We woke up to down pouring rain.  Once the rain had slowed down, Theo and I walked over to the Kingfield Farmers Market. Theo picked another Bundt cake as his treat. I have never seen it so dead.  I got some rhubarb to make jam and Israeli bagels that I wasn't expecting to be long. On our walk home we also picked up some free pots and a Minecraft book.  Both of our vacuums have bit the dust. I was trying to hold out until Black Friday to buy another one when I saw there was deals thanks to Prime Day. Theo said he's never seen me this excited before, not even my birthday.  I used up all of my gift cards I'd earned from Medica. Yeah, I know, it's weird. Walking for two years got us a vacuum. I had vacuumed in the morning with our old vacuum and then again with our new one. Ew. Usually I'm the one stressing out before guests come over but this time it was Scott. He was deep cleaning everything.  We both have blind spots for different parts of the house I guess. We ...

Our little gal was turning 12 this week. That meant a picnic in the park along Minneapolis' Minnehaha Creek. The kids and I were in a competition of who could get to 1,000 first. They had to spend 1,000 hours outside and I had to walk 1,000 miles. To be fair the kids started January 2024 and I started January of this year.  They beat me and decided their reward was to go to Minnesota's Largest Candy Store.  I'm trying to loose weight, Brooklyn.

Since Scott was still not feeling great on his actual birthday. We postponed Theo's birthdays wishes a few days. Since seeing the commercials for Burger King, he has been begging to go so he could get the $7 deal.  That's the $5 Duo and $7 Trio, Brooke. I have to say it wasn't as good as I remember. Dont know the last time I ate BK. We picked this BK for the playground. Theo's other wish was to go the Dog Man movie. We tried out the Emagine theater in Eagan.  Got the whole theater to ourselves and didn't have to rent it out this time.  I swear, it was a good time. For his birthday party this year, we finally settled on having an ice skating party at our house. We had lucked out with the weather. Today was the last cold day before a big warm up.  Meadow and I barely decorated. As soon as his friends arrived we opened gifts right away. We used to wait to open gifts after the party, but I guess kids get really excited to see their friends open their gifts from them....

This year for Meadow's birthday she decided she wanted to have a sleepover.  Before her friends arrived we let her open her gifts from us.  Theo got her some figures from her favorite book series, Warriors. I got her a Soot Sprites ramen bowl and Totoro chopsticks. Uncle Colin wished Meadow a happy birthday and I made sure he knew that she got the message. Another gift from me arrived just in time for her birthday. The Studio Ghibli Unofficial Cookbook. We've been watching all of the Studio Ghibli movies on Max. It's kind of her thing this year. After Meadow's friends arrived she opened their gifts.  A Totoro lamp. (Can you guess what Meadow's favorite thing is these days?) And a Apprentice Academy book. Meadow planned the whole night for her and her friends. Including a Pin-the-tail on Jiji game.  Things got pretty crazy. I guess we ought to have told Meadow that the Jiji needs to be a bit bigger. You know we got another Sebastian Joe's ice cream cake.  Birthda...