over from Waldsee (the German village) right away with some Benadryl, which took care of Maisie's itchy mouth, tongue, and throat. Also fortunately, the reaction never got worse... there was no swelling or trouble breathing. The nurse gave us another Benadryl just in case (never needed it), and we checked with the staff about any other food items on the menu with stealth nuts (Maisie had to skip the apple cake Saturday night, and the muesli on Sunday morning).

I talked to our pediatrician this morning, who said that allergy panels can be inaccurate, and this third reaction pretty much confirms the allergy. He called in a prescription for an epi-pen in case of a severe reaction (like trouble breathing), and confirmed that Benadryl's a good choice for the milder reactions (itchy mouth but no swelling). So, here we are now, in food allergy land! Friday night was scary, but it's not the end of the world, and it definitely could be worse. Tree nuts are pretty easily avoided, as opposed to allergies like egg or milk protein, and we're now prepared just in case she does get accidentally exposed. And the lovely camp nurse said that a lot of children outgrow allergies, so this might not even be something she has to deal with her whole life.

(I seriously wanted to hug the nurse. She was so good with Maisie, and very reassuring and calm with panicky me. Yay for nurses!)
Now, here's the fun second story. All day Saturday, the girls were clamoring to go SAUNA! Salolampi has two saunas: an electric one in the main building, and a more traditional one with a wood-burning stove out in the woods. On Saturday afternoon we heard that the wood-burning sauna was hot, so we put on our swimsuits and made the trek through the woods to go sauna!

Whoever said it was hot wasn't kidding - it was up to 160 in there, and they kept throwing water on for lisää löyly (more steam), making it even hotter on the top bench! It was a nice, big sauna - we had five adults and six kids all hanging out in there, relaxing and being kind of silly. We started talking about jumping into and rolling around in the snow, as you do when you're in a steamy hot sauna in the snowy woods. Eventually, Maisie and I decided to take the plunge! We stood on the bottom step of the porch, held hands, counted 1, 2, 3... JUMP! We landed on our butts in the snow.

We were the first to do it, and that was my only snow-jump, but eventually all the grownups and all but the littlest kids did it too. Maisie and one other mom made snow angels, and one mom rolled and rolled around. It was hilarious and so fun! Maisie went in the snow four times, for which everyone said she was rohkea (brave). The walk back through the snowy woods was lovely, too. We'd gotten cold on the way to the sauna, but we'd gotten so heated up that the cold air and snow just felt nicely cool and refreshing. It was wonderful!

So those are our two big stories from our Salolampi weekend. When we weren't going sauna or having/panicking over allergic reactions, the girls were doing crafts (Maisie's now a REAL weaver!), and playing with other kids, indoors and out. Maisie and Ella each met and bonded with a girl just about her own age, which was quite sweet. We also ate a TON of yummy Finnish food, marveled at all the stars, and just generally enjoyed being together, out in the woods and off the grid for a weekend.

Easter at the Zoo!

Ah, springtime. Sun and green grass and trees budding and flowers growing. Isn't it great?

Well, yeah, unless it's Minnesota... in which case it's some snow melting, but a high temperature of 34 degrees. Brr!

On Easter, we met some friends at the Minnesota Zoo. We'd all planned to go out to their family farm exhibit to check out the zoo babies, but brrr!

We did make it as far outside as the grizzly bears with our friends. We got to see one of the zookeepers adding fish to their pond. He said the bears would probably wake up and eat the fish, but they were more interested in snoozing than snacking.

Around lunchtime/naptime our friends headed home, so we bundled up and set off to check out the farm babies at the family farm. It was a chilly walk, but once we got there, it was super fun. We walked through the different barns and saw piglets, ducklings, lambs, and chicken eggs hatching.

We had to feed the goats, of course. There was a volunteer hanging around in the goat yard area, who told us that the girls could come in and brush the goats. YAY!!!! This was apparently their fondest wish. Who knew?!? So we went off to brush goats.

The goats were super friendly, and enjoyed being brushed. But they were also REALLY interested in my phone. Every time I tried to take a pic of the girls brushing the goats...

Get off me!!

..someone would think that the phone was edible, and needed checking out.



What's that in your hand? Mind if I take a look?



This goat here actually jumped up on me like a dog just a moment after I took this - he put his front hooves up on my chest to check out my phone! Down boy!!



A little privacy please?



This goat was surprisingly compliant about posing for a pic while Ella brushed him. Hmmm, I wonder why? Well, see how her tail's up? Turns out that means she's about to poop.

Anyway, the girls had a ton of fun brushing the goats. It was a long day at the zoo (we were there until almost 2:00!) but really, really fun. We saw a lot of baby animals (Bactrian camel and sloth, in addition to the farm babies) and despite the weather, a lovely time was had by all.

A goat was trying to knock me down while I took this; that's why it's skewed.