Take me out to the ballgame

Last week, thanks to my generous employer, I won 4 tickets to Saturday's Twins game! I thought it would be really fun for me and Aaron to take the girls to their first baseball game - it was a noon game, so the timing was right, and it was free, so if they got bored or antsy we could just leave without having wasted money on tickets. I was really looking forward to it!

Maisie, however, had different ideas. "Baseball is boring," she said, and refused to go. So I invited Auntie Laura and Dylan to join me and Ella at the game instead!

The four of us took the train to Target Field. It's super convenient - it's the last stop and lets you off right outside the gate. Between the train ride and getting to snuggle up with Dylan, Ella was having a blast already!

We arrived at the ballpark at 11:50 to an announcement of a rain delay. It wasn't raining too hard, so we decided to wander around a little while we waited it out. Laura, Dylan, and I ate turkey sandwiches, and then we went to a store to shop for Twins gear... Dylan needed a cool hat like Ella's, and they both decided they needed giant foam fingers.

There was music on the PA, and the cameras were showing people dancing in the stands. Dylan decided that he had to get on TV. So he and Laura headed down into the stands to dance and try and get the cameras' attention.

Mission accomplished! The giant fingers worked, or something. Just a moment after I took this picture I went down to ask Ella not to sit on the stairs. Then the cameras caught all of us! I immediately started dancing like a fool (because hello, camera!) and we all waved. It was awesome.

After that, Laura and Dylan went to go try their luck to get on camera again in a different part of the stadium. While they did that, Ella and I had a corn dog...

And got her face painted.

We'd just picked up some cotton candy when we found Laura & Dylan again, so we all headed up to our seats. We were actually sitting under a big awning, so they were dry! So we decided to wait out the rain delay from the comfort of section 325, row 11.

This section is called "skyline view" - rather lovely, as you can see, even on a gray, rainy day. And for being so high up, we actually had a pretty good view of the field.

Target Field is pretty remarkable in that respect. I've had good seats and less-good seats there, but never an obstructed view or even a difficult sight line. It's really well built, especially when compared to the awfulness that it baseball at the Metrodome.

So finally, after a two and a half-hour delay... it was baseball time!

After all that time, the game itself was pretty anti-climactic. The first three innings were scoreless, and went fast. The big excitement was dancing to the music they played for the different batters.

They really liked dancing to the music.

We ended up staying through the end of the 4th inning. It was cold and damp, the Twins were down 2 runs, and we'd been there for over four hours at that point. We were all ready to head on home.

But despite the delays and the disappointing performance, it was a fun fun day with Laura and Dylan. We'll definitely do it again... and hopefully this time it'll be sunny.

State Fair 2013

This is going to be a very picture-heavy post... it's a recap of our visits to the State Fair!

Yes, I said visits! On Friday, Aaron went off to visit Chris and Kim in Portland for the weekend. He had an early flight, but the girls are early risers anyway, so it was no big deal for us to see him to the train on time. Once we were there, the girls said, "STATE FAIR!!!!" So off we went! And before long, Gramma Liisa joined us there.

We did some of our usual things that we love to do at the fair. We rode the carousel - one of the girls' favorite rides.

I think it won't be long before they're too old for the carousel at the Fair, and it'll make me a little sad. It's been one of their favorites year after year.

We saw the animals. Ella called these "ghost sheep."

We also visited the Miracle of Birth center, the cows, and the bunnies. We saw a sheep being sheared - neither the girls nor the sheep particularly liked that. They did like the calf, the ducklings, and the piglets at the Miracle of Birth center - they got to pet the one day-old piglet, which was adorable.

And we ate ice cream, because it was a toasty hot day!

We also had cheese curds, roasted corn, skin-on fries, cotton candy, and Spring Grove soda. Yum!!

Then on Saturday, we were back - this time with Laura and Dylan!!

We really were this excited about it!

There were multiple trips down the giant slide -

It's difficult to get a good picture of someone coming down the slide, so this'll have to do! Laura rode with Ella, and Maisie and Dylan rode together. The giant slide is SO fun. It says it's the best ride at the fair, and I'd have to agree.

After that, we went to the bird show. Ella got kind of antsy, though. So while Laura, Dylan, and Maisie watched the raptors, Ella and I took a little walk over to the poultry barns. She loved the chickens and spotted a lot of eggs in their little pens.

She was kind of grossed out by the turkeys' big wattles, though.

Seriously. Do wild turkeys have these? This must be something that people have bred for, right? I can't imagine this working very well in the wild.

We also saw this puffed-up guy in the breeding pen with two... hens? I don't know what a female turkey's called.

But he was clearly showing off. It was the turkey equivalent of Hey pretty laydeeez!! 

After a trip through the poultry barn, what's better than a turkey sandwich? (Does anyone else think it's a little weird that the Giant Turkey Sandwich stand is right by the poultry barn?)

Dylan was like, "this could be an ad for the fair!" Which, I must say I agree. Cute, happy kid with a turkey sandwich and an Icee, outside the DNR building, wearing a John Deere visor? Love it!

We relaxed in the shade and enjoyed our turkey sandwiches (me, Laura, Dylan, Maisie) and corn dogs (Ella).

After lunch, it was getting HOT! So it was off to the river raft ride.

I rode with the kids while Laura held our bags. There was a long line... but it was worth it. We all got SOAKED. So fun!

After the river ride, Dylan wanted to check out the lumberjack show. So Laura took him and Maisie, while Ella and I went to the Butterfly House (which Maisie Did. Not. Want. to visit.)

The butterfly house is always great for pictures. Can you tell how hot it was? No breeze and lots of people made for a sweaty butterfly experience.

Sweaty but very fun.

The butterfly house was followed by rides at the Kidway, and then the parade and a snack of bomb pops.

Then it was off to the Agriculture/Horticulture building. It sounds kind of hokey, but I really like this building. There's big veggies, crop art, Christmas trees, bees and honey... it's all pretty interesting, really.

Biggest sugar beet: 15.5 pounds!

The average beet is 3-4 lbs., so this one really was a monster.

Corn, for Grandma Jo:

The crop art tends to have a liberal/progressive bent, for some reason. Last year there were a ton of "Vote No" pro-same-sex marriage art pieces; this scarecrow fits right in.

She is scary, wouldn't you agree? ;)

We also checked out the bees and honey, and some really cool Dr. Seuss-themed flower arrangements. But as lovely and interesting as the Ag/Horticulture exhibits are, the building was roasty toasty. So after that, we went out to the Produce Exchange stand for peaches and a little sit-down in the shade.

We also got cream cheese wontons and egg rolls - it was getting later in the day, and we'd been doing almost nothing but walking, so we were ready for some more real food!

There were some intense negotiations over the division of wontons and rolls, as you can see.

The day was getting along, it was hot, and there were people as far as the eye could see. So we decided that we were just about done. We made our way back through the crowds, following Laura and Dylan.

After a quick tour through the grandstand and a stop for Sweet Martha's, we headed for home. When we got home we were tired and dirty, and I was a little sunburned. (ouch!) But it was a wonderful day. We'd had so much fun with Auntie Laura and Dylan, and with Gramma Liisa the day before. (And that long cool shower felt so nice after I put the girls to bed!)

We love the State Fair!!

Powderhorn Park Art Fair

There was a lot going on this weekend - opening of the Fringe festival, a birthday party for Maisie, and three separate art fairs! We chose to go to art fair at Powderhorn Park, which is 1) not half as crowded as the ones in Loring Park and Uptown, and 2) an easy six-block walk or bike ride from our house.

The girls and I went on Saturday morning and met up with friends - Beatrix, with her parents Bethany and Patrick, and Rebecca. It was a lovely morning.

Beatrix is exactly in between Maisie & Ella in age, so the three of them can play together really well. She also has curly blond hair and big blue eyes. At one point one of the vendors clearly thought they were all sisters, and asked me "Are they all just a year apart??" Bethany joked that I should've answered "Yeah, turns out that breastfeeding is not reliable birth control."

Our little group walked around the lake, checking out the vendors and taking turns keeping an eye on the kids. The girls took full advantage of the fair food offerings, and ate ice cream, popcorn, chocolate mini donuts, corn on the cob, and corn dogs. (I had a gyro, yum yum yum!)

We caught a performance from Open Eye Figure Theater...

before we headed to our respective homes for naps.

On Sunday morning, Aaron took Maisie to a birthday party at the Como Pool, which left Ella and me to our own devices. I nixed her first activity suggestion ("Go to the Mall of the 'Merica and ride on rides!!!"), so we jointly decided to head back to the art fair.

The first thing she wanted to do was to get some corn on the cob, and who am I to argue with that?

While she ate, we sat by the lake and watched the wildlife. We saw a turtle poke its nose out of the lake, snails bobbing around, a few flashes of fish (it's stocked with crappies, sunnies, and catfish), and of course plenty of birds. In addition to the usual ducks (mallards and cormorants) that live there, there was a pretty big group of Canada geese (maybe 12?) that hadn't been there on Saturday. So we watched the geese and the ducks. We saw a group of 2 female ducks that had three ducklings - we'd seen them on Saturday too, and joked that these lesbian ducks had chosen a very friendly park in which to raise their children. :) Sunday morning was quieter, so Ella and I could hear the ducklings' little peeps as they called to their moms.

At one point the geese started getting REALLY interested in Ella's corn...

They sidled up a lot closer to us than we were expecting. It was a little nerve-wracking, to be honest - I think of those geese as kind of nasty, and they were pretty big birds! I was happy when they finally decided to go for a swim and leave us alone.

Ella and I walked around a bit and took our time exploring the booths. When we made it back to the south side of the park, we saw that Open Eye was getting set up for another performance! Yay!

So we found a place to sit and wait for the show to start. We passed the time by eating ice cream (Ella) and potato salad (me), and playing with a new doll I'd bought her from one of the vendors. Oh, and taking selfies, of course.

After the puppet show, I wanted to walk around a bit more, but Ella was ready to head home, so home we went. Maisie and Aaron still weren't back from the birthday party, so Ella asked me to put on a show for her. She said she wanted to skip her nap, and just rest on the couch a little bit. Then this happened...

The art fair was very fun. It made for a great summer weekend!

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Like everyone, I was horrified when I learned about Friday's school shooting in Newtown, CT. I couldn't believe it - and I still kind of can't. It's just too horrifying.

For better or for worse, I was at a CLE on Friday afternoon. It was one of the Hennepin County Bar Association's Law and Literature series - really excellent CLEs, by the way. We were discussing Pearl S. Buck's story John John Chinaman, which tells the story of John Lim, the son of Chinese immigrants living in a small midwestern town immediately prior to WWII. John lives with his pregnant wife, a recent immigrant from China, and his father. His conflicts are much what you might expect - he was born in the U.S. and is American, but isn't accepted as a "real American" by the town. He was teased as a boy, and continues to be teased and looked down on as an adult. His father worries about him, and he worries about his unborn child.

In the story, the mayor of the town is a WWI veteran who lived through some real horrors fighting in France. When he gets word of a draft, he is appalled by the thought that the young men of his town may have to live through something similar to what he had to endure.

I won't give away anything else in case anyone wants to read the story (because I don't know how to do hidden text in blogger). It's a great short story; if anyone wants to read it, let me know. I can email you the pdf we got for the CLE.

Anyway, so the CLE was for "elimination of bias" credits, so those are the issues we discussed - what John, his wife, and his father faced in their town, not being accepted as "real Americans," and to what degree those biases are still present today. But the theme that really hit home for me was how everyone was struggling to keep their loved ones safe. John's father tries to protect John; John tries to protect his wife and unborn child; the mayor tries to protect the young men in his town. But despite these efforts, John and his wife were teased and harassed, and young men were sent off to war. Ultimately, there's very little we can do, to keep our loved ones safe.

On Friday afternoon... this was not a great theme for me. I kept starting to cry, and having to leave the room, then pulling myself together to go back in for another round. So glad I only needed one hour's worth of credit - I left at the mid-afternoon break.

So anyway. After all that, I felt like we needed something fun and a little indulgent, with no TVs around, so we went to the Global Market. Apparently we weren't the only ones with that thought, because the Family Friday was super crowded.

Maisie gets ALL the beverages



Cream cheese wontons from Pham's Deli



Mushroom pizza from Jakeeno's... yum!


We ate wontons and pizza, and danced to the wonderful Roe Family Singers. It was a good way to end an awful day.

We haven't told the girls about the shooting, by the way. We don't watch the news with them in the room, and I didn't want to bring it up. I don't think Maisie needs to know yet. I know, though, that she may hear about it from other kids. So this morning I told her that if she hears someone talking about something they saw on the news, and has questions or wants to talk about it, to come to me or Aaron and we'll talk about it with her. I'm interested to hear how other people are handling this with their kids, though - let me know your thoughts.

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We had a lovely day with a traditional dinner over at Grandma Liisa's house. The girls especially had a great time - they played and played and played.

This post is about what we did earlier in the day, though!

A few years back, I was trying to tell Maisie about Thanksgiving and the idea of thankfulness. Turns out it's kind of abstract, and was a little difficult for her to grasp. So I stole an idea from some friends - to make the idea of 'thankfulness' more tangible for her, we'd do something to demonstrate it. We made cookies for the firefighters at the station nearest our house!

So now, every year on Thanksgiving morning, that's what we do - make cookies and then bring them to the firefighters at the station house nearest us, to say "thank you for helping to keep us safe." We've had mixed results with this project. Sometimes Maisie will get shy, and doesn't want to talk to anyone; one year the firefighters were out on a call when we got there. But this year it was a home run.

When we showed up with the cookies (oatmeal-M&M, if you were wondering), the firefighters there (yay!), and Maisie and Ella were both in great moods. So when the firefighter who answered the door asked the girls if they wanted to see the trucks, they said YES!

And THEN! The doors to the two engines were open. And when the girls asked if they could go inside, she said yes!



yeah, that's a sword....

 They climbed in and out and all over, asking lots of great questions. What is this hose for? (sucking up exhaust when we turn the trucks on) What's in there? (our tools - we can cut someone out of anything with these) What do these switches do? (controls the pressure for the hose) The firefighter showing us around was incredibly patient and answered all of the girls' questions.



Listening to explanations of equipment



Looking at how they open the garage doors


The firefighters were super friendly. They really seemed to appreciate the cookies and were so gracious about showing the girls around. They even gave the girls fire safety coloring books when we were leaving! It was so cool. I thought it was neat, too, that the firefighter who answered the door and showed us around was a woman - often we see "firefighter" as synonymous with "fireman" and that isn't the case!

It was so fun that Maisie wants to make them cookies again on Valentine's Day. :)

And because it bears repeating... thank you, Minneapolis Fire Department and fire departments everywhere, for helping keep us safe!

Pack a lunch!

For the past three years, we packed Maisie's lunch every school day. This year, with starting kindergarten at a public school, she has the option of hot lunch! So exciting! But she had hot lunch exactly once. And aside from that one day, it's been back to packing her lunch.

For some reason, this packing of lunch chore seems a lot more onerous than it did in years past. I'm not sure why - there's actually fewer restrictions on the food she can bring than before. (Her school is peanut-free, whereas last year they had to keep the classroom free of peanuts, tree nuts, and eggs.) Maybe it's because her school day starts so much earlier? (6:55 a.m. bus pickup, as opposed to Aaron driving her to school for an 8:45 start time.) Maybe she's gotten pickier? Maybe because I know I wouldn't have to do it if she'd just eat hot lunch?!? Whatever the reason, packing her lunch is not fun and exciting, and often led to me and/or Aaron staring at the fridge and cupboards, wondering what on earth we'd send in her lunch. We tried to get her to pack it, but that didn't work either - she'd choose grapes, applesauce, and crackers, and not have a balance. So in an effort to simplify things and pack lunches she'd actually eat, I came up with a chart.

ARGH! I just spent a bunch of time trying to figure out how to upload it here, and I can't. GRR! So I will tell you about it. It has six columns and four rows. The left-most column has the following pictures, all of which I found online by googling for free clip art of food.



Vegetables





Fruit




Grains (that's pasta and cereal above the bread)




Protein

So in the evening, Maisie and I will pack her lunch together. She chooses one item from each category, and checks it off as it's completed. I like to think it's helping her learn about a balanced diet, which it may be. I know, though, it's made packing a lunch a LOT easier!

So, what does she eat? The most common lunch combination is grapes, sugar snap peas, cheese and turkey slices, and Ritz crackers. It's not the most exciting lunch in the world, but she likes it and eats everything. Single-category foods are easiest for her to choose: protein is often an egg, string cheese, or turkey slices. The vegetable is either snap peas or baby carrots. (Although she asked for tomato soup once!) Fruit is usually applesauce or grapes. Grain is usually Ritz crackers. Maisie and Ella are both absolutely NUTS about Ritz crackers! Goldfish are good, too, or a little container of cereal - strawberry Life is a favorite.

We do get some combos that allow her to check off more than one category: black bean quesadillas, cut into wedges (grain and protein); spaghetti with marinara (grain and veg); mac & cheese (protein, grain); chicken fried rice (grain and protein); sun butter and jam sandwiches (protein, fruit, grain); cheese pizza (protein, veg, grain); broccoli quiche (protein and veg). As you can probably tell, except for the quesadillas and sandwiches, these are usually leftovers of whatever was for dinner the night before. We will put the portion in her thermos at night, in the fridge, then heat it up in the morning so it's still warm at lunchtime. If we aren't sending something hot then the whole business gets packed the night before, so it's ready to grab & go in the morning.

Anyway, so there you go! It's no super genius idea that'll revolutionize packing a lunch, but it's how we do it. We definitely don't have the beautiful Bento lunch art, but who has time for that anyway? Not this family! So this is our method, and it's made the whole lunch business a lot easier for us. Hopefully others will find it useful too!

Midtown Global Market

Midtown Global Market is an amazing place. Built in an old Sears that stood abandoned for years and years, it has multiple restaurants and shops, all locally owned. It's really cool and one of our favorite places in Minneapolis.

Juusto - Finnish Cheese - at Cafe Finspang

We especially like going there on Fridays, when they have Family night. I meet Aaron & the girls there after work. We don't have to cook, the girls get to run around and dance - everybody enjoys it.

The girls like to get cream cheese wontons and chicken fried rice from Pham's, a Vietnamese deli. They also have excellent spring rolls, but Maisie and Ella are really cream cheese wonton lovers.

My favorite place to eat these days is the Left Handed Cook, which serves a sort of fusion of Asian food and comfort food. I really like their bop bowls, which are rice, greens, and meat served in a takeout container with a soft fried egg. SO GOOD.

 This picture is upside down for some reason! It looks like a cinnamon roll but was actually the Left Handed Cook's special on Friday, porchetta. It came with a fried green tomato, and a side of heirloom tomato-arugula salad. SO GOOD!! The girls also really like Left Handed Cook's edamame so I usually get them a side of edamame to share.



Cupcakes at Salty Tart



Aaron got his dinner from Andy's Garage, a 50's-style diner. He had a wild rice-turkey burger, awesome fries, and then a chocolate shake (which he split with the girls, naturally - even though they'd had cupcakes from Salty Tart!).

 After the girls eat, they dance and dance (which usually involves running in circles) to whatever band is playing that night. 

I think that the Global Market is a really special place. If you haven't been there, go! There's noplace like it in Minneapolis.



Yes, that says "local artisan prosciutto" and "local artisan pancetta" - from Grass Roots Gourmet