EARLY START

The band directors from our local (award-winning, of course) HS and Middle School brought all their kids together with all the kids in the band programs at the elementary schools that feed in to those schools. Its like kiddie band recruitment. BUT it was so interesting and fun. The directors are clearly PROS at this because they first let the elementary school bands play (separately), then the middle school kids, and then the HS. Incidentally, they played Incantation and Dance, for those of you who were in band. Pretty tricky stuff for teenagers.

THEN, they got all the kids together into one giant band and played. It didn't sound great, but the kids had a blast.

And then, the piece de resistance, the mark of true experience, they let the parents come GET ON THE STAGE and take pictures of their kids. MY band director never did that!

Of course I had a zoom lens and already had the above great pics. of Maddy (notice eyes open because she's too far for the flash to get her), so I ran to the back of the auditorium to shoot the herd of parents trying to get their flacid middle-aged selves up onto the stage to get photos.

More Wildlife

This CHUKAR was hanging out in Mike's parking lot at work. Apparently the junk heap on the empty lot next to his office qualifies as "arid to temperate desert" since it is flourishing there. The girl on whose car it was walking seemed startled to see it there, though.

Mideval Project

Worse than a child running for office in student government, more onerous than a last-minute science fair project, even more abjectly disheartening than the dreaded PINEWOOD DERBY, the so-called "Mideval Project" strikes fear into the heart of 6th grade parents at our local elementary school. And don't think to avoid it by strategically requesting the one teacher who doesn't require it--they have banded together (fine for them, they can reuse their costumes) and ALL 6th-graders are required to prepare a long string of labor-intensive projects which the kids, themselves, have ABSOLUTELY no hope of completing without the resources and time of the parents. Maddy's selection (the bare minimum to meet the "Nobility" requirement) included a handsewn costume (THANKS, Aunt Ellen),

A hennin (weird pointy hat constructed of a piece of poster board, various cloth and ribbon remnants, and a variety of glue, staples, tape, needle, and thread),

A wooden catapult for the contest, engineered by the "student" (dad) and built by the "student" (dad) and his power tools, which even the cub scout handbook prohibits for children.

A labeled castle, with all the parts (last project the night before until 10 o'clock)

As well as additional book reports, powerpoints, and posters. THANK HEAVENS its over for 2 more years!! Oh, and I did a little benchmarking for Nicholas, took pictures of every kid's submissions so we don't have to spend so much time in the brainstorming phase.

DYLAN IS FIVE!!!

My baby is five now...two more seasons until he starts kindergarten and my stint as a mom with "little" kids ends forever. I think I'm ready. The celebrations seemed to go on forever to me, though I'm sure the whole thing was over in a wink for Dylan. We started out with a party at my brother's house. Dylan has a "twin" cousin, they are only a couple of days apart in age. You can see the birthday boys blowing out the candles on their "birthday" cinnamon rolls. My urge to yell "get in there and be aggressive--blow hard!!" tells me that the end of pee-wee sports spectatorship is a good thing.

Cousin Nathan enjoying his birthday treat. HEY, now, its HIS birthday!!!

Auntie Becky enjoying HER treat. And quit pointing that camera at me, PLEASE!!

The boys partying like rock stars...

Uncle Alan with his Webkinz. (Back off, son, birthday or no, that's daddy's WEBKINZ)

We also had a kid party for Dylan, in addition to the family dinner at IHOP (yep, that's what he picked). It was semi-themed Star Wars. I made some "light sabers," with "light" being the operative word here, MacGyver style, and the little guys went after Nick with a vengeance. There was a lot of FORCE there that day, I can tell you.

But none of it with poor Nick, as you can see.

Popcorn was the other request for the kid party,

and a DEATH STAR cake. Like I said, it was only SEMI-themed.

And here is the Man of the Hour, my sweet baby Dylan!

Cuddles

Took the Bear Scouts to the Life Science Museum, where we had fun checking out the dead and LIVE animals. Our guide was kind enough to bring out lots of cool things for us to see, but by far the coolest was CUDDLES, the boa. You can see they are entranced.

Maddy and I were not so entranced as cautious.

Dylan fell into the "entranced" category.

I added this pic. because I was struck by how grown-up and strikingly gorgeous my first-born is. Why are all these things such a surprise?

Backyard in Winter

The lanterns seem to be losing the battle with darkness by 5:30pm, I see from a peek through the back french doors after work. And the playhouse, abandoned for weeks, shows no sign of habitation. Even the insulting dimpled relics of snowballs are gone now--somehow the emptiness is worse than its previous besieged appearance. And where is the surfeit of light and warmth absent in the "desert" sky? In the house, obviously, with my cranky, ill children who REFUSE to put on their gear, go out, and get some fresh air.

Happy Birthday to ME

Thought you all might like a look at my 3 best birthday presents! And the photos, secretly shot by my multi-talented nanny/photographer-in-training, captured them SO WELL. She's already amazing, although she's just getting started, but you can click here to see her other stuff.
THANKS, CHELSEA. And THANKS, kids! I "heart" U!