the minnesota landscape arboretum

My mom has been telling me about The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum for years. Telling me I should really get there sometime. Then my sister-in-law, Lisa, started raving about it. Next my friend Rachel started posting pictures on her instagram and wrote that they got a membership.

Last Monday the whole Harrington clan went to the Arboretum for a picnic and my jaw was on the ground the whole time. I just had no idea. It was so awesome. It was so stunning. We walked through rose gardens and vegetable gardens, we saw giant lego sculptures and got sincerely lost in a hedge maze. The grounds are spectacular and Rory and I started dreaming of landscape ideas for all around our house.

As a life-long Minnesotan, I cannot believe it has taken me this long to get there. But I also believe that once I find something awesome, I must shout it from the rooftops. So hear me now: this place is AWESOME!

You know what else is awesome? Cousins. And Aunts and Uncles. And Family. After the Arboretum we drove to a cemetery nearby, surrounded by cornfields, where my Aunt Jan's ashes were buried. There were so many of us able to gather and it really was special. The day was glorious and it was good to be together. After her burial, we went out to Uncle Don's house on Lake Minnetonka, my first time to his home since Aunt Jan died, where we had a huge pot luck barbecue just like we used to. It reminded me of my favorite kids book, "The Relatives Came" when family all gathers together in one house. The books says, "You'd have to go through at least four hugs to get from the living room to the kitchen. Those relatives!" And later the book says, "And then everyone split into two's or three's where there was quiet talking and catching up." We lived that on Monday night and it felt so good to be all be together.

It was a precious time, and Aunt Jan would have loved every minute of it.

homemade bubbles!

Our third pinterest project was Homemade Bubbles. There are all sorts of recipes out there, but I used my mom's tried and true recipe with Glycerin, found in our church cookbook. She used to make this stuff when she taught preschool. I had hoped to make enough to fill a mini pool, but it turns out Glycerin is expensive, so I filled a big flat rubbermaid instead.

I doubled the recipe, and a few days ago tried making the bubble wands in this video and they are amazing. I used chop sticks, twine and a washer and made huge bubbles. Totally recommend making the big wands. And mom brought a crate, which made for awesome bubble caterpillars. You can't go wrong with bulk bubbles on a beautiful day!

Homemade Bubbles
3/4 cup Dawn Dish Soap
2 quarts water
1/4 cup Glycerin (I found mine in the Cub Foods Pharmacy. Call before you go...it was their last bottles and they said they don't always carry it. My Walgreens did not carry it. Drug stores and Pharmacy's seem to be the best bet.)

Mix Glycerin and Dawn together gently. Slowly add the water...you do not want the mixture to foam! Slow and steady is the key. Mom uses little plastic berry boxes as bubble wands, or cuts a circle out of cool whip/tupper ware lids. Or again, the string and sticks diy wand was pretty awesome too!

Have fun!

four square, kick lines and step stools

The five days my brother was in town turned into a family reunion, but rather unintentionally. My mom and my sister and I each took a day to host the whole clan and it wasn't until we were well into the week that we realized we basically had planned a family reunion, but without the planning. Each one of us was responsible for the food the day the group gathered at our own home. Last year we went to the North Shore, and we hope to again someday, but it really cost a lot to stay there. This reunion was way less money and at the end of each night, we were all in our own beds (except Mat's family of course). We were tired...the driving was a lot, but on the whole, I think it worked.

Sunday was the day everyone came to my house. We went to church, had subs for lunch and then my nieces and nephews recognized our barn as the perfect place to play Four Square. We all played and I started to remember how awesome that game is.

We hung out, made bubbles, got out the sprinkler, took a picture of the kids with my folks for the Christmas card, and my Uncle Mark and Aunt Jane and their great-niece Niu Niu came in time for dinner. It was then that were informed by the kids that there would be a talent show after dinner. They explained that everyone must participate and then they set up the chairs for the audience. As a former Bible Camp program director, the fact that a talent show was happening without my planning, at my farm, was about the greatest thing ever. It was so fun. There was dancing, my dad told a joke, Ivar flew his kite, the adults did a kick line while singing 'You are my Sunshine' and step stools were used as the stage to jump off of as the kids sang "Baby you're a Firework." It was a very, very good time.

moon sand

The second pinterest project we tried was Moon Sand. This is just baby oil and flour. Again, two easy ingredients. The recipe calls for a specific ratio, but just like the 2-ingredient play doh, we just kept playing with it. 

Nellie had broken her arm a few weeks before she arrived which meant she couldn't swim or jump on the trampoline, and this project in particular was sort of our special time together. She told me what she though the bowl needed more of and eventually she wanted to make it into dough with lots and lots of baby oil. And then we went back to sand and added lots and lots of flour. The actual mixing and making of Moon Sand turned out to be the fun of this stuff. I suppose we could have built a castle at one point, as it turns into wet sand, but mostly we just talked for an hour and added more of something to the bowl.

This was also the day that we went to a family friend's pool. Nellie was so good about keeping her arm out of the water. She was allowed to go in three steps and she did great. Mostly she played with Elsie and was so good and sweet to her. I love that about cousins and how the bigger ones take such good care of the little ones. And it's so fun to watch the once "little cousins" become the big ones. 

my favorite moment of our reunion

This here is quite possibly my favorite moment from our whole five days together. It was our first shared meal on Friday night at Annika's house, before we went to her town's parade. After dinner Simon started telling us a very detailed joke. He is an awesome storyteller and did not leave out one detail. Mat timed it and the joke was five and a half minutes long. It was like we were right there with the poor guy who was discovered to be a fantastic high diver on the cruise ship he was living on. His final dive was so, so high that when he hit the pool he went through the bottom of the pool, through 1st class, through 2nd class, through the cargo floor, through the boiler rooms and out the bottom of the boat. When he surfaced next to the cruise liner they pulled him up and everyone asked if he was okay and he said, "I have been through many a hard ship."

We laughed so hard. And were so pleasantly surprised that there was an actual punchline after so much story.

Then my dad tried to tell a joke that fell so flat no one knew the joke had ended. He scanned all of our faces to see if we got it and then his face fell and realized his audience was about 30 years too young to remember the song that was the punchline. And I fell to pieces. I laughed so hard because my dad is a master joke-teller and it is rare that a story of his doesn't go over well.

I just love family so much. I love how each person contributes to the personality of your whole family. And we have some awesome personalities in this clan.

2-ingredient, 2-dollar play dough

Earlier last week I got on a little pinterest kick looking for fun projects to do with my kids. The timing was awesome because by the time I had purchased the supplies the whole Harrington clan had gathered and I was able to bring one project each day. This first one was completely successful, even though I had my doubts.

In a large bowl we mixed Corn Starch and Hair Conditioner. I found V05 Conditioner at Menards for 73 cents. And I think the Corn Starch was 1.20-something. Which meant the whole experiment only cost $2. Even if it had been a fail, it wouldn't have broken the bank.

I should also say we just kept working with the ratio, which meant that each kid got a chance to stir. In the end we used 3/4 of the bottle of conditioner and used a whole Market Pantry box plus a little extra Corn Starch that my sister had because of over-zealous conditioner squirters.

Also! This is totally an outdoor project. I saw it listed under "boredom busters for rainy days," but this is a project to be done outside! Corn Starch is quite messy...really, don't do this inside unless you are making it without kiddo-helpers. :)

The end result was awesome. It was the softest play dough I've ever made. Later we realized we probably could have added food coloring to the conditioner when we first squirted it into the bowl to add a little color. Eventually the kids made the play dough into a volcano and with Simon's lead, they added baking soda and vinegar to make a grand eruption.

cousin time

My brother and his kids are flying back to Seattle right now after five very full days of family-together time. It was so awesome. We packed it all in. And at this moment I think I could sleep for three days in a row. We picnicked and went to a parade. We swam and made all sorts of play dohs and squishy concoctions I found on pinterest. We went to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and the Minnesota Zoo, saw lots of relatives, enjoyed a talent show and a fashion show and a slide show. We played four square and made bubbles and ran through the sprinkler. And a few even ran a 5K.

I didn't run the 5K, but in this moment, my 8-month pregnant self feels like I ran a 5K, which has to count for something. So many stories and pictures to pass along. But for now, I'm going to bed...