A few more things found on the internets that I think are worth passing on.
I am not a big fan of what Valentine's Day has become. I don't deplore romance or flowers or even the occasional tacky gift and I think it's good for us to have a day reserved to remind us to show a little love. My issue with Valentine's Day is the lazy consumerism of it all. IMHO Valentines Day is a holiday for simple handmade expressions. Flowers and chocolates are fine but apply a little creativity and personalization to it in some way. Valentine's Day was made for crayons, scissors, and glue sticks.
One year I made a "Vouchers Of Love" coupon book to go with a few bottles of K8's favorite wine. Another year I bought 50 Spider-Man valentines, wrote a different little note on each one, and hid them all over in K8's stuff. This year most of my handmade efforts have gone to Q's valentines for preschool.
This past weekend Q and I made it out to Medicine Lake for the Art Shanty Project. Since then I've been pondering getting involved next year and trying to build an ice shack of my own. I have no idea what I would do but you know it would be kid oriented.
You still have a little bit of time to make it out onto the ice to check out the wackiness for yourself. It all ends Feb. 14.
We managed to make it to the wonderful Wild Rumpus in time to see Mo Willems. He was AWESOME! If you have a chance, stop by the Red Balloon this Saturday at 10:30. We just might go there too. I wouldn't mind getting my copy of You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When It Monsoons signed.
Children's book author extraordinaire Mo Willems is on tour once again. This time he's promoting his hilarious new book, Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed. He will be stopping by Wild Rumpus this Thursday, Jan. 22, at 3 pm. and Red Balloon on Saturday, Jan. 24, at 10:30 am.
The new book is fantastic and if you can find room, listening to Mo read his books to a shop full of kids is definitely worth the time. And while you're at it you may as well pick up Mo's latest Elephant and Piggy adventure, Are You Ready to Play Outside?.
Tis the custom in my home
that after holidays
snot shall roam.
Every damn year we are blessed with spending the first half of January nursing runny noses and nasty coughs. That combined with the usual frigid temps this time of year, has once again brought me to the brink of insanity. We NEED to get out of the house... and from what I can tell there are a lot of other parents in the same boat sinking into the frigid waters of stir crazy. But, there are a few life rafts out there.
Oodles of hand made crafts, art, and contests with celebrity judges. Need I say more? No Coast Craft-O-Rama this Sat. and Sun. at the Midtown Global Market.
If the Minnesota State fair is a fair assessment of this fair state and nation, we're screwed! On the other hand, if the fair is an accurate sampling of the population at large, I am a much better looking individual, compared to the observed average, than my poor self-esteem allows me to believe. That same boost of confidence via the observed average fair-goer ends up being a bit of a trap for me. "I can totally have another deep fried candy bar. I have a long way to go before I look that bad."
Some other highlights of the fair:
Scoring an awesome Current t-shirt.
The best weather for the State Fair ever.
Crazy chickens.
When looking for events for the the whole family on the weekends, I've found that the best way to get K8 on board is to find something that bears possibility of her getting unique handmade earings. That was the case for the Stone Arch Arts Festival and is the case with Art in The Market at Midtown Global Market this Saturday.
Art in The Market has been happening once a month since March up through August 9th so we're jumping in at the tail end. The event showcases 10 local artists and their paintings, photographs, jewelry, etc that were all selected by a panel of judges.
If you've never been to the Midtown Global Market you should check it out this Saturday... or any other day if supporting the local art scene isn't your thing. If for nothing else go there sometime for lunch for the exotic array of food all under one roof.
The Science Museum of Minnesota, every Monday, has a poorly publicized event cleverly dubbed "Pre-school Playdates". Even less publicized is that if you're a Children's Museum member you can get into their playdate for free. The free admission doesn't get you into the special exhibits like the current Star Wars geekfest. But since Q has yet to see any of the Star Wars movies, I figured all that stuff might end up taking away from his experience of seeing the films for the first time anyway. The little extra playdate activities are certainly not anything special and most of the exhibits are a bit over the head of your average pre-schooler. But as long as it's free, then getting in to see the dinosaurs and to play with light 10,000 different ways is worth the occasional visit.
Update: Preschool Playdates has been moved to Tuesday.
We've got a heap of stuff going on this weekend but I'm still hoping that we can make it to the Stone Arch Festival of the Arts. With a variety of food, music, art, cars, and kids activities, there's something for everyone. And while you're in the neighborhood you might as well stop by Pacifier and check out their big weekend sale with 70% off the clearance racks.
If you're going to the festival on Saturday you can try and get there early and hit the Mill City Farmers Market first.
Are 3 year olds allowed in Nye's Polka Bar?
Not this MIA...
This MIA.
This Sunday from 11am - 5pm Minneapolis Institute of Art is hosting Target Family Day. The event is chock full of workshops and activities for the whole family. They are even having a family yoga class. It should be a good time as long as it isn't as packed as Rock the Cradle was. We intend to be at the door when they open. If painting live (nude!? probably not.) models and seeing me embarrass myself attempting some kiddie yoga isn't enough to get you there, the Alec Soth: Sleeping by the Mississippi exhibit should be.
Edit: I just noticed that at 2:52 on the MIA video Mike D and MCA of the Beastie Boys make a cameo.
I'm really looking forward to Grand Old Days this Sunday. Not only are we going to a friends house that is even closer to Grand than our own, but my favorite local artist, Jao, will be performing at the intersection of Albert and Grand.
If you plan to go to Grand Old Day make sure you check her out. She will be performing at 12:30, 1:30, 2:30, and 3:30.
Now if only I could convince her to paint something for the wall in our newly remodeled office. More on that tomorrow.
...but where can I get sissy offsets. I need to build something or play some tackle football. Maybe I should pick up smoking cigars again. That's manly.
This arrived in my email the other day....
...and I briefly considered going. I think K8 will be going in my stead. If you decide to go too, make sure to say hi to her. She should be easy to find. She'll be the most beautiful woman in the room (aaahhh) and she will be talking about how she has the best husband in the whole wide world ;)
I'll be getting plenty of "girl talk" tomorrow night at Bar Abeline with my mom friends for another well deserved "Moms' Night Out" I can already taste the margaritas... um, I mean beer. I am continuously amazed how this group of stay at home moms are willing to put up with this stay at home dad. I really am lucky I managed to find such great friends willing to look past my manly veneer... eroded as it may be.
Here are a few upcoming dates and events worth remembering:
Thursday, April 24 - Dining Out For Life. Participating restaurants in more than 45 cities throughout the U.S. and Canada will donate a percentage of their profits for that day to help The Aliveness Project, a community center for people living with HIV/AIDS. There are 134 great Twin Cities restaurants on the list, so get a babysitter and make reservations.
Fri. & Sat., April 11-12 - Free Electronics Recycling. Find the closest of the 5 drop off sites in the Metro here and remember to show up early. Remember the lines at the Mall of America last time they had this? At least this time there are 5 sites instead of just the one.
Saturday, April 26 - St. Paul Farmers Market returns for another season of beautiful locally grown produce. Mmmm.
Sat. & Sun., May 3-4 - Living Green Expo. Huge showcase of all sorts of different ways to make your life a little, or a lot, more earth friendly. From electric cars to home improvement to C.S.A.'s, this show has got it all... and its free!
Saturday, May 10 - Pangea Day
