You're getting too big or "my babies!"

 Almost 5, but who's counting?

Next time, you write your own names!

"Mommy, put lipstick on me"

Ok, Zo.

Animals (at the zoo!)

Ye last monorail ride.

It is being retired at the end of the summer season.

The Africa exhibit included some giraffes.

I was never big on the monorail, but since it is going away I figured we'd better go. And I figured I could ask you if you remembered it later on.

My guess? Only if we talk about it as some momentous occasion.

If you've been on it you'll know that's a stretch.

Prairie Dogs.

Still love 'em.

Still think of the hotel in suburban Denver that had a patch of land next to the parking lot full of them. Funny guys (and yes, mom, I know they can carry the plague or some horrible disease ;)

Without the monorail we might need to rely on these.

If only I could stop seeing a face in that machine.

Anthropomorphism. We'll work on pronouncing that one, kiddos.

Dinosaurs (at the zoo)

With Grandma Candy.

Zoo day. 

Zoe demonstrated her trepidation about this whole dinosaur thing. Dad and Grandma took you last year and only got you two to go through the exhibit by starting at the end and making your way to the beginning. Not sure how that makes it better, but it worked. 

This year we went in through the intended entrance. Zoe was still not so sure. 

So on Dad's shoulders she rode.

T-rex.

RAAAHR. 

Squeeze Daddy's neck.

And some more.

Get me OUTTA HERE!

Roman loved it.

Some fancy face painting at our picnic.

I kind of freaked out the artist. 

When Zoe sat down I said to the girl, who was probably college age, "do you have a twin?"

She looked incredulous.

I gave her a moment and then I told her that she looked familiar.

She'd painted the kids faces at Como town a few weeks before and told us she had a twin after discovering you two were twins as well.

Small world!

Sometimes, you gotta look UP

Zoe likes the sparkle.

At the "Mall of the 'merica."

So let's all enjoy it now, shan't we?

That was a particularly enjoyable day at the mall.

And I don't say that very often. Not a mall person, typically.

We have discovered the joy of water in the summer (not at our house)

And we're going back soon!

This is a great place to have some fun and I think will continue to be a great place to have some fun as you become more comfortable in the water. I think I jumped the gun on the swimming lessons last fall. You needed this first.

Pool time can get expensive, except when they offer a special kid time (7 and under) on Saturday mornings.  When I was a kid we used to go to the Richfield municipal pool.  But I was older. And for some reason my most distinct memory is the day they changed the cost of a phone call on the pay phone from 25 cents to 35 cents. I always brought a quarter (and only a quarter) to call home and get picked up. 

Pay phone? What's that?

Your mom left you there?

Well, yeah. With my brothers. 

We had summer passes a couple times.

She dropped us off an a North Star hockey game once too and my oldest brother, the eldest, couldn't have been in more than 9th grade (and probably not that).

Different times, kiddos.

Crystal Cove.

Nearby.

I'm discovering things I didn't know were here.

Roots are taking hold.

Not the intention, but it is what it is.

A slide even Zoe could love.

She is not fond of heights (or tall ceilings for that matter).

But she was having fun on this slide.

A good place to get her feet wet.

Bad pun, good fun.

Later that day we hit a splash pad too in another close-ish part of town. Turns out it was too cold to do much though. Hard to believe because we'd just gotten through some oppressive heat. 

SOAK IT UP, BABY.

It's winding down follks

I'm in full on summer-is-almost-ending mode. Time to cram in as much as possible.

The kids and I spent the night on a blanket eating dinner at a park/playground and I finally talked Zoe into moving on over to the outdoor stage are where they were putting on an outdoor production of Willy Wonka. We got about 20 feet behind the back row of lawn chairs and plopped down. Roman was interested and wanted to watch, Zoe was lagging behind. We finally got her over and about 10 minutes later she says "I can't see. Why are we sitting so far away?"

Kids.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. 

We made a pilgrimage to the American Swedish Institute this past weekend. Zero in the way of expectations, which I think is the way to go.

Pleased as punch by the Dala Horse- Zoe was the brave first rider. A real Swedish cowgirl (except she's not Swedish....Norwegian, yes)

Then Roman.

Almost immediately we made our way to the 3rd floor of the Turnblad mansion/house/museum and spent a good deal of time in the kids area. A little kitchen time (not much)

Some time watching a short video on glassblowing and then perusing a book that showed a collection of works created from kids drawings.

Awesome.

It's amazing how close the final product resembled the kids drawings.

And there was a little table where kids could draw their own pictures and submit it for the chance to be made into a real piece of art glass. Wowsers. Zoe promptly drew a  unicorn and told me it was named Rainbow. Her description? 

It's a unicorn and unicorns are very pretty.

Roman's? 

The Eyeless Monster. 

It's really cool and it's colorful.

Okay then.

A chance to make their own glass.

Beautiful

And interestingly non breakable ;)

Roman loved these blocks - they were magnetic around the edges and very easy to build with. And I saw him putting them away in nice stacks, with like shapes together. WHY DOESN'T HE DO THIS AT HOME?

Write a letter to Tomte?

Who is Tomte?

(I think I read he makes a Christmas visit, so we may be going back)

Tomte lives at ASI.

He came from Sweden.

He is an Elf who takes care of things around the house. Nordic immigrants brought him in with them.

An invasive non-native species?

Perhaps, but we'll pretend he's harmless. ;)

Roman wrote his own note, I told him how to spell it ( I don't think I did this at almost 5). It read:

Would it be nice to drive a race car

Roman

 Time to check out more of the house.

On the stairs.

Onward we went. The exhibit at the moment is glass art, not exactly where you'd think to bring rambunctious preschoolers, but they were okay.

Reminds me of how much Sweden reminded me of Northern MN.

And it was family day, with demonstration of glass blowing on the patio with a real live Swede.

Did I say this was July and we were wearing hoodies? Yeah. A little bit of rain too, but we survived.

Crafts!

Roman and I made magnets - I had a preprinted Dala horse that I modge podged to the glass and Roman made himself a design that he glued. As you see, Zoe designed her own jewelry as well.  Let's not talk about how the clasp pealed off before we left the premises, ok? She was very proud (and then somewhat sad). We'll survive.

It was a good day. Go into it with no expectations, folks.