After a late school year Meadow was finally done for the year. And sadly her last year at Barton. Next year she'll move to a school that's closer to us.    We treated her to ice cream at Sonny's Cafe.   After taking 2 years off from birthday parties due to Covid, this year we promised Meadow a party.  For her cake she requested a rainbow cake. Unlike at her 4th birthday where I colored the batter naturally I went the artificial route this time.       I followed this recipe for Rainbow Bundt Cake.  You add each color one layer at a time. How it makes a rainbow shape as it bakes I don't know. Too bad I won't know how it looks inside until I cut into it at her party.    The next day, Meadow decorated the cake with rainbow sprinkles of course.   Can't wait to see what it looks like inside.  

Another June means another visit to Detroit Lakes while I work at nearby New York Mills' Lund Factory. We arrived late, but that didn't stop us from taking a walk down Lake Drive.  Because of the teacher strike back in March, Meadow is actually still in school. We pulled her out for a few days so we could come along too.    I had to wake up early the next morning for my shoot back in New York Mills. We stayed at the same cute motel we stayed in last year. While Scott worked, the kids and I walked to downtown. Last year Scott took the kids downtown while I worked. I hadn't been there yet.  After going last year, the kids wanted to go back to the Toy Finder store. It's a store full of discontinued toys. I was excited to find an old Battleship game. I hate the new ones that make noise. I had been looking for the same style I had growing up.  I also got a travel Guess Who. Meadow chose a small Brewers hat with baseball cards and Theo picked out an oil truck.   ...

To prepare for the work being done on our house we had to bring everything in the attic and our bedrooms into the living room and dining room. I think Theo liked having all his toys out in the living room. Well, Brooke's dad, Mr. Mike was in town again to help fix our broken soffit.   During his last visit he said he would come back in a couple weeks to help us fix it. We were very thankful to have his help.   Not too long after he arrived we headed to the Red Barn Pizza Farm.   We tried to go during his last visit but the weather wasn't good. You may be wondering why Theo's on a cot in our bedroom. Since we don't have a guest room, yet, Mr Mike was using Theo's bed.   I don't think Theo minded. I was having the worst time finding a roofer or siding contractor to fix the soffit that fell in the late winter. I'm relatively handy, but this job wouldn't have been possible without Mike.   Mr. Mike brought some scaffolding to add to the parts we already ...

  Had another shoot up in Duluth. This time an overnight stay was included. So I brought the family along. Then we just stayed the rest of the weekend at Blake's.   As soon as we both returned home earlier in the week we had to get our attic prepped. We were getting all the knob and tube replaced so insulation could go in.         Back in Duluth we opted for the room with the lake view. The kids wanted to go swimming, but Brooke had other plans and I had to take some twilight photos. The kids and I walked around Canal Park. We made sure to wave to the webcam and then they just had fun climbing on the old anchors.   Scott had to work for most of the day so you know what we did. Yes, that's right, a Hiking Club Trail. Today took us to Tettegouche State Park.  We came here for my birthday when Meadow was little. We had never been on the lake side.  What a view.  We had a picnic lunch and had plans to go see some waterfalls, but the kids wer...