Rowan's Interesting Head Fashions (9-13)

The other day Rowan put a whole sheet of stickers on her head. She has always liked to put things like scarves, other people's clothing (especially underwear), and dish towels on her head, and "hat" was one of her first words, so it's no surprise that her flair for fashion focuses mostly on her head. Maybe someday she will be a hat designer.

G & G Visit (9-13)

Grandpa Steve and Grandma Mary came and stayed with us for a while in September. The weather was still really nice, so we tried to get out and do stuff with them. We went to an apple orchard one day when the kids didn't have school, but Ama had a fever and felt really crappy so we didn't stay long.

The apple orchard farm had a river running through the middle of it and kind of a park where we sat while we ate apple treats: apple donuts, apple turnovers, apple juice, and apple slushies. We took a hayride tour through the orchard, and got to listen to live music while we waited in line (the line took a long time, because one of the tractors got a flat tire!!)

Arboretum (9-13)

While Grandma and Grandpa were visiting we drove out to the Minnesota Arboretum one sunny, beautiful afternoon. It was a lot of walking, but was a lovely way to spend a lovely day.

We all got a little worn out and we didn't even come close to seeing everything. When we got back to the car, we took a scenic drive out to some of the more remote places we hadn't walked, like the hill with the sculpture garden on it. It's a place worth going back to.

After we were all tuckered out and at the end of our day at the arboretum, we discovered that they had a small-scale cob house for kids to play in, a learning center, and two really neat natural playgrounds for kids. Unfortunately, I was too hungry at that point to have the presence of mind to take pictures of it. All the kids could have spent hours playing there (even Cook!) but it was dinnertime.

The Japanese Garden was beautiful and had a little two-walled structure with cook latticed windows. Ama pretended it was her house, and I got a really good photo of G & G in it!

Chris and the Ladies (9-13)

Chris stopped and did a photo shoot with Ama and Rowan when they were on a bike ride around Powderhorn Park, and the pics turned out great, especially this one where Chris's giant black moustache is actually a barbie that Rowan is holding. Sometimes she gets ahold of a barbie and won't let go.

Also, over the summer Ama turned into an expert bike rider - look! No training wheels!!!