Milkapalooza

On Saturday, June 26, we drove to Cedar Summit Farm in New Prague for their Milkapalooza. We ate ice cream made with milk from their cows as well as meat, cheese, apples, and water from local MN farms. In fact, we ate dessert first which was a special treat. Yum!


Mark rode ponies and pet a chicken. Anjali entered a drawing and did some art. We all took a tractor-drawn wagon ride.

I Don't Want My Brother to Sit Next to Me by Mom

Milkapalooza From the Tractor Ride by Anjali

Momma by Mark

Butterflies and Cows by Mark

Youth Farm- the Parade and more

On Tuesday, June 22, several families from our block and Kate, Mark's babysitter, walked together to Youth Farm. We were celebrating our kids and being together. I am especially celebrating Anjali and her good heart as none of the families would have known each other and none of these kids would be in Youth Farm except for Anjali and her friendliness.

Safiya, the Somali Mom above, had given me this dress and Sheila shortened it for me so I could parade with it. Thanks, ladies!

Below are Anjali, Ayan, Emily, Kate, and Mark. Special thanks to Kate for babysitting Mark so I can volunteer in the kitchen.

One of my favorite moments was when all the kids and staff arrived at the park and everyone stood around greeting each other, hugging, and catching up with each other for 15 minutes. This was a beautiful community moment.

The kids come in teams to help cook a yummy, healthy lunch for 60.

You are all invited to the Harvest Festival on Wednesday, August 11 from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Fruits of his labors

Starting years ago with a cane or two from a neighbor's yard, Tim has built his raspberry garden. This year, he's taken it to a whole new level. I gave away my perennial gardens in the front yard this spring and Tim took over the space, more than tripling his total space under cultivation. He and several other friends who also fruit garden swapped varieties and one gave him a grape vine cutting which after playing dead for weeks has leafed promisingly. He remediated the soil, put in poles and support strings to keep the canes upright, mulched, and watered faithfully. He was very frugal- using up all the soil improvements we had leftover in the garage from previous years, expanding with free canes from friends and neighbors, using homemade compost from our own bins, and spending a minimum amount on one bag of vermiculite and one bale of straw mulch for the whole yard.
And within the last week, raspberry season has begun! He and the kids love walking out in the cool of the morning to pick day after day.


Not only are we eating the yummy results, I am also inspired by his pursuit of what he likes and his refusal to cultivate what doesn't please him. Yeah, Tim!

Fly Feetprints

On Monday, Mark was served lasagna for lunch, got distracted, and I called him back to it later. He replied, "It's got fly feetie-prints on it. You can't eat that! The shoo-flies walk, walk, walk on it and make feetie-prints."
I assured him that it would be ok and he gave his real reason- he doesn't like lasagna.

Horseback Riding Party

Anjali and Mark were invited by several neighbors to attend a horseback riding party on Saturday. Special thanks to Trish, Shannon, and Shannon's mom for the fantastic party!

Anjali: There were 3 horses- Maggie May, Winston, and Shorty. I rode on each one of them and I liked Winston the best. We made an art- a treasure chest and horse art. My favorite part was running around playing with my new friend Ruby.


Mark: I like to ride. I wanted the black horse for the first ride so I waited and asked the teacher. I got to ride the black horse. My favorite was riding the black horse.