Friday Favorites: MN State Fair Food

 You guys. I want to be in Minnesota this week. SO bad. I mean, I always want to be in Minneapolis, but this week...it is worse. The Minnesota State Fair is happening. And it is an event. I have been to the Virginia State fair and it was like a small-town carnival compared to the MN State Fair. It is huge and fun with a million things to do, but the most important thing is the food. OH, the food. Minnesota fairs are famous for putting things on a stick. Seriously, you can get anything on a stick there. My favorite being a foot-long corn dog, the most exotic that I have had was alligator on a stick.

But since I am NOT there and I am NOT having fair food, here are some of my all time favorites.

 Cheese curds. Fried cheese curds to be exact. They take some good 'ol Wisconsin cheese curds, batter, fry and serve them up. It takes melted cheese to a new level. Pretty much perfection.

 Other top favorite are the keg-style root beer stands, Holy Land Deli gyros, frozen custard and all your other greasy, delicious foods. Want more proof? Just take a gander and drool over this list of food venders.

But my all-time, absolute, I once had a friend ship me a package, favorite thing to eat at the fair is Sweet Martha's chocolate chip cookies. They are THE best. You can buy them in a cup or in a bucket (Obviously, the bucket is the best choice) and they are literally hot from the oven.

The stands have the ovens in them, so they bake them and sell them at record speed. The best way to enjoy your warm, chewy cookies is to head over to the all-you-can- drink milk tent and get your cup of ice cold milk, sit down with your bucket of Sweet Martha's and gorge yourself. There really is NO other way.

So, that my friends, is my Friday Favorite. If you are close to the fair and have never gone, GO. If you do go, send me some cookies. I will love you forever and a chocolate chip cookie day.

Have a fun long weekend!

Patience

 Colin's idea of re-organizing my cupboards

I have been short on patience this week.

Real short.

I have been over tired for most the week, and there is a direct correlation between my tiredness and my patience level. Higher energy, higher patience, lower energy, lower patience.

I wish it was not the case.

I wish that I would not get frustrated so easily.

When the boys are extra "busy" and active, I need to be calm and firm with them, not annoyed and firm.  It is not the best combination.

Anyone else struggle with keeping it all together, when running on empty?

Any advice on how to combat this?

I should probably just sing the " Have Patience" song to myself...

"Is there salt in this?"

While I have lived in 5 different states in my life, the majority of my childhood was spent on the west side of Michigan. Pretty, rolling farm lands. Woods, rivers and lakes abound. My parent's live "in town" and that town is around 600 people. My husband's parents and my grandparents live on the banks of a pretty river. While population and shopping amenities may be lacking, when it come to outdoor beauty, it is not. The last ten years of my life I have lived in higher populated areas, such as the Twin Cities of Minnesota and the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. I always enjoy coming back to some country when we visit.

My boys were both born in Norfolk, VA. They live in an area considered "out there" or "country", since it is not in the heart of Virginia Beach or Norfolk. I would NEVER consider where we live "city" ( I do not consider any part of Hampton Roads "city". It is over-populated strip malls, not city)  Bu it is a nice little area with room to have a nice, big backyard and the boys can ride there bikes on our cul-de-sac with out fear of being plowed over.

So, when my mom and I decided to take the boys swimming at a small, local lake, confusion ensued.

We drove on back country roads to get there.

Jack kept pointing out all of the farming fields. He was so excited to see them...till he saw 15-20 in a row. Than he started asking why there was so many farms and fields everywhere.

Than we got to the little lake. We told him we were going to go to a beach and swim.

He was not impressed.

He wanted to know where the waves were.

He wanted to know why there was sand by a lake.

He waded into the warm, clear water and eyed the swans swimming 50 yards away.

The lake was a very shallow, allowing him to walk out 15-20 feet before he was at his waist.

Kids were laughing and splashing around him.

He swished his hands throughout the water, looked up at me and asked, "Is there salt in this water?!"

 It blew his 4 year old mind that he could swim in water that was not a pool and was not the ocean.

Apparently, he really is a true ocean beach baby.

Colin, however, just wanted to climb up on rocks.

It was a fun day at the lake with my handsome little men, even if they are more of an ocean baby than I thought!

Michigan Mash Up

 We spent the last two week in Michigan on vacation. It was a jammed packed vacation with lots of family time with both sides of the family. Here is a picture mash up of our time there.

I threw my sister a baby shower. A GIRL baby shower. First little lady on my side of the family.

Colin got sick with a high fever. Colin and I stayed put for a day and watched the Olympics all day and night.

I was able to escape from sick baby land and go to Anthropologie for a bit of shopping...alone! It was glorious.

The sickness spread and poor Jack got sick. Unfortunately,  he got the flu the day of the rehearsal for the wedding that he was the ring bearer. He bravely made it through the rehearsal, but spent the day in bed at the hotel, instead of playing at the beach at Lake Michigan.

We ventured out of the hotel to go to dinner with all of Ryan's siblings. It had been 6 years since they had all been together. Our car decided that it wanted to get sick, and we broke down a mile from the restaurant. The kids and I were rescued by Ryan's older brother and a police-expedited tow truck came and towed our car away. Family came to our rescue again and we were able to eat and get an extra vehicle in time for the wedding.

Ryan's oldest nephew, Jaymen, got married at a beautiful old mansion. Ryan was honored to be the best man ( They are only 5 years apart) and Jack was the ring bearer. It was a beautiful wedding and the rain held off for the entire outdoor ceremony. 

Since two parties in a week is not enough, we celebrated Colin's 2nd birthday at my grandparent's house.

Watch out! Spiderman was  on the loose!

The whole Fedell clan. Together for the first time since our 2006 wedding. 

The rest of the time was spent watching hours of Olympics, resting, shopping, a day trip to Kalamazoo and spending time with family...all of which I failed to get pictures of.

It was a great, tiring, fun, exhausting and happy time. I just wish that we didn't live so very far away.

Until next time, Michigan....

TWO!

My baby is two today. TWO. 2.

It seems impossible that the little man I brought home not so long ago has grown and changed so much, in just two short years.

He is my happy baby. My crazy baby. My naughty, mischievous baby. 

 Colin goes full force all the time. He is commits 100%. He laughs at 100%. He screams at 100%. He runs and wrestles and jumps at 100%. There is never a time when I do not know what he is feeling.

Colin loves his big brother. He does everything that he does. Everything. Colin is Jack's little parrot, repeating and doing everything that he does.

Colin REALLY loves his puppy. Puppy does not leave his side most of the day. He goes to the mall with us. He sits at the table for dinner. He goes on car rides with us. He goes to the zoo with us. Puppy has to get changed when Colin does, get his hair combed, eat his food. Puppy also gets more snuggles and kisses than anyone else in the family.

Colin's newest little thing is to tease us and tell "jokes". They are quite amusing. He has a wicked sense of humor already. He will tell you that he turns 5 today...and laugh. He has been telling everyone that he turned 5. I have no idea why, but he thinks it is SO funny. And when his little voice says, " Nooooo, I five!", it is kinda funny.

I am looking forward to seeing the changes in Colin over the next year. He keeps me moving and active, but he also keeps me laughing.

Happy Birthday, my sweet Colin! We love you SO much. You bring so much joy and laughter into our lives. Thank you for that! We look forward to watching you grow big and strong!

Things that happen when it is 102 outside...for weeks...

Like much of the country, we have been living in a high 90s, 100+ heat index summer. For weeks. When it is over a hundred with high humidity, it is too hot to do anything besides stay inside or pour continuous cold water over you outside. Anything else is just miserable. So, this summer the boys have been doing lots of thing to occupy themselves inside.

Things like playing music with Daddy. Harmonica, bongo drums and guitars are passed around and much music is made.

The activity of writing on the windows with window markers quickly turned tribal... and decorating our faces. Bath time quickly ensued.

Boys and their stuff animals watch WAY to much television.

Finger painting turns into color exploration. Purple, green, blue and red turn into a real nice brown, in case you are wondering.

Naughty boys sneak onto the counter and get into the Nutella jar. Naturally, it happened right after I put him in his first outfit of the day.

On the one glorious day that it was in the high 80s, we booked it outside and hit up the zoo. It made everyone much happier.

And that is how we have been occupying our time.

I am SO ready for some cooler weather.

And for the weekend!

Happy Friday, friends!

12

My Husband and I had our very first kiss 12 years ago today.

How is that for some mush on your Monday?