Summer odds and ends

Jia received a cricket sucker for her birthday. She was having none of it, and gave it to Willa. Willa licked and licked that thing, and then completely chewed up the cricket. Jia was so disgusted she had to leave the room while Willa ate it. I admit, I couldn't really look either. Go Willa.

Joe and Willa attended the Mississippi River Fest where they raced minnows:

And made fish print shirts!

 We did some craft projects:

 

The girls had a terrific time at t-ball this summer with their cousin, Han. They learned different types of throws and catches, and practiced hitting. They did a great job!

The girls spent all summer playing various games with the neighbors. Here's a favorite:

I love how well they all get along!

An unlikely science experiment

We went to the Arboretum recently. We enjoyed climbing on a mud house, playing in the woods with fairies and other creatures, eating freshly picked apples and making seed art.

 

 

 A new friend got a ride as well.

 

 We also chopped up heirloom tomatoes in an attempt to save their seeds for planting next year.

 

We collected the seeds in juice and pulp and stored them in a large hard plastic container like the kind that would contain a prize from a vending machine. The seed saving process involves fermentation. We were supposed to transfer the contents to an open container. Instead, we got busy and left it on the kitchen counter for two days in front of a south-facing window.  I was sitting at the counter drinking coffee and working on the laptop when there was a huge POP! Next thing I knew, I was entirely covered in coffee and there was tomato all over the kitchen. Thankfully the coffee wasn't too hot and the computer was okay. Lesson learned!

 

Mud Pie Bakery

Over the course of a few days this summer, the girls ran a Mud Pie Bakery with the neighbors. 

Their offerings included chalk dust cookies, mud brownies, powdered chalk doughnuts and a helicopter tart.

After this, they all cleaned up and turned the bakery into a restaurant complete with chef, server, host and busser. I love how they work so well together and give so much effort to their endeavors!

Happy 10 years to us!

Joe and I celebrated our ten year anniversary on August 17th. We went to Napa for the weekend to celebrate! It was our first weekend away from the girls ever! They did great, of course, and were in the expert care of my family.

We did great too! This post will be different than my normal kid posts because it's about us instead, and it's our trip journal. Feel free to skip it if you don't want the detail!

We stayed at the Blackbird Inn, a beautiful Craftsman B&B, that was within walking distance to all the Napa shops and restaurants.

 After arrival, we had a delicious late lunch at Grace's Table. We then walked around Napa a bit. We returned to our room and had some of the B&B's wine and hors d'oeuvres on our balcony.

After a while, we meandered down to the Oxbow Public Market. What a pleasant first day!

We visited wineries the next day. Clos du Val, in the Stag's Leap district, was first. We had the Current Release Tasting, and tasted some of the grapes too!

Up next was Mumm Napa. We sampled a selection of sparkling wines. The setting was gorgeous.

Viewing the Ansel Adams works in the gallery.

Then we visited Sterling Vineyards. We took the aerial tram up to the main building. We did the tasting while self-touring around the winery.

Joe is a film buff, so we made the long trek up to the Francis Ford Coppola winery afterward. Joe had read that various props from his movies were on display there. What we didn't realize was that it wasn't just a winery, it was a vacation destination with a pool and more. Not that we're the most refined people, but what a crowd. It was like we had stepped right onto the set of Jersey Shore. We decided to leave after we did a quick tour of the props, which included the desk from all the Godfather films, the ship from Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, and the car from Tucker.

 

 

  

Back before we had kids, when we had time to sit around and think about the wine we were drinking, we kept a wine journal. Our favorite wine bar had served us a very tasty bottle from the Trentadue Winery, and we'd never been able to find it in the stores. Lo and behold, the winery next to Coppola was Trentadue!

Joe did a current release tasting there, and I did a port tasting. At this point, there was more dumping than drinking, but it was delicious, especially the Chocolate Amore port.

By this time, it was about 5 p.m. and rush hour. We had reservations at the Boon Fly Cafe at the Carneros Inn at 7. I had bought a new dress for our anniversary dinner. If you know me, this is something as I am not a shopper. Anyway, I found an adorable black and white polka dot shirt dress and was planning on changing into it for dinner. I brought it with along with matching jewelry, shoes and make-up. I would like to say that we had a leisurely drive to the restaurant and I had time to stop at our room and change into my cute dress and primp for the occasion. But, that's not what happened. Instead, it took us almost two hours to get to the restaurant due to rush hour and wrong turns. We finally found it and I had to change in our car in the restaurant parking lot. When I tried to quickly cram my dress over my head, I popped a button, right in the middle of the dress. We tried fixing it with a band-aid, using a paper clip, and covering it with my wrap, but nothing worked. After a 10 second tantrum, I changed back into my old clothes and we went to eat.

We walked into the Boon Fly Cafe at last. Our food was incredible! A great end to the day.

The next morning, we drove very long, winding roads to the Point Reyes Lighthouse. It was extremely windy,  cold and foggy, but this was not a surprise as it is the windiest place on the Pacific Coast and the foggiest place in North America! It made the scenery very dramatic!

We learned that the hike up the stairs from the lighthouse was the equivalent of climbing a 30 story building.  We headed back and enjoyed more wine and hors d'oeuvres at our hotel. Then we later walked to dinner at Azzurro.We flew home the next day. A terrific anniversary weekend!

State Fair!

Our State Fair trip was a little different than most this year. It was pretty low-key. Our first stop is always Little Farm Hands, where they learn all about growing plants and taking care of animals.

I remember when Jia was too small to do this! Now she's almost too big!

At the end, the little farmers bring their produce and animal products to the market and receive pretend money in return. They can then purchase something from the store there. Jia chose a 10-pack box of oatmeal, and she's been eating it for breakfast every morning!

The girls had been on a ton of rides two days earlier at Como Town, so we just did the carousel and giant slide (which they loved).

 

We each had our usual delicious ear of corn, and we made our annual stop at the milk booth for some frosty chocolate milk. We also spent time at one of our favorite spots - the art building. We all loved looking at the exhibits and voting on our favorite piece by a Minnesota artist.

We bought something for the girls this year...a first for us. They don't seem to mind. :-)

They had fun doing a small ropes course:

Overall, a fun time!