Friday, July 11, 2014

Wedding Receptions...

A few weeks ago we headed over to Wisconsin to attend the wedding of one of Brad's cousins and the kids did great. Long Catholic wedding, driving to the reception in a neighboring town, waiting at the reception for the wedding party to arrive. Brad's Aunt Caryl had made up activity bags for every kid at the reception -- with fun finger lights and activity sheets and crayons and goldfish snacks. It was so thoughtful. Still, the kids, got a little antsy -- I took them for a tour of the hotel and we played story-telling games in the lobby but then we came back and the kids wanted us to take selfies with the phone. So here you go, Family, funny, silly selfies. I must say it was a lovely wedding and staying the night in the hotel went smoothly and getting up the next morning and getting to swim with cousins and grandpa Tom, and Aunt Kara and Uncle Brian was totally and utterly fun. I love when happy memories happen. So thankful. Congratulations, Andy and Ashley!!! Thank you Aunt Caryl and Uncle Leigh for inviting and including us in the celebration!








Pi Pie

So my friends Liz and Eric Berget have a blog called Carpe Season and recently they threw a 10 Pie 10 Pi party inspired by Brad's strange and wonderful brain that came up with the idea -- Liz recounts the tale much better than I can so you should read her post! Anyhoo, I was honored to be able to make one of the pies (a strawberry galette that was totally inspired by a creation adaptation of my friend Vicki Rowley who took the original idea from the blog Smitten Kitchen). And to be able to come to the party where, as usual, Liz brought together many wonderful people from a a whole myriad of sectors of her and Eric's life -- long-time college friends, neighbors known longer and met just that week, Eric's colleagues from the graphic design company where he works, colleagues of Liz from the Somali school she used to teach at -- high schoolers, grown-ups, grandmas, and preschoolers...I love Liz' heart even more than her mad cooking and photography skills! Photo above is Eric's! (All the rest are mine unless indicated.)

Rachel, Liz herself, and Heidi

 


 


A particularly nice photo of Brad by Eric (-:
 

Atticus spent most of the party doing this, of course...

 


One last photo of the Bergets because they are so cute and because this is such a nice portrait (taken by one of their family members? when back visiting family at Easter-time)

Wood Lake Nature Preserve

The week before the older boys left for my folks, they had Art in the Camp -- a three-morning free kid workshop program put on by the Minneapolis Art Institute. While they did that, I took Lincoln and Thea Belle to a new nature center I discovered through my friend Meagan Honigman. It is so close to us (Richfield) and never even knew it was there. It has a beautiful wooded area with nice-length trails around and through (with boardwalks) a marshlands. Right now most of the trails are under water because of this year's water table and the mosquitos are thick and intense. But the nature center is well-designed and kept and the trails that are there are well-maintained and the woods beautiful and thick. There is good parking and it's free. And as an added bonus, you are only blocks away from a Post Office, Rainbow Foods, and a Michaels (in case you need to stop and do an errand on the way or back).


Lots of things like this, labeled clearly and free to be picked up and touched by little (and big) hands...








Kinda strange but neat display on taxidermy...