392 Family: September 2004 Archives

Today at the lunch table, Elise, my daughter age 3, asked Matthew, my son, age 4 a question.

He didn't know the answer. So he replied with the following.

"I don't presume to know."

I would say that my personal survey of his peer group, indicates that he will be able to talk his way into or out of nearly any situation.

The children and I went to Eagle's Nest last night. Thankfully there were no incidents. We had a lot of fun. I even managed to pull myself through the tunnels all the way up to the top of the tallest curly slide. It must be twenty-five or thirty feet off the ground and the route is very circuitous. They have changed the venue a bit and the site lines are now much better, so it's easier to keep track of your children as they explore the place. For those of you who haven't been there, imagine a large McDonald's playland, and then multiply it by 10x.

In a tangentially related note, I saw some really cool playground inspired furniture at modernconvenience.com. I like the swings and the teeter totter a lot, but somehow I don't think they will blend in to our decor.
[Link courtesy of mocoloco.com]

I see that there is another blogger in my extended family. Check out Irene's blog!

Friday morning the family went to the Minnesota State Fair. We had a great time. We got there, via bus, early in the morning which made for short lines, cool temps, discounted rides, and best of all fresh grease. We sampled a lot of food including cheese curds, fresh onion rings, fresh lemonade, Hawaiian Shave Ice, cotton candy, and a breakfast burrito. The kids loved the rides and would have gladly gone on all of them twice.

The kids were great to be with. They were so excited by everything they saw it made the fair even more fun for me. One newish exhibit especially caught their attention. There was one barn full of pregnant animals, about to, or just having given birth. It was a lot of fun to see baby pigs just a few hours old. Frankly, I am glad no animals gave birth while I was there. I mean who needs to see a Holstein give birth a few feet away in a hot barn full of state fair goers. Having the kids along also made it possible to spend more time in the animal barns. If I go the fair only with adults, it seems like people don't want to spend nearly enough time in the barns.

I haven't gone to the fair every year. In the past I found that it so much the same from year to year that waiting a couple of years between visits to the fair makes the experience much more enjoyable for me.

I was disappointed to not be able to see the art and food exhibits as well as the booths full of hucksters selling mixers, mops, knives or other magical space age gear. Oh, well maybe next year.

Check out my photos of the Fair.

In my personal opinion people displaying "Bush/Cheney" buttons far outnumbered the "Kerry/Edwards" faithful. However, the DFL plaza had more crowds than the Republican "Get out the Vote" Winnebago.

Jennie's experiences remind me of my own.

One thing I learned was that in the first few days of parenting, flowers aren't so helpful. I mean we had a baby to take care of for Pete's sake, how could we be expected to tend to some other organism. Food was very helpful, but flowers were less helpful.

Now I appreciated the flowers, I really did, but a boquet of pork chops would have been more practical.