Maisielicious: silly

Showing posts with label silly. Show all posts

Thursday, September 17, 2015

State Fair State Fair State Fair

So yeah, I love the State Fair! It's a highlight of the summer for me - I try to go a couple different times, usually with the girls, with my mom, with my sister and Dylan... and sometimes by myself or with a friend, too. All the times I go are different experiences for me - depending on who I'm with it can be a whirlwind of rides, taking time to really look at the creative activities, watching lambs be born and chicks hatch, eating your weight in fried food, dancing to live music... there are so many things to do, and I love them all.

This year I had the good fortune to go four times! The first day was the first Saturday of the Fair, just me and the girls.

The first thing we had to do - of course - was to find Ella's blue ribbon!

Both girls had entries in the Creative Activities competition this year - Ella for a color photograph, and Maisie for a mixed-media poster she made with Dylan. Ella won first prize! She got a blue ribbon and $6. The photograph is a tiny blue damselfly on a day lily leaf. You can't quite see it in the picture above, but it's framed perfectly, right in the middle in the big splash of sun.

After that, there was some food (roasted corn, pizza, corn dogs, root beer) followed by the kids' favorite part... rides! We started out with the turbo jump, where you are hitched to bungee cords and jump on a trampoline. Ella got up REALLY high.

And Maisie managed to do a flip! Once she figured it out she was spinning away up there.

Then it was off to the Kidway! (Like the midway, but smaller rides for smaller people.)

Then, snack time!

Shaved ice for Maisie, and s'mores for Ella. Then back home for the time being.

On Monday I went to the fair with a friend, which was a lot of fun. Then on Wednesday after school, the girls and I returned with Grandma Liisa and her friend John! Highlights of this visit included the butterfly house, where Grandma was very popular...

and a stop by the KARE-11 (our local NBC affiliate) barn, which included a photo op place that looked like the set of The Voice!

Maisie loooooooves that show, so she was really excited to get a chance to be a Voice judge.

Our last trip to the fair was Sunday before Labor Day, with Auntie Laura and Dylan! We started with breakfast: a corn dog for Ella,

and French toast with pop rocks for Maisie!

This was actually not the crazy sugar-bomb you'd think it'd be. The French toast itself was not too sweet, and then it had a tart berry sauce on top. It really balanced out the whipped cream and pop rocks!

We did all kinds of activities with Auntie Laura and Dylan, including checking out the crop art (and making some of our own), the river raft ride, and the haunted house!

We also took the skyride, and some silly selfies along the way -

we revisited the Voice chair,

and snacked on the kids' very favorite food, cream cheese wontons.

So all in all, we had GREAT fun at the State Fair. Thank you Auntie Laura and Dylan, and Grandma and John, for coming to the fair with us! It's even more fun when you can share it with friends and family.

Can't wait for next year!

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

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! :)

Thursday, April 24, 2014

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!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

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.