Take Me Out To the Ball Game

Yesterday morning Malia and I went to see a princess play. Last night the boys had their turn. They went to a baseball game. Daniel opted to stay home because he isn’t all that interested in sports. Nathan is not all that interested in sports either, but he saw the game as a social event and went to hang out with some of his cousins. There was a ticket to spare so Matthew invited Boston, his best friend. They had a super time. Since Matthew goes back to school tomorrow, it was a final celebration before starting a new school year.

A Crash Course in Live Theater

One of my sisters-in-law works at a local theater. This summer her oldest son is also working at the theater. They each get a number of comp tickets for each show and they were generous enough to send some our way for “The Little Mermaid.”

Live Theater Lesson #1: Malia has been excited about this for a couple of weeks, but when you say “theater” to her she thinks of movies. The only live show she had been to previous to this one was the community children’s play Nathan participated in last year. So when we walked into the theater she looked around and said, “Where’s the screen?” I explained to her that this particular theater was not for movies. Real people would act out the story for us. That was a good enough explanation for her.

Live Theater Lesson #2: I don’t know how many of you have seen the stage version of “The Little Mermaid,” but the second act is pretty slow. Not a lot happens until the last five minutes. About halfway through the second act, Malia leaned over and whispered in my ear, “I’m bored.” I leaned back to her and whispered, “Me to.” Sometimes that happens in live theater which is one of the reasons I only go to see productions of “State Fair” and “Carousel” if I absolutely have to. They just bore me.

Live Theater Lesson #3: My sister, Rachael, and her two girls also received freebie tickets so we all met at the theater and then went out to lunch afterward. Seeing a show and having a meal (or dessert) before or afterward is a social event. It is much more fun to share the experience with people you like. And having a mustache on your drink is more fun if people you like can laugh with you.

Next year this same theater will be performing “Beauty and the Beast.” Malia is already excited. So am I. I love that I have children that enjoy some of the same things I do.

One Second of Fame

As I've mentioned before, Daniel is loving marching band. He looks forward to marching band season and always feels a bit of a letdown when it is over. This year band lasted a bit longer than usual. For the first time ever, all the marching bands in our school district got together and formed one big band. They practiced hard for a week and then marched in the Days of 47 Parade. With over 300 kids in the band, the chance of spotting Daniel in the televised broadcast of the parade was pretty slim. But we lucked out and they happened to show his section at just the right time.

It's kind of like "Where's Waldo?" Can you see him? I caught sight of him pretty quickly, but I'm his mother. I know exactly what I'm looking for. Anyway,  he had a great time and it was kind of a big deal to see him on t.v.!

Little Miss Horrible

Malia has some interesting likes based on the fact that our children span a wide range of ages and she is the youngest. One of those random interests is "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog." For those of you not in the know, this was a project Joss Whedon created during that big writer's strike a few years back. It's pretty entertaining. Kev and the boys watch it fairly frequently which means that Malia watches it fairly frequently. Today she presented herself to me and told me she was Dr. Horrible...

...and she had a freeze ray.

I'm not sure proud is the right word. Entertained with a slight eye roll might be closer.

The vocabulary word of the day is...

...slingshot. Because when Matthew came home from cub camp today with a slingshot (and about ten pounds of dirt) Malia recognized it but had no idea what to call it and dubbed it an "angry birds slapper."

Family Fun On the Cheap

There have been some perks to Kev working at Adobe. One of those perks is that they have purchased passes to the aquarium and Thanksgiving Point. Employees just need to reserve them and then they can get their families into both places at no charge. It is actually pretty darn cool. Kev took this week off and so he reserved both passes and we spent a couple of days playing. We went to the aquarium yesterday and for those of you who haven’t been since they moved to their fancy new building, it is vastly improved. There are a lot more exhibits, the habitats are bigger, and they’ve brought in some new animals. They have tropical birds, otters, and penguins (there is even baby penguins this year). The shark tank is pretty impressive although walking through the underwater tunnel always freaks my eyes out. And it usually costs $90 to get our family in so walking in free of charge pretty much rocked.

Today was Thanksgiving Point. We started at the dinosaur museum. We’ve been there a number of times, but not recently enough that Malia remembers. And Matthew has been introducing her to Dinosaur Train. And she asked me today what can eat a “dinosaur rex.” So it was pretty exciting for her. Another $80 saved. Ka-ching.

(How my kids behave for other people)

(How my kids behave for me)

After lunch we headed to the Museum of Natural Curiosity. I’d never been to this particular museum before so I was pretty excited. Kev and the kids have been because his sister and her hubby work for the architectural firm that designed the place and they had a preview day last year before it opened. They all had a great time but not all the exhibits were finished then so they were pretty excited too. So here’s the scoop: it’s like a super rockin’ children’s museum. It has more stuff than the children’s museum downtown. And it is fun for a larger variety of age groups. So to accommodate all our different kids, we sent Daniel and Nathan to explore on their own, Kevin took Matthew and I shadowed Malia.

Daniel and Nathan spent a good 45 minutes in the section that explores optical illusions.

 Malia loved the part that was like a little city. She was particularly fond of the theater. She spent a good 25 minutes in there. She dressed up, turned on some music and did a little dance for me. Then she added some pieces to her costume and danced again. Of course her dance skills are pretty lacking, but she had fun. (I’ll have to find her some dance lessons once we’re finished paying for preschool.)

Matthew loved the ginormous jungle gym section. I think it is about three stories high. He was crawling in and out of places like a little monkey and ended up climbed all the way to the top.

I think all the kids could have spent more time there than we did. We will definitely make our way back. And if we’re lucky we’ll be able to save another $80. Bonus.

Two day outing total cost: Zero. Zilch. Nada. Gain measured in family time and fun: Loads.

Day Off For the Holiday

We like the 4th of July around here. There are just so many fun things to do that include red, white and blue. This year our holiday was a bit different than usual. We were invited to a shindig my Kevin’s manager so instead of our own evening festivities we partook of food and fun elsewhere. As a result, some of our patriotic traditions were set aside. We didn’t do the tri-colored beverages (which Nathan missed), the red, white and blue dessert (which I was actually okay with as I’ve been feeling pretty crazed of late), and our own little fireworks show with sparklers and poppers (which I actually missed but not until it was too late to do anything about it). We did have a patriotic breakfast and we made some fun flag inspired shirts.

In spite of some of simplifying our day, we still had fun. And I’m already thinking about what kind of shirts to do with the kids next year…

June and July is also parade season which has come to mean marching band season for Daniel. He has marched in six parades in the past month, the last of which was this morning. I think it’s great that he has found something that he enjoys so much.

“Hiking’s not for everyone. Notice the wilderness is mostly empty.” ― Sonja Yoerg

Kev and I aren’t really big fans of hiking, mainly because I have a tendency to feel crappy in the heat. As a result, our kids don’t have a lot of experience with stuff like that. So when Nathan’s scout troop planned a campout where they had to hike up to the camping spot and pack all their gear in, he really had no idea what he was getting in to. Nevertheless, we helped him gather up everything he would need and sent him on his way yesterday afternoon. When he arrived home around lunch time today, he told us that it didn’t go so well. His troop leader had never hiked that particular location before and while the hike was not long (only about a mile and a half), it was steep. Really steep. Which made things much, much harder. And with his inexperience, it was even harder for Nathan. It took him longer than the other boys to complete the hike and once he got to the top he spent the evening throwing up from heat and exertion. So definitely not his most enjoyable campout.

To his credit, once he got showered, ate something and started to feel better, he was able to laugh about it. I think being able to chuckle at his own crazy life is an awesome skill. And to be able to laugh so soon afterward is pretty amazing. (It always takes me way longer…I’m still not to the point where I can laugh about having the cops show up at our house after Matthew’s birthday party.) I think that it was a valuable experience for him. It allowed him to do something he has never done before, prove to himself that he can complete something hard (in spite of the unpleasant after effects), and learn that even tough things can be managed with laughter. In my opinion, that made it a successful trip for him…and because he was out in the wild no one had to clean up the vomit.