Settled into my lounge chair with a cold glass of water, I have the best seat in the house to watch my four grandchildren conquer the water at a local pool. At two, four, seven, and nine, they are a blur of non-stop motion, from the toddler collecting water with his toys in the kiddie area, to the older two bravely jumping off the diving board. From my chair under a beach umbrella, the view is perfect: a front row seat to their laughter, their growing confidence, and the sweetest memories of summer.
When my grandchildren were visiting last June, one of our activities was visiting a local pool. We always want to get the kids as much swim time as we can, so we try to plan a swim day during their visits. The pools in my daughter's town are usually quite pricey, whereas in my neck of the woods, they are quite affordable. We chose a smaller pool in a small town rather than go to a larger pool in a bigger city because the boys were at work and one was sick at home with food poisoning😞. We felt it would be too difficult for my daughter and I to keep an eye on all four kids, especially with me being a non-swimmer.
My biggest challenge of the day other than keeping track of them all, was to make sure they didn't lose their goggles. The three oldest insist of wearing water goggles, but they also tend to lose them a lot and mom gets tired of buying new ones all the time. I came to the rescue multiple times when a little one would come running to me screaming "I can't find my goggles". I usually found them laying on the ground or at the edge of the pool.😁. I don't remember having goggles as a kid, but they do look pretty cool in them, don't they?
Baby Lazarus seemed to have no interest in going into the water this day, which surprised me as he usually loves the slide. He would only go in the water if someone held him, so I did get wet - once - 😄. He did enjoy filling up his toys with water, except one time he decided to walk over to the deep end and reach over for some water, after all the water in the deep pool was far more interesting than the water in the shallow pool 😆. Thankfully, I saw him from my lounge chair just in time, and screamed for my daughter to grab him before he fell in; that's why the good lord gave us mom's such great lungs.
Alethea and Atticus are good strong swimmers already, and Elisha is catching up fast, but he still wears a life vest to stay safe.
This pool is fairly new, and one of the updates they made was to add this climbing wall. I think it's a great idea.
Here is a video of my grandson Atticus climbing the wall.
We always celebrate the grandchildren's birthdays all at once during the summer, even though they were born at different times of the year. It's just easier that way, plus there are all these holidays during the other birth months that just make it confusing for the kids. Baby Lazarus was born near Mother's Day and Elisha was born in the fall, near Halloween whereas Atticus and Alethea were summer babies. So by doing one big birthday party everyone gets a gift so no one feels left out and the moms get their gifts on Mother's Day, and then all the kids get fall gift bags around Halloween.
We had a simple meal of hot dogs, brats, and potatoes on the back screen porch.
The kids, and adults enjoyed playing basketball while I set everything up.
After dinner we opened gifts. I couldn't believe how excited they were to open presents. All week long they kept asking "When are we going to open our presents?" because they found my hiding spot, those little stinkers 😄! I was a little worried they were going to be disappointed because I didn't feel I bought them much as the older they get the more expensive their presents get plus, they already have everything, so it gets harder and harder to find gifts they don't already own.
In all the excitement, I forgot to get a photo of them holding their cards, but here is one of Alethea attempting to read my cursive on her card.
Lazarus was a hoot! He always had this pained expression on his face over gift as he examined it closely, followed by "Open It!"
The kids love costumes and Atticus and Alethea both requested costumes. Alethea asked for this brown cape. I use to sew all my kid's costumes, but now with my grandchildren, I just buy them. It's easier to buy things now with the Internet. In the olden days, if the store didn't have it, you had to make it yourself. Now I just type it in the search box and wa la! There it is!
Elisha got a Spider Man remote control car which he loved.
And Atticus' favorite gift was his Captain America costume. He was so excited to get this gift!
My son gave Lazarus this adorable dinosaur plushie, and then he gave the older kids whoopee cushions...which they went crazy for until Atticus broke his by jumping on it too hard which ended the evening in tears. Oh the highs and lows of the gift openings!
A little bit later, the tears of the broken whoopee cushion were gone with a slice of a brownie and ice cream.
I think Grandpa enjoyed the brownies and ice cream as much as the kids, what do you think?
And finally, just a couple of other photos of our summer week with the grandchildren. One of the activities we enjoyed was painting this giant poster of outer space. I purchased three giant posters and so far we completed two. One we used gel crayons on, and it got very messy, so this one we decided to try paint. The next time we come over, we will try using markers on the third one...I will have to make sure to buy lots of cheap washable markers beforehand as I know it will take a lot of ink to cover something this big! When we are all done, I will show ya'll all three posters, with the grandkids, at once.
And this photo is just too cute not to share. Lazarus loved eating Grandpa Todd's yogurt cups! I couldn't believe he ate this entire yogurt all by himself. He loves blueberries too!
Next week I will be on a summer vacation/anniversary trip. It is supposed to rain EVERY SINGLE DAY of our vacation except one, so that will be a bummer. Oh well, we will make the best of it. You can plan the best trips, but you can never control the weather. I hope we just get a break in the rain some of the time and it's not constant all day every day. I won't be scheduling anymore posts until I return, and then I will be starting a new travel series.
Many, many years ago my daughter gave me some dried flowers she purchased from somewhere and then she gave them to me because she thought I could use them on a card. Well those flowers sat in my craft room unused for years until I discovered them while cleaning out my craft room. My winter project this year was to clean out and reorganize my craft room. It was a huge undertaking and I still plan on doing a blog post about it. I donated truck loads of supplies I never used. When I came across the flowers, I felt bad that I never used the flowers given to me, so I decided to finally make that card with them.
Unfortunately, the flowers were so old by now they were very fragile; but I did my best trying to keep the blooms for disintegrating as I worked with them. To make my card I carefully glued the flowers to a white card panel, then to keep them from disintegrating further, I sprayed them with a fixative.
The flower panel looked very vintage to me, so I decided a vintage style card would look best with the dried flowers. I used designer paper that reminded me of old wall paper; it is from DCWV "Tres Chic". Then I added some lace and ribbon and put gold gems in the corners of the flower panel. the sentiment is a sticker.
Creating this card made me think that I should really press my own flowers from my garden. I have some Bachelor Buttons that would be perfect for drying. But if I do that, hopefully they won't sit for years before I finally use them 😀.
Last winter my husband and I discovered Norskedalen Nature and Heritage Center when we went on a candlelight walk on the grounds. We've lived in this area since 1998 and it never ceases to amaze me all the new places we have yet to discover! We enjoyed the grounds of our candlelight walk so much, we vowed to come back in the summer and fall. This time, we came for their Midsummer Fest and we brought the whole family!
"Norskedalen" means "the Norwegian valley". It is a nature and heritage center dedicated to preserving, interpreting, and sharing the natural environment and cultural heritage of the area surrounding Coon Valley in southwest Wisconsin.
The Midsummer Festival is an annual summer solstice event that celebrates Norwegian heritage, long summer days, and pioneer life. There are live demonstrations of black smithing, butter churning, and more plus Folk Art showcasing Rosemaling, embroidery, and wood carving. All the original homes are open and available for tours plus there is lot of family fun like pony rides, crafts, and horse drawn carriages. There are also competitions like the USS Viking Strongman Competition.
The first thing we did when we arrived at Norskedalen was head over to the Strongman Competion because we knew the boys would enjoy watching that! This event lasts all day so we couldn't stay to see everything (although that would have been fun), but we did watch a bit of the weight lifting and hammer throw.
Atticus got such a kick out of the size of this shield!
The Benrud Chapel was near the Strongman Competition so we headed there next. It was built in 1886 and served the Norwegian immigrant population of Sparta, Wisconsin.
We were so happy to be able to go inside and see the simple beauty of this church but we were also blessed to hear Eden Ehm, a Hardanger Fiddler. Here's a brief video to give you a sampling of her music:
Next we headed over to get a donkey ride from Emma. Emma has a special fried, a sheep, that never leaves Emma's side. Wherever Emma goes, Louise is right beside her. Lazarus, my youngest grandson wanted to ride Louise because he thought "the dog" was just the right size for him. Thankfully we were able to talk him out of that idea and gave him a donkey ride instead.
After all the children had their donkey rides, we headed over to the Homestead. The first home we toured was this sweet little cabin.
I couldn't believe how small this cabin was on the inside. The lower level consisted of just a table and wood stove. Somehow, the parents slept down here too. It felt claustrophobic with just our family and the tour guide inside, I can't even imagine a large family living here, but they did!
On the other side of the room was a ladder leading to the loft where the children slept.
This is the loft. They most likely didn't have beds and slept on the floor.
After our first cabin tour we headed over for a Norwegian lunch of open-faced sandwiches, buttered leafs, copper pennies, sweet corn, and strawberry shortcake.
While the adults were still eating, the oldest three grandkids and I headed over to the kids craft area to make Norwegian paper hearts.
Now it was time for a horse and wagon ride! I couldn't believe what a nice, long ride this was. They took us all around the homestead, plus out to the countryside for a bit to see High Hopes Spring.
Here is the natural spring.
The countryside was so beautiful!
Atticus was excited to sit up front and hold the horse's reigns!
Baby Lazarus was happy just to sit near grandpa!
After the horse and wagon ride, we headed back over to the historic Bekkem Homestead where there were lots of demonstrations going on. Below, Alethea is learning how to spin yarn into socks!
The Bekkum Homestead seeks to recreate a typical Norwegian immigrant farm at the turn of the 20th century. The homestead consists of a two-story house, summer kitchen, spring house, corn crib, granary, outhouse, chicken coop, machine shed, tobacco shed, stable, barn, and blacksmith’s shop. The buildings are arranged in the traditional Norwegian shape called a ‘tun’ and filled with artifacts donated by local families.
It was in 1982 that original log and timber buildings began to be moved to Norskedalen from neighboring farms in an effort to preserve and restore them. This effort was accomplished through the support of Owen and Dorothy Bekkum and through the work of volunteers who put countless hours into restoring each of the historic buildings (according to the Norskedalen website).
Atticus really enjoyed getting hands-on experience in the blacksmith barn.
I was excited to tour the two story house which was not open when I was here in the winter for the candlelight walk.
Out on the back porch, Alethea learned how hard it was to churn butter.
Unlike the first cabin we toured, this one was much more livable. I even said "I could live in this today!" because I loved it so much.
The tour guide explained to me that the living room was added on years later as the family grew and prepared. The original house was just the kitchen (which you can see in the background and the photos above) and a loft. The layout was very similar to the smaller cabin we toured earlier in the day.
Next we spent some time touring all the outbuildings. The first one is the Summer Kitchen.
The Stable
The Machine Shed
The Barn
Looking back at all the different farm buildings with the green hills surrounding them; so pretty.
I had to stop and say hello to some sweet horses before we left. One was very friendly and loved to be petted, the other, not so much...but he still wanted to hang around and be close by! 😃
The festival also had a museum, more musicians, dancers, a steel drum band, and a Kubb playing area, but many events were taking place at the same time and it was hard to see everything. We absolutely loved our day at the festival but we wished the events were spread out throughout the day more so we could see everything.
Before we left, Alethea wanted to do something she called "Creek Stomping"; it was her own event and title she created when she saw the creek on our horse and wagon ride 😂.
All the grandkids got into "Creek Stomping".
I hope you enjoyed my visit to the Norskedalen Midsummer Festival!
