Labor-free weekend

After traveling much of August, we're happy to stick around the old homestead over Labor Day Weekend. Much of the weekend has involved hanging out with friends and eating well.

A few days ago, Jen decided that we needed to do a treasure hunt with Meredith and her two neighbor friends, Frank, Jr. and Cate. This was after a successful experience at a birthday party where the kids had to find the cake through clues. I set up a six part treasure hunt and Jen hid the clues. The three amigos got really into it; they screamed as they ran from clue to clue between the three houses. In the end, they found the treasure: mini lunch boxes with Spiderman, Sponge-Bob Square Pants, and Dora the Explorer, respectively. (Check out the pics and video below of this memorable event.)

On Saturday, I brought Elaine, Meredith and Cate to the neighborhood farmers' market. The objective was to get there for the 11:00 AM children's storytime, buy muffins, listen to a little live folk music, and return in time for lunch. It didn't quite work that way.

First, don't underestimate how long it takes to walk anywhere with preschoolers. The walk is normally 10 minutes for an adult. Forty minutes later we still have a few blocks to go. I ask the girls to pick up the pace if they want to get there for storytime. I hype up storytime to increase the motivation, taking a risk of blow-up disappointment should we miss storytime. As we're within one block and about to cross the train tracks I hear a bell and a train whistle. A train is coming! We stop and step back. The train goes in front of us... and then stops and sits. It slowly backs up. It goes forward. It backs up. It stops. This is across Lake Street in Minneapolis, a very busy street. Then, finally, it moves forward. By this time we are hopelessly late. We scurry up to find that storytime has just ended. Sigh... "That's okay girls. We got to see a train instead." I say, knowing it is not a persuasive argument, even for a preschooler.

I have to buy some bacon and wild rice brats and get behind the most uncertain customer debating out loud if he should get 5 pounds or 7 pounds of ribs and if he needs chicken for later. All the while, the girls are waiting patiently in the hot sun. I get the meat eventually and we go to get the muffins. They are out. All they have are two kinds of rice krispee bars. The girls consent to this option and I buy it. Cate then asks if it has peanut butter because she doesn't eat peanut butter. I ask. "Oh, yes, lots of peanut butter." Does the other rice krispee bar have peanut butter? (It's a different type.) No. Okay. So we sit down with both mammoth-sized bars and proceed to snack as we wait for the folk singer to set up. She never comes.

It's about time to leave when Elaine wakes us and is h-u-n-g-r-y! So, we wait another 10-15 minutes while I make a bottle and she eats. We head back. Meredith needs to go potty. "Do we need to go into Arby's (four blocks from home) or can we walk home?" Meredith informs me she can definitely walk home. In front of Rainbow Foods, two blocks from the house, Meredith really has to go. "Can we hurry home?" No. We run inside to the bathroom in the grocery store but Meredith doesn't want to go in the ladies room alone because she is afraid of the loud flushing noise from the toilet. I certainly can't go in, and I have a sleeping Elaine in our SUV stroller, too. So Cate goes in with her. The two are in for about five minutes and emerge without tears but smiles on their faces. I ask if they did all the necessary steps and they say yes. But they do say they have a secret. I ask what the secret is. They can't tell me. I am still worried about what the Rainbow Foods Bathroom Secret can be.

All in all, despite the total failure of the trip's objectives and the fact that it took 3.5 hours rather than the 1.5 I had guessed, the girls were pretty good. We had no tears, little whining, and hardly any preschooler conflict.

On Saturday we had about 15 adults and a mess of kids over for Jen's 1st annual 29th birthday celebration with food from Buca di Beppo. I thought it was a hit. And on Sunday morning, the neighbors made homemade donuts and eggs and coffee and mimosas. Breakfast merged into lunch with an interlude of a slip-in-slide for the kids. They spent more time playing with water in a bucket than the fancy new sliding water set-up.

A good long weekend! Too bad we didn't have more three day weekends with perfect weather.

PICTURES

Meredith and Cate help shuck corn



Finally getting a table at the Sea Salt restaurant at Minnehaha Falls. The oysters were excellent!





Finding clues during the treasure hunt.


Discussing a clue.



At the market


VIDEO

Treasure hunt