We did A LOT today!

Amazing Race, more crafts, Vietnamese dance, cooking sticky rice, meditation class, then a big party tonight. Each child received a "passport" and had to go around to all of the booths- of which there were many- do the activity and get a stamp. There was also a Vietnamese Night Market with all kinds of stuff to buy, of course. Vietnamese dance.Water balloon toss:) Everyone was soaking wet!Making dragonflies- which are used to predict weather trends in Vietnam. New Aoi Dai Figuring out where to go to get the passport stamps:) Trying out all kinds of Vietnamese food and drinks! Kind of looking forward to going home tomorrow afternoon:)

Vietnamese Culture Camp

Long five hour drive to Minneapolis with lots of traffic slowing us down. Today was our first full day at camp at St. Olaf College in Northfield MN. I do feel like I am camping due to the fact that everyone stays in the dorm. The kids in Jasmine's group (Grade 4-5) learned Vietnamese arts and crafts (sort of), a Vietnamese Amazing Race where they learned Vietnamese names for various foods and colors before moving on to the next station, Jiu Jitsu and Tae Kwon Do and wrapping a Vietnamese roll. The parents day was heavy with discussions on how to talk to kids about how they came to be in an orphanage, racial issues, suicide- which is very high in adoptees, etc. Everyone brings their scooters:) Learning how to wrap the Vietnamese egg roll.

Bonanzaville

We spent the day today at Bonanzaville- a North Dakota historic village. They have more artifacts in one place than I've ever seen. It is an entire "town" with every building filled with furniture, cooking utensils, clothes, cars, airplanes, tools...everything...from the late 1800's and early 1900's. It is run by volunteers. We saw the trains, sleeping cars, what a really nice house would look like in that time period- as well as what a not so nice house would look like. We also visited the jail, fire station, blacksmith, farm equipment, many old well cared for cars, buggies, creamery, law enforcement museum, printer, bank- everything that you would find in an average town- and it was all authentic.

Red River Zoo Camp

Jazzy spent the week at Red River Zoo Camp for 4-5th graders. I never did get all of the details of what they did all week, - just a few snippets here and there. They had a scavenger hunt for flowers, leaves and eggshells. Name tag every day:) Playing a game similar to rock/paper/scissors, but using animals. Mosquito gets eagle, eagle gets frog, frog gets mosquito. A clip board for writing down observations and a handmade observation chamber:) Riding the carousel every day!I think she had a good week.

Dr. Dolittle Day at Red River Zoo

Today we visited the zoo just for something to do (as if I have nothing else to do). They had special Dr. Dolittle things for kids to do...visits with the Zookeepers, booths to learn about how they train the animals, behavioral enrichment, etc. The first zookeeper we visited was the porcupine keeper. They train the porcupines to stand on a little stand with their paws on a bar so they can get a "vaccination"!!! or whatever. There were lots of peacocks running around with little baby peacocks. The Red River Zoo is a little miniature zoo. The biggest animal they have is a camel. No tigers, elephants, giraffes or larger animals at all- just bunnies, snakes goats, hissing cockroaches:) which they count as one of their animals. They only have one vet and one vet tech!!! At least the vet clinic is open to the public. People can watch surgeries and exams thru a glass viewing area. Zillions of baby and mom peacocks everywhere! Feeding the goats:) A Russian Red Squirrel with the hair standing up on his ears:) Jasmine will do anything for candy- answering questions about the diets of various animals in exchange for tootsie rolls:)

Electric Art Show today....

Kennedy Elementary Electric Light Art Show. The class studied Van Gogh, Laurel Birch, self portraits, landscaping and stippling. In addition, each of the art pieces were wired with batteries, copper wiring and LED lights for special effects:) They watched videos on each of the artists and subjects, then learned about electricity at the same time. Van Gogh's starry nights. The stars light up:) Laurel Birch- lights up also! Landscaping...of the ocean:) A robot that lights up!A self portrait:) As for the other class- "emotional expression"- I still do not know what they are doing in there. Here is a clue: "Things that make me happy"- candy, cookies, dogs, colors, and mom/me- probably in that order:))

Cherry Berry

We've been very bad today:)