out and about and out and about

One Friday:

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And the next:

We've been enjoying our Fridays out.

Friend Amy found out that homeschoolers can sign up ahead of time with the Minnesota Zoo and visit for the school group price, including "free chaperones!"  I was so busy, she set up the whole thing, we just had to show up!  With all seven of us sharing a vehicle (there's a per car parking fee) we got in for a song.  Well, a song compared to the alternative $12 and $18 each we'd be.   The girls had so much fun, especially with her oldest being Greta's age, so we all enjoyed showing the zoo to the littlest ones.  There's nothing quite like seeing zoo animals through the eyes of a one-and-half year old, with everything so new and exciting! I forget that Greta hasn't been to that many zoos, either, with all of the zoos I have in my own memory.

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Early the next week I was watching the afternoon news, while running at the gym during our four straight days of incessant rain.  They highlighted a local event, the "Festival of Nations" which I'd heard of over the years (along with "You have to take your kids to this!") but never been due to one busyness or another.  This year I realized we had a free Friday during the Festival and could take a day to go.

I'm so glad it worked out to go now, the girls being older.  Not sure what they'd think, I was happy to hear how much they liked visiting and all the things going on, from demonstrations to bazaar booths to "passport stamping."  The food, like all fairs, was deceptively expensive ($2 for turkish delight?  Okay!... wait - that's for two slightly-large-than-dice-size pieces?  sigh.  No fears of the White Witch around here.).  But we had fun eating some (unusual for us) foods.  Jeff needed to be there so we could try more of the dishes and meats together;  we're already thinking next year he could join us.  We had fun meeting people whom English was certainly their second language (or maybe even third), to those whom you'd never notice weren't from America.  We informed the Dutch lady working her booth that Kaatje and Greta are 11/16ths Dutch, she was amiably amused.  I told Jeff she reminded me of Every Dutch Grandmother I've ever seen or met.

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May and June are packed full, finishing some things in May and starting new ones in June.  The end of May will bring a sigh of relief around here!