Skip to main content

Minnesota State Fair 2018

We tried to soak up as much fun as we could this last week of summer. On Friday night, the kids decided to build a fort in the family room. They had grand plans of sleeping there overnight, and both Scott and I squashed their fun and gave them until 10pm to enjoy the fort before bedtime.



I ended up going out with a friend on Friday night, so I asked Ava to wake up Scott at 10pm, so they could be tucked into bed safely. Sure enough, our first born followed the directions and woke him up, right on time, so they could be shuttled off to bed! What a good kid! And they loved the fort while it was available!

Saturday was spent doing chores around the house and then out for a nice family dinner (I think we were all too lazy to cook, truth be told...) I finally had the time off/nice weather combo to clean our deck furniture...when we got our deck re-surfaced a few weeks ago, there was a bunch of cedar fuzz that adhered itself to our furniture, and it was driving me nuts. Now, it's all nice and clean, and looks great on the finished deck!

During breakfast on Saturday morning, we heard a loud pop, and then glass shards flew everywhere...the light bulb above our table popped! No one was hurt, but it scared us, and resulted in a very thorough vacuuming of the entire area to make sure all glass was picked up. We have also switched to LED bulbs in that light fixture, so this shouldn't happen again.


G entertained me while I was cleaning patio furniture


Sunday morning we met up with Grandma Karen and Grandpa Doug, and took the 1st bus into the Minnesota State Fair. G absolutely loved the bus ride...it was his top highlight of the entire day... This was the kiddos' first time at the fair, and we had prepped them telling them it would be lots of walking, people, eating, and a few fun rides.

Ava did a fantastic job...she was very patient, and was willing to try new foods. G, however, was a disaster. He had some very good moments, and a few really bad ones where he was yelling, hitting, crying, and having overall meltdowns about everything. We had a really good trip to the fair, except for when G made it miserable. I'm not sure we'll bring him back next year, honestly.

It poured while we were in the DNR building, so we spent some extra time enjoying the exhibits there!



G chose to ride Bumper Boats in the Kidway...totally fun!



Ava chose to ride on the Swings - great choice!!



We were a bit scattered this year, and didn't even make it down to see the animals, the global bizarre, or the radio station both that we listen to on my drive into work (that was one of Ava's requests at the fair...) We also missed out on some key foods, as well, so next year, we need to have a plan. We kept walking up and down the same streets, and continually forgot things along the way. And we didn't even have that much beer!

Oh well...now that the State Fair is checked off the list, I guess that means that school really does start tomorrow. Ava's SO ready to go back and see her friends. G moves into the K-Prep classroom tomorrow, and he's super excited, although he will miss his teacher. I'm excited to have structure back in our lives, and to have Ava be just down the street at her school instead of having to haul her to the north side of Eagan each day (for summer care.)

Scott surprised me with these lovely flowers on Sunday night...clearly he could see how badly the State Fair trip stressed me out...



For the last several years, we've celebrated Labor Day with our neighbors...they host a root-beer float gathering at their house, and we love it! It's a great way to spend a fun afternoon before the school year sets in.

Happy 1st Day of School!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Goodbye Sweet Spanky

This is a post that I'm not very excited to write.  As you probably know, our oldest dog, Spanky, had struggled with health issues (ear infections, seizures) his whole life, and recently, his health had severely deteriorated.  He hadn't been eating, his ear infection was so severe his face was swollen, he had a hard time getting up the stairs, and he very rarely wanted to play.  Last week we got a few tail wags from him, and he ate a few bowls of food, but it was a 50-50 chance that he would actually keep the food down. On Thursday, we made the decision that if he wasn't any better by this weekend, we were going to put him down.  I know Scott didn't want to make that decision as Spanky was a very special dog to him - he truly was his little buddy, following him around everywhere, wanting to be wherever Scott was, and howling his sadness whenever Scott would leave him. Throughout Friday night, it became clear that Spanky wasn't going to have a miraculous recovery...

Happily Ever After?

Lately, I've been adding to the Disney Princess movies in our collection.  Last week I bought Beauty and the Beast for Ava.  That was never a favorite movie of mine, but now that I've seen it several times in the last week, it's growing on me.  I figure this is a good chance for me to catch up on some of the stories that I missed out on! Watching all of these princess movies has me thinking about fairy tales...why is it that it's always the evil stepMOTHER?  Or the mom is dead, and no one has taken her place?  Very rarely is it the father who is evil, or dead.  This has actually come up as a topic in more than one conversation lately, and has me a bit intrigued.  Fairy tales are often not very happy - and usually someone dies at some point.  I was a giving an overview of Snow White to a friend of mine, and as I was going through the story, both of us were horrified at the message - mom dies, evil stepmother wants to murder her pretty stepdaugh...

What's Black & White?

It's officially summer in Minnesota.  We've passed the 1-2 weeks where it's pleasant outside, and have moved into the hot and humid midwestern summer season.  This calls for some FUN in the SUN!  We were hoping that Ava would enjoy the water a little more this year than she did last year (I took her to several weeks of swimming lessons in a lap pool, where the temp of the water was just a wee bit too chilly.  It didn't go well for either of us.)  Plus, she has a new swimming suit I was anxious to have her try out, so at the very least, I knew she would look cute. :) So, Daddy decided to set up the sprinkler for her one night after dinner.  This, too, did not go very well.  Perhaps it's because he sprung the sprinkler on her without warning, causing her to run to me, with fear in her eyes, and very wet hands...  After that, we never got her to come near the sprinkler (way to go, Daddy), and she decided to play with my potted flowers...with h...