Maisie is 9!

Last week was Maisie’s 9^th birthday!

Instead of a friends party this year, she asked to go up north to The Edge. The Edgewater is a hotel with a waterpark that she and Ella love! Happily, her BFF Ophelia was able to come with us. It was a quick trip – the girls were off school on Friday the 30^th, so we went up in the morning, hunted for agates on the shore of Lake Superior...

watched the bridge go up, and then got an early lunch at Grandma's.

Lunch complete with hot chocolate - it's colder by the lake!

By noon we were swimming and playing in the waterpark!

Ella, Maisie, Tiki Tom, and Ophelia

Saturday morning the girls got up early. After a quick breakfast, it was back to the waterpark for a few hours, before it was time to head back to Minneapolis for trick or treating. We had so much fun at the Edge with Ophelia. It was a great alternative to a birthday party!

Maisie’s actual birthday was on a Tuesday, so we went to dinner at her favorite restaurant (a buffet place on Lake Street) with Gramma Liisa. Our server caught wind of the birthday, and they brought her out a little dessert plate with the most amazing candle! 

It looked like a firework at first, and then opened up to reveal a flower, with a little candle on each petal.

It was so cool. Maisie was completely delighted!

Then this weekend, we had dinner with Auntie Laura, Dylan, and Dan at their house, which was awesomely fun. Check out the Portal cake they made for her – she loved it!

At 9, Maisie is just a great person. She loves Pokemon, anime, her family, koalas, reading, drawing, and cooking. She’s beginning to act a little tween-y sometimes, but still loves to snuggle and be read to.

At Convergence 2015 - she loved this person's cosplay of Lucy from Fairy Tale, a favorite anime.

She’s smart and funny, a caring friend, and a fierce fencer.

She told me the other day that she’s glad that I’m her mom. I told her that I’m glad she’s my kid, and it’s true! She’s a wonderful person and I can’t wait to see who she grows up to be.

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!

Happy new year!

Belated happy new year, but the wishes are no less sincere for being late :) We had a lovely winter holiday season, and I hope all of you did too!

Maisie's Finnish dance group performed at a Joulu (Finnish Christmas) event sponsored by FACA, the Finnish American Cultural Activities group.

Isn't she the cutest little tonttu?

She even picked up some Aarikka Christmasy earrings at the bazaar!

On Christmas Eve, we celebrated the holiday over at Auntie Laura's house... I can't believe how tall Dylan is!

I swear, Ella is in the picture, hiding behind her new pillow pet!

On New Year's Eve, we hosted Dylan and Maisie's BFF Ophelia for a sleepover.

There was movie watching, popcorn eating, root beer float drinking... not much sleeping though!

So now we're through the holidays and into 2015! The girls are back at school, I'm settling in to my new job (I started a new position here at the bank in mid-November), and life continues on. The girls are already starting to plan their costumes for CONvergence this summer - Ella's going to be Beast Boy, and Maisie's going to be Raven, from Teen Titans Go!. Maisie's also going to go back to Salolampi for two weeks, and we're talking about getting a family vacation in again, since we had SUCH a great time in Chicago in October!

We're ready for a great 2015 and hope you are too! :)

Panda Party!

Friday was Ella's fifth birthday! She had a very fun day that included a trip to the Children's Theater with Gramma Liisa. After I got off work, I met Aaron and Ella at the Mall of America. She got to ride on rides...

And got her face painted, too!

We had Ella's birthday party on Sunday at Lake Hiawatha Park. It was really fun! The weather cooperated, with maybe 10 minutes of light sprinkles... a far cry from the thunderstorms we were expecting. We celebrated with Ella's friends from high 5 (including the teachers!), her best friend from Suomi-koulu Lillian, Auntie Laura and Dylan, and Gramma Liisa and Jim. It was a great group of people! The kids played on the playground and had lots of fun while the grownups chatted.

The party was, naturally, panda themed.

I didn't make the cute sign... I bought it from this shop on Etsy. I think it'd be easy enough to make, though, if you had the time and the inclination.

Dylan and Auntie Laura made this AWESOME panda pinata!

And yes, he does have a mustache!

Everyone thought it was awesome... the adults loved the design and the kids loved the candy! Ella's best friend from High 5, Charlotte, cracked it open. That kid has quite the arm on her!

We even had panda cupcakes!

Again, I didn't make these, although I think they'd be easy enough to do... we got them from the Richfield Target. Thanks Target!

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes for Ella. She loved all the gifts and the celebrations. She's fortunate to have so many people who care for her.

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!

Marriage Equality Day at the Capitol!

This post will probably be full of exclamation marks! Because I am SO! EXCITED! AND HAPPY!!!!

Last November, you may remember, we here in Minnesota had two ugly Constitutional amendments on our ballot. One was to require voter ID at the polls, and the other was to prohibit same-sex marriage. This anti-marriage amendment created a groundswell of grassroots activism for its defeat. But once the amendment (both amendments, actually!) was defeated, the thought became, "why stop here? why not change the statute?"

As it currently stands, marriage in Minnesota is defined by Minn. Stat. 517.01, which states in part:

Marriage . . . is a civil contract between a man and a woman . . . . Lawful marriage may only be contracted between persons of the opposite sex and only when a license has been obtained as provided by law . . . .

In the current session, a bill was introduced to change that to read:

A civil marriage . . . is a civil contract between two persons . . . .  Lawful marriage may only be contracted when a license has been obtained as provided by law . . . .

It's a small change, but it makes a BIG difference!

Last week, the bill passed the House of Representatives and headed to the Senate. With a pro-marriage DFL majority, passage was as certain as anything in politics can be. So Maisie and I took the day off from our respective school/work obligations, and headed with Ella to the Capitol, to join the celebration.



It was a beautiful day, too - sunny and not too hot!

 We got there around 10:00 a.m. I thought we'd be on the early side - the Senate wasn't convening until noon! - but the party was already in full swing! At this point, I'd guess that the pro-marriage equality "Vote Yes!" folks outnumbered the "Vote No" people by 2:1 or 3:1. It was the highest proportion we'd see all day. (If you can't read the signs in these pictures, the marriage equality people were either wearing orange and blue or rainbow colors. "Vote No" was in pink.)

We met up with my college friend Jo and her older son Tristan, who was carrying a sign he made that said "VOTE YES so that my moms can get married!" We hung out on the steps, checked out people's signs, petted some cute dogs... it was a friendly and relaxed crowd, for the most part.

We had to get off the Capitol steps by 11, because another group had them reserved (Falun Gong, as it turns out). So after a quick peek at the crowd that was gathering in the Capitol rotunda...


hmmm, that's not too crowded...

 ..we headed off to visit the office of our senator, Patricia Torres Ray.
 

Senator Torres Ray wasn't in the office, but we were pretty clear about where she stood on the issue. :) She even had a little snack station set up in her office! The girls picked up some cookies for themselves and for Tristan. They are now huge fans of Senator Torres Ray. Thanks for the Oreos!!


Hm, starting to get a little more crowded...

After a brief lunch break/potty stop at my mom's nearby apartment, we headed back to the Capitol for the long haul. By now, the Senate had convened and all we had to do was wait. We hung out, sang songs... and waited.



Singing "This Land Is Your Land" - probably 5:1 "Vote Yes"

 As you can see, the place was really filling up! And it was getting hot and stuffy in there, too. It's a huge building with a huge open space, but the sheer numbers of people there really managed to warm it up.

Speaking of people, we saw a lot of folks there who we knew! I said hi to friends Brian & Geri, Carleton classmates Bruce, Willy, and Kacia, multiple neighborhood moms with their kids, and Legal Aid director Cathy Haukedahl. I also saw a law school prof (but didn't say hi), and I know there were a bunch of other folks there who I know but didn't manage to run into.

The girls started to get a little antsy and asked to head back to "our Senator's office... you know, with the cookies?"



She changed her door sign.

Sadly, the cookies were all gone! But a television was on in her office, showing the debate, and bunch of people were in there watching. I wanted to watch, so we sat for a minute. The girls complained (quietly) about the lack of cookies until one of her staffers brought them some Dove chocolates.

 I was watching the discussion when I heard Maisie say, "Oh, Ella." I looked over to see Ellie playing with her chocolate, rolling it around in her hands.

After a bathroom stop for washing up, we took a peek at the growing crowd....
 

Pretty much entirely "vote yes!"

  And found Tristan and Jo again.

Tristan and the girls hung out, drew and colored...

Watched the crowd, and sang songs.

We ended up leaving around 3:30. It had been a long day, and the debate was still ongoing. We'd hoped to stay for the whole thing, but the kids were pretty much done (and to be honest, so were we). So we all headed home, listening to the discussion on MPR the whole way.

It finally headed for a vote after we'd gotten home, and we all heard that it passed around 4:30. Tears were shed and all my social media outlets simultaneously went "Woo hoo!" :) And so Minnesota became the 12th state to pass marriage equality. Yes Iowa, you got there first. But we finally caught up! On July 1, marriage licenses will be issued to same-sex couples, and on August 1, those couples will be able to get married.

Governor Mark Dayton has scheduled a signing ceremony for 5:00 this afternoon. We won't be able to attend (ukelele class conflict!), but I'm so glad that we went to the Capitol yesterday. I feel so strongly about the importance of this - I've heard it said multiple times that gay rights are the civil rights movement of our times, and I believe that to be true, and I'm so glad that the girls were able to witness all the love and support behind this movement. People in same-sex relationships, and their children, can now have the same legal protections as Aaron and I do, and as Maisie and Ella. Inheritance rights, tax breaks, medical decision-making... there are so many rights conferred by marriage that can't be won any other way. And not only that, it's a recognition of legitimacy and validation.

I'm so proud to be a Minnesotan most of the time. But yesterday and today, SO much!

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.