Civil War Day

Near our home is a place called "Murphy's Landing". It is an 88 acre park re-created to resemble life in Minnesota between the 1840's and 1890's. Nearly all of the buildings in the park are original - homes, church, school and mercantile actually built in that time frame and moved to the park from various parts of the south metro of the Twin Cities. Costumed interpreters teach about life on the frontier, farmstead and villages.

We'd never been to Murphy's Landing before, but with Juancho's recent budding interest in American history, I thought it would be a perfect place to go to this summer. Juancho has been especially interested in the history of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, so when I learned that Murphy's Landing opening weekend this year was a historical re-enactment of the Civil War, complete with an appearance from Old Abe himself, I knew we had to go! We had a great time learning all about history, meeting Abe Lincoln (who was a short chubby fellow...nothing resembling the 16th president except the suit and tophat!) and seeing how a one-room schoolhouse functioned, playing schoolyard games of the 19th century and various crafts and other things. I'm sure we'll be back again this year...in fact the kids may even attend one of their "Pioneer Life" summer camps! It's always great when learning is disguised by great fun!

Here's the pics...

Laura & Angie wait patiently while Mom buys the tickets

Angie says "C'mon Mom!"

Juancho & Laura walking down the path into the frontier village

Angie has fun playing with pioneer schoolyard toys.

This one is a stick that doubles as a baton.

Looks like Angie is enjoying it...I know a

cheap gift to get her on her next birthday... :)

On the other hand, I probably won't be getting
stilts for Juancho...

...Laura either.

Minnesota's 5th Infantry Battalion demonstrates

how a cannon is loaded and fired. They fired

3 rounds...boy were they loud!

John & Laura pose by the cannon.

Angie was scared by the loud

blasts and decided she was going to

"stay away from that thing!"

Juancho intently watches and listens to

Abraham Lincoln's speech which told all about

his life and accomplishments. Since then

Juancho has been telling everyone that the Civil War

ended on April 9, 1865 and Abe Lincoln was shot

just 5 days later.

"Abe Lincoln" signs Juancho's biographical

book about the president, which Juancho brought

on this outing for the very purpose of getting it

autographed!

We call these scenic shots on the banks of the Minnesota River our

"Pioneer Day Senior Portraits". Laura opted out...

here are John & Angie's shots...quite photogenic! :)

Juancho & Laura pose as gargoyles at the

top of the steps. They learned a new word this day...

it was "gargoyles".

One final shot of the 3 outside of one of the

authentic pioneer era homes.

What a fun (and educational) day!

Dinner on the Deck

Even though it isn't officially summer yet, we've been enjoying the benefits of the warmer weather...like planting flowers and veggies and our favorite - eating dinner outside on the deck! These pics of Juancho, Laura & Angie were taken a few days ago during our first 'Dinner on the Deck' of 2009!

18 Months as Family

Friday, May 8, 2009 was our year and a half anniversary of our Gotcha Day. We love celebrating things here and 18 months as a family is definitely something to celebrate! So far our family celebration days have always included a meal at Los Andes, which is a Colombian and Ecuadorian restaurant in downtown Minneapolis. This place has an authentic 'Bandeja Paisa', which is a nationally recognized Colombian dish that our kids love. The meal at this restaurant is HUGE, so John and Laura always split it. They also are able to have a bottle of Pony soda (a malted pop beverage...definitely an acquired taste!) or a Colombiana soda (a type of orange pop). Sometimes dessert, but we are usually too full by then.

The menu includes "Cuy Asado", which is Roasted Guinea Pig! We haven't tried that yet (nor will we ever...), but were a little curious what the unnamed meat in our 'carne empanadas' might be! They were yummy nonetheless! :)

Our friends Ty & Cassie joined us on our 18 Month Celebration of family - we loved having them along! Here are pics...

Goofy Dressel Family pic...

Juancho & Dad - he's loving his 'bandeja paisa'

Laura is also enjoying her fave Colombian meal and Pony soda!

Little Angie LOVES her Papi!

The Dressel Crew...looking a little more 'normal'

(Why do you think Robert & I look so tired?!?) :)

5th Grade Track & Field Day

Do you remember the Track & Field days that perhaps you had in school back in 5th and 6th grade? At John & Laura's school, they have special Track & Field days for all grades. Yesterday (Friday, May 8th) was John's Track & Field Day.

John is strong and fast, but doesn't routinely engage in overly-physical play. He will probably be doing a soccer camp this summer, and loves to ride his bike with his dad or place chase with the neighborhood kids, but isn't exceptionally athletic. He is, however, extremely competitive! So I wondered how Track & Field day would go for him.

I got to the school with my fold out chair and my backpack of sustaining goodies for the boy (and he routinely came to me saying "Mom, I'm hungry!" I found out that John would be competing in the 50 yard dash, the ball kick (distance) and the egg/spoon race.

Before every race John would come running over to me saying "Mom, I'm nervous!" and I'd repeat the same reassurances back to him "Do your best. Doing your best means that no matter what place you come in, you gave it your all! You'll do great!" But the whole mumbo-jumbo about how it didn't matter what place he came in was entirely lost on John. He is extremely competitive, right? So 1st or 2nd place it needed to be...otherwise it was failure in his mind.

50 yard dash went by in a...flash! John crossed the finish line milli-seconds after the winner...so John got his first 2nd place! I wanted to take a picture of him right there on the finish line, but in a split second decision (after he realized that the entire 5th grade population was just feet away from him), he said "no Mom, that's embarrassing!" Later I was able to snap this unsuspecting pic! The red wristbands indicate a 2nd place win, and the white wristband indicates 'participation' (meaning he didn't get 1st or 2nd prize on that event).

The other event he got 2nd in was the ball kick. The competition was to kick a kickball the farthest. John's went off center...if it had been a straight kick I think he would have easily gotten first! (spoken by a true proud mama, huh?)


He was not at all pleased that there was an event he did that he didn't place in. In fact he came in dead last. The event was the egg/spoon race, and this race does not work for overly competitive boys who want to move as fast as they can in a race, but with this race, moving slowly and more methodically is what wins it for him. His egg dropped constantly as he tried to move as fast as he could across the field. After picking it up multiple times, the rest of the crowd got ahead of him and he came in...last. He was not so happy and brought his blanket over to sit by me and sulk for a while. But about the time the class tug-of-war competition came around, he was ready to snap out of it.

After the event was done, we got to meet up with Daddy (who had to miss the event because of a work meeting he couldn't change) and went out to eat for lunch before John went back to school for the rest of the day.

Juancho with his friends

Easter Baskets & Egg Hunts

After church we came home and the kids changed their clothes. They did mention that they must not be getting Easter baskets this year because they didn't find any on the table like they did last year before church. But while they were up changing, I brought the baskets out of hiding and as they came down the stairs they discovered their baskets and the fun things within.

After that I took PJ outside (and secretly hid a bunch of eggs for a hunt) and came back in to let the kids know that when I was out with PJ, I saw a BUNCH of Easter eggs all over the place! They were pretty excited!

Later that day when the cousins came over, we made Resurrection Rolls and the kids had a blast doing that! It was great because when their roll came out empty inside they could each tell the story of why the 'tomb' was empty. Then they happily gobbled up the yummy rolls!

Tia Michelle with Juancho (above) and I (below)

Easter Breakfast & Service

On Easter Sunday we got up bright and early to make it to the 'Sunrise Breakfast' at church. Thankfully it wasn't truly at the hour of sunrise, but it was 7:00 am, and I confess that the Dressel's were the last of the all the family members out the door!

Some of the Meadows/Dressel crew: clockwise from lower left - Laura (notice her shoulder length haircut!), Robert, Howard (my dad), Joel (standing, the one who has the skater hair Juancho was hoping to emulate), Debby (my Mom), Michelle (my younger sister) and Jenni (my older sister).

My niece Ashley (who stayed with us for a while last Spring) and her

daughter Serenity (7 months)

Juancho, looking handsome as always,

satisfied from a great Easter breakfast!

Angie looks a bit like I caught her red-handed

doing something she wasn't supposed to! As far

as I know she wasn't up to anything... :)

The Family Picture:

This is our 2nd Easter together as a family, and I'm starting to see a theme with trying to get a family picture with us dressed in our finest. Last year, donuts were the reason for family picture difficulties - click HERE to re-live that (scroll to the bottom).

This year I claim that the intense sun caused me to blink right at the moment of the picture click...and Robert to be squinting intensely...the kids look great though!



So, when something fails, try, try again, right? So we did - a number of times. And each time either someone was turned around, or talked at the moment of the click or SOMETHING. This was the best pic we got - and actually I think I like it even better than a regular posed picture - it captures the joy in our family!

Princess Angie! She wore the same

Easter dress as last year and looked

as beautiful as ever!

Road Trip!

Early on Good Friday we began packing up the car for the road trip south to Iowa! We got the back of the mini-van packed out, got the kiddos buckled in and PJ all situated. Robert pulled the mini-van out of the garage while I moved his car into the garage to stay while we were gone. But as Robert drove half-way around the block, a horrible noise was coming from the brakes.

We made a quick decision that driving 5+ hours with a loaded vehicle with grinding brakes was probably a poor idea, so we moved Robert's car out of the garage and pulled the mini-van back in. We then went on to mount the car-top carrier to hold all the luggage, since Robert's car is smaller and wouldn't fit all of us, the dog and the luggage without it. After some trying moments to hoist heavy suitcases into the carrier and get the carrier closed with all the luggage, we were ready to go. Poor PJ had significantly reduced space to stretch out, but he didn't complain.

The drive south was fun and the kids were in good spirits. We credit kids that travel well to the invention of the portable DVD player! :)

Halfway to my parents home in Iowa City we stopped to visit good friends of ours, Jacque and Justin who moved to Waterloo last year. It was fun to see them and the kids (and PJ) loved running around in their big fenced in backyard while the adults visited.

We stopped at a gas station in a random small town in Iowa (called 'Floyd'). The gas station had a number of monuments indicated that we were then in Floyd, IA - obviously there was some community pride this gas station had! The girls loved the monuments and wanted their pictures in front of them, as you'll see below! Juancho, meanwhile, helped Dad with 'boy stuff' like filling the car up with gas and washing the windows. He's such a great helper!

The Road Trip Cast:

Dad, aka - The Driver

Mom, aka - The Picture Taker

(PJ was captured in the background on this photo too!)

Juancho, aka - Sleepyhead

Lala - aka - Crazy Girl!

Angie, aka - Sweetie

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