Dakota Rail Trail

We spent a beautiful day biking the Dakota Rail Trail! Our journey included petting cows at Gale Woods Farm, helping a turtle cross the road, and enjoying root beer floats at the Minnetonka Drive-In. Also, Jia insisted on employing the skills she learned at caveman class and foraged lots of sumac berries!

Finding Your Inner Caveman

Jia and Joe took a class today at North Mississippi Park called Finding your Inner Caveman. They foraged for food (harvesting sumac, katniss, sage, bergamot, burdock and lots more), threw spears, and used an atlatl! Jia said the class was fun, but she has no desire to ever be an actual caveperson. :-)

Back to School!

The day before school started, I made these back to school snacks for the girls...and they had no idea what they were.

But they liked them anyway!

 

Our 1st and 4th graders were so excited for their first day that they insisted on leaving for the bus 20 minutes early! And, although we'd already dropped off five full grocery bags of school supplies...there was more to bring! Jia's backpack was so full of supplies that she couldn't fit her lunch in it! Apparently 4th graders need a lot of stuff!

They both had a terrific first day!

Rocket class!

We had a blast designing and launching water-propelled bottle rockets today! Our rocket class was at the Lowry Nature Center at Carver Park. The rockets went so high! I think we'll do this at home!

Duluth and Twelve Years!

We had a terrific family trip to Duluth. We had a wonderful dinner at the New Scenic Cafe on Lake Superior and celebrated our 12th anniversary.

 

Family fun in Duluth for us means hunting for sea glass at the edge of Lake Superior, puzzles and games, watching huge ships go through the harbor, exploring the aquarium, and the time-honored tradition of writing naughty words on crackers in squeeze cheese. Good times!

Before we left, we got to experience Lake Superior's most glorious residence: Glensheen, the Congdon mansion. Beautiful!

Mr. Little Guy

The City of Minneapolis honored Mr. Little Guy, the Lake Harriet Elf, with a proclamation for his 20 years of fostering community. (Mr. Little Guy lives behind a little door in a tree by Lake Harriet and has answered kids' letters - about 2,000 each summer - for 20 years.) We attended the celebration with some friends, and had cake, crafted little elves, and did a kid-focused tour of City Hall. We met our city council member and (while the rest of us happened to be in the bathroom) Willa met the Mayor! Then we had a picnic near the Guthrie with lots of hill rolling. A fun day!