Hackensack, MN

Picked Jazzy up from Arts and Crafts Camp today. Here are some of the items she made: minion finger puppets, a partially made basket, a landscape, three bookmarks, many lanyards, a sand candle, a necklace made from peices of a magazine, and a partially made straw doll. She made more items in this camp than ever before. The sand candle is kind of interesting. They dig a little hole in the sand, pour in hot wax, set the wick, wait for it to harden, then dig out the candle. Jasmine would have had another patch called a "Polar Bear" patch, but she wouldn't complete the requirement for the badge- which was to jump in the lake at 7am:( She had a "swimming test" where she had to jump into shoulder deep water and swim about two strokes, so I don't see what the big deal was. She is going back to a "Cooking Camp" in a couple of days. I told her that if she did the Polar Plunge and got the badge, I would have a surprise for her when she got home. I'm not sure what I'm going to do if she doesn't do "the plunge" because I already bought her a little pink desk and chair. She has no place to do homework right now- since we don't even have a kitchen table yet. I just have to put the stupid thing together before she gets home. I'm not sure what I'll do if she doesn't do the plunge- maybe make something up:) After I picked Jazzy up from camp, we drove the 12 minute drive to Hackensack (population 313) where the Owl's Nest Hotel is located. It's right on Birch Lake- which we've already explored, played on the playground, checked out the fishing docks, did all of her laundry, ate at one of the restaurants, and went into a couple of the shops. Tomorrow we will go to Leech Lake- which is fairly close since we've already done everything we can do here on our 1 1/2 day summer vacation:))

Shingobee Timbers

First day of Camp Shingobee Timbers- Arts and Crafts Camp. Walker, MN. I was surprised at how small the camp was:) I guess we're used to the big camps in Arizona. Jasmine was happy that she will be sleeping in a dorm instead of a cabin. The dorms are really nice...nicer than the St. Olaf College dorms we stayed in a few weeks ago! Jazzy was waiting for the roomie to show up! I hope she does show up, or Jasmine will be in another room with 3 other girls...no big deal. Bobcat Room. With Counselor Baily. In two days, I will pick Jasmine up from the Arts and Crafts Camp, then we will stay in a little hotel close by, do her laundry, and go back for Cooking Camp! Since these are mostly indoor activities, Jasmine is overjoyed that she won't have to deal so much with her new tick-phobia!!!

Friday night fun:)

We were looking for a nice restaurant to visit tonight. I was hoping for a restaurant called "People's Organic", but we found out that it's only open for breakfast and lunch. Then, I got suckered into going to the "Space Alien" Restaurant. You sit in a big spaceship, and they have Area 51 which is all of the arcade games. Ugghh...noisy with several birthday parties going on at once! Jasmine loves that sort of thing. She got a little card with a few dollars on it for games, then won points and bought a bunch of junk. It was a "fun" Friday night:) The view out of the top of the spaceship. Eating inside the spaceship:)

:)))

Two weeks at home with Jasmine. Going crazy!!! I am doing a series of classes on homeopathy at Natural Grocers. Jasmine suggested that I practice my talk with an audience. I came out from my office to find my audience all ready for me- including the handouts:) Her only critique was that I said "umm" too often. Selfie in the car:)

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.