Halloween in the Hundred Acre Wood

Halloween has never been that big of a deal to me, but to deny the joys of an evening of dress up and free candy to a toddler is just plain mean. This year we were in Minneapolis for the big event, having tagged along with Ken to his "Big Conference." We got to spend time with Russ and Meghan Menno style, with the girls and I spending time with Meghan and Olivia, and Ken meeting Russ for lunch. It was nice to be out, to spend time with other people in a different place. Alison, the family friend we were staying with mentors some families new to the country, so we got to trick or treat with a family from South Korea and Teresa took a shine to a teen named Munsi (I hope I spelled that right), who is visiting from China. Teresa drew her own pumpkin face (it will be obvious) and was exhausted by the time we were ready to leave. I wish I could elaborate on this post a bit more, but the fact is I'm in a funk and totally not in the mood to be loquacious. I will apologize by posting an obscene number of cute pictures.

It's funny because Frances looks like she's smoking a cigar...

Teresa, explaining the complexities of life and toy trains.

Yes they are close to the same age.....why do you ask?

Auntie Sarah and Teresa carving. Teresa wanted to use the big knife, but Sarah does not like to share. If you look closely, you will see a scribble between the two eyes. That is the "face". The two "eyes" are actually drawings of Frances and myself. The "mouth" is actually fur. I don't understand either.

Frances getting in on the action. Sarah wouldn't let her use the big knife either....spoil sport.

The finished product.

Tigger and Eeyore. This picture was taken seconds before Frances fell to the ground face first.

See, she's tough.

My gang from the Hundred acre Wood. Ken went as Christopher Robin.

Action shot!

Teresa and Munsi, Minneapolis BFF's.

Monday, Bloody Monday...

Well Monday was a friggin long, long, long, long day.

It started well. Ernie & Annalee came over to say goodbye which was nice, although it does mark the end of an era as they are planning on selling the cottage at Grand Beach, which of course is the whole reason we know them in the first place. Cara had screamed at Daisen so he too was up to see us off. Did I mention that on Sunday I met Daisen's prom date? She seemed nice, and I got to harass him too, as when we were leaving after being at the park with Teresa & Russ & Meghan I had forgotten her playpen so I came back in and got to do the old "We're ll still clothed" line, and Daisen found it appalling, but his date's friend found it funny.

Anyhow, after leaving we went to Ikea and enjoyed the 99 cent breakfast. It consists of about 1.5 scrambled eggs, 2 thin slices of bacon and 3/4 of a potato of hash browns with free Scandinavian (read: thin) coffee and was excellent for the price. We went there solely to look for stuff for Teresa's room. We had been looking for a light that looks like a sun for her room, but it had been marked as sold out for about 3 days on their website. As it turns out they had a really nice light that looks like a cloud that we were considering, until we noticed a single light of the type we had been wanting. It wasn't in original packing so we asked to make sure it still worked and it turns out that it was returned at closing on Sunday! What luck! We also picked up a large hooded towel, a set of cute plastic cutlery, a rug, a toy hammock and something I had completely forgotten about - a pelican that is presently being used as her clothing hamper.

We then stopped at Trader Joe's where they didn't have anything we really wanted, so we bought some granola and a little something else. I picked up one $3 bottle of wine, and noted that they have Yellow Tail for $5.99. I love the US. They have 24s of Pabst for $15, 12's of Summit, a local micro-brew for $10, a litre of vodka for $11 and Seagrams VO for $15. This is of course not what I brought over the border as that would be illegal without paying duty... But just what could have been!

After that we stopped before St. Cloud to feed Teresa at a Caribou Coffee which was a serious error, as we both needed to pee less than an hour later and the stop woke Teresa up for good from her nap. Teresa napped on the drive home for at most 1 hour, two half hour segments. We got all the way to GF and bought some stuff at Target, and looked around the mall. We ended up eating at Qdobo which I think is a touch better than Chipotle's are there are more options for the burrito as big as your head, including a habanero salsa.

We got past the border, but had to pick up Rowdy in Stonewall so we only got home around 9:00, which meant a 12 hour day in the car.

Here are the pictures of Teresa's new room & one from the ride home.


The jokes are just too easy in rural Minnesota... An actual company, go figure.



Cara put up a stamp border all the way around the room. We bought the stamps and Cara got some latex paint at Rona.



A close up of the pattern, there also is a pink butterfly



The toy hammock



The greatest hamper EVER. Yes, I did inherit dad's odd fetish for pelicans. That is her baptismal certificate above it.



Her cute hanging towel



The great light. The only odd thing is the light it throws is really quite rich & yellow.



Her new rug.

Sunday

So we awoke on Sunday and headed out to Como Park, as it was to be a gorgeous day. We went to the Conservatory, a Japanese garden and the zoo, ending with a Carousel ride... Here are some of the pictures.


Looking cute at a wishing pond



Basking in the sun



The sunken garden... Cara loved the smell in there!



Taking pictures of flowers



Maybe even of this beautiful rose!



Family Picture!



Sniffing flowers



Looking at the koi... We had to take this pic with 10x zoom from across a long pond



The koi & Teresa



This was a popular spot with the kids!



Walking with Alison to the Japanese garden.



Waterfall!



Walking across a bridge...



Looking at flamingos



& spider monkeys



& uncle Ed made an appearance!



Riding the turtle.



Getting ready for the carousel



Another cute pic



An action shot...


After Como Park we went home to wait for Russ and Meghan to arrive, and bid farewell to Alison who had a business trip to Philly to be on. Russ came a bit late, so we got the game about 5 minutes late. As we sat down in the the GA seats in the second level of straight away centre field, we noticed the Twins were down 3-0 with no out already! It was not Boof Bonser's day on the mound it appeared, and the Twins were down 6-0 after 1 with Boof already 40+ pitches into his pitch count. The Twins didn't help Boof either by going 3 up - 3 down in about 5 minutes. The couple with two kids in tow packed it in around the fourth inning, as the children were getting fussy (and the Twins were still down 6-0 and looking anemic). Oh ye of little faith! The Twins never really got to Kenny 'The Gambler' Rogers on the mound, as they got 1 in the fourth and 2 in the fifth, and I wondered to Russ if they should not be warming someone up, when he looked to in trouble in the fifth. Apparently my manager instincts are poor, as both times I suggested warming up the pen the pitchers settles back down. In fact the Tigers pulled Rogers after 6 2/3, and promptly gave up 4 runs with 2 outs! For those that have trouble adding, that made the score Twins 7 - Tigers 6, where it stood to end the game. Quite the rally and quite the game. I personally credit the ice cream sundae I bought during the 7th inning stretch to spurring the Twins to victory! A neat boxscore in some ways, can be found here

I suppose I should mention though that I didn't get to see the Habs lose game 5. Likely better as I would have been curing a Bleu streak...

Sunday night we went to a neat little cafe for dinner and then went to see Minnehaha Falls. Being the scientist that I am (and wanting to a log go over the falls) we estimated the current to be 3 feet per second. Sadly I didn't get to climb behind the falls, as some people with less curmudgeony wives let them do. We then retired to Russ & Meghan's where we chilled as Teresa slept by chatting (and for the guys) playing baseball on the XBox 360. Later we convinced Cara to play Rock Band with us where she belted out some quality tuneage such as 'Sabotage' by the Beastie Boys! We got home around midnight after having Cara first ask to go home around 10, so all in all the night was a success and everyone appeared to have fun.

Saturday...

Last time we checked in with our super family (besides the little puking - crying story), they were leaving the Minnesota Children's Museum in St. Paul, Minnesota. On the way home, all Cara wanted was simple burrito from Chipotle's, seemingly a simple request as there is one within a 10 minute walk of Alison's. As it turns out it was not such a simple request, as we drove blindly about the Twin Cities before finally going to a different Chipotle's than the close one or the one we were looking for. I might mention though that the ride was pure entertainment as we got to see the mother - 18 year old son dynamic. I am sure I was never that way, but wow! Also, our hunger was whetted by an influx of cheese popcorn from a local institution (Candyland), which was exceptional.

After we got home Teresa rejected burrito & Alison's Mac & Cheese from Noodles and ended up eating something and then off to nap. We hung around all afternoon as I practiced being a guitar god with Daisen on Guitar Hero III. There was not much else of note, until I noticed that the Twins were in town, so I called up Russ and we set up a date for Sunday afternoon.

Daisen & I went to Target in the afternoon, where we got to enjoy Daisen's first accident! Daisen was driving like a complete retard, and went so far as to straighten out the car in the parking stall so it was centered! Then I thought he bucked the engine parking it, but it turned out that he recklessly had the rear quarterpanel struck by the car trying to get out of the stall beside him as he was parked! Daisen was terrified, as Alison apparently rules with an iron fist and a one-strike & you're out policy when it comes to driving.

We grazed through the afternoon, ordered in Pizza Luce and then left Teresa is the capable (?) hands of Alison, Daisen & Sarah as we went to see the Proclaimers & Jeremy Fisher. How can I put this politely? Let's just say that the proclaimers have some devoted fans. We met a couple of 40-50 y/o ladies in line who had met at a Proclaimer's concert in Scotland. One was from Scotland the other from Chicago, and they built up a friendship. The lady from Scotland had always meant to come to North America, and this tour was the impetus. The ladies met in Cleveland, went to a show there, then Ann Arbor, Chicago and then Minneapolis. There was also a college student that was going to every US date on the tour... Nevertheless these ladies were very nice and had got to know some of the guys on Fisher's musical team and quite liked his music. Often they said the Proclaimers got shoddy opening acts, go figure...

Well, once we got in the ladies knew Cara came for Fisher so they had Cara stand up front with them. Right before the show she passed a note on to Fisher's bassist saying this was her birthday, and could they dedicate Cigarette to her, which he did. It made Cara's night, and we bought TShirts and ended up haivng the note and a shirt signed before we left... If you don't know Jeremy Fisher's music, here is song dedicated to Cara last Saturday night:

White Knuckle Friday & Children's Museum Saturday

Well the only pictures that we have from Saturday are from the Children's museum, so I guess that will be the bulk of the story, but I should mention a couple of things. First, it always seems that the weather conspires against us when we go down to Minneapolis. Last time, we drove home through a blizzard. This time, the drive seemed perfect until we reached near Alexandria (if not before) and it began to rain lightly, then in got dark and the deluge came down. If you do not know the I94, I am pretty sure that they buy the cheapest paint on the planet to paint their white & yellow stripes. As you barrel down the interstate at 70 miles per hour, with trucks spraying up mist and you needing to pass them to avoid that crap, you can barely see where the road begins and ends and where your lane is... And then all of a sudden there's a curve that you only know about because the traffic in front of you is turning... The I29 does not have the same problems, just the interstates in Minnesota... Anyhow it was dark and stressful for about two hours of the drive. I have named my ulcer "Sotie" in honour of the state that created him!

During this time Teresa did not sleep worth a lick. I think it may be a combination of her seat being upright, and the fact the 50 MPH wind was pushing us around like crazy so she was being jerked a little more than usual. We got in to Alison's at 10:30 (a 7 hour drive including a quick stop to pick up food in GF).

Saturday morning, she got up too early (around 7:30) and Sarah showed up from St. Cloud some time around 8 ish. We all headed out to the Children's Museum for shortly after it opened, including Daisen who had to get up as we were in Alison's room, Alison was in his room and Daisen was sleeping in the living room so it would have been tough not to get up.

So, we will now deluge you with pictures from the children's museum (18 in all) and leave the story there to picked up another day...


Good Morning!



Teresa trying out the rock climbing wall... She never actually climbed!



Hey look up there! Note the purple sticker that indicates that she was paid up.



Surfing!



Climbing a wall...



Mommy painting her face...



Admiring mom's heart & dad's Indian war paint in the mirror.



Playing with some gears... Because they were magnetic, they slid when she played too hard with them though and they would no longer turn.



Playing with water & watching the balls flow down through the rivers.



A subtle Daisen shot. He hates having his picture taken, I wonder whey he got that from? Ernie??



Another shutterbug, whose 10,000 pictures we don't have... Yet.



Cara making bubbles for Teresa



Just another cute picture...



Teresa petted a snake... I found out that Daisen is deathly afraid of snakes, go figure. I think next year we may have to schedule a trip to Narcisse.



Teresa repping our national emblem!



I had to show Teresa ho to do it & show the world that I could fit in it...



Teresa never really got all that in to it...



Getting a picture with Daisen facing the camera is a tough trick. Note how nice I am that his sunglasses are on my head so they won't be broken.

Overall, I would give the museum a fairly high rating. Teresa would have enjoyed it even more if she was older, and I would have been happier if the Sesame Street exhibit was still there. Teresa also got to enjoy story time with some author I had never before heard of. We should also thank Alison for picking up a super cute Curious George book & dish set... Minnesota Children's Museum gets three and a half germ infested ball pits out of four