Household Experiment

It's amazing what a few, simple, household ingredients can do when you put them together in the right order.

Overheard: February 26, 2012

"I'm Batman. I'm really brave and really strong. And this is my friend . . . Duck."

- Charley said to Jax while playing a costume game.

Spring then winter

It's been the mildest winter we can remember. However, after an incredibly warm weekend, it snowed.

Such is life in Minnesota. Thankfully, it's hard to forget how to shovel . . .

. . . and easy to remember what snow is OK to eat, and what snow isn't.

Snow angels always come easily . . .

. . . and the hot chocolate always goes down smooth.

Oh, and when it's Mardi Gras in our house, you can expect a little surprise for breakfast.

After breakfast, the snow was there, calling our name. We had a snowman to make.

February spring

It felt like spring this weekend. Temps on Sunday were nearly 40. Definitely no-jacket weather.

We had a great time outside with our scooters and chalk.

Will and Quinn came over to enjoy the spring weather too. They were a little more warmly dressed.

Blue bottle art

We've been asking for some time to make some special bottle art. We took a trip to the beer supply store and picked out some sweet bottles, different colored caps, and a variety to grains to fill the bottles.

We got everything arranged on the table, a separate cup for each grain. Pale, caramel, brown and black malted grain for those who are interested, besides Daddy.

We poured a little bit of each grain into the funnel and into the bottle.

We alternated colors too. Dark, then light, then dark, etc.

Sometimes the funnel would get clogged so we jammed a pencil into it to loosen the grain.

When the bottle was full we topped it off with a colorful cap and voila!

Paddle-man

It was bottling day, we helped. All the washing, sanitizing, boiling, pouring, transferring, stirring, filling and we don't even get to taste the results.

Household exploring

Any explorer worth his or her weight needs a good flashlight.

We used our to check out our attic for the first time ever. Daddy's never even been in there before.

It was pretty exciting checking out the rafters.

It was so much larger, and dirtier, than we expected.

Five Dudes, Pizza and Blues - Featuring Quinn

We had a pretty great night rocking out to some Blues, playing the guitar and hanging out with our awesome friends, Will, Quinn and Sean.

The "electric" guitar playing Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf was definitely the highlight of the evening.

Light trim

Daddy may need more than a trim though...

Terrifying torches

At first, they were awesome . . .

. . . but then they got a little close. But that's what happens during the Torchlight Parade.

We headed downtown an hour early to get a good spot. We killed time in the spinning door at Daddy's work.

The parade started with a whole bunch of people carrying torches, not terribly surprising . . .

. . . but still fun to watch.

The smoking rocket was pretty cool too.

But it was the torches that were without a doubt the best part of the parade.

Time to fly

The time came to head home. We love airplanes and airports . . .

. . . but Grandma is pretty awesome too.

We did what we could to help get through ticketing and security. All those toys from Grandma and Grandpa kind of weighed the suitcase down a little bit. Luckily we can in just under the 50-pound threshold.

Then we waited and watched.

Mommy and Daddy's secret revealed

Mommy and Daddy have been hiding something from us. CHUCK E. CHEESE!! Grandma was much nicer. This clock ride lifted us high up into the air. It kinda slow and not scary at all. It was awesome.

In this game we had to step on the circles as they lit up. It was pretty easy.