A Busy Day

Confession: Though I long for country life at times, I love all the opportunities available in the city.

This morning I took the boys up to Webber Park on the far north side of Minneapolis for a "Truck Extravaganza." Of course they had a lot of big trucks around to look at (cement mixers, delivery trucks, street sweepers, mowers, etc.). There were also some art projects (involving driving toy trucks through ink/paint and across some paper) and a dig for cars in a pile of sand (the kids each got to take home three toy cars they found). We downed some free hot dogs, chips and popsicles as well. Oh, and I can't forget the bouncy inflatable--which was shaped like a skid loader. Best inflatable ever.

Then it was off to our next stop: Jim Lupient Water Park. The City of Lakes Community Land Trust was taking its home owners out to enjoy time in the pool. Not the warmest of days for it, but as we had just come off of swimming lessons there, the boys were excited for the chance to just be able to play (and Anders got to try out the water slides).

I discovered this morning that the 21st Annual Minnesota Festival for Fathers & Families was being held a few blocks away from us, so we had to make that a stop after the water park. Again there were more inflatables to bounce on and slide down, a kids' concert, more free food and a petting zoo.

We had planned on taking in a family movie at a cheap theater, but that got pushed out of today's line up of activities for taking some farmer's market tomatoes (ours aren't ripe yet) and bacon over to another family's house and enjoying BLTs outside on a gorgeous summer evening.

The biggest part of knowing about events like these (which often go on unnoticed in large communities every weekend) is staying in the know. It's not easy--it takes some work to be informed about what's going on and half the battle is knowing where to look. I'm still figuring that out in many ways. Hopefully you've got some good resources in your community.

The nice upside of the fun, busy day was that I think we wore the boys out enough. For the first time in weeks--months--our youngest didn't come downstairs again after he was in bed. That's worth something.