A Questionable Vet Clinic at the Discovery Center

Yesterday was exhausting with Clara's party, so today I decided to do another activity, for some reason, so I took the kids to the Discovery Center.  We started with the coin well, as the kids always love that.

There was a new attraction since the last time we were here.  It's a cylinder of balls, but there are some objects embedded in them, and the kids get to try to find them.

We went to the outside area for awhile, and we rode around the path, all four of us on different vehicles.  Clara chose a balance bike, which was difficult for her to maneuver, but she did well.

I took us a little out beyond the area we normally go to and found a large tree house structure and another big tree branch with ropes hanging from above it that the kids could swing on.

 When we went back in, we went to an old favorite, the red car.  All three kids got in on the act, including Hannah, who was more interested in this activity than she had ever been in the past.

We finished in the vet clinic.  We played various scenarios, and in one of them I dropped off my pet pig for them to help him get better, as he was sick.  When I called Clara for an update, I thought she would say that he was better.  Instead she told me he died.  I suppose animals sometimes die due to unavoidable circumstances and complications while at the vet, but in this case, given the apparent skills of the three employees, I suspected some form of malpractice had occurred.  But she said it was okay, because she could give me a mouse instead.  I wasn't sure that was a fair trade or an acceptable replacement for my beloved pig, but I decided it was better than nothing and begrudgingly went to pick up my consolation mouse.  I then called them to tell them that my mouse was sick and needed to go to the vet, and they said I could drop her off.  I did so, and while I was there, they informed me that my pig had come back to life, and I could take him home.  Now I didn't know what to think.  Were they trying to trick me by replacing my dead pig with a different alive pig, hoping I wouldn't notice it was different?  Had my pig never actually died, and they just wanted to spend some time with him by themselves?  Or had this vet clinic worked some sort of miracle, and there was a pig resurrection?  I may never know.  But the good news is I got my pig back.  The bad news is Clara said I needed to return the mouse.  Oh well.  At least I had my original pig.  I think.

Dads and Donuts at Ravenwood

Today was Dads and Donuts day at Ravenwood, so I was able to join Joshua for some donuts and juice this morning.  As usual, Joshua was really excited to have me be at his school, and it was a fun time for us.

 After we were done, and as I was about to leave, we had a very pleasant surprise.  His teacher gave us Joshua's missing hooded sweatshirt.  This was notable because he lost it a month or more ago on the playground one day.  I had asked all the teachers to keep an eye out for it, and Joshua and I checked the lost-and-found every couple days for a few weeks, thinking it would have to show up at some point, perhaps such as if a kid took it home, and his mom realized it wasn't his and sent it back to school.  But eventually we gave up and assumed it was lost.  But today it appeared in his classroom.  His teacher said she had no idea where it came from, as it was just there when she showed up.  So whatever the reason, we're really happy to have it back!

Last night I started working on Clara's cake, which was mostly notable because it's not the night before the party, which is when I normally start working on it, but that usually results in me working through the night.  I was determined not to do that this time, so I started last night.  So tonight I don't have as much to do as I normally do the night before the party, which is great.  But I still have a fair amount, including a lot of fondant work, and Joshua wanted to help me, so here he is spreading some of the fondant.

Not Fake News: President Donald Trump

Uh, well this is weird. Donald Trump is the President of the United States.  It's like we live in some sort of alternate universe, or some movie where everything is slightly off, like the alternate timeline in Back to the Future Part II when Biff was a wealthy tycoon.   Actually, Biff was a lot like Trump, now that I think about it.   But it's all so weird. Trump is a businessman and a reality TV show host.  There are plenty of celebrities like that.  But they don't become President of our country.   But this one did.   It's so weird.  Stately, serious, career politicians become President.  Not celebrities.  But it happened.  And on top of that, it was generally unexpected.  Most models had it as very unlikely that he would beat Hillary.  Even the most favorable model (Nate Silver's 538 projection) gave him only a 30% chance of winning.  But he did.  Hillary couldn't hold her "blue wall" of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, as all three states went to Trump.  It's stunning.  Some people are terrified, some are excited, but I don't think anyone really knows what we'll get out of this Presidency.  Presumably he'll be less of the angry, unpredictable, and often unpresidential guy he was during the campaign.  I think much of that was for show and to appeal to his base, and he'll be a much more calm and professional man while in the Oval Office.  He might do great things for the economy, or he might start a world war, or both.  I have no idea what to expect, but for the sake of our country, I hope his Presidency is a raging success.  Because if he's successful, our country is successful, and that's what we need.

Hannah is Thankful

Today after I dropped off the girls, I noticed that in Hannah's class, they had displayed crafts the kids made to show things they are thankful for.  I was curious to see what she had said.  Chicken Baby is sometimes called Chicky, so that wasn't surprising.  And she brings a blanked every day to school, so that was on her mind and makes sense.  And it's really sweet she thought of her brother and sister.  But the last one being Baby Stella is a little surprising, as she only marginally cares about Baby Stella.  Also, I would like to have seen Mom and Dad make the Top 4, but apparently we lost out to a doll that she has only moderate interest in.  Oh well.

Kids and a Kitty at the Zoo

I took the kids to the zoo today.  Last time I did, I apparently was unaware that they had a strong desire to do the carousel, and they didn't ask until the very end when we were out of time.  So this time I made it a priority, and we did it first thing.

They offered us a map on our way in, so Clara decided she was going to navigate us by using it.  She studied it for a bit, was confused, and then decided to take a close look, as you can see.  It didn't help.

I decided to take over the navigation, and after that things went better.  We stopped by the elephant area, but then I wanted to go to the Africa area, which I hadn't been to before.  I was hoping to do this via the Africa Sky Safari, which is basically a ski lift that takes you over the entire Africa section, so you can look down and see the animals.  You can fit one adult and two kids on the chair.  I of course had three kids with me, but I was hoping I could have Hannah sit on my lap, and the lady at the Sky Safari ticket booth (although our season tickets make it free for us) said she wasn't sure and that it would be up to the ride operator.  When we got to the front, he said we couldn't do it, so we were out of luck on the Sky Safari, which made the kids, especially Clara, pretty upset, despite the fact that I had warned them that it might not be possible.  So we just walked there, which is kind of a long walk, but much of the way has exhibits, including the one you see here that appears to be a domesticated kitty in a zoo.  I don't remember what they called it, but it wasn't a house cat and was apparently some sort of actual wild animal, which is surprising given how adorable it is.  Then you can also see how we saw more traditional African wildlife, like this cheetah.

I don't remember what Clara was talking about here, but she clearly had a strong opinion about something related to this exhibit.

There are a few random stone statues throughout the zoo, and this was one of them.  I'm guessing I wasn't the first parent to insist that their kids pose for a picture on it.

The zoo was closing at that point, so we had to make our way back to the entrance, but I stopped to try to take a picture of the four of us, and got a series of crazy and fun pictures.  We had a really fun time today, and it was great that the weather was so great to be able to do this even in November.

Everyone Loves the Dirt Pile

The dirt pile by our house has become a surprising highly-desired destination for our kids.  I took Joshua there on a date day, and he since has asked to go back multiple times.  The girls heard about it, and they then strongly wanted to go.  So today I decided it was time to take everyone, and we rode our bikes down to it.  I brought a bunch of digging tools, and we spent quite awhile there.  Joshua loved using the rubber mallet to smash the flat dirt and also to chip away at some of the ledges.  Clara and Hannah liked using the screwdrivers to drill small holes.  We eventually rode home, but they all thought it was a great time.

The Cubs Won the World Series! No Really, They Did!

Well, this is just getting ridiculous.  As I mentioned after the Penguins won the Stanley Cup, this has been an unreal run of major sport championships for me.  And unbelievably, it's gotten better, as the Cubs have just won the World Series!  What?!  That's right.  The lovable losers, who had gone 108 years (!!!) since they last won the World Series, and hadn't even been in the World Series since 1945, have won!  They were my favorite team since I first discovered baseball in 1988.  I watched hundreds of Cubs games on TV over those first few years, probably nearly every single game when I wasn't in school during the summer of 1988 and 1989 when we lived in Iowa, and then many more games in the following years.  WGN carried every game, so I could always watch them, and I loved seeing Harry Caray (and also Steve Stone) on the broadcasts.  When I would hit the whiffle ball outside by myself, I would simulate games with me playing each position in the Cubs lineup (Sandberg, Grace, Dawson, Law, Berryhill, Dunston, Webster, Walton, etc.).  When I had a chance to get choose a team for a branded item, it was always the Cubs (I still have a Cubs coffee mug that I got years ago), or later when I was playing baseball video games, I would always play as the Cubs.  I was crushed in the playoffs in 1989 when they lost to the Giants in the NLCS.  The Cubs were my team for everything.  But they always lost.  But I never lost hope, because that's what being a Cubs fan is all about.

We moved to Kansas City when I started high school, and by my 30s, I have to admit that my love of the Royals finally overtook the Cubs.  But while the Royals were my new #1, the Cubs were, and still are, a very, very close #2.  Theo Epstein was the GM of the Red Sox when they ended their 85-year drought in 2004, and they won another one a few years later.  In 2011, he resigned from the Red Sox and was hired as GM of the Cubs.  I so believed in him at the time, that I told me friends that he would be the one to end the Cubs drought too, but that it would take time, and that I didn't care how many awful seasons I would have to endure, because I knew he would have a plan.  And he did.  The Cubs were extra terrible in those first few years as Theo tore it all down and rebuilt from scratch, netting high draft picks that turned into Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, and others, and trading away older players to get young soon-to-be stars like Addison Russell and Anthony Rizzo.  It seemed like they were building up to be a great team in 2017, but they had an impressive run in 2015 (the year I thought I might face the apocalyptic scenario of the Royals and the Cubs playing each other in the World Series!), leaving them the favorites for this year.  And they did it!  And they did it in crazy dramatic fashion in an amazing Game 7 win over the Indians that I can hardly believe I just witnessed from my hotel room here in Minneapolis.  I don't love it as much as I loved the Royals win last year, but it is still pretty fantastic.  My Cubbies have finally won the World Series!