Big Trucks and Wild Rice Festival

What a busy day we had today.  I am not sure if we spent more than a few hours at home.  The day started with tumbling and dance lessons followed by a "Big Trucks" activity.  Then we were off to the wild rice festival in Roseville, came home for a quick nap.  Next we were off to church followed by a birthday party for our next door neighbor, Prince. 

As for gymnastics, Ani worked on hanging from the uneven bars.  Last year she was unable to hang but now she has much more upper body strength and loves the challenge of holding on for as long as her arms will let her.  Emma is happily learning her new dance moves for her "Under the Sea" performance in December.  I think being Ariel is a dream come true for Emma.  Disney music will definitely be heard in our house this fall.

After we finished up morning lessons, we headed to the "Big Truck" show.  When we first arrived, Analise was afriad to board some of the "Big Trucks."  However, after she saw Emma climb on a few, she was ready to give it a try.  Our first stop was the garbage truck.  This was followed by the tractor, snow plow, fire truck, ambulance, Bobcat and school bus.  Mommy wanted Emma and Ani to get in the really large digger but it was a bit intimidating and there was a long line.  Emma decided that her favorite truck was the ambulance which she visited multiple times.  Ani seemed to really like the snow plow and its walkie-talkie system.

The Wild Rice Festival proved to be an interesting event as well.  Here we saw Native American dancing, created gigantic bubbles with pvc pipes and string, saw how they press apple cider, watched a demonstration of how to extract honey from the honey comb, saw the different stages wild rice goes through as it is processed, checked out some buffalo skulls and learned about some special horses that work with police officers.

Perhaps the best part of the day was Prince's birthday equipped with a personal jump castle, gigantic slide and lots of outdoor lights.  The girls loved meeting new friends and running all over the backyard for his party.  By the time the day was wrapping up, both girls were exhausted.  Tomorrow will probably be less eventful with our new dryer coming in and perhaps some apple picking at the orchard.