My Favorite Photos - August 2023

Another month passed and it feels like the majority of it was spent at work. The good thing is that many of the activities were ones that made me happy. One of the first ones of the month was Dalapalooza. We had a therapy horse at that one. 

His name was Arvid and he is a Norwegian Fjord horse. 

He was there on lunch break during a Dala horse painting class. Sophia took the class. 

Olivia did too.

At the Washington County Fair, I saw this sunflower. 

Olivia entered about a half-dozen projects. The blue Diamond-Dotz project was one of her projects. 

The girls and I played Bingo at the fair. 

The first week of August, I coordinated the first-ever Sewing Camp at the museum. In addition to sewing for half the day, the girls did other projects - like making these suet log feeders for the birds.

The girls also learned about natural dyes that the pioneers would have used. After the lesson, they created tie-dye t-shirts. They all turned out really well.

The girls also learned about bees and made rolled beeswax candles. 

The main project was a sewing and embroidery project. They made a shoulder bag.

The following week at work, the children learned about cynotype printing. I taught my daughters how to do this when I homeschooled them so it was fun to do again with other children and see how excited they were with the photography process.

The children made stuffed tomtes and a couple other projects. 

The new building signs that I had been working on since February were installed. There was a small team of volunteers and I who worked with to upgrade the signs. 

The signs are in English and Swedish since Swedish immigrants settled in Scandia in the mid- to late-1800s.

The heritage vegetable garden is doing very well now. The Washington County Master Gardens have revitalized this garden and a cereal garden.

The summer intern repainted and/or created different wooden animals that would have been typical of an 1850s-1880s farm.

There was another big event at the museum - Spelmansstamman. Some of the children from the elementary school where I worked and the camp at the museum showed up which was fun. 

There were many musicians at the event - including this older gentleman who was tuning his violin under a tree.

I enjoyed seeing different generations of fiddlers performing together. 

The event in August had a dual focus - Swedish and Ojibwe culture and music. This is Julian who did drumming and short presentations about Ojibwe culture and music. 

I liked seeing children interact with the Dala horses that we repainted and/or touched up. 

My sister and nephew attended the event. They had never been to it and really enjoyed the experience. 

Towards the end of August, Olivia moved back to college. She has her own room again this year as part of her accommodations. It feels so much more spacious than last year's room, and she has set it up well. Sophia gave some input, too, about arranging the room and helped set it up. 

Another project at work was coordinating a Tomte Community Art Show. There are 43 artists who designed and painted 48 tomtes. The artists ranged in ages from 7 to over 80 years old. 

The tomtes are all so different from one another. It's fun to see what people came up with and how some even added additional features to the wood cut-out.

On August 30th, I helped the Lions serve a meal and lemonade to students at the local elementary school. One of the students who I worked with last year (who is now going to school at the middle school) showed up. "Ms. Ann!!" I heard. Seeing him truly brightened my day.

We served food to a lot of families that evening. 

I started growing dahlias this year. This is a new one that just started blooming. 

This dahlia has bloomed constantly now for a month. There have been so many blooms on this plant.

We're seeing a lot of yellows now in the yard and pastures. There's a lot of goldenrod which I'm not a huge fan of, but the bees like it. I prefer these type of yellow  flowers.

Even these yellow flowers I like, especially when I see they benefit bees and other pollinators. 

And that wraps up August. It's been a full month. 

My Favorite Photos - May 2023

 This month I didn't take nearly as many photos as I have in past months. It's felt like I've been working a lot and have little time to take photos of things beside work (with the exception of Sophia's graduation from college). 

The month of May started out with an event I coordinated at the museum - the season's open house. There were lots of hands-on activities - some old favorites (like "milking" a cow) and many new ones.

The museum partnered with the Living History Society of Minnesota. There were about a half dozen volunteers who dressed in outfits typical of the late-1800s. The women sew all the clothing they wear which is very impressive!

After the open house, there was a 51st birthday party for the museum. My sister and nephew were there. A friend who I've known for many years also showed up and we all had a nice conversation that evening.

The following week, I was assigned to go on a field trip to the Minnesota Zoo because there was a student who has a track record of just getting up and leaving when he no longer wants to listen or be a part of the activity. He and I get along well, so we go to spend the day together. I brought my camera and let him use it. He had never held or used a camera before. 

Within a half hour of being at the zoo, another student who I enjoy working with asked if he could be chaperoned by me. The teacher gave her permission, so the two sixth-grade boys and I spent the day together. Between the two of them, they took over 400 photos. 

We enjoyed exploring the zoo together at our own pace and having lunch together. It was starting to sink in that we only had a few more weeks together before summer break and of them both going to middle school next year. 

One of the things that saddened me was the snow monkey who somehow found a piece of gum and was playing with it. I later found out it was one of the sixth grader's chewed gum that the monkey had. I'm not sure if she spit it into the monkey's enclosure or if it fell out of her mouth. Regardless, it showed me how careless and thoughtless some kids can be. I'm glad I was with the two boys I was with that day. They, like me, were sad about the snow monkey and how a lot of kids were laughing at it as it played with the gum. 

Back to more cheerful subjects. I got assigned again to help the two sixth-graders on track and field day. Both challenged themselves to do the hurdles which was something neither had done. They both did well. Did they receive a ribbon? No, but they pushed themselves to do something different. 

Around the 20th of the month, I went to an exhibit at the county historical society. The museum is very well done.

Fast forward to the end of the month. Sophia's social work pinning ceremony was on the night before she graduated from college. Each of the social work students had a display board that presented their research findings based on their senor field work. 

That evening, we went to dinner at a Thai restaurant. The spring roll were delicious! I would definitely order them again. 

On Saturday, May 27th, Sophia graduated from college with a 3.94. So, the top honor: summa cum laude. 

The purple stole is for being a Page Education Foundation scholar. The foundation provided funding to Sophia to help with her education.

  

It is so hard to believe that she was once a little girl who I homeschooled. We learned, laughed, and discovered so much together. Now, she far exceeds me academically and did work that was out of my realm of experience and knowledge.

After graduation, we all went to dinner at Namaste, an Indian restaurant. It reminded us of our trip last year to London where there were a lot of Indian restaurants. 

After graduation, we moved both the girls out of their dorms/suites. Olivia was done right away. Sophia, on the other hand, had a much more extensive packing and cleaning job. It took much of the day to get her moved out. This is Olivia by the dorm she lived in during her freshman year.

After dropping off Olivia at home, I went to the museum for Immigrant for a Day. I had planned all the activities, but others (staff and volunteers) set it up for me. This was one of the activities - a miniature box baler. This (on a larger scale) was how hay and straw was baled. 

Another activity was writing on a slate like they would have done on the late-1800s. 

On Memorial Day morning, Sophia - who just had graduated from college two days earlier - was headed to the Baltics with the Wind Symphony. It was their final international trip of their college career.

While she was flying overseas, I was at the local cemetery listening and watching the Memorial Day ceremony. When my dad was buried at Fort Snelling, there was a multi-gun salute. I kept two the metal cases from the bullets...just like I did with the bullets from the salute to him. 

And that's May.