State Fair

Today we went to the Great Minnesota Get Together.  Barb decided to take Esme, Laurel and Annika. My parents decided to go with to help out.  Plus, it was their first visit to the fair.  I wasn't about to be left out, so I took the day off to go also.  We had such a great time.


First we went to the Little Farm Hands exhibit.  It's really cool because the kids get to go in and be farmers.  They plant (fake) seeds, drive tractors, gather eggs, milk cows, harvest and take their goods to the grocery store.

It's a great opportunity for kids to realize where there food comes from.  It's funny to me, growing up in ND around farms and ranches, that this is Esme's first exposer to farm life.  Believe it or not, I'm raising a city kid!

Next we went to the Kidway.  Esme's friend Morgan and her mom Josephine joined us for a little bit.  Unfortunately, we didn't stay together for too long, but it was great getting to spend some time with them.

Morgan and Josephine 

Annika and Laurel on the slide

Esme, my dad and I went on the slide too.  Esme really wanted to go but as soon as it was really time to do it, she was scared.  Eventually we were able to talk her into it and she did really like it.  My mom took a picture, but some guy's head got in the way so it's not worth showing.  Bummer

What Esme loved, loved, loved was the bumper boats.

 And a few other rides too.  I think we rode the carousel about 5 times.

One other really fun place that we went was the Butterfly House.  Esme couldn't believe how many butterflies there were.  I was amazed at how many of them you could have on you at once!  There were people with over 20 butterflies on them!

This is a really fun age for Esme to be at.  Seeing the fair through her eyes is such a wonderful experience.  

Thanks everyone for going with us and helping us to have such a great time!

Metamorphosis

We have a couple of butterfly milkweed plants in our flower bed.  They are fabulous because this is where monarch butterflies lay their eggs.  Today there was a caterpillar on one of the leaves and Esme just happened to have a magnifying glass specifically made for looking at bugs. :)

Look carefully.  Can you find the caterpillar in these photos???

Ron's Farm

Today we got invited to dinner at my friend Ron's house.  He has a farm very near our house and for whatever reason we have never been there before.  We won't make that mistake again.  We were joined by my parents and Carol Johnson.

Esme literally wore herself out running around and chasing chickens, building homes for the ants and just being outside.  Ron is a great cook with ingredients straight from his fabulous garden.  I wish I would have been better about taking pictures of the whole event rather than Esme.  Unfortunately, my focus was very narrow that day.  I would love to have a picture of his garden, the food and people other than Esme.  Oh well, next time!

I did, however, somehow manage to take this picture of his beautiful porch.  I love it!

Here's Esme posing...

Walking with Ron to see if they could find the chickens.

And finally chasing the chickens.  I love the halo effect around her hair in these pictures.  I had the camera on automatic because she was moving so fast, so I have no idea how to do this on purpose.  But I love it!

 Giving up after not being able to catch any chickens at all.  Dang, they were quick!

Posing for a few more pictures.

And last but not least, here is the picture of the Ant Home (or was it a hotel???) that Esme built for the ants.  She didn't think their ant hills were nice enough.  Unfortunately, she destroyed as many as she could find in order to persuade them to come to her "creation".  Maybe she'll be an architect some day???

Thanks Ron, for such a great time!  We can't wait to see you again!

New Hood

Today we got a new hood over the stove.  Yayy!  Aaron took the microwave out and installed it.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love good lighting and the light on the stove from the microwave was horrible.  Now we have 4 halogen lights that make things super bright.  I love it!

Thanks Aaron, you're the best!  BTW - we did get a new microwave and it lives in the pantry.  :)

Saint Michael Daze and Knights

Today is the yearly festival in Saint Michael.  We decided to go to the parade and walked from our house which is about 2 miles.  Esme rode in the stroller for a good bit of it.  But she had such a great time at the parade.

This year, instead of a carnival, there was a bunch of huge blow up, jumpy things.  I'm talking HUGE! Of course, I didn't take pictures of all of them but one of them was like 3 stories tall!  Esme didn't play on that one.  

She did get brave and climb up a pretty big one though and go down the slide.  Going up...

 And up...

 And sliding down!

You try to take an action picture of a little girl going down a slide a hundred miles an hour!!! :)  Note to self: next time zoom out!

Finally she just went in the Jumpy House.

She had a super time and would have stayed there all day if we would have let her.  We just bought her a few tickets so she could do one or two of the inflatables, but next year we will definitely get her the wristband so she can do it as long as she wants.  

The bottom line is this, We LOVE Saint Michael!!!