Month: February 2012

Rail Equipment in St Paul

Near the corner of Transfer Road and University Avenue in St. Paul, there are about six or seven machines on the railroad tracks. While looking up the name of Transfer Road on google maps, I see that the equiptment isn’t in the satellite image, so possibly these older looking machines are currently being used, possibly for the light rail being build nearby.

But they were opened up so the kids could climb inside, play with levers, and jump off from, so they had a good twenty minutes or so playing on them. In one picture, you can tell Ada is a bit nervous about being high up on one (clinging to Liam) but after Liam jumped off, she did too.

Helena was at a friend’s house, who had a sister who was sick, and Helena ended up with a stomach virus that kept her out of school for two days.


Ada’s Half Birthday (a week late)

Liam was staying at a friend’s house that night, so Helena and Ada and I went to Pizza Luce where I told Ada that she was now five and a half years old.

On the way home, Helena asked Ada where she had gotten the little can of candy that she’s holding. Since Liam wasn’t home, she just took his candy off from the counter to eat. Some things won’t change with age for Ada, I suppose. She’s still willing to sneak candy just like she did when she was a toddler.

 

Wild Game

For his birthday, I took Liam to his first Minnesota Wild game. They were playing the Winnipeg Jets, in their first season since the team left for Phoenix(?) years ago. Lots of Canadians there, which made the game much more enjoyable.

My favorite part of the evening is when the Wild were up 3-2 and Liam was telling me how great it was that it would be the first time that we’ve been to a game (he’s listing them all) that our team had one. Just as he was about to finish the sentence, Winnipeg scored, so he stopped and went “Awww” in frustration.

Also, Liam hasn’t seen a hockey game before, other than part of one on a television last year up in Brainerd, so he was quite surprised, and a bit confused, when a fight broke out.

Warming up.

Buffalo’s old logo is still hanging. I wonder if anyone here even knows that it should be changed.

Last shot of the night. The Wild did end up losing in the shootout.

Year of the Dragon at the Institute of Arts

Ink drawings





Liam waiting for the girls to finish and looking a bit tired.

I’ve been trying to get the kids to read the maps on their own during the scavenger hunts. Much work needs to be done.

The kids were awesome at being a dragon. There were three other people taking photos of them as they went around. The man who was helping the kids with the masks said it was the best he had seen all day. I was even surprised. Helena was moving the head up and down and side to side, and Liam instinctively knew to keep the back so that the seams wouldn’t show.

Here was an Asian family taking photos of the kids.

Then they got to make their own dragons.



Liam’s Birthday Party

Liam’s birthday party was nine kids coming over and making lots of noise.

Two kids came an hour early because they couldn’t stay the entire time, and Liam played with them while we waited for the rest. Right at noon, when the party started, we ate lunch so the early leavers would have their lunch. Then the kids went downstairs to play Super Mario World. After that, I made Liam turn it off and head outside, where they played (mostly) football, but some played on the swing and some played with a soccer ball. Because it was warm and sunny, some kids even got to take their jackets off, which is pretty rare for a February party.

After that we came inside and ate cake, and opened presents. There were kids there for over three hours, but it goes by pretty quickly.

Old Photos

It is darn near impossible getting photos from the camera’s internal memory to a computer, particularly when you’ve lost the cable, so these have been sitting on there for over a year.

These are from 22 September 2010, taken with the kids in the car. Not sure why Liam didn’t have his picture taken. I still remember saying to myself that this is what I think of when I think of Helena….always with a book in her hand. As for Ada, she seems to be the most photogenic kid; I never seem to take a poor photo with her.

And this one is from 19 May 2011. Helena had art work up at Lake Harriet.

Liam’s Birthday

As soon as the alarm went off in the morning, I was just getting out of the bathroom so I peeked my head in Liam’s room and asked if there was anything special about today. He got a huge smile on his face and said “Today’s my birthday!”

His dinner of choice was a hibachi grill place that we’ve been to in Plymouth, so that’s where we went.

Once home, he opened a few presents. Dalen got him a Lego set that he began working on right away, but soon enough it was time for bed, anyway.

 

First thing in the morning

At the restaurant

Liam and Helena sharing a laugh

Liam in the mask.

Helena being silly.

I got Liam Wild tickets.

Liam counting his birthday money.

Liam’s new lego set.

Liam finished one part before he had to head up for bed.

 

Out on a Saturday Morning

This morning we went to the Home Depot for this month’s project and then we went to the Walker Art Center. The project at the Walker was supposed to be decorating sleds, but the lack of snow but a damper on that. We did make trees inside the Conservatory, though, which the kids really, really liked making.















Read-a-thon Kickoff

The kids went to the kickoff for the Read-a-thon at Lake Harriet. Mostly it is an excuse for them to see some friends. And Ada wanted to show off in the gym.

The first picture is of Helena in the gym. Once she realized that I took a picture of her, she took off with her friends out of the gym.
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