Impromptu Photo Shoot

While Niece #1 has shown in horse shows before, this will be her first year at the Crow Wing County Fair as a 4-Her...she's a Cloverbud and will be riding Will (my mom's bay Arabian gelding).

I was never a Cloverbud (the years before one is old enough to be in 4-H; it's somewhat akin to Cub Scouts) but I remember showing at the county fair with MY pony and the whole experience: decorating the box stall; hanging up my ribbons at the end of the show day; sitting in front of the stall and watching all the people stroll by; talking about my horse and letting everyone pet him...

Her Cloverbud classes will all be "leadline" style – i.e., Mom will have the horse on lead rope and be with her in all her classes – but it's still exciting that this is her first 4-H show. 

She's sharing Will with another 4-Her (a family friend's daughter is riding him in the older classes), and that girl will have her own decorations up on the stall. 

So, I wanted to be sure Niece #1 got the full experience of having a horse at the fair, even if she was sharing him with someone else...I planned to get some pictures of her and "her" horse to hang on the stall door for decorations. But, even though I was up North a couple weekends when Niece #1 was, we never got any pictures taken of the two of them (the horse is boarded at a stable ~30 minutes away). 

Well, that left this weekend – and not very much time. I came up on Sunday afternoon (so I could enter my fair photos), and the show starts this morning. We were all too tired to do pictures on Sunday evening so yesterday morning we headed over to the barn for a quick photo shoot.

The plan was to shoot in the morning, quick edit the good ones, then throw them on a flash drive for Mom to take to Target and get prints that afternoon. 

We didn't get to the barn as early as I'd've liked, so the lighting wasn't great but I did the best I could (and, of course, the cloud cover I'd been banking on went away so we had full sun). Plus, the barn's a tad short on ambience, so we had to walk over to a nearby field...again, you work with what you have :)

All in all, for a quick 30-minute shoot (with a 7-year-old and a horse who wanted nothing more than to bury his head in the grass), I think I got some good ones. 

Mom, like the true trooper she is, took the flash drive into Target and got a bunch of photos, which I then taped to a piece of tag board...pretty simple but at least we got it done! 

Now Niece #1 will have her own stall decorations for her very first 4-H show :) She's not even awake yet but I'm giddy with excitement and can't WAIT to see how she does!

Good luck, kiddo!

Homemade Wooden Dollhouse

Now that Dad's partially retired he's finally got some time to work in his shop. Since the beginning of the year – when his schedule changed – he has worked at his sawmill, chopped and stacked plenty of firewood, built a shelter out in the woods for the grand kids to go hang out in during the summer, and made numerous smaller items.



He hand-made several beautiful boxes out of various types of wood (I stole one of those) and he even put together a surprise for The Girls when we were all there in January: a wooden dollhouse.



While it's only made out of wood scraps, he put a lot of work into making it...even taking the time to carve out a window in the front door and several pieces of tiny dollhouse furniture.



This dollhouse rocks: it's got a hinged roof for easy access, two windows, a kitchen, dining area, and even a loft ("that's for the kids," says Dad).




And of course, we can't forget the furniture...he even added small details that I'm surprised his man fingers could handle. He made a cute little table and chairs, put burners on the stove (my favorite!), carved out drawers on the dresser, drew cabinet doors on the tiny hutch, and even gave the beds little wooden pillows!


Dad really enjoyed making this dollhouse, and The Girls absolutely L-O-V-E-D it. They played with it constantly the entire weekend. I think Dad even plans to add to it, saying the front window ledge needs some flower pots :)



So see? You don't have to head to a department store and buy an expensive dollhouse; you can make one yourself they'll love just as much – if not more – because of all the love put into the details.

I'd like to give a shout-out to Dad, our very own handy-man, for making this homemade wooden dollhouse. Wonder what he'll make next???

Pre-Thanksgiving Get-Together at AuntC's

This year the holiday rotation was Danks Thanksgiving and Bernier Christmas. Since Clint and I would miss out on hanging with the Berniers at Coon Lake, AuntC decided to get most of us together for a pre-Thanksgiving feast at her house.

She'd bought a bunch of different kinds of bratwurst – one of which was Gummy-bear flavored – in some Hugo meat market, so we had a sort of indoor picnic with brats, salads, appetizers and decorative, edible penguins that Sophia & Michael made.

While I don't like black olives (therefore didn't try this delicacy), the little penguins were quite the hit. (P.S. I'm still trying to learn how in hell to use my new point-and-shoot camera Clint got me for my birthday. I figured if I made this shot artfully whimsical no one would heed the fact it's not in focus :)

After gorging on delicious brats, we headed out into the wonderfully-warm November weather to enjoy some fresh air. After playing on AuntC's new fountain (now dry for the winter season), walking around and through her gardens and running about, the girls – Sophia, Charlotte and a new friend – decided it was time to go to a nearby park.

(A note about the fountain: Sophia and the little friend were clambering around and over all the rocks and of course Charlotte (the youngest of the trio) wanted to do all that, too...but she bit off more than she could theoretically chew when she got to the highest point – where her big sister had just been sitting – and then looked down. Panic ensued until Amy came to the rescue.)

We walked through the woods, down a lonely little country road and to the park, which consisted of a swing set, jungle gym, teeter totters and a balance beam.



Sophia gravitated right to that balance beam and wow'd us with her really good sense of balance. We could have a gymnast in our midst...




After seeing how much fun Charlotte and her little friend were having on the seesaw deal, Amy and I decided to try it out for ourselves. We didn't QUITE fit but fun was had nonetheless ;)




While BB and Mocha had to stay on leash, Zada got to run around with her ever-present stick, which I threw (repeatedly) for her into the nearby soccer field. Of course, at one point all of the little girls (ahem, me included) decided to have a foot-race across said field. Takes more out of you than you'd think after a big meal.



It had started to get a bit cooler and the girls were getting tired so we gathered them all up and headed back to AuntC's...of course, since we had three dogs and three little girls, each one got to walk their own dog and felt pretty important about being on a "dog walk."

We wandered back through the massive back yard and lingered before finally bundling up into our cars to head home...it was a very fun afternoon and I'm glad we got to see everyone. 

It's always a good time at AuntC's...I look forward to the next time we can hang out there :)

Auntie Sarah/Sophia Day #3: A Visit to Como Conservatory

This past Monday was Sophia's 3rd Summer Day With Auntie Sarah. Michael brought her over at 8:30am – accompanied by her bike, helmet and camera – and our day started.


I had a few things to finish up before we could start out on our destination: a trip to the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory (also known as just "Como Conservatory") to photograph the flowers. Since Clint and I live less than 4 miles from the Conservatory (as the crow flies, anyway), I figured the day would be a snap. We'd get there early (it opens at 10am) and beat the rush. Even on a Monday, I knew it'd be busy.

Well, it didn't take long to realize that Michael had forgotten to leave Sophia's booster car seat dealy – which meant until he could come all the way back across the city and leave it we were stuck at Casa de Danks (he was waiting for the cable guy). I improvised by bringing out the Play Doh, which is a great time-consumer. I watered the plants, picked up a bit, and tried to get Sophia's camera battery door open...of course the batteries were dead.

After the novelty of the Doh wore off, I figured it was time for a glamour shoot. I put some "make-up" – blush, lip gloss and just a tad of my favorite hair product: whip – on Sophia and asked her to strike some poses. Per usual, she happily obliged me. While only (already???) 6 years old, I've caught some of the most "grown-up" expressions on this kid's face. It amazes me. (Good luck with that, Amy, when she turns 16! Gonna be a heart-breaker.)

By the time Michael made it back over, it was already mid-morning...while he ended up getting the stubborn kids' camera to open, I realized I didn't have any batteries in the house – we'd have to make a stop at Target. At that point, it was easier to just let her use my old point-and-shoot camera (it had served me well in the past, although it's time to start looking for a replacement, poor thing) but THAT needed juice, too.

We headed off to Target, and by the time that was done it was lunchtime. I'd originally planned on heading to Como first, followed by lunch, but we were both hungry (and neither one of us is pleasant with low blood sugar). We headed to Keys Café to sit on the brightly-colored "bar" chairs and had a tasty lunch (beer cheese soup and tuna fish sandwich for me; mini corndogs, fries and applesauce for her).

Satiated and ready to photograph the flora, we made our way to the Como grounds...where it took me 15 minutes of driving around (and around) to FINALLY find the last parking spot. We had to walk quite a ways to get to the buildings and Sophia only needed to be carried for a few minutes :)

When we finally got in, I was worried that we only had ~1 hour before I'd need to bundle her back to my place (to pick up her bike) and we'd have to head back to her house. However, with a 6-year-old – even one interested in taking pictures of all the flowers – an hour turned out to be the perfect amount of time.

She wasn't interested in seeing the Bonsai Room, but we did hit the Fern Room, the North Garden, the Sunken Garden and Tropical Encounters. Last – but certainly not least – she wanted to play in the room designated for kids where they can learn while they play.

When it was time to go home, there were no tears...but that didn't deter me. I'm already planning what our next Auntie Sarah/Sophia Day will entail!

Auntie Sarah/Sophia Day #2: The Sleepover

A week ago this morning I dragged myself out of bed after a night of fitful sleep. Clint had already let the dog out so I tiptoed into the kitchen to get my coffee. Sipping it groggily, I contemplated stealing downstairs to sit at the computer – but I dared not. I opted instead to slink back into my room to grab my book, and made my way stealthily to the upstairs couch to read for a while.



Why all the clandestine creeping? Was I hungover? Sort of...Sophia was still sleeping in the guest bedroom downstairs and I wanted to keep it that way. It had been her first sleepover at our house and while overall it was successful (i.e., everyone lived and everyone – especially Clint – got some sleep), it was somewhat of a very long night.






The night preceding bedtime went well: she played with Play Doh at the counter while I made tacos, then we watched Toy Story 3 (my first time seeing it...I had to hide my tear-streaked, snotty cry-face from her because I BAWLED at the end!) and got ready for bed. That's when it got interesting.


First of all, Sophia's at the "what's that strange noise" stage, evidently. Plus being in a strange bed at a strange house...not to mention the omnipresent trains that rumble by not even a quarter mile away; she came upstairs to ask me about all sorts of noises many times before I turned out my light. Each time I sent her back down with a logical explanation.




But at 11pm, I couldn't turn her away – the lightning was flashing like paparazzi cameras and the thunder was crack-boom-banging away. I myself don't like thunderstorms, so I completely understand this kid's fear of them...with Clint snoring away obliviously next to me I invited Sophia up onto my side of the bed, where she promptly curled up next to me into the smallest possible ball a skinny 6-year-old can make.



I tried to get some sleep but of course with a little body twitching, twisting and curling around under my arm it was more a case of staying comfortable. After dozing in and out for a few hours, I woke to see the storm had finally abated...it was time for Sophia to crawl back into her own bed. I led her downstairs and tucked her in – the addition of a teddy bear and a small lamp on inside the room aided in calming her – and finally fell back into my own bed, exhausted, for a few more hours of shut-eye.


Let me say here now: I wasn't mad or annoyed with her, poor thing...I was just a WEE bit tired from my own night of restless, broken sleep and needed some coffee and a little quiet time that morning :) After a little while she did come up and wanted to cuddle a bit...soon it was time for breakfast, playing with her camera and then we had to get started with our real plans: a day at the beach with the Van Tassels!



We donned our suits, I packed up a picnic lunch (PBJ sammiches, raspberries, rice krispy bars and juice), got sunblock and towels, grabbed my camera and we were off to the Lake Elmo Park Reserve. I'd never been to a man-made "lake" before so it was quite interesting to see a sandy bottom, the odd water bug and then drains and filters.




We had a great time! The day was hot, a tad humid and the sun was shining; all 3 girls played in the water, built lagoons and had numerous foot races. Christine and I had our fair share of entertainment –  watching the cute girls and also doing quite a bit of chit-chatting. At the end of the afternoon we bundled up and left, a tad sun-burned but tired and happy.

Michael was waiting for us when we drove up to the town home; Sophia's big eyes filled with tears at the prospect of having to leave. It was at once sad and cute: she SO didn't want the day to end; it was a good feeling I'd been successful at yet another Auntie Sarah/Sophia day!

First-Ever Auntie Sarah/Sophia Day

Earlier this spring my sister approached me and said she had a handful of Mondays on which Sophia didn't have "camp" (whatever that means) and would I be willing to hang out with her for one of them?

I immediately said I'd take them all – so we marked our calendars and I dubbed them Auntie Sarah/Sophia Days – while secretly wondering in the back of my mind, "what does one DO with a 6-year-old all day long?"

Well, I'll tell you. The first-ever (long-awaited) occurrence of Auntie Sarah/Sophia Day #1 was this past Monday, and here's how it all went down...

Michael brought Sophia over around 9am, accompanied by her car booster seat, bike, helmet, sweatshirt (just in case), the plate I'd left at their house from the grill-out (Michael's graduation party!) and a sticky note that said "DEXTER DVDs!"

After waving Michael off to the car – greedily clutching 4 seasons' worth of Dexter – it was time to start our day. She promptly showed me how she'd lost her second tooth the night before and then asks me, "what're we going to do today, Auntie Sarah?" I had a general, vague idea of how things (I thought) would go down, but of course the weather wasn't looking too promising so I was hastily revising ideas on the fly.

First and foremost, we had to head to the grocery store (Clint and I are sort of day-to-day shoppers so we had no kid-friendly food in the house), with Sophia helping to carry the basket and preening for the checkout lady. We got back and she helped put things away and then it was, "now what?"

I'd planned on driving over to Lake Como for a walk/bike ride, but the ominous clouds quelled that idea so I said we should probably hang out near the house just in case. We ended up cutting a bunch of flowers off my potted plants, choosing vases, arranging them and then deciding where in the house to place them all. Then she thought it was time for a snack so I got out some pretzels and milk, which evidently was the perfect combo because she said she likes dipping the pretzels IN the milk.

After that it was time to get out the sidewalk chalk and get to work decorating the front stoop. She kept looking up at the clouds saying, "but what if it rains? That cloud is darker than the last one...if it rains can I watch a movie?" I had to put the kibosh on this line of questioning and re-focus her efforts on the task at hand. I think we did a pretty good job with our artwork and afterword it turned into a game of getting-from-one-side-of-the-sidewalk-to-the-other-without-touching-the-chalk-lines. Lots of jumping, pirouetting, and chalky feet :)

It was STILL cloudy at that point so I said she could choose some fingernail polish and I'd paint her nails. She settled on using all 9 colors I had and wanted each nail a different color, so I set up shop outside on the deck and went to work. The sun ended up coming out and helped dry all the little colorful nails.

It was almost lunch time at this point so I told her she could color for a bit and then I began preparing lunch: grilled cheese sammiches (mozarella for her; pepperjack for me), pasta salad, pickles and a drink (Gatorade for me; milk for her). For dessert she was pumped to devour a yummy ice cream bar.

Since the weather was gorgeous at this point, she was excited to head to the park – I bundled her, the bike and myself into the car and zipped over to Lake McCarrons where her first observation was, "you said there wasn't a playground here, Auntie Sarah, but there IS." Oops. Guess I don't pay much attention. So she played around on the jungle gym for a while, and then wanted to go put her feet in the water (she didn't have a swimsuit plus it was so windy it was just a bit cool). Then it was being pushed on the swing for a while and right back in the water. She ended up getting all her clothes wet – how could I tell her not to have fun and splash around? – but at that point we were at the end of our day, anyway. All played out, we headed back to my house to get the rest of her stuff and I gave her a t-shirt of mine to wear so she wasn't sopping wet.



We got in the car and headed over to Robbinsdale, her chattering away in the backseat and me still trying to keep up with all the "guess whats." After hanging out with her all day, then standing in the chilly wind, I began to feel nice and comfortable in the sun streaming through the windshield and all of a sudden it hit me: I was exhausted.

I began yawning and couldn't stop. Sophia asks from the backseat, "why do you keep yawning?" I replied, "well, I guess I'm tired from today's activities." There was silence while she contemplated this for a few seconds, then she pipes up, "my mom never yawns."

Too defeated to think of a proper response, I merely smiled and thought, "yeah, but your mom's USED to this!"

Arriving at her house, it was off to tell her dad all that we'd done that day and then I said my goodbyes and headed back home. Amy said for the next few days it was "Auntie Sarah this," and "Auntie Sarah that"!

It was a VERY fun day, and she's a great kid...but I sure need to build up my kid stamina for the next edition: a Sophia Sleepover!