Beyond 100 Parks #103 - Lone Lake Park - Minnetonka, MN

We made a Popped Corn run on Saturday and stopped at a nearby park before heading home.  Beyond the playground, this looked to be a destination park for all sorts of outdoor activities.  The parking lot was packed with cars, but the playground was nearly empty.  This was likely one of the last nicer days of the year, so people were soaking it up.

Key Features

The spread out ones can be a little tricky, but made for a fun game of hide and seek with Esme.  This was her first hiding spot.

I also snapped one of the cutest pictures of Parker I've taken in a while.  This kid is the best.

A solid 8 for this park.  Nothing special, but lots of fun to be had.

Pumpkin Patch 2021

Our annual trip to the Pumpkin patch returned this year as well.  Dehn's Pumpkins has been our go to for many years now and I don't see that changing.  We went on a Tuesday night and practically had the place to ourselves.  Both kids dove right in to the corn pit and it was like we never missed a trip.  Esme was really watching the other kids and trying to copy some of things they were doing. Parker's main goal was gathering as many truck as possible and lining them up.

We moved on to the inflatables next and were literally all alone.  Final stop was the hay mountain and slides.

Can't wait to return next year!

Halloween Kick-Off 2021

We are a little bit back to normal for Halloween this year, so I am back to making real costumes.  I chose pizza for Parker and Esme said she wanted to be be the same.  I started with the some tan felt and used acrylic paint to add some color and dimension.

I used some quilt batting and fiber fill to give some more structure.

I connected the panels with shoulder straps and finished with red and cream felt for the sauce and cheese and red circle with some paint for pepperoni.

Our church hosted a more traditional trunk or treat on Saturday.  While I wasn't quite ready to host a trunk, but it was fun to participate a little.  There were some long lines, so we just hit the ones we could walk up to.

The kids had fun and snagged some tasty treats.

Threshing Corn and MEA Break

Thursday and Friday was MEA break for the kids and my mom asked to have them over for a couple nights.  They picked corn from the neighbor's field a few weeks ago and it was dried and ready for threshing (separate grain from, typically with a flail or by the action of a revolving mechanism.)  Parker, the lover of all things that spin, had fun turning the crank.  Esme helped crank and pick up the empty cobs. Grandpa and Jayden probably did the most work, but it looked like everyone had fun.

Jimmy and I took the rare kidless weeknight and went out for dinner.  This is probably our first dine-in experience near home since Covid started.  Definitely a weird feeling.

Friday was a low key day and they were treated to chocolate frostys on the way home.

Thanks for a fun break Nana!

Window Replacement at Le Chateau de Buxtoronio

My dad asked me many months ago about helping him replace his basement windows.  I sold windows at one time over a decade ago, so that apparently made me qualified to help.  We planned to do it sometime in late September or early October, hoping to get some good weather.  

We got to work after a dip in the hot tub and a quick breakfast last Saturday morning.  We has barely removed the old sash and hardware before hitting out first speed bump.  The old frames were milled in a single piece, so we ended up having to chisel away to get the windows to fit.  It was a lot more work than originally expected, but we got both of them installed in one day.

My mom had all sorts of fun for the kids while we worked. They took lots of twister rides, visited the cows and even hung out in a tent. 

My dad finished the inside and outside trim in the days following and They look really great!