Meet the Teacher Day

Yesterday was Meet the Teacher Day with Amaya's two preschooler teachers: Mrs. Leif and Mrs. Milligan. She was so excited to meet her teachers and see her new classroom. So excited, that she wanted to wear a pretty dress! Last year, Amaya only went once a week considering she was only 2 1/2 years old. This year, she'll attend on Monday and Wednesday mornings.

She LOVED her new classroom - it's a little bigger and has a lot more activities set up - like a computer station!

After meeting Mrs. Leif at the door, our first activity was a cross between a scavenger hunt and BINGO. Amaya was given a sheet of paper with nine different things to find in and out of her classroom.

One of the things she had to find was her coat rack and she'll share it with Cooper! Unforunately, Cooper and Amaya aren't in the same class... he's in the afternoon class, but we hope to catch up with them for lunch on special days!

Then Amaya had to take her name of the calendar and put in it the box. I guess this is how they take attendance. I was impressed that Amaya recognized her name right away!

Once our activity was done, it was free time. Amaya worked on some stamping, painted a beautiful picture with dot art markers, and played with cars. There are fourteen kids in her class, so it's a little larger than her class last year.

We're thrilled with all that she'll be learning this year. What I love most about Kingdom Kids Christian Preschool is that not only will she learn the fundamentals of letters, shapes, numbers, etc, but she's learning about God as well. Her Bible topics this month are Creation, Adam and Eve, and Noah obeys God. Her memory Bible Verse is 1 Peter 5:7 God cares for you.

Amaya starts preschool on Wednesday, the 7th and she can hardly wait! We hope she has another great year!

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum

One of my co-workers suggested that our family take a trip to Riceville, Iowa to attend the Cedar Valley Produce Auction. In fact, several of my co-workers have attended and keep going back. We were warned to be careful to listen to the auctioneer because they sell things in bulk. So instead of my co-worker getting 6 mums, she ended up with 30!

We enjoyed the scenic drive and thanks to our faithful GPS we didn't have any trouble finding the place. I felt a little out of place admist all the farmers and Mennonite! Sure enough, the bidding was complicated - so complicated that we didn't even pick up a number. Pick-up trucks and tractors would pull trailers upon trailers full of watermelons, cantaloupe, tomatoes, etc. And when the auctioneer started with, "50 cents times 50" we had to be quick to figure out the math. It took us awhile just to get caught up with the auctioneer and I still don't think we quite understood. Oh, well... it's all about the experience.

Then we headed to Burr Oak, Iowa to visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum. For only a few short months, Laura and her family lived and worked in this hotel.

Our tour began in the old bank across the street.

Most of the bank is restored, with the exception of the safe boxes.

Laura and her family moved around so much, that she didn't even include this part of her life in the books for fear of people getting too confused.

It cost 25 cents to stay overnight in the hotel - an equivalent to 12 dollars in 2011.

An old desk where guests could conduct business and write letters.

We were a little disappointed to find that everything in the museum was a replica. Most of the Wilder's things are located in the museum in Missouri. These next two pictures are the only things that belonged to Laura: Some of her needlework...

and her handkerchiefs

One of Laura's jobs was to straighten up the guests beds and pull the strings on the bed tighter. Is that where the expression, "Sleep tight" came from?

On the second floor, there was a parlor with a beautiful player piano. We couldn't help but think of how much Steve's mom would have enjoyed playing it!

In the attic, there were four teeny tiny rooms for guests with no doors attached. We learned that four people could sleep on the bed - lengthwise! Talk about togetherness!


The kitchen was located in the basement and was by far one of my favorite parts of the tour. Ma had to cook for 20-30 people at any given time.



I can't imagine trying to get everything to the table at one time using this type of a stove.

The dining room table

A copy of their weekly schedule

I couldn't imagine doing laundry like this either!

This is the actual room where Laura and her family stayed. Tight quarters! They didn't stay at the hotel very long because they were being cheated out of money and needed more room for their family.

This was one of my favorite museums we've done in a long time - so make sure you stop if by if you ever have the chance. We bought Amaya another Laura Ingalls Wilder picture book at the gift shop and I hope when she is older, she'll enjoy the books as much as I do!

The Spam Museum

Since Steve's been home working on class work and looking for jobs, we've enjoyed the extra family time together. We've been able to take several day trips exploring southeastern Minnesota. Several weeks ago, we decided to visit the Spam Museum in Austin. Neither Steve or I had been there, so we weren't sure what to expect considering it was free admission.

Once we walked in, we were immediately directed to take note of the "Wall of Spam" with nearly 3,000 cans of Spam. It was rather impressive.

Here is a picture of the Spam diner with computers to do searches of available products. We tasted a sample of garlic Spam and black pepper Spam that I guess are only available in certain areas of the world - Australia being one of them.

We watched a short movie clip in the theatre describing the early beginnings of Spam and surprisingly it kept Amaya's attention.

After the movie, we began the official tour of the different types of meat products that Hormel made. I'm not so sure I would have enjoyed a dinner consisting of OX JOINTS!


Spam was one of the main staples for those fighting for our country. There was a nice display set up honoring all our veterans.


Who knew that even Favre liked Spam?

I was plesantly surprised that there were a few interactive exhibits set up for kids. Here Amaya is trying on a hat and lab coat.

Then Amaya had an opportunity to make her own Spam! Here she's putting the meat into the metal container.

Time to cook! Here's your interesting fun fact for the day: Did you know that Spam is cooked INSIDE the metal container?!? Who knew?

Time to label the container and Voila!

Another wall of the different varieties of Spam...

Overall, we were very impressed with the musuem (considering it was free). They had a nice gift shop as well, where we got suckered into buying a couple of cans of Spam and a stuffed animal pig for Amaya (that she lost the next day!) It had been awhile since I had Spam - probably not since I was a kid and we went camping as a family and had it in macaroni and cheese. Anyway, we thought it was incredibly salty and probably won't be purchasing another can of Spam in a very long time. But, it was worth the adventure and the memories!

Then, we drove a few blocks to visit the Hormel Historic Home.

It was absolutely beautiful!

I won't bore you with all of the details since the pictures are pretty self-explanatory. It only took about 20 minutes to walk through the entire house, but it was still fun to look at the old furniture and awesome architecture.

Family Room

Bedroom



Another bedroom with a fireplace



"A room just for me!" - Amaya

Bathroom

There was a small garden just off the front of the house with a beautiful fountain.





We probably wouldn't go back for another visit anytime soon, but we're glad that we had the experience and would recommend it to anyone.