Movie and a dinner date

I passed on seeing How to Eat Fried Worms with the boys this weekend. I had seen the previews and was not at all interested in being that grossed out. They went to a 10:30 am(!) showing, and R loved being able to choose precisely where he would like to sit. He said it was not crowded at all. I tried to get a review out of him since the book is one of his all-time favorites. I asked him to compare the differences between the book and the movie, but it was difficult with E running around screaming about how it was so gross he almost threw up, and about how he loved the fact that he had been enjoying gummy worms during the show. From R, I managed to finally get that he enjoyed the movie, since he could actually see all the gross stuff, but he did enjoy the story in the book better. So, he did not like one better than the other.

We enjoyed dinner with some friends on Saturday afternoon, and learned how to play Cornhole. I have to admit it was a lot of fun, and I would love to get a game set up in our backyard for next year. Maybe R and I can build one together. I was kicking myself for forgetting to bring my camera.

We have our itinerary for Niagara Falls all done. We will be making lots of stops along the way, so we decided to stay in hotels rather than camp. Plus it will be cold out at night, especially up there. I tried to find hotels with internet access so that I could bring B's laptop with us and blog each night. It's such a great way to journal. But the hotel we found was so cheap we couldn't pass it up, and it doesn't have internet access in the rooms. We are staying at three different hotels along the way, and managed to spend less than $65 a night at each one.

I'll write more about our itinerary before we leave on Friday, but for now, I have to go and finish the last third of A Great And Terrible Beauty for bookclub tomorrow night.

Visiting old friends

When R was about a year old I went back to work as a freelancer for one day a week. I had found a wonderful woman, who was at home with her children, and had been a special ed teacher before that, who watched R while I worked. M was a gem. I never had any doubts about leaving R with her for the couple of years that I worked. Later, when E was a toddler, I started to use her services again, despite the fact that I wasn't working, just so I could have a few hours a week to myself.
Well today we went for a visit to M's house. Here's a photo of the boys with her daughters. Unfortunately it was raining and cold today, so we couldn't swim in their pool, as R had been really looking forward to. It's difficult to visit at this point, because her girls are getting older and don't play anymore. They are more into the "visiting" aspect of our being there, so the boys just didn't have much to do. M had made cookies for us, and they were a hit. And we watched a video of one of her daughters in the marching band at Cheshire High. M still has a bucket of legos that she keeps handy, so R kept busy with those. E mostly lounged and climbed all over their couch. It worked to our advantage that her daughter had band practice today so our visit had been prearranged as short.
We started filling out our entry forms for the Durham Fair today. E has been collecting soda cans for a "Soda Can Castle" he plans to make. Today he started on the base for it.

Time kid-less

The boys were invited to sleep over some friends' house last night. Despite the fact that I have a ton of things to do and a whole vacation, which we are leaving for in ten days, to plan, B and I could not resist the opportunity to go on a date. We went to the movies and saw Little Miss Sunshine. I cannot praise this movie enough. It was belly laugh funny, and the audience actually applauded at the end! Go see it immediately!

This morning it was heavenly to wake up to an empty house. B leaves for work early, so I was all alone. I have to admit that I sorely miss being alone. As I sat eating my breakfast I picked up a copy of Newsweek and read an essay by Anna Quindlen entitled "Live Alone and Like It". It's amazing how these things show up when I most need to read them. I miss having my own apartment and being alone. It's why I stay up all night after everyone has gone to bed. I need a couple of hours a day alone. An extremely difficult predicament to find oneself in when you are a homeschooling stay-at-home mom!

An easy going summer weekend

Saturday R made himself into a robot using the packing material from my new arbor. B was kind enough to put it together for me and it is quite lovely. It will go into the front to replace the old one, which had been knocked down quite sometime ago by a wicked wind storm. It was absolutely gorgeous before it fell down. Look, I actually found a picture of it at its height. It had been anchored into the ground and absolutely broke my heart when it fell over. For too long now my roses have been kept small (about three feet high) with nothing to climb up.

Well as you can see from the photo of B, the new one is darker wood and I totally love it. B promised he'd get it anchored into the ground well enough so that it doesn't fall over again. This one is much better made so it should stay on its feet. Plus it's got a bench in it so hopefully that will add some stability. Now we just have to wait for the cooler weather so I can transplant my roses next to it. Since it has a bench I'm moving it forward several feet from where the last one was, so we can pass behind it to get into the yard.

I spent the whole day Saturday working on the CT Homeschool Network website. I'm completely redesigning it, right down to the logo. See the old ugly one here. The old one is quite gruesome with dead links all over the place, and the side menu different on every page. I'm really excited about designing the new one and will post here when it's up and running.

Sunday we went to a Tractor Cruise-In at the Durham Fair grounds. I'm so bummed I forgot my camera because it was like nothing I've ever seen before. We watched tractor pulls and took a tractor-pulled hayride. We wished we had gotten there earlier to participate in the Kids' Pedal Tractor Pull in which kids had to pull weight in a cart a certain distance using their own pedal power. That was lots of fun to watch. Another highlight was the Tractor Slow Race, where tractors lined up to see who could go the slowest. The whole thing was quite an experience. Testosterone was flying everywhere. Things like this always leave me feeling so blessed that we live in a place where goofy things like this occur, and that we are raising our children out of the city environment I grew up in.

We stopped at Lyman Orchards on the way home and picked a bunch of apples. Then Nagy Papa joined us for dinner.

This past week E has become a nightmare. I started getting all upset and fell into the whole "how am I going to make it through the next 15 years" thing. We're talking way more challenging than usual. He is incredibly disagreeable and downright defiant. So, while B drove to the tractor thing I read my copy of Your Six Year Old, the subtitle of which is actually "Loving and Defiant". Thank goodness I read it because now I'm prepared. It's going to be a challenging six months or so for us.

Fun Friday at the Bronx Zoo

Note to self: next time you go to the zoo, leave the house at 8:30 so you are arriving before the masses, and never go on a Friday, when you should avoid going anywhere south of New Haven county.

Actually, arriving with the masses was not bad at all. It was far less crowded than last time when we went on a weekend. First thing we did was go on the Skyfari since it was closed last time we went.
We actually rode it twice and also enjoyed the shuttle twice. It's nice to be a member; we don't have to worry about paying for each ride, so we can ride as much as we'd like. We skipped the monorail today since it looked like a 20 minute wait and we had done it during two previous visits. We'll take it again next time we head down in October.

On the walk to the Skyfari we got a good look at one of the polar bears playing in the water at the closer end of the pool.
Last several times we visited there were no polar bear sightings at all, so this was a special treat. R snapped several photos (here and throughout the park) in anticipation of the photography "competition" at the Durham Fair (which we are in full swing preparing for).

After disembarking the Skyfari we headed to the Children's Zoo, which is always a big hit. It's very kid friendly with lots to do and look at. There is very poor signage though. In the petting zoo there were some funky looking cows labeled "cows". Well I can tell you that no kid there could recognize them as cows, and mine wanted to know what kind they were. We missed out on the cool spider web today since it was otherwise occupied. We finished up the children's zoo about 20 minutes later and headed back to enjoy it, and when we got back we even waited another 10 minutes (along with many other people), but those day care supervisors were not going anywhere, even yelling at the kids as they got bored and started moving on to see some animals. So lots of people missed out on the spider web today. That's okay though, the place will be ours when we go back in October.

Two things we did this time which we had thus far never done, were the Asian Rain Forest, which was really well done, and the World of Birds, where we caught the "daily enrichment session" in which zoo keepers throw food to the bee-eaters, who in the wild catch their food while in flight. The World of Birds was a terrific building, and one of the only ones with interactive exhibits, which always go over well with the boys. We'll never go to see that animal feeding again though. The World of Birds is at the far lower end of the park near the parking lot we park in, and it's a long way back to see a three minute demonstration. Finding ourselves a long walk away from everything right smack in the middle of the day was a real drag.

That big gray blob in the center of this portion of the map says "under construction". Signs say it will open summer 2007. It's been closed for the almost entire year we've been members.
It's a bummer, because not only are the sea lions not available to see, but it cuts off the whole bird section behind it (above it on the map). After watching feeding time in the World of Birds (all the way at the bottom of the map) we tried to head up to the section with all the other birds, which is behind the construction area, but we ran out of juice before getting around the Children's Zoo, and so got back on the skyfari and then the shuttle back to the parking lot.

Not a very well planned out day today. We were all over the map and didn't get to see as much as I would've liked. But that's the beauty of being a member; there's never a rush.

Being in the Bronx demanded several White Castle hamburgers after the zoo. Yes, I had actually used the restaurant locator and found one just five blocks away. I've been jonesing for some White Castles lately and the grocery store ones just weren't cutting it. So it was very cool to be able to enjoy some straight out of the steaming boxes.

The one hour and 20 minute drive home took two and a half hours due to Friday traffic. No less than four accidents had occurred on 95, (thank you 102.7 FM) which I chose over the Merritt due to the traffic I hit out of that when we came home from the Norwalk Aquarium. I can't for the life of me understand why The Bronx Zoo would close at 5pm and spit out wads of tourists right into New York City rush hour. Why not close at 6 when it's all dying down?

A bummer yes, but not enough to ruin a most excellent Fun Friday.

A friend works at OSV

Our friend PB is a social studies teacher. He is also a farmer. This week he is volunteering at Old Sturbridge Village as part of his studies in attaining his master's degree. So we had to head up and see him all spiffed up in his costume. It was really nice to see first-hand how much he is enjoying being a farmer of long ago. Here he is helping to transfer 15 piglets iinto an oxen pulled cart, to move them to a different farm area.

We carpooled today with some friends who are younger than us, and it was a good reminder of how far we've come in terms of enjoying places like this. It was also a good reminder that I am a very relaxed parent and a very good friend.