Theme summer recap

We all loved our theme summer! It worked really well. We were able to do all our regular fun summer stuff, i.e. lazy days at the beach, along with having some needed structure. It was especially terrific for days that were rainy or too hot to be outside.

I have been slow on posting this summer...here are pictures of highlights of two more fun weeks. (Pictures of Forest Week will be later when I post our pics from being up north.)

Science and Technology Week

We did activities this week with our friend Noel and his girls. Noel is a science teacher which made it easy for me!

We spent one day at The Works. The girls had a terrific time trying out all the exhibits.








Noel hosted a day of experiments at his house:


We had planned to go to the Science Museum too, but it was such a beautiful day that we spent it outside instead.

China & Taiwan Week

We visited the largest Asian grocery store in the Midwest: United Noodles. It's more like a warehouse. We love this place. It's easy to spend a lot of time here.

This is their favorite aisle, of course:

Some of our loot:

We made some dumplings. Jia and I also took a trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts to see their Chinese and Taiwanese art exhibits.

Overall, theme summer gets a thumbs up! We will definitely be doing this next summer.

Jia's First Day as a First Grader!

Jia had her first day of school today. We met her teacher in advance. She is really nice, which is great because Jia will have her for two years! (First and second grade are combined at her school.) Jia was excited to go. Her good bud Mia was in her class as well as a neighborhood friend.

Ready to go!

For her outfit, she chose her cherry shirt and matching capri pants, and her new shiny silver shoes. And a big grin.


She got off the bus with all her neighborhood friends this afternoon, and told me she had "SO MUCH FUN!" Yay for a great first day!

State Fair

We had a great day at the State Fair today. There were just a few people.

The girls were Little Farmhands.

And children of the corn.

Driving a tractor is hard work!

We saw pigs being born:

We ate a little.

We went on LOTS of rides.





And had a special visit with Princess Kay of the Milky Way.

Fun was had by all!

It was especially fun to look back at prior years. This year Jia went on the same swing ride and both girls were Little Farmhands. How the girls have grown!

Whoooo's Six?

Jia's birthday party was at a local nature center. It was a Tracks and Trails party and many of her school and other friends were there. A naturalist led the kids in making animal tracks:

Jia chose a deer for her animal.

The partygoers were sweet and well-behaved. I love all these girls and am so glad they're her friends.

For the Trails portion of the party, the naturalist led the group on a hike:

It unfortunately culminated in one partygoer and her mom both being stung by a hornet! Ugh! They rallied amazingly quickly.

Then, time for lunch. We opted for a green party with the nature center's reusable dishes. What a nice option!

Then came the cupcake owls (another theme of the party), along with Italian ice and candy spoons.

Jia and I had fun making them.


Afterward, the girls made owl masks.

There was much hooting and flapping!

Other than the stinging snafu, it was a great time!

Happy Birthday Jia!

Our sweet girl turned six on the 11th. SIX! We spent this past week with my family at a cabin in northwoods Wisconsin, and visited the town of Hayward for her birthday celebration. It was a HUGE day.

We started off by opening presents. Jia modeled some of them:


New dress and sparkly pink shoes:

We then all went go-carting. It was the biggest hit of the trip for her! Everyone loved it.




After, we visited a rock shop where the girls got a geode to split, and then played at a park for lunch:

We later selected sweets at a humongous candy store:

The Lumberjack Show was after that:



We returned to the cabin for swimming. Then, Jia relaxed reading a book from her new Ramona set:

For dessert, Jia chose key lime bars.

It was a big day for a little girl (who is getting less little by the minute), and she enjoyed every second of it.

Jia, you are creative, kind, silly, cuddly and smart as a whip. You have boundless curiosity! You are beautiful inside and out, and we love you so much!