Jessica went on a walk with the girls last week and came back with this nice photo.

It snowed this afternoon. The first snow of the year. In anticipation of its arrival we went on what will likely be our last ‘tricycle walk’ of the year this morning. Can you tell Lewis is smiling real big?

[update–Jessica thought it looked like he was carrying the squirrel with his hands. He had a couple sticks…]

Last weekend the boys and I went to the May Day for breakfast and Powderhorn Park to play, likely our last time before winter. And we met a couple of kids we know from preschool and their babysitter who was real nice (pictured here carrying a tasty-looking dead squirrel). I’m forgetful with names but we all had a fun time playing and feeding ducks. We were even invtied for hot chocolate at his nearby house before riding our bikes home. People in Powderhorn are real friendly.

Art rode to the park but wanted a lift back. So I stuffed him into the bike trailer with his bike (see photo), he thought it was pretty funny. Lewis rode what he calls the ‘tagawahn’, the tag-a-long bike. And that was that.

Lewis wanted to know how to draw paper.  Just one of those random questions that really started out as "Momma…" with no direction until he came up with some obscure thing on the spot.  So then he said, "Momma, what if paper had a head and arms and hands and feet and could draw itself?"  To which Art replied, "Then it would just draw on it's belly!"  

I don’t really know what my dad exactly did as a Community Health Director for the Minnesota Dept. of Health.  My sister definitely knows because she is smarter than me about that kind of stuff and because she now works in public health.  A different kind of work, but she’s in the field.  Anyway!  My dad was so good at what he did and so good at bringing people and ideas together that “they” named a leadership award after him.  I know there is a national award, too, because I have attended presentations of the Jim Parker Leadership Award in San Francisco and in New York!  Anyway AGAIN!  Here I am with my sister on my right and my step-mom on my left standing with this year’s Jim Parker Leadership Award recipient and the Commissioner of public health in Minnesota.  It was the 20th anniversary.  Oh my God.  I probably just messed up all those titles just now, but here we all are just the same.  I am very proud to be my dad’s daughter.

-Jessica

Remember that night I wrote about a few weeks ago, when I took the kids to IKEA, waited with them in line for dinner and then had no wallet to pay for it?  That was so tragic.  It was TERRIBLE!  Well, I made up for it tonight and totally redeemed myself!

Fed everyone an early dinner so we were out the door by 5:05pm and headed for the Big Blue Box that is IKEA.   When we got there I dropped the boys off at the kids’ play area and strolled the girls over to return a dish drainer (Hey!  I need that $4.99 back!).  While we waited for our number to be called I played Pull the Babies By Their Pants over and over, each baby trying to crawl away from me and then me pulling them right back along the smooth, shiny floor.  Then we went upstairs, grabbed the cabinet locks we came for and back down to pay.

After I paid for our $12 of items (I also grabbed some frozen meatballs!) I went directly to the cafe area and bought three $1 ice cream cones.  Wheeled over to the kids’ area where I found the boys jumping in the ball pit, all staticky and super happy.  They threw balls at me through the window for a couple minutes before realizing I was holding ice cream cones when they naturally raced to the door to meet me and go home.  I was so pleased with my success I was smiling the whole walk out to the car.  If only it could have ended perfectly.  I was twenty minutes past the girls bedtime schedule and they were ready to nurse and sleep, so they cried in the car.  But overall I think I redeemed myself for my previous disaster.  At least for the boys…