Ada’s First Day of Kindergarten

Last night while I was putting Ada to bed, I was telling her all the fun things that she’ll get to do in kindergarten, and she seemed pretty excited. A couple of weeks ago she was quite scared about it, but since Open House a week ago, she’s been okay with the idea of going after seeing her room and meeting her teacher, who is the same teacher that Liam had.

But as soon as the kids’ alarm went off at 7:00 this morning, she began to cry. She got out of bed and sat on Helena’s bed without getting dressed, but calmed down quickly. Eventually she got dressed and went downstairs; after that she was good.

Once we were at school, Liam began to show her the toys and she just sat down and began to play while completely ignoring the rest of us, which is quite common around the house. I had to leave after that to take Helena to school, but according to Liam, she was good all morning.

After she got off the bus, she said that she liked her class and that she’d have no problems going tomorrow. We’ll have to see about that!

Liam sneaks in a Leapster game while getting ready. The girls watch.

Ada's morning tears.

Ada finds a half chewed tomato left by some animal. Arguments ensue about other possible tomato sightings.

They all look to be the winner in spotting the next half eaten tomato contest.

All jammed in the back.

Dad is being funny with the camera now...taking pictures of every little step Ada takes. Girls find it humourous, though

Like Ada's locker

And the chart Ada has to sign in at. I told her that I named her Ada so that she would be at the top of the list.

Getting off the bus at the end of the school day.

Ada wants to show everyone what she did. And she doesn't want to wait to do it.

Liam was getting tired, so he goes into the shade for a rest. Then Ada goes to join him.

Unfortunate signage

Outside restaurant

Inside the restaurant

School Lunch

Ada’s first day of kindergarten is tomorrow. On the way back from taking her to yoga, she says, “Can we go buy one apple for my lunch?”

Not, “an apple”, but “one apple”….so cute. So we did go get some apples. One red and one green. Now if she can only find her water bottle that she’s so excited to bring.

Richfield Miniature Golf

It was the first time that I’ve been back in probably ten or fifteen years, but the miniature golf course at Veteran’s Memorial Park is still the worst that I’ve ever seen. The wood chips on the greens, slopes on tees that make it impossible to keep the ball stationary, and patches of carpet here and there were bad enough. But the greens are nowhere near flat, and almost every ball hit ends up laying against the edge (if there is one) because almost every hole was designed like a volcano. I can’t expect my all-time favorite, but the miniature golf in the old Amsterdam Mall was ten times more fun than this! (I tried to find a photo of the mall one, but only found the video I linked to with a Holli Golightly soundtrack…awesome!)

Funny, though. The kids hardly notice! But the did notice that the four teenagers waiting on the two parties at the concession stand were terribly slow, and I thought it was just bad luck that they were out of the first two drinks I requested, and brats, which I ordered for Liam and I. But I wasn’t the only one that was unlucky…the other family asked for some ice cream dessert and were told that they were out of them as well.

“Didn’t Make It!”

This is what Liam and I heard Ada say after there was a very loud noise by the stairs. We ran in to see what had happened.

It just turned out that she was trying to throw a slinky from one side of the room into a box on another side.

Pike Island

After fighting with the toilet in the basement and losing water to the whole house until a plumber comes on Monday, I thought that it might be a great day to get out of the house. So I took the kids to Pike Island, which is where the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers is. All in all they walked about four or five miles, and it wasn’t until the end where Helena was (the only one) asking how much longer it was back to the car.

On the way we played on beaches, found walking sticks (which Ada really never got the hang of), skipped rocks across the rivers, made pancakes out of mud, found toads and animal tracks, climbed trees, waved to people in boats, and took some photographs.

The kids were an absolute mess because of the mud pancakes, so we went to Lifetime to shower afterward because of the water situation at home. How pleasant!

Pike Island…the Mississippi River in the river on the north side, the Minnesota is on the south.

Early into our walk when they were nice and clean.

Helena had me take this photo.

The kids taking off in front of me.

Helena thinks she’s an owl. She wanted me to take this photo, too.

And yet another one that she wanted me to take. She probably needs her own camera.

Liam and Ada throwing sticks into the Mississippi River.

Helena’s toad.

It isn’t easy getting a photo of the rivers coming together if you aren’t on the river itself. But here is the tip of the island.

Mud pancakes.

Liam: “Dad, do you want me to show you how to make pancakes?”

Dad: “I’ve been watching you make them for 20 minutes!”

Liam: “Okay, here’s what you do…..”

Helena loves to climb trees….even ones that have fallen over. She’s sitting above the river here, trying not to worry her father too much.

Now all three are getting dirty.

After that, we walked up the Minnesota River side of the island back to the car stopping every hundred feet or so for Liam to skip rocks on the river.

Foshay v2

Last time that we went down to the Foshay Tower, Dori was with us but Liam was at a birthday party, so this was his first trip there. And the weather was much, much nicer.

Lyndale Avenue is under construction, so it took us awhile to get downtown. Ada enjoyed it while sitting criss-cross applesauce.

Liam was quite reflective on the ride down. Not a word the whole time. Contemplating life? Probably not….most likely thinking about the kickball game the night before.

We stopped into Candyland first to get Sour Sassy Taffy, Licorice Wheels, and Gourmet Jelly Beans (Ada is particular about her jelly beans). Dad was chatting with a little boy who was quite excited to be there that day. I heard his mother tell him that they’ll get some candy for the movie theatre. It turned out to be his fifth birthday today, so we mentioned that tomorrow was Ada’s and they were both quite excited about that. So I said to the boy, “Hey, you know what you really, really should do on your birthday? You should go to the movies!” Well, the kids eyes got really, really big and he said, “I am going to the movies!”. Anyway, after talking to him for a minute or so (they were ahead of us in line) they left. But then the boy came back in with a dollar and gave it to Ada and told her it was for her birthday. Helena thinks that they must have been rich. (I certainly don’t think that they were, which makes the whole thing that much sweeter, anyhow). As we were walking into Macy’s, which is adjacent to Candyland, Ada was snacking and holding the dollar bill in her armpit. Here’s Ada before she put the dollar bill the only place that she could think of.

My first mistake was taking them to Candyland before eating lunch, but it is summer and we’re downtown, so who cares that only Helena ate her lunch. We went to the Sky Room at about 1:30. Apparently there is a law that nobody can eat lunch that late because there were only five other people there. But we did get a nice table, though, overlooking theÂ cityÂ pigeon.

Then we were off the the Foshay. Dad wants a print of this, so he took a photo of it. He’s looked it up, but can’t find much.

We walked around the top for about twenty minutes. They loved looking through the view finders. We couldn’t see the house, but the grass atop Brit’s Pub, the ski jump in Bloomington, the baseball field, andÂ accordionÂ buses were a hit. Helena was nice enough to offer to take a photo of two girls who were attempting to take one of themselves.

Here’s one with the reflection of the building we were on in the background.

And then the bus ride home. It must be said that the waiting time for buses today was great. I think two minutes tops for both parts. And both Helena and Liam got to put transfer cards into the reader, so that was (a little) exciting for them. Helena has done it before, but she always forgets how.