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Jessica went away for her first three day overnight trip to a meditation retreat. And I'm happy for her and was also scared. Anyway, long story short, I'm laying in the RV camper borrowed from our neighbor camping with the four kids. Some mild Moments of panic but overall a fun nearly relaxing time. More pix later!

That was the first thing Art said when he got off the bus. And Lewis, too. Public education is a real gift.

Jessica made a spectacular carrot cake for my ma Nan who is town this week. The girls were so excited to celebrate one of their favorite person's birthdays.

It's across town but worth the trip-- Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden , a place of extraordinary beauty right ni the heart of the city. Here are some photos from our recent visit.

This year Arthur and  Lewis attended a camp at Leonardo's Basement called 'raiders of the lost junkyard'. On the first day they set an old record player, a tape deck and a sewing machine in front of the kid and then showed them the drawer of screw drivers. TAKE IT APART. Art was very worried about camp, about being left alone and not knowing anybody except Lewis. But he came home on the first day saying it was awesome. So that's good. Not cheap, tho! Special thanks to my ma for helping pay for the thing. here's Art hot gluing some stuff to make a boar with a real little motor and battery. They also learned to saw and drill all by themselves.

Jessica sent me this photo at work a few weeks ago and just found it. It was a moment in his life he really wanted a new Lego set and realized he was broke. Poor guy didn't sell a toy. Although apparently someone did stop by and give him $3 just because. He tried again the next day and I alerted our generous neighbors who came down and bought a couple things.

Here's a joke from my adolecense that made more sense today. "Why don't women drink beer at the beach? They don't want to get sand in their Schlitz..." SORRY! FYI, on all these Vine videos you can activate sound by clicking on the icon on the lower right!

From training camp for the football team, this is the new quarterback everyone apparently is going ape-shit about. WHO CARES!? I don't, except when it makes a fun photo like this :) The fence collapsed and fans kept on trying for autographs. Here's a  gallery from today.

When four children take a nature walk in the woods away from any sort of bathroom,  must they all simultaneously express a desire to poop? -- --sent from my handheld device--

"Papa, you know, we don't need to buy Lego sets, I can just make my own!" And it's true, he's been making spectacular and elaborate Lego creations of late. We will post more photos as they come into existence. Nice work, Lewis.

Photographed with my iPhone and an add-on macro lens

We stopped during a walk in the super pretty Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuar y for this little performance: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adpQALFDLhY]

-- --sent from my handheld device--

We were on a walk with friends around Woodlake Nature Center last week. It was a quiet, still day. The water was glassy, the wind nonexistent. As we were walking on the trail we heard this loud cracking sound and 20 feet behind us this huge Cottonwood snapped at it's base and started Falling across the path! WHA?! It stopped at an angle after learning against another tree. I just couldn't fathom the chances of that happening. The thing was at least 50 years old, maybe 100. It's been living longer than we've been alive. And at exact moment we walk under it, on a day with no wind, no particular reason for it to fall, it does. What are the chances? I bet a mathematician could calculate this. I wonder what caused it? Maybe one tiny little termite took one last bite? Maybe it just gave up on life? I don't know. Pretty neat. And a little scary! I went back and took this photo of where it snapped:

It's rare Bailey and Netta get time with a parent all by themselves. Just so hard to make that happen with so many kids and such little time. We always feel a little bad about it. Last week I was grouchy and needed to get out of the house and Bailey wanted to come. So we went to the last hour of the Powderhorn Art fair. We had an entirely lovely time. I bought her a snow cone and she slowly worked on the thing as we walked around the entire lake. Bailey's was really concerned Netta didn't get a snow cone :)

"I don't want to say anything.  Hey, don't do that!  Poopy.  Tee heee heeehehehehe.  Ahhhahahahahahaha..  Lbplbpolbnpplbpblbpo.  Hello!  1234.  567892.  Ookie pookie bear.  Glugs!"

excerpted: "...watched a sexist, racist adventure movie featuring a kind of brilliant kid actor. And Mia Farrow! It was a recommendation from a friend called 'Arthur and the Invisibles'. I think the kids liked it, and it did have the whole miniature-people-who-live-under-the-garden thing going on, which is always fun. But the (only) female lead was big breasted with an exposed, cartoon-but-toned midriff and a fully developed butt in pants that seemed like they had an external g-string. Plus she was voiced by Madonna, which equals bad acting."

Dry ice is so cool! And cheap. $13 for 10lbs of the stuff (Ace Ice in mpls, Jason's Dry Ice in St Paul). Put it in a jar of warm soapy water and you have an amazing bubble machine with bubbles that pop into smoke. The big bubble above was made by sealing off the top off a bowl with a soapy cloth. Leave it in a jar of anything for a while and you have soda. Tried putting some in a bottle, sticking it on the back porch and waiting for an explosion... Nothing! So I went out to check it and BAM! Got a small boo boo on my leg. Kids, don't ever do what your dumb Papa just did... Just putting it in a glass of water and watching all the bubbles and smoke was trance-inducing for our children. Cheap, slightly dangerous fun times were had at our house today.

Look! This photo perfectly captures a piece of bread mid-splash.

I've been LAZY and BUSY and haven't had time to continue posting pix from our trip lately. But I will! All of them! In the meantime, enjoy this wonderful photo of Art and Lewis fishing with an audience at the cottage.

Just to girls (just the girls!) to a festival at Lake Hiawatha tonight. Pizza eating, pop drinking, sucker having, story listening, park playing, donkey-ride-watching and bouncing:

Post by Jessica Parker Garvin .

from... FOOOOOOD! And I big to never go in the streeeeeeet... And I special toooo MEEEEEEEEE!!! Netta's influences include Mr. Rogers.