Tuesday, June 7, 2011

It's Been a Hot Couple of Days!

Kids swimming at the cabin this weekend with Steve.







And running through the sprinkler at home. The temperature today (Tuesday) was in the 100's. Crazy!



M got bubbles from his speech teacher (his last day of class was today) and we spent a lot of time doing bubbles. They are both getting pretty good at doing them on their own.







These bubble containers looked like ice cream cones--D's smelled like banana and M's smelled like chocolate. M kept on licking the ice cream part of the cone!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Mill City Museum

On Wednesday, we went on our next summer field trip to the Mill City Museum. It was great--I learned so much and the kids had a lot of fun. Here D and M got to design their own cereal box.



The giant box of Bisquick.



Using the trains and river to deliver the goods to the stores.



Doing puzzles in the baking lab.



Then, learning about wheat and sampling baked goods.



The coolest part of the Mill City Museum was the Flour Tower. You get a scheduled time to ride in a giant elevator and learn more about the city of Minneapolis and its history of flour production.



This elevator is so big, it has risers in it to sit on!



We are sitting in the back row of the elevator listening to our tour guide give us some information. During the presentation, the elevator would go up and down eight different floors, stopping now and then at various ones which had a scene set up for us to look at while we listened to audio and watched some videos about flour production.



Closing the gates on the elevator.



We stopped on the eighth floor and saw some of the original building that was not destroyed in the 1991 fire. We also got great views of Minneapolis and the Mississippi River.





We also got to go outside on a little walkway on the eighth floor.



Below us were some of the ruins.



Back inside to the water room where we learned about the importance of the river in this industry back in its hey day.



Feeling the strength of the water pressure.



Logging on the Mississippi.



The kids took the place of the water and spun the wheel.



Outside, the kids got to explore the ruins.



We topped off our morning with a picnic lunch at the park next to the Guthrie Theater.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Happy 2 Year Anniversary!

My blog is two years old! Again, I will share some pictures from last year's Memorial Day Weekend to contrast with this year's and see how much the kids have grown (or not!).

M definitely looks like he has changed a lot from last year:



But D doesn't look too much different:



We spent the long weekend at the cabin again this year. Have you heard of Angry Birds? It's an app for the iPhone that Gary has. The kids loved it, but I had no idea what it was until I tried it several days later. Good thing, because it is now an addiction.



Speaking of angry birds, I'm sure momma bird won't be too happy to find we moved her nest. It was in an undesirable location, so Steve moved it. The kids loved seeing the bird eggs--Steve thought they were sparrows.





Lots of four wheeling...





...and more Angry Birds. Good thing we don't own an iPhone.



On Sunday, we went to my parent's house for a Memorial Day picnic. D had been so excited to go fishing and Grandma and Papa's all week.



Yea! Success!



Testing out the new pontoon.



Watch out! M's in the driver's seat.



D and her cousin eating snacks together.



Getting pushes on the swing from Uncle Dan.



The Stiehl men.



D and M's cousin turned 4. Cool cake!



Papa broke out the sparklers.



D was kind of afraid of them, but not M!



Back at the cabin...time to relax!



Both Papa and Grandma read lots of books to the kids.



D and M got bubbles from my parents on Sunday and couldn't wait to use them. It poured all Sunday night and Monday morning, so we rushed outside to do bubbles during a brief dry spell.





Thursday, May 26, 2011

Ni Hao

D had kindergarten round up on Thursday. We met all of the kindergarten teachers and got an overview of the curriculum and what to expect.



They shared some of the strokes they would be learning for the Chinese writing system (it's a Chinese immersion school--no English spoken the first two years).