State Fair Time Again

We headed out to the State Fair on Saturday and pretty much spent the whole day there, with a break at home in the middle of the day for a couple of hours. We loved the wildlife hats they had this year. M is a pheasant, D is a deer, and I am a walleye. Where else can you walk around wearing weird hats and not get (as many) strange looks?



The traditions of sitting on tractors on Machinery Hill...





...and of course eating corndogs!



Working the land at the Little Hands Farm.














They had a fire tower open to the public this year. The kids and I climbed up to the top and got a great view of the whole fair.





Have to have a picture with Goldie!



Steve loves listening to bands at the State Fair and M insisted on dancing up front, even though it wasn't really "that kind of band." He cracks me up. The pictures of course do no justice to his dance moves. I don't know at what age you become aware of what you are doing in front of others, but he is definitely not there yet.

Fawn Doe Rosa

The kids and I met my sister, her kids, and my mom at Fawn Doe Rosa in St. Croix on Friday. It is a "wildlife education park" where kids can walk around and feed deer, bunnies, geese, goats and see other animals like elk, bear, fox, and mountain lions. D was so excited when she learned she got to feed a deer and that it would eat food right out of her hand. "A real deer?" she kept asking.







We were warned by the cousins to hold our paper bags of animal food up high and away from the goats or they would eat it. This is tricky coordination for a three year old, and a goat snatched M's bag from his hand. All the food dumped out on the ground and the goat was just left with the bag, which apparently was just fine with him as he furiously gobbled it up. I tried to grab the bag out of his mouth, but he was a fast eater. Talk about tears! Luckily Grandma saved the day and gave M her animal food. She held if for him, of course.









Feeding llamas.









I think M and the goats made up now. He was talking sweetly and softly to this one and wanted me to take his picture with it.



The bunnies were a big hit. I think they were full, though, because they started turning their noses up at the carrots being offered to them.





All the cousins. We ended our time with lunch at Subway. Super fun!

Meet Your Teacher

D got to meet your teacher Thursday morning. It was nice for her to find her room and name, which is all over the room--2 cubbies, lunch chart, "locker" spot, etc. D and M played on the bike outside the school.



Here is D posing with her teacher, Yang Laoshi (laoshi is teacher in Chinese).



The teacher had toys out for kids to play with in her room. I can't believe school starts in only two weeks!

State Capitol Field Trip

We went to the State Capitol on Tuesday. It was a special tour just for preschoolers, and the guide did a great job. Each kid got his/her own "I spy" magnifying glass and had to look for objects in the architecture of the capitol. The kids were very entertained and, as usual, I learned a lot.



















All the kids in front of the capitol.



We had a great time doing all of our fun field trips this summer.

Back to the Cabin

We drove to the cabin this weekend and saw an amazing sunset on our drive up.



We also saw this pink rainbow. Not sure if it was an actual rainbow or what, but it looked cool!



There is a calendar that I manually change the date on whenever we are at the cabin. It had been exactly two months (June 19 to August 19) since we were last up there as a family (not counting Steve's lumberjack expeditions). Such a bummer that we missed spending the best summer months up there due to the storm damage.

While Steve was at a logging seminar Saturday morning, the kids and I did some exploring. First, we found this stick bug on Steve's chainsaw case. I totally thought it was a stick and was about to pick it up when I realized it had legs.





Walking down the driveway to look at the damage and remaining trees.





One lone tree.



Steve worked on cutting up more trees in the backyard of the cabin. He asked if he should make some chairs for us to sit on by the campfire out of the stumps. I asked if he could make one like they do at the lumberjack show at the state fair. He did a great job--it turned out awesome!



I started to make a giant fire pit in our backyard. All of our neighbors have these wonderful fire pits that are made from the rocks on their land and I decided it would be smart to have one to help burn some of the brush we will have. Our little metal frame one from Menard's just wasn't cutting it.

I dug out the base and our neighbor came over and said to dig it out even one foot larger around the base. The kids helped me gather rocks from the gravel pit. We'll have to finish the project next time we are up there.





We stopped at my parents' house on the way home Sunday to catch my hometown parade and see my dad march with the American Legion.







Coordinating outfits.



The cousins all swam at my parents' house afterwards. Good fun!