Bucket List Repeat...

The kids are at such awesome ages...

I just love that we can do things as a family that everyone enjoys...stuff off of our original Bucket List ...

Friday Night Family Date at Canterbury Park!

Horses, Live Music, and snacks!
Yes Please!



(Yes, he's blurry in this picture - he never stops moving! Hails asked me to snap these - I was camera-less on this particular evening -but never without my camera phone...I wish it took better pictures like that Droid Charge I had!)

We never put any money down on the horses - but we are going to need to start.

Every time the kids pick a number -based solely on their ages, how old they wish they were, etc etc -

The horses end up coming out up front!

It's a fun way to spend some time outdoors as a family...

And honestly, is there anything a city slicker can find more majestic than one of these beautiful animals around here?

Sever's Corn Maze! (Why did we wait so long!)

I rarely get to pop in on the SMBMSP events because they are usually on a day when I can't get away from previous commitments (read: my one bonus day off with the kiddos & a day I don't have childcare here!)

But last weekend they arranged for us to have a Sunday morning tweetup...
Bacon anyone?

And that tweetup was taking place at Sever's Corn Maze -

I hadn't been out to Sever's Corn Maze in probably 10 years...

I didn't think I was missing anything - but as it turns out...I cannot believe we haven't been making this an annual thing!! It has apparently evolved over the years! HURRAY!

The kids bolted immediately to the hay bale maze...
(notice D's striped sweatshirt being sneaky in the background?)

and from there...they went to the jumper...
think, open air bounce house...

oh MY! what a good time THAT was!

We've never been to a 'corn pit' before - ever.
I've seen dozens of pictures of our friends' kids having a blast in corn pits over the years...

And we wasted no time jumping right in!




The kids thought Gabby the Camel was pretty cool -

And then we moved on to other you don't see these everyday in the city 'pets' ~



There was a little 'bird house' that you could enter and hang out with these birdies...

(The hubs stayed safely on the outside of said enclosure)

But the kids and I had a good time inside...


That explains this little guy here, who was hanging out near the corn pit!
I took his picture and kept thinking to myself...
this has to be someone's pet...we don't just have these kinds of birds fluttering around in Shakopee Minnesota! (Turns out, he got loose the day before...and no one could catch him!)

And while that was fun and all - the kids thought having their very first exotic animal ride would be even more fun!
(Are Camels exotic animals? I guess I don't even know, but regardless, it was something totally out of the ordinary and fun for us!)

They had the opportunity to 'milk' a cow...

And play Astronaut...in correlation with this year's Space Theme at Sever's ~







And while we could have spent the entire day doing this, that and the other thing...
It IS the Corn Maze after all...

The hubs navigated us through the maze with ease...following the map - enabling us to find the 6 'hidden' astronauts at various stations throughout the maze...

Sever's was a great outing for our entire family...
Something for all of us to do...
We could have easily spent many more hours there...





I don't know why we waited so long to take the kiddos out to Sever's...
But I know we won't be waiting so long again!

& a HUGE THANKS SMBMSP for organizing this fun, family friendly tweetup!~

(and for those of you wondering - Yes, our girl IS wearing her PJ's again...I dunno...she has a thing for pj's I guess! she marches to the beat of her own drum...and that is just fine with us! - Mostly!)

How does she DO it?

Ladies and Gentleman...

Drum roll please...the winner of the EVERSAVE Mani/Pedi Give Away Package is...




Congrats 'a girl' - You've won yourself a little pampering!
Thanks everyone for stopping by and entering...

Stay tuned for the next big thing!

Wordless Wednesday - A Boy & His Dog

He's been talking a lot about the Rainbow Bridge...

And he asked me to snap a few pictures of him and his dog, so that he never forgets...

Family Photo...

Why is it so darn hard to capture a family photo?
Sheesh!
The elusive family picture...
Some day...he'll regret this...
right???

A couple of other 'Mommy & Me' attempts are posted over here...

Minnesota Right of Passage ~ The Minnesota State Fair

It feels sort of wrong to be posting this so late...
but every time I go to put this post together and embed my YouTube Videos...

It crashed the blog post and I lose everything...
then I start over...
and do it all again...
only for the same thing to happen!

What gives?

I will try links instead...so if you want to see the video...and you know you do...

You'll have to click out to YouTube...

So ANYWAY...It's only been 3 weeks...so whatever...

After heading out to the Minnesota State Fair LAST year...
I wasn't sure we'd go again for a few years...but the commercials, the Facebook posts and tweets...
Well, how could we stay away?

I mean really?

And who doesn't love the Dairy Barn first thing in the morning!
Princess Kay carved out of butter anyone?

And fresh Chocolate Milkshakes for breakfast?
Best. Mom. EVER!


It's not the Minnesota State Fair without a stop at the Miracle of Birth Center ~

But I always have mixed feelings about it...

I mean, who doesn't want to see these adorable newborn animals?



But I feel badly for the Mama's in labor with eleventy million people watching.

We hit the butterfly house again this year - worth, in my opinion, the $3 admission fees (per person)...

But someone else might want her $3.00 admission fee back...

We are raisers of butterflies around here...we easily saw off 4 dozen Monarchs this season...

She however, did not care for these one bit...

My poor baby girl!

What good Mommy doesn't grab a quick picture or a quick 18 second video when their kid is freaking out?

Click HERE to see how it all unfolded...

This little peanut wore butterflies like giant ears and was no worse for wear ~

And this lady...

Well, yes...this lady...

ANYHOO ~

He's been growing like a weed...

and JUST made it!


That's right folks...the Big Slide...all by himself!

We went down all at the same time - Five of our friends, D on his own gunny sack and H on my lap...

I of course wanted to take some quick video with the HTC Thunderbolt 4g phone I had on loan from Verizon Wireless...but the fair workers rushed me down the slide too fast.
BOO!


The kids took time out to build some projects with the Home Depot...


And then...,oh my and THEN!
I would love love love love loooove to get D his very own little mini quad...

Oh sure, he has one...
A powerwheels one...

But look at the powerwheels on THIS ONE!'
($600 - seriously, how can I not?)


It's actually amazing that we didn't come home with it...

Daddy didn't come with us and I was at the Minnesota State Fair alone with the kids - except for the short time we met up with friends and their three kiddos...

I mean really...

All the money I wasn't spending on food and drink being there alone with the kids...
I probably saved $600 -

Could easily put it to good use on one of those things right?

SANTA?
It's not the state fair if you don't eat something crazy...

but again, being alone with the kiddos...

That makes it tougher to buy up one of everything...

and eat one of everything...


But I do have one adventurous boy on my hands...

And he and I shared some Deep Fried Pickles...




Ah, the Great Minnesota Get Together...

Going first thing on a Friday morning was much better than mid morning on a Saturday like we did last year...

But any zen I got from the lesser crowds I used up on taking the kiddos alone...

We still had a great time though!

It was fun having the HTC Thunderbolt along for the ride ~ still pictures (all from this post taken with the phone! YAY!) and lots of little (4G) video snippets to boot!

I was really really bummed when my video camera died last winter - I immediately thought I would need to run out and get a new one, but the overwhelming options and shortage of funds put that on the back burner...

I'm quickly learning that it's ok...

And that having ONE device is so so much better than carting around a camera, and a video camera...and a phone.

All three in one...HELLO lady at the Minnesota State Fair who doesn't want to miss a moment but brought a four and five year old by herself!

::points fingers at self::

The times, they are a changin'!