Lukie's New Trick...

 The kids are pool rats all summer...Lukie's been doing flips for a couple of years now, but he learned a new trick recently...

Vaccines...

When the COVID vaccines was approved for 12-15 it was a no-brainer to get scheduled as soon as possible and not wait for a convenient time (even Lex, who hates needles wants one, like now) and Lukie got his first in the middle of May...there was no waiting for June and/or postponing, it was time...

Well, he got his second shot yesterday (6/9)...what do you do when you have your second COVID vaccination?  A large, strawberry Dairy Queen blizzard of course...

Bring on summer...

Norwood Pool...

 The pool opened Memorial Day weekend (only weekends until June 14) and the kids were happy...

They couldn't wait until 1:00, the time the pool opened...then the promptly spent the entire day swimming...that'll be a common theme for the summer...

A.A.A., Wax Museum and Band Concert...

Things are getting back to normal a bit...the elementary school had their A.A.A. (Academic, Arts and Achievement) recently.  Lex being in 5th grade could enter in two events, she went with photography and art.  Below is a picture (okay, a picture of her picture) she took this spring at Gooseberry Falls State Park.  She received a blue ribbon on this picture...

The other project she entered was this art project of a playground.  Her idea was grand in scale, though the work needed to complete it came mostly late.  She received a white ribbon for this, but learned a valuable lesson on needed to complete projects early and not waiting until the last minute.  All-in-all, Lex was happy...

The same day that Lex had her projects due at school, Lukie had a wax museum (focused on someone from Minnesota) and his first band concert.  Lukie chose Troy Delvon Bell, who came from Holy Angels High School and played some professionally.  Honestly, I don't remember him...but Lukie knew his cards and was able to recall details from his life so far...

Then it was time for his band concert, in a socially distant gymnasium (instead of the auditorium)...Lukie is in the top right of the picture, to the right of the boy in red...

In between songs a student came up to the microphone to introduce the next song and said "thanks for coming to our first concert since December 2019"....it's been a long time...

 Like I said, things are coming back to some normal soon...

Citizenship Award...

 An announcement was made today at Central Middle School for the Quarter 3 award winners.  The school announces several winners per grade (6-8) for academic, citizenship and character.  They do the announcement via video announced by the principal.  You can see it here if you wish...

Or just look at the image below...

Roll your sleeves up...

I can't say that the last year hasn't been fun (we've had fantastic camping and canoeing trips, watching baseball socially distantly, we've done what we think was right, etc.)...but we're now at a point that if we do the right thing, we'll come out of this...

Roll your sleeves up everyone...

Most anyway...

Hammocking...

 Lex read the Harry Potter series twice last summer.  She recently began reading it a third time and yesterday she took it outside.  It was over 70 degrees and when I got out of the hammock to do something, she jumped in and read for quite awhile...

The face she makes when you interrupt reading for a picture...

Minnesota Birds...

 I'm going to try something new and keep a list of birds that we see throughout the year at our feeders.  There's over 800 birds in North America, 400 of those have been seen in Minnesota and 300 of those are considered regulars.  So how many species can we see at our feeders?

We currently keep six feeders full stocked.  We serve a variety of foods:  three different types of seeds, corn, four suet cakes, peanuts and grape jelly/fruit/sugar water seasonally.

Here's the birds we've seen through 5/11:

1.  Black Capped Chickadee 

2.  Blue Jay

3.  Purple Finch

4.  Northern Cardinal

5.  House Finch 

6.  House Sparrow

7.  Red Bellied Woodpecker

8.  Dark Eye Junco 

9.  White Breasted Nuthatch

10.  Downy Woodpecker

11.  Mourning Dove 

12.  European Starling

13.  American Crow (didn't eat, but was near feeders)

14.  American Robin (didn't eat, but was near feeders)

15.  Northern Flicker

16.  Mallard (male and female in the yard)

17.  Red Winged Blackbird

18.  Baltimore Oriole

19.  Ruby Throated Hummingbird

20.  Wild Turkey

21.  Rose Breasted Grosbeak

***I expect to update this list somewhat regularly if/when new species come to the feeders.                                                                                      

New Years Day Hike...

 Happy New Years to some of you today.  We took a hike this afternoon to the Carver Rapids on the Minnesota River with our new snowshoes...

The last normal thing I did last spring before the world went to hell and everything was cancelled was take a snowshoe lacing workshop at Gooseberry Falls.  I laced a pair of Ojibwa snowshoes and planned to take another workshop this fall making a pair of urban shoes.  Well that workshop was cancelled but I decided to lace them on my own...then I decided I should lace three more pairs for Christmas presents to the kids...

It was the first time that Lex's pair had seen snow...

The pairs I laced for them are sized for their later adult heights/weights...so these should last and have plenty of opportunity for usage in the coming years...

We went to the lower rapids on the Minnesota River...when the river is low you can see the Jordan Sandstone that forms the rapids, historically, the rapids were a major impediment to travel up the river and certainly play a role in why the towns of Carver & Chaska are located where they are.  In 2011, I did a post on my geology blog (which I haven't added to in years) on the rapids that can be found here...

 

Of course we needed to grab one quick selfie near the end of the hike...

It was a fun day...and tiring as well...

Nature Illuminated...

 We started Christmas week with something new...we visited Nature Illuminated at the MN Zoo...it's a drive-thru look at animals around the world and in Minnesota...

The display breaks the world down to different biomes (things like the arctic, prairies, rainforest, temperate forests, etc.)...

First up was the arctic and antarctic...

As we drove through each section, there was an accompanying sound file that describe the animals and conservations efforts and needs for each region...

The oceans...

Lex's favorite is below...the tapir...the tapir at the zoo had a baby over the summer, but we never got to see it, very disappointing to Lex...

The bull snake of prairies...

Temperature forests, this is the red panda from Asia...

The brown bear...

The snow monkey...

The last section is a drive-thru representing Minnesota...starting with the Blanding turtle...

A very fun evening...

And a different take on the drive-thru events happening because of COVID and a different educational take on Christmas lights...