Hoffman Homestead

The Bathroom Boogie Man

A#3 has recently developed a fear of the dark, particularly the bathroom.  Plus, even with the light on, he wants me to be in there with him.  I keep trying to get him to go by himself with not much success.  Today, he was dancing around like he had to go to the bathroom.  He came up to me and I expected him to ask me to take him to the bathroom.  Instead he said, "Mom, let me smell your hands."

???  It took me a second to realize what he was actually asking.  I said, "Ok."

He said, "Yup, they smell bad.  You need to wash them."

Me, "Ok, should I wash them in the bathroom?"

Him, "Yup."

As we walk to the bathroom, I say, "Maybe you should go to the bathroom while I wash my hands."

Him, "Yup."

Smart kid.

Meet Our New Nanny!

Don't I wish!  A girl can dream can't she?  

Grandma B took over science yesterday and taught the boys all about wind.

The goal of the science experiment is to show that air does have weight.  They took a wire clothes hanger and 2 balloons...

blew up one of the balloons...

then taped the balloons to either side of the clothes hanger.  Voila!  Air has weight.

 
Here they are blowing into their hands to feel the air molecules slamming into them.  The science experiments was a huge success.  They had fun and learned something.

We also got a surprise package in the mail from an island waaaay in the middle of nowhere.  It contained a cool surf shirt (I might snatch it for myself),

a rockin' set of jade chopsticks (6 sets so we can all have one),

 and a cool set of Chinese coins (no pic).

And we can't have a blog post without a couple ridiculously cute baby shots.

This thing is the coolest thing ever!  I think and it moves, awesome!

Minnesota Science Theater 3000

Yeah, I know.  It's the Minnesota Science Museum.  I guess when you watch too many Mystery Science Theater 3000's, you start calling science museums science theaters.

We had so much FUN!  Yes, I am yelling fun.  It was a blast.  Our main focus was to see the Dead Sea Scrolls and we spent over 2 hours looking at that exhibit.  All of the boys had a great time.  It was a self guided tour where the children could listen to age appropriate information on their own little "listener."  Even A#3 had a great time and learned a lot.  We have no pictures of that part of the visit since they wouldn't allow pictures :-(

After the Dead Sea Scrolls, we explored the other exhibits.  We could easily spend many days there.  I ended up getting a membership because it was cheaper than buying all of us individual tickets.  I wish we had gone up earlier in our visit so we could have gone up a few times.  Oh well.  I'm sure we'll be back before the year is up.

Can you see me Grandma Mary?

Alex spent a loooong time at this station playing with batteries.

They had some cool play structures too for the boys to climb all over.

 

This was the boys most favoritestest station.  It's a news desk with a teleprompter and it sends video to 2 different TV's.  I didn't realize what hams my boys can be.  I'm thinking I should get them signed up for theater or something.  Maybe even have them plan their own news show.  A#3 would just say, "Yup," and repeat what the big boys said.  Too funny!  In this picture, Gma Mary is making A#4 dance in the background.  

 
 

 Yes, A#4 and I were there too.  

We had an awesome view of St. Paul from a tugboat cabin.

Ok, I've got too many photos that I want to show you all so I'm going to make a slideshow.  I'll add it in later when it's done.

Today is our last day in Minnesota :-(  We've had so much fun, didn't do everything we wanted but still had a great time.  Luckily we go home with Gma and Gpa B so the fun doesn't stop yet :-)

Old McIvan had a Farm!

What a week of fun we've had!  So much fun I've hardly had the time or energy to write a new blog post.  Sorry James!  We had a field trip to visit Ivan's farm and we went to the Minnesota Science Museum.  Both were so much fun they deserve their own posts.  So today I'll write about Ivan's farm and tomorrow will be the museum.

This is Thomas the turkey.  Ivan says he's cute.  I think Ivan is crazy, haha!

 

I love how his shirt says "Naturally Sweet, no sugar added."  He's holding a guinea egg.  We're actually having guinea for dinner tonight, fresh from the farm!  I wonder which one we're eating?

I love this action shot.  They are running around trying catch a chicken.

Pumpkins!  Or as Uncle Brian says, "Punkins!"  The boys got to pick there own pumpkins out of the field.  I used to work at Ivan's farm in high school so it was fun to show the boys what I did.  Picking pumpkins, gourds and squash.

Hmm, do you think A#1 is having fun?  Or A#2 and #3 for that matter?

My little pumpkin.

Armloads of funky gourds.  Gourds were my favorite thing to pick.  They would cross breed with each other to make all sorts of crazy designs.  God is cool that way :-)  We talked about why God would create something like a gourd that we can't eat.  I think it's because he loves beauty and makes some things just for fun.

Thank you Ivan for letting us visit your farm!  The boys (and Grandma B and I) had a blast.  

We finished up the day by celebrating our birthdays (the boys and mine) at the Wow Zone with the cousins.  They were running around too fast for me to get pictures, sorry.  It's amazing how fast $10 in tokens can disappear and how little you get in prizes.  Oh well, they still had lots of fun.

Birthday Cereal

I've made this cereal enough and adapted it enough that I think I can safely call this version my own.  Substitute whatever type flour you prefer.  I've used 3 cups all purpose GF flour; 2 cups GF flour with 1 cup rolled oats; 1 cup buckwheat, 1 cup quinoa, 1 cup oats (whole grains processed in a blender); 1 cup brown rice, 1 cup oats, 1 cup GF flour (whole grains processed).  They all turned out equally tasty.

3 cups grain of your choice (I prefer using the whole grain berry and grinding it up in the food processor)

2 cups buttermilk, or 2 cups milk blended with a tbsp of yogurt or whey (I've also done 1 cup buttermilk and 1 cup kefir)

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup honey

2 tbsp coconut oil (or butter), melted

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tbsp baking soda

Combine grains and buttermilk in a food processor.  Blend until smooth.  Leave sit for about 8 hrs (overnight).

Preheat oven to 350F.  Add remaining ingredients to processor.  Process until well blended.  Grease a 9"x13" cake pan with butter or coconut oil.  Pour in batter and bake about 45 or until toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool.  Crumble cake into small pieces and spread on 2 cookie sheets.  Place in oven at 200F for 1-1.5 hrs.  You'll want the crumbles to be crunchy.

History Fest!

Mankato is putting on their own little Renaissance like festival.  It was great!  I liked it even better than the big Renaissance Festival.  It was considerably more kid friendly, much much less crowded, way cheaper and so much fun!  A huge trebuchet, a kid powered trebuchet, canons, sword fighting, belly dancers, spinning, an albino buffalo, so much!

A#1's favorite tent.  Hmm, let me guess.  Candy?

A#2 got hog tied.  I think I need to learn this art...

Learning how to crack a whip.

Spinning!  My wheel is just a tad smaller :-)

Sheep!  If a sheep is plopped on it's butt like this, they can't get away.  Pretty funny.  I bet this dark wool spins up pretty.

I guess Mr. A#4 does have some Finnesgard in him.  This made Grandpa Mark proud (he's eating a big pickle).

The boys got to do some firefighting,

and some water pumping.  A#2 got a great workout here.

An albino buffalo baby!  How cool is this?!  I wonder how much his fleece would go for?  A 50 gm skein of buffalo yarn can run about $100.  

Grandpa Mark and the baby taking a breather.

Sadly, I didn't get a picture of my favorite part (no it wasn't spinning or knitting related).  They had Raku pottery!!!  Way before my knitting (and mommy) days, I did pottery and I miss it so much.  I keep hoping to one day get back to it.  Anyway, they had a bunch of clay vessels, beads and figurines that were all handmade that you could glaze and they would fire it for you.  A#4 and I did a cool bead and wall hanging.  I'll get a picture of the items later but they turned out beautiful.  I've yet to meet a piece of Raku that I didn't like.

We had so much fun.  If we can, we'll for sure do this again next year.

 

Renaissance

A#3, A#4, Grandpa Mark and I hit the Renaissance Festival last Saturday.  I hate crowds but still managed to have a good time.  My cousin Jeanie works there and gave us free tickets (yeah!).  

She sang with a group that was a lot of fun.

 

A#4 was wearing his poncho and fit in quite well.  My little hobbit.

A#3 got a sword.  I almost got one for A#2, but then visualized the sword fights that would ensue and changed my mind.  He got a pet dragon instead.  I could not find anything for A#1 though.  When your interests are mostly in technology, the renaissance doesn't have much.

The Wacky Chickens put on a great show.  A#3 seemed to get a big kick out of it.

Butterfly carousel.  

Turkey Drumstick!

A#3 got a little tired so he got a ride too.  I love my Ergo!

We have a busy weekend planned.  I get the night off tonight while the big boys go play at their cousins' house.  Tomorrow we go to History Fest and Sunday we'll celebrate A#3 and my birthdays.  Gma B is also going to arrive this weekend!  Coming all the way from California just for my birthday (and maybe to see her grandchildren too).  Next week will be our last week in Minnesota :-(  We have it jam packed with fun stuff to do also.  2 farm field trips, I'm hoping the Science Museum to see the Dead Sea Scrolls and I can't leave MN without going to Ikea.

Apples!

We went up to the cities for a visit with Grandpa Mark and Grandma Cathy.  It only took 1 hr and 45 mins to do a normally 45 min drive.  Grrr.  Northbound 169 is closed due to the river tearing it apart so we got to tour the country side.  After a lot of excess miles and a few turn arounds (41 closed, Jordan's road to Carver closed), we finally made it.  

While Gpa and Gma were at a wedding, the boys and I headed to the Deardorf Apple Orchard with Matt and Anna.  Matt's not camera shy at all, haha!

 

This had the potential of being a great fall picture if A#2 hadn't been making a face in all of them and A#3 wasn't holding leaves in front of his face.  Oh well.

Just a little higher.

I love the look on his face, goof.  "Ooh, an apple."

Yes, A#4 and I were there too.

We also went to the Renaissance Festival but that deserves its own post.  Hopefully I'll get that done later today.