Birdie, Late Morning

The pots by the front stoop have double impatients in them these days, of which the spent blooms fall to the ground, especially during a heavy rain or storm.  Birdie will almost always stop to examine them and remark, "Flowers fall down!"

The Parktacular

Fans, today was the St. Louis Park Parktacular!  The Parktacular is a community celebration that the city has been hosting since the early 1900's, when it was once, apparently, dubbed the "biggest jubilee celebration ever."  Fans, the jubilee has only gotten bigger in the past 100 years.  It now boasts a parade, water slides and inflatables, various musical groups, a Taste of SLP, and--of note for us--canoe and kayak rides, a family fishing activity, a petting zoo, and pony rides.  It doesn't get much better than that, especially if you are almost four.  Which is why it was such a bummer when we woke up and the weather was so craptacular on Parktacular Day.  Thankfully, the rain moved out and the clouds parted just after lunch.  The boys headed out to catch the tail end of the parade before diving into the Parktacular's delights, while the Birds stayed home so the Little Bird could nap.  Julie was writing some notes on the porch and got regular updates on her phone, like "Canoe!!!!!  He didn't hesitate for a second!  Awesome."

Our Pennsylvania Fans will realize what a big deal Joe's boarding of a canoe without a moment's hesitation is, since he wanted nothing--nothing!--to do with the pontoon boat that was at the lake house we rented for a week last summer.  When Julie saw him later and told him how proud she was that he'd ridden in a canoe, Joe informed her that he'd ridden in a boat.  Whatever.  He was in a vessel, that was in the water.

He also caught a fish!

At first, Our Hero wasn't quite ready to ride a pony, so he petted some animals.

But then the Buckaroo was like, "Pony.  Bring it."

And there's more.  (We know, right?!)  The Little Gym was there with the Air Track, AND it was being supervised by Teacher Kayla!  Teacher Kayla remembered Joe, and Joe remembered Teacher Kayla.  Ted reports that Joe went down the Air Track a couple times, making moon eyes at Teacher Kayla all the while.

Somewhere in there, back at the ranch, Birdie woke up.  She had her snack on the porch with Ms. Barks A Lot, and then the Birds were off to the Parktacular, too.

By the time they got there, it had gotten pretty hot, and Joe had been going hard all afternoon.  So Joe was pretty tired, and ready to go home.  Birdie was a little overwhelmed by the whole thing, so after she'd gathered up some wood chips at Wolfe Park, and run around it a bit, she was ready to go, too.

Fans, Joe went to bed at 6:17pm.  !!!!!   This after an hour-long nap right when we got home!  Clara sacked out early, too.  It's 7:44pm as this reporter files this dispatch, and they are both sound asleep.  We call that spectacular.

That's Entertainment!

The house across the alley from us that was up for sale recently was purchased by a contractor who is flipping it.  On of the first orders of business was tearing down and replacing the garage which was listing a bit, and had broken windows.  Shortly after it was knocked down, all the overgrown brush and some trees along the alley were taken down.  (We're really glad that we decided to paint our garage the same color as our house, because frankly, the alley just got a lot spiffier.)  So it's been a real beehive of activity: dumpsters, mini loaders, lots of things making lots of noise, lots of construction workers doing lots of things.  We've been keeping very close tabs on the progress.

This is how the bambini were found Thursday morning when they were sent out to make their way to the car to go to school.

The Birds Drop By While the Boys Drop Off

When the boys got back from the Mini U.S. Open, Julie was baking cookies.  Joe settled in for quiet time upstairs, while Ted headed off to Whole Foods for the last of the groceries, including Sunday evening's fish.  Clara was napping.  Here, we pause to note that when the kitchen timer goes off here at Raleigh House, it is quickly following by shouts of, "Daddy!  I think it's ready!"  One must respond or this second timer will keep chirping, "Daddy!  I think it's ready!"  Julie knows this and thus, really should have been watching the kitchen timer, rather than listening for it, because no sooner had it gone off, then Joe hollered--hollered--from upstairs, "Daddy!  I think it's ready!  [beat] DADDY!  I THINK I. . ."  That's where Julie hissed from the foot of the stairs, "Joe.  I got it."  Joe no doubt settled back thinking, "My work here is done," as Clara began to cry.  Sigh.

So Clara got up, Ted came home, and we had cookies for afternoon snack before everyone scattered about the house.  Julie had just finished cleaning up the kitchen and packing up some cookies to take over to Graham and Connor's when she happened upon this scene:

Baby Doll (# Unknown); Ted on Thomas Pillow Pet; Joe, on Duck Pillow Pet

So Julie rounded up Clara, and took her on a late afternoon Midwestern drop-by while the boys dropped off.

Starry Birdie

Fore!

Our park district hosts a myriad of activities throughout the year, especially the summer, but the kid activities tend to be for the grade school set.  As we were perusing the catalog we noticed a small entry for "Mini US Open" which was golf for 3-5 year olds.  Eureka!  Ted roped in a few of Joe's friends' parents and registered for our first park event!  Our "tee time" was at 1pm Sunday.  We were given a score card which had a map of the 9-hole course, a set of 2 plastic golf clubs, and an oversized plastic golf ball (Ted was Joe's caddy).  We headed out to the first hole and teed off....34 strokes later we had made it to the flag about 50 yards away. There was no hole, just the flag, but the kids didn't care.  After 5 holes and several hundred swings later, the kids asked to be all done, to which the dads quickly agreed. We went back into the "clubhouse" where each kid got to hold the winner's trophy and pose in front of the leader board.  They had fun, and it helped they were playing together.  It also helped that there was a huge playground that they got to play on afterwards.

Good form!  Head down, eye on the ball!

Three amigos: Joe, Darby and Marco

Everyone's a winner! Golfers may note some odd scorekeeping.