Farmers Markets and Backyard Rink Building

Everyone ate whatever they wanted for breakfast. Theo picked mangos and eggs. I think he could eat that every day.

Kid loves mangoes.

We finally framed Scott's family sausage recipe.

Hungarian Sausage if you're curious.

Along with a recipe card of my Grandma's.

We thought we'd check out the downtown Minneapolis Farmers Market one last time this year.

I was expecting there to be a lot more open vendors but the stalls were already full of Christmas trees.

There wasn't quite as much produce as we expected, but we did pickup a giant jug of maple syrup.

When your kids are pretentious and only eat real maple syrup, the big jug is needed.

I think we're all on team real maple syrup.

The kids declared today a no screen day.

First we had to clean up the yard one last time before the snow comes.

Then we started working on the kids Christmas present. I picked up a full IronSleek backyard rink kit with all the lumber needed off of Facebook Market a few weeks back. It even came with lights to ring the rink.

We hadn't told the kids yet. They went inside to play upstairs and noticed from the 3rd floor window we were up to something.

Theo and Meadow were peaking from the attic window debating what we were building. Theo came down and then guessed, "Ice rink!"

We had to figure out the best plan to work around our yard. We first thought of going over the sidewalk but didn't think it was fair to our renters.

It would be a chore to take out trash to the alley. Also I was a bit worried about the electrical line running under the garden.

Me in deep thought about how to make this odd shape work. I also bought IronSleek round corner brackets to deal with the odd shape of our gardens and bushes.

Nearly all built out minus the plastic liner and a few more brackets.

Theo came up with the idea to attach it to our garden to make it bigger. We'll see once we add the liner if that was worth it.

Then Meadow and I walked to the library to pick up her next Warriors book.

"I'm Papa!"

The kids each drew a tree for Scott.

They know their papa loves big trees.

The next morning I made a french toast bake for breakfast.

While Scott watched the Packers game I took the kids out on an adventure to Crosby Farm.

There's quite a few geocaches here that we were on the hunt for. Theo scored this Canadian flag pin.

Lots of breaks to climb trees and pose.

Geocaching ain't my thing, but these kids love it.

Comments

Chicago Chrismukkah + Michigander Xmas

Before heading out on our trip we let the kids open their Christmas gifts from us. A knitted sweater for Theo and a kitty dress for Meadow (I fixed the straps for her) both made by me. I wanna a sweater. Scott got them new compact sleeping bags. We all got smaller sleeping bags this year and we'll now have a lot more room in our car. This year we had talked about hosting my family at the cottage. Then meeting up in Milwaukee, then meeting in Chicago. But in the end we made stops in Chicago and Lowell this Christmas. We left on a Sunday which was nice to have a few days to prepare. On the way down to Chicago we stopped at our favorite roadside restaurant, Foster Cheese Haus. We had plans to break up our drives so we didn't have to rush like we normally do. We had made it just before the cheese haus was set to close for the winter. Just not enough folks stop here in winter and snowmobile season is becoming shorter and shorter this far so...

A 250th 4th of July in Three Lakes

A couple of weeks after we were last up at the cottage, you say? Not soon enough, we say. We assumed dinner would have already been done by the time we arrived so we stopped to eat at Culver's in Rhinelander. While we were eating, I got a text from my dad saying he was in Rhinelander with Chelsea at Urgent Care. I guess Viola had taken a hard fall. When we got to the cottage Daniel was just starting dinner. We hadn't seen Viola since Christmas, she's a little girl now. She was super shy around us at first. She did also just get back from the hospital. I'm not sure if I approve of fireworks the night we get there, but due to scheduling conflicts that's when Three Lakes got in their fireworks show. 2nd of July fireworks would do.

To Chippewa Falls for the Northern Wisconsin State Fair

I saw that the Northern Wisconsin State Fair was happening and we didn't have anything else planned. We booked a campsite at Lake Wissota State Park and we were on our way. We hadn't been to a county fair yet and this seemed like it might be even better. We set up camp first in case we would be back late. This was a good excuse for a quick camping trip. Plus we'd never been to Lake Wissota State Park before or Chippewa Falls, really. Since 1897 Chippewa Falls has been hosting the Northern Wisconsin State Fair. More of a super-regional county fair, Wisconsin’s other state fair started as a way for folks up north to avoid the grueling, long haul down to Milwaukee County. Our first stop was to fill up our big jug of lemonade. I think this is the 4th year of this big jug. Brooke brings a couple of our old lemonade jugs with just in case. Then you get the refill price.

Search This Blog