With summer break soon ending, we’ve had fewer scheduled activities and thus time to fit in some spontaneity.
Like heading to the CAT place across from Charlie’s old therapy place. They always have a loader parked out front, and the boys have fond memories of picnic lunches in the bucket. So we made that happen again.
PB&J!
Over the past several weeks this summer, Jim has been building what he and the boys refer to as “The Chug.” It’s a homemade car, and last week was painting time!
This week was the coat of black, but later, I’m told, there will be racing stripes.
Also as summer is wrapping up, the teachers in our family have been using their precious vacation days to take the boys on special adventures. The MOA has been a popular destination. Last week, Grandma Colleen and Henry hit Choo Choo Bob’s and its convenient neighbors which provide ice cream and grilled cheese sandwiches!
This past weekend, we headed downtown (Minneapolis) to tour Joe’s new office. It’s only 3 blocks from his previous job, but the building and office feel like a whole different world. Very Joe.
The boys enjoyed having their own conference call.
I just liked this.
Afterward, we walked over to Whole Foods with Grandpa Jim to have a little lunch and enjoy the sunny day.
And after thaaat…we hit Indeed Brewery to celebrate their 5th Anniversary and take a tour.
Charlie, predictably, was lovin’ it.
They had great descriptions of everything, so I swear he’s ready to set up his own operation.
He especially liked peeking down into the cellar
Today was, I’m sure you’re aware, the solar eclipse! We got to go to Minnesota Public Radio to enjoy an eclipse party, hosted by our favorite podcast: Brains On!
Henry really wanted his tattoo to be shown in that picture.
We made pinhole viewers (which we never actually figured out how to work, but they looked lovely)
And then enjoyed staring at the sun in various stages of covered-ness.
Henry’s reaction when he first saw it was so visceral and beautiful: surprise and joy and awe.
Repeated viewings over an hour and a half led him to be less excited about the whole thing, but he was definitely a happy guy.
Beautiful sky
I did not look through the lens when I took this, I promise 🙂 But here’s the view from MPR’s rooftop.
Waiting for the cloud-cover to move away so we can enjoy the moment of most coverage.
Charlie learns the lesson that weather can have a big impact on YOUR PLANS and how you imagined things would go.
Luckily, just at the right moment, we got some great glimpses of a very, very moon-covered sun.
And then, the MPR lobby had some great chairs that played radio stations in them. I just imagined they were taking the MIB test.
Alright, a couple of non-sequiturs here:
Did you know about the candy that comes shaped like LEGOs? They’re great, and our neighborhood candy store sells them by the scoop, so we made use of that resource.
We also hit the local-made craft store across the street from there, where Charlie picked out this sign for our fairy garden. LOVE LOVE LOVE this kid. When we went to put the sign in the garden, we discovered that the fairies had built themselves a house! Probably to keep dry in all the rain we’ve been having. Like our bottle-cap chairs and tables?