Sheboygan

The 3 of us left home on Thursday morning and headed to Sheboygan. We had a nice time walking around the town. Here's Bug outside the public library.


This park was across the street from our motel.

This is why it's called Fountain Park, I guess...
Our main reason for going to Sheboygan was to see/hear Garnet Rogers. He didn't take a break, so Bug was able to finally catch the whole show, hear him play his Strat at the end and hear Northwest Passage live, finally! This was taken about 2 minutes after the final note.


Since we didn't get a pic of them at the show, we took this one the next morning, at breakfast. We had a great time and have plans to do it again.

It's a sign...

This is the current sign on Bug's bedroom door.

If you can't read it, it says "Do not disturb (only if an emergency or something else) Knock please.

At least she's polite about it.

Other updates:

• Bug has a loose tooth
• We're all looking forward to going to Sheboygan on Thursday to see/hear Garnet Rogers!
• We'll be visiting Grandma on Friday/Saturday
• Bug is sad...kung fu classes were cancelled...not enough students. We're going to see if we can afford to send her to the karate school.
  

Flying.

Bug had a lot of fun running across this concrete riser and leaping into her dad's arms.

Celebration of MN Children's Authors & Illustrators

We went back to my hometown for this annual event. We've gone every year since Bug was 3, I think. First, thought, we had to stop at our favorite Chinese restaurant for lunch. Here's Bug pointing at the line where they marked her height just before we moved 22 months ago.

Bug thought that the book, Two Old Potatoes and Me, by John Coy, looked like fun. He was kind enough to sign it and pose for a photo. He insisted that we move away from the window and use this as a backdrop. Very nice.

Lise Lunge-Larsen was a GREAT storyteller. She had Bug laughing, cowering and jumping with her stories about trolls in Norway. (she's a knitter, too...gotta love that!)

Here is Bug with Stephen Gammell. We met him the first time we attended this event. His artwork is SO cool. If you haven't seen it, go find some.
As we got to the bottom of the stairs, we spotted the children's librarian. We hadn't seen her in quite a while. There were smiles all around.

Bug waits with her dad for her turn on the stilts.

They must be snug.

Balance...

Time to walk around the tree.

Bug got to meet her newest cousin, too!

I forgot to get a pic of the tower, but I took pics FROM the tower. (76 steps to the top...in a spiral)


Of course, there were stories to be heard at the top.

Back on the ground, Bug found friends and they became a....lion? dragon?

Chinese, editing and just plain goofiness...

First, we'll start out with Bug's outfit for today...she dressed herself.

We're studying Ancient China right now. We've got a book for kids that teaches them how to write some words in Chinese. Bug was busy working on it when we found that in the back there were some sentences to write. I don't have the book handy, so I have no idea what this says...something about good health in all 4 seasons or something... Bug gave it to the owner of our favorite local Chinese restaurant where we HAD to go to eat last night.

Bug has discovered the joys of editing. It got much more exciting when I gave her the RED PEN to use.

Here she is, hard at work, finding words that should or should NOT be capitalized.

So, so proud...

Raccoons and beavers and squirrels...oh my!

Bug and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather today and spend the morning outside. We took the bus as close to our favorite park as it would go, then walked the final 5 blocks or so. Bug found this cozy spot along the way and crouched down inside with her skunk puppet, Rosario.


Bug had to stop and read the sign by this tree. It gave us information about trees that were donated to the park.


The dog statues mark the entrance to the park.


Inside our new ecocenter, Bug wanted to take photos of the stuffed animals. Her camera batteries turned out to be dead, so I loaned her my camera. She also did a drawing of this squirrel.






Bug thought that the beaver display was pretty cool.
Here she is, holding a beaver tail!


We then took a walk through the marsh. A walk with Bug isn't complete unless she finds something dead...
While Bug was investigating this, a biology professor from the university was walking by with some students. She stopped to see what Bug had found and had a short chat with her about how cool dead animals are...

After our walk, we went to the playground. We ate a quick lunch and managed to NOT get stung by the bees that were hanging around. I was then able to get a photo of the elusive Purple-Headed Goofy Bird, while it was flapping around above the sand box.

Music and fun.

Patchouli were playing at our local Farmer's Market a couple of days ago. Bug decided to take it in from a slightly different perspective than most...



Bug and her dad played "The Falling Down Game" for a while. They've played this game for several years and Bug keeps adding new moves as she grows.




Sometimes they play it backwards. Total trust.

Folk Fest

Bug's dad had to work on Saturday and since we'd been given tickets to the local Folk Fest, the 2 of us hopped on the bike and went to check it out. It was a bit windy & chilly, but we had a good time.

Here is Bug, learning how to use a loom.




The pulled pork sandwich was really good...but a bit messy.


Bug then decided that she wanted to give the hula hoops a try. She was a little bummed that they wouldn't let her try out the HUGE ones, but she got over it.

She was quite envious of this woman's tail....

The local Waldorf school had a booth where the kids could create with sawdust clay.

First day of public school.

Today was the first day of classes for the public school kids in our town. We, however, have been schooling at home for 2 weeks. I had promised Bug that on the first day of public school we would go out for ice cream while the other kids were in class. We decided that we should have pizza, too, since we were out.




Bug decided to give the black licorice ice cream a try...in a waffle cone, of course.
Apparently, it was very good!