Oops - missed a weekend

Quick version of two weekends ago: Dina put on a Creative Memories workshop at our place on Friday night and Saturday, so I had the boys. Lots of playing at the park, lots of playing at home. Lots of fun. On Sunday we tried to go to the Renaissance Festival. Actually, we did go, but it got up to about 90 degrees, and the twins were fighting off colds, so we were beaten down and went home defeated at about 3:00 (we usually stay from near-open to close). We didn't get to see our friends the Fandazzi Fire Circus, which disappointed us, as we heard their show is awesome this year.

This last weekend was a lot of fun. Dina and I signed up for a winery bus trip through WineStyles in Champlin (great place - I gave Dina a year's membership in their wine club for Christmas last year). I was a little apprehensive about going, because I didn't know anyone besides my wife and I'm not generally very social. It turned out to be a ton of fun, though. Dina knows a couple people in the wine club and we got to sit next to them on the big coach bus. The plan was to drive to the Baker Apple Orchard (owned by one of the wine club members) near Centuria, Wisconsin, then drive on to the Chateau St. Croix Winery & Vineyard in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin. Oh, and on the bus, the wine flowed like...well, like wine, I guess. WE DRANK LOTS OF WINE. The most I've had in one day, I'm sure of it. Luckily it was spread through the whole day, so I wasn't trashed, just a bit dehydrated at the end of the day. The mix of people on the bus was interesting. There were more women than men by far, and there were some younger people there, including a bachelorette party, but most people were definitely older than my wife and I. Bus full o' drunken cougars, I tell ya. But it was still pretty fun. I'd do it again. :-)

Here are some pictures from the winery:






After we got home from our crazy wino tour, we arrived to our house already full of Dina's brother and sister and their families. We were celebrating Dina's sister's birthday, and her son's birthday too. So that was fun.

On Sunday Dina spent a lot of time getting stuff organized that we're going to sell at the Mothers of Multiples' fall sale, while I played in the backyard with the boys. I also watched the Vikings game that afternoon and Dina got her hair cut and colored. That night I bottled my Deep Dark Wheat beer. I'm excited to try it, and a little nervous, because I really don't know what it's going to taste like, or even if I'm going to like it. We'll see. I might soon be looking for a whole bunch of people who like Dunkelweizen! :-)

Four-day weekends rule

I had Friday off to go to the State Fair with my family and my mom. That was awesome! Mom came up Thursday night, so we got a good early start to the fair, which is incredibly important with three kids and a double-stroller. The Fair was the usual mix of awful/yummy food, games and rides for the kids, all kinds of animals, and a complete overload of things to see. I only have one good photo from my phone...I'll post more if I get them from my wife's computer. This is Dina and the kids watching a video (or not) at the Eco Experience:



Here's a rundown of the fair food I tried (I didn't eat all of all of these, but at least tasted them all):
- Spam breakfast sandwich
- Spam curds
- mini donuts
- pancake batter covered sausages, fried on a stick
- cheese curds
- fresh lemonade
- cheese on a stick
- apple-flavored honey taffy
- wine ice cream
- chocolate-covered bacon
- Summit Horizon Red Ale
- peach-glazed pork cheeks
- braised pork sandwich
- corn bread
- Sweet Martha's cookies

Mmmmmmm. We were at the Fair from about 8:30 in the morning until about 8:15 that night. That's a lot of Fair, and we were completely wiped out at the end of the day, so we went home, cleaned up and went to bed.

On Saturday morning we said bye to my Mom as she was heading to her lake cabin for the weekend. Dina and I had a wedding to go to that afternoon, so we spent the day getting the house cleaned up and getting ready to go. Dina's awesome brother and his awesome wife babysat the kids, so we had a free night out - woo hoo!

The wedding was a lot of fun; it was at a beautiful downtown church, and was not your typical wedding, in that the readings were from The Velveteen Rabbit and an Ogden Nash poem, and the wedding couple had everyone who attended the wedding bunch together in front for a big group photo, which I thought was very cool.

The wedding was at 4 p.m., and lasted about 20 minutes - perfect! The reception wasn't until 7 p.m. at a wine bar out in the suburbs, though, so we went to Don and Bhavna's house (which was on the way) and drank some yummy beer and wine to pass the time. We got to meet their cute little dog Skippy, who pretends to be an ankle-biter, but really is not. The reception was at a little wine bar/bistro called The School II. Odd name, but a cool place. The party was great, with lots of talking with friends, good wine and beer, good food, and some really, really bad dancing. We had a good time and got home a little after midnight.

Sunday was basically a recovery day from the night before. We did various stuff around the house that needed doing. Slowly. We also noticed that the younger two of our boys were getting head colds. That night was a rough night for sleeping since those two were coughing so much.

On Monday we pretty much just ran errands and cleaned up the house. We bought a new kids' mattress, so now all 3 boys have regular mattresses (until then Caden had been sleeping on a crib mattress). We also rearranged their room so their mattresses are all along the same wall. It's pretty cute to see all three of them sleeping in a row like that. Someday they'll need more space, but for now it's cool. :-) Another errand I ran that day was picking up the windows and doors I had re-screened at the local hardware shop. Re-screening windows is one of the many house chores that falls into the category of "I could do this myself but the anger isn't worth it, so I'll pay someone else to do it." I'll get them all put back in tonight.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend, and I'm looking forward to the week!