Summertime

I took the kids on a bike ride down to the lake to see the milk-carton boat races and the sand sculptures that take place during Minneapolis’ Aquatennial. I thought it was a decent morning, but it turned out to be hot and humid…over 100 heat index…and then it sprinkled a couple of times to make matters worse. But it was a nice day at the lake.

Helena wouldn’t let me take her picture, so I have two of Liam. Between Helena and Liam, this bottle of water was finished in 45 seconds.

The kids weren’t interested at all in the boat races, but they got to walk around a bit in the lake, so they were happy.


The next weekend was the Intermedia Arts Art Car Parade. Another terribly hot day. I took the kids on the bike to a market on Lake Street, and we watched the parade from there. Helena was miserable, she complained of the heat over and over again until a couple of cars threw candy out the window to her. Then she didn’t want the parade to end.

This little car is actually one of Galactic Pizza’s delivery cars. Yes, they do wear their superhero costumes when they deliver.

One of the favorites of the crowd. Even the inside, the trunk, and under the hood was decorated with reptiles.


This is the robot that Helena was scared of. The “official” photographer and filmmaker(?) of the parade was in front of us taking a picture of it. The man controlling the robot (in shorts) make the robot “attack” the photographer. The whole crowd was laughing, but Helena was scared. “What is that robot doing to that man?” she kept asking me.

The Mystery Machine was in the parade, and there was also a milk-carton boat. You would think that the Scooby-Doo movie was actually popular.


Daddy’s favorite

Helena next to the cork truck. She was excited that she could touch it.

Helena doesn’t like getting her picture taken now, so only once in a long while can I get a photo like this of her.

Here she is showing off her garlic that the Pizza Luce people were giving out to the crowd.

One of Helena’s friends from daycare had a car in the parade, so Helena got to go into the car for some water and some crackers.

Helena liked the “fuzzy” part of this car.

In the back of Intermedia Arts there was a large canvas that you can launch paint at. Helena loved it. The green spot in the middle part was her first.


In this one, you can see the small bottle of yellow paint that she just launched.

The whole story is this. At about 11:00 I took the kids to Painter Park. We had a picnic there. Then I decided that we should go see the cars, which I thought were at the Midtown Exchange, where a “mall” of small shops run by immigrants is. But once I got them there, the cars weren’t, so I figured that the cars must have been at the Midtown Station, which is another few miles away. Since it was so hot, we just hung out at the Exchange, had some cake and juice, played in the children’s area, chased Liam around when he ran away from Helena and I and so forth. Once the parade of cars began, we went outside. Then we had to ride home. Anyhow, it was well past naptime when we got home. Then Helena started to cry because she wanted to go see the cars where the end the parade, so I took her there and left Liam at home, where he wouldn’t go to sleep. But by the time Helena and I got home again, Liam was completely exhausted, and fell asleep on the coach and slept right through dinner. Poor guy.

Oh, and he fell again, which knocked out the filling in his tooth that was just put in a couple of weeks ago. Looks like he needs a good nose cleaning, too.

Minneapolis Scupture Garden

Here are some pictures from my trip to the sculpture garden with Helena and Liam.

We started in the Conservatory,

and went to see the Standing Glass Fish. I didn’t take this picture, I couldn’t fit the whole thing in with our lens, so I stole it from the Walker Museums website.


Liam began throwing sand that was around the palm trees…

…so we had to leave.Here they are running toward the newly repainted Spoonbridge and Cherry. I just noticed that the lack of green in the foreground looks like the good part of our front yard. I tore up the other half.

Helena climbed every sculpture in the park, except for the one that said “Do not climb on this sculpture”


It was easier getting up than getting down. I don’t think that she realized that she climbed so high. She kind of slid down…quickly…because it was pretty hot.


Then Helena saw the arbor and began running toward the far end of it. I was with Liam, and we walked to the nearer end. Once we were in, we saw Helena running toward us. Liam got a big kick out of that.

Then we walked over the bridge to Loring Park, and Helena saw a sprinkler on, so she had to run through it. Liam at this point was still scared of sprinklers, so he just watched Helena.
He was getting tired anyhow. When Liam gets hot, his whole face lights up.

We walked back to the bridge, and on the way some homeless man told me that he liked Helena…she called her “spunky”. Despite being tired, Liam could have watched all ten lanes of traffic for hours.

About the sprinklers. Liam doesn’t like getting wet if it isn’t below the waste. He loves playing with water in pails. He will stand in the pool at the park, but never get his head wet. He won’t play in the sprinkler at home, and runs scared at the sprinkler at the local flower garden despite Helena trying to get him to go through it.

But last night I was watering the lawn with the hose. Liam was in the back yard. He came around to the side of the house I was on and ran through it….just as if it had never bothered him before, and he loved it. He must have went through the hose and the sprinkler I set up afterward for an hour. Finally!