Pump It Up

Today there was no preschool, so I scheduled a playgroup with some preschool friends and some other playgroup friends to go to the Burnsville Pump It Up! They had so much fun. The picture above is of her with three of her friends there, there is one more friend that wasn't in that bounce house at the same time. This bouncy place had 4 different bounce structures with slides, two of those had obstacles to get to the slide and the other two were very tall slides. And it also had 3 other bounce houses that were for bouncing (1 was a basketball court). They also had out a couple of Little Tikes Coupes for little ones and hula hoops. I was impressed with the price of snacks. They were all 50-cents, all juice boxes & a good variety of bagged snacks that were larger in size. The other thing they offer there is a monthly Sensory night that is geared towards autistic children and kids with sensory issues. They also do birthday parties. Can't wait to go back again!

More Halloween 2010

The top picture is of Isabel playing in her witch costume at the playgroup Halloween party.

This is some pictures of some of the activities at the ON Lil Monster Bash. They did a good job for a store providing a free event.

Clinton Falls FSA Farm Tour

Today we went to a local CSA for a tour with our playgroup. I would love to say I learned something, well, I did, just not about gardening. The Clinton Falls Farm is an organic CSA and has veggies, berries, flowers, rhubarb & herbs. The partner with a nearby farm to provide eggs (you can buy shares of eggs and/or CSA shares). What I did learn is that they are partnering with another farmer who will raise chickens & turkeys on their property that will then be available for purchase in late summer & fall. We also got to taste Chevril, which is like a parley but has a black licorice flavor to it (I didn't care for it). It is an annual herb. They also let us sample mint if we wanted, but since we have some & Isabel doesn't like mint we didn't try theirs. What Isabel liked the most was seeing the flowers they have in bloom currently. She loves flowers.

After the tour we made a visit to the library and then had a playdate with our friends Caitlin, Amelia & Gavin at McD's so the kids could burn off energy in the playland. This dreary rainy weather sucks.

And this afternoon Isabel had her last Tae Kwon Do class. This was the end of the session and we won't be signing up again. She gets scared by all the boys yelling loudly "POW!" when they kick the bags, which is what they are supposed to do. But Isabel can't handle really loud noises (it does get really loud) and it is kind of scary sounding, but it's supposed to be.

Earth Day Party

This was our third annual Earth Day party. We had to have it as a belated one due to scheduling issues. We liked to have people over & introduce them to gardening & planting.

This year we had a whole bunch of seeds for them to choose from, pansies to plant, & thyme to transplant & one family dug up some mint to transplant. We also gave them some Organic Valley coupons, an activity book, some homemade cranberry-apple bread, a roll of recycled toilet paper, and gardening cloves & shovels for each of the kids. Plus we had a potluck for lunch, which was yummy!

Maybe some time we will have taught everyone enough about gardening that we can plant trees.

Owatonna Degner Airport Tour

This morning we met our playgroup from MOMS Club at the Owatonna Degner Airport for a tour. There was a pretty decent sized group with 9 moms and 20+ kids.

Isabel's favorite two parts (in this order) were sitting inside the airplane and running around the big display planes outside.

The kids also got to see a plane take off, which they thought was pretty neat. And for those interested, they will be having their Annual Fly-In Breakfast on August 30th.

Slideshow of Playgroup Birthday Party

Yesterday

We received almost 6 inches of snow yesterday, as well as some sleet & rain. The roads were awful, most schools were closed in the area, and many businesses were closed or closed early. So, we stayed inside rather than going to the Y for my yoga class (I just did yoga at home to a show I tivo'ed from PBS.) Anyways, we had to play with anything & everything.

Midwest Twisters

We met her friend Maggie & Drew here today for playgroup. I wasn't sure if she was too young for this, but it was perfect. She knows what she can do and was very good about self monitoring, although I need to be right there by her. She had so much fun. We will definitly go back when it works into our schedule. They have a card that you get stamped everytime you go and after 5 times your 6th time is free, which is cool. It costs $5 for her to go play for 1.5 hours. The have open gyms on Tu, W, & F (but W is during naptime.)

I saw this Hopscotch Mat on Martha Stewart Crafts (I decided it might be fun to start watching that.) She's too young for it, but it would be something fun to make for her when she gets old enough.