Fort Ridgely

With the predicted temperatures yesterday, I gave the kids two options for state parks we could visit - Fort Ridgely or Flandrau.  The boys both wanted to go to Ridgely, so we were off (I think they expected some sort of a fort they could play in).

We parked near the amphitheater and picnic area.  Which is just a short walk to the old fort, our first stop.  Kieran really liked reading the signs and learning about the Dakota attacks on the fort -- it appeals to his interest in history and facts....

 Luke enjoyed reading the sings too, but he really liked wandering around the foundations of the buildings --- like these for the officer quarters...

Lex would do either - if Kieran or I would read out loud to her, she would listen or she could just wander...

Like I said, Luke liked the old foundations...

But sometimes he would read or listen to the stories being told by the park service...

After a while, it was time to start hiking...though Luke & Lex were ready long before Kieran.  Look closely here, we had already started hiking and Kieran had to catch up...

It was over fifty degrees, but there's still snow on the ground in places.  Or there's standing water because the ground is still frozen or it's just mud.

But there were golfers out golfing (in February...in Minnesota) --- Ridgely has a nine-hole golf course --- you might be able to see them above Luke's head...

In some of the ravine trails, there was quite a bit of snow and ice...

But soon the trail opens up and crosses the golf course (pretty sure this is the only state park in Minnesota that a hiking trail crosses a golf course)...

We were surprised by some of the elevation changes we had to hike...some were not easy...

But soon the trail got to the top of the bluff and it was all prairie...easy walking...

Of course, given the opportunity, the kids will sit for a rest...

But I did laugh at this sign...

Hiking with Lex is an experience for us.  The boys like to move fast, Lex is almost always at the back.  But she doesn't care, doesn't whine or cry ---- she'll just putz along, tellings stories to herself, singing songs, etc.  You tell her to hurry up and she'll catch up to you.  Seconds later, she's several hundred feet behind you.

The downside for her is that the boys get longer breaks than her...they rest while waiting for her and when she's caught up, they're off again...

It was a long hike yesterday.  The hiking club said it would be a 2.6 mile hike, but after finding our password, we deviated and went our own way...the trail outlined in pink was the path we took.

And yes...we got a picture at the sign...

And yes...we got our passport stamped...only thirteen more until a free night of camping!

A good, but muddy day...

Record Warmth - February 27th

Record high temperature for Minneapolis/St. Paul on this date was 54 degrees, set in 1896.  Today we hit at least 58 degrees and because of that ---- we took a long hike at Fort Ridgely (post coming soon -- maybe tomorrow when its more seasonal and rainy), took in a waterfall at Minneopa, opened the windows for the first time in months, grilled outside for dinner tonight and Lex wanted to go for a bike ride....

She and I took off late this afternoon for almost an hour ride (I walked and ran beside her).  She's getting much more confident and we need to raise the seat, but...

I don't remember any of the kids riding their bike during the month of February before, but it was really nice.

There's Lex and her bike, named 'best friend' -- as she said while we were riding/walking, "today's a perfect day dad....".   It wasn't bad...

Pennies for Patients

Every February our students at Delano Middle School collect money for Pennies for Patients, through the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  Back in December, a few students of mine asked if they could shave my head if we reached our classroom goal.  I said sure....the kids were pretty excited (not knowing that I've shaved my head before) but they asked me to grow my hair out.

My last haircut was November 9.  It got long over that time...

I've rather enjoyed putting my hair up in crazy looks for some school days during Pennies for Patients (i.e. 'get up and go day' or during the triscuit eating challenge --- which I ate 24 triscuits in 3 minutes and still lost --- go ahead and try it, good luck)....

Not the best picture, but you get the idea....my hair was long!  And trust me, it sucked working out (running or lifting)...how ya'll do it with long hair is beyond me...

My class set a goal of $250...reach that and my head would be shaved.  (the highest total I've ever had in class was $140).  They ended up donating $287.87 during the 2 1/2 week period...wow...

Once the students reached the goal, they voted on what they wanted to do to me.  Options were:  shave my head, a mohawk, dye my hair pink or make me grow it out until April (that was the worst idea...man did I sweat with long hair).  

Shave my head received 11 votes, let it grow was 9 votes and dye the hair was 7 votes (no votes were cast for a mohawk --- though when I said it would only last for 5 days that might have limited votes).

I'm hair free for now, the kids did the majority of the shaving....though no pictures...its really not that  much different from 2+ years ago...plus, it'll be back in a month or so.

The overall goal for Delano Middle School was $7,000.  We ended up raising $7686+!  That is much higher than our number last year when we were in the top 5 for schools our size.  Not bad...

Building a Dinosaur

What do you do when you have no school on President's Day and you woke up sick in the morning?  If your Luke...you dig out a dinosaur and put it together....

He had received a dinosaur dig kit from Papa last fall, but had it taken away from him because of one thing or another.  We remembered it today...worked out great that he could do it today.

The kit has the 'fossils' embedded in a soft plaster type material...with a little chiseling and digging, you have to find and remove the 'fossils'...

This is right up Lukie's alley...

Of course, Luke draws a crowd when he's working...note - this is the only picture I could show with Lex, from any other view it would not be internet appropriate (apparently, Lex thinks plumbers and paleontologists are the same)...

He really gets into it...note the pile of 'fossils' building in the lower left of the picture.

Here's the tools of the trade...

All of the fossils have been removed...

After a little cleanup, our budding paleontologist has all the fossils ready to be assembled...

Assembling doesn't take him too much time...

When he's all done...he has a T-Rex!

Feed My Starving Children

Kieran's faith formation class (and all the ages above him) went to Feed My Starving Children a few days ago to pack food that would be sent around the world.  It's a pretty cool place with a great mission, volunteers pack food that gets sent to many countries and put in the hands of people who need it.  I had done this a few times back when I taught in Fridley, this was Kieran's first time...it's actually a lot of fun.

You start with about 20 minutes of a background - that night they told the story (with pictures) of a nine year old boy in Africa who initially weighed 19 pounds.  After seven months of eating the food delivered by FMSC, he weighed 73 pounds...that story really got Kieran thinking....

The first requirement...you need to wear hairnets...which Kieran wasn't quite fond of at the beginning...

After the introduction, you get packing food for about an hour.  Vitamins, veggies, soy and rice are packed in a bag that is easily cooked at the destination.  Everyone has their own job.  Kieran's was to add the vitamins and veggies...

To Kieran's right Dar, a close friend of my mother's who also works at our local bank in Norwood.  She's always been great with the kids when we see her so Kieran wasn't concerned a bit about working by some strange adult.  The other two at our station where Dar's daughter and granddaughter.

My role was pretty simple...seal the bags after the other four packed them (and someone else boxed the completed bags up).  I wasn't too stressed...

The goal is to prevent as many spills as possible...we weren't too good at that (I even spilled one that was handed to me because I wasn't paying attention)...

After an hour of packing food, you get back together in the meeting area and get to sample the food being sent overseas.  They also tell you how many boxes of food were packed in that one hour.  In our case, it was 87 boxes which totals 18,792 meals.  Or put another way, in one hour, our everyone in our group boxed enough food to completely feed 51 kids for a year...not bad.

If you ever get the chance to volunteer at FMSC, do it...it's cool.  Or don't wait for a large group to volunteer...do it yourself or as a family, you'll have fun doing something good....

Science Museum

January 2nd, we went to the Science Museum again, which is always fun.  We're members at the museum again.  Our first membership was courtesy of Missy & Pete and this new membership is courtesy of Papa.  It's pretty cool, considering we'll go to the museum 4-5 times throughout the year and the kids always have fun....especially Luke (who loves the dinosaurs and fossils).

We did a lot things that we've always done, but some new things as well.  I don't remember any of the kids looking at and manipulating the T-Rex jaw, but they had fun that day...

Learned about an ocean that used to occupy our part of Minnesota...it was a long time ago...

But basically he just want to see the fossils...these are found in rocks deposited in that earlier ocean...

Several of us got our blood pressure and heart beat checked...Sarah's was by far the lowest...

We spent more time at the human body section that we have before....here the kids are looking through goggles that represent the vision of a baby at different time periods...basically, babies can't see well...

We looked through microscopes at things like bacteria, leeches, ticks, worms, fungi and other things that can be found living on or in a human body...

There were some pretty cool holograms of body parts (like brain, heart, etc.) that looked 3-D and rotated and cut-away as you moved...here the boys are trying to touch the hologram of the brain...

Here's the hologram of the heart...a picture doesn't do it justice...

Yes...we saw dinosaurs...like the Triceratops...

But we also played with the tornado again...

And played a game that demonstrates why antibiotics only work on bacteria and not viruses...

And we saw the Stegosaurus...

And the Glyptodont...a big armored mammal that lived during the Pleistocene (the most recent ice ages)...

We finished the day at the IMAX watching a movie on Humpback Whales...which everyone enjoyed...

It was a good day...

Luke & the Refrigerator

Maybe it was because we had been to the Science Museum earlier (pictures later), where you are to learn and discover new things.  Or maybe it was just Luke being Luke...but after dinner last night Luke set out to answer the question that many have wondered...what happens to the light in the refrigerator when you shut the door?

The rest of us were still eating when we saw Lukie doing this....light off...

Light on...

Light off...

Eventually, he figured out how the light switch is turned on and off...solving the problem...