I'm a sucker for socialization

"What are we gonna do today, Mom?"
"We're staying home to do the tons of laundry I have."
RRRRRiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnngggggggg
"Hey Mom, it's Mrs. W. She wants to know if we can come over and play. Can we?


E and J play Candy Land, while R and M play with one of those little 20 questions things. No, it couldn't guess "Harry Potter". In the kitchen Mrs. W and Mom visit. Yes, Mom is KNITTING.

Camping

It took two hours and 50 minutes to get to our Vermont campground. What a gorgeous drive.

We had an enjoyable weekend, despite the rain, which at times on Saturday, was heavy. It stopped both nights (Friday and Saturday) in times for s'mores though.

The boys had a fabulous time swimming in the river. Yes, I swam too, on Friday night after setting up camp, and Sunday afternoon after breaking down camp. The water in the river was beautiful, but all those rocks really hurt my butt. And today (Monday) my ankles are killing me too. Okay, thanks to D, here's a photo of me trying to get comfortable out there on a rock, to let the water flow over my back the way I was instructed:

Yeah, I nearly killed myself doing it, but my kids will always have the memory of me giggling my way up the river. Even if it meant a few bruises along the way.

I'm pretty proud of the progress I'm making with my scarf. Even if there are gaping holes all over the place. L was good about fixing up some of my mistakes, and it was also cool to watch her knit for a few moments, and compare her technique with her mom's. She was also very good in telling me that some people do lots of mistakes like mine on purpose for a certain "look". I wish I could remember the term she used, it was really cute.

I don't know that I'll ever get those tiny finger movements down, that both D and L do, but I'm perfectly happy with "good enough". Will I get the bug? I honestly don't know. For now, I'll finish up my scarf and see if I miss doing it when it's done.

Our friends camp at this place pretty regularly, and L has become friendly with one of the women who work there. So she ended up marching in a local parade representing the state park. The parade was about ten minutes long, and was about as hokey as they come. What a hoot. I especially enjoyed the Cairo Hillbillies Clan, and bagpipe group consisting of one man. The boys especially liked the ridiculous amounts of candy they got (kind of bummed here that candy is what parades have become all about for them; I don't remember candy at parades when I was a kid).

Overall we had a fun weekend. My only regret is that our campsites, although next to each other, were further apart from our friends' than I had hoped. Which meant that once the boys were in bed, we couldn't go next door for some grown-up visiting.

Lots more photos can be seen here. Or by clicking on the link at the right.

Around the dinner table that night: "What was your favorite thing about this weekend?".
Me: Making s'mores around the campfire with our friends.
B: Fishing.
R: Swimming in the river.
E: Everything.

The end of piano

I took my first trip to a yarn store today. We are camping this weekend and a friend is going to teach me to knit. I've known many women who have knit, for quite a while, but I've honestly never had the interest to learn. Things change, I guess.

So this is what I picked out for my very first scarf. (I know, I know, there's a picture of YARN on my blog - what is she doing to me?) It matches my gloves really well, is wool, so won't (hopefully) create static, which is a big problem for me with my hair in the winter, and is varying thicknesses, so it will camouflage mistakes (at least that's what the woman in the store said).

I actually have a beautiful scarf and matching hat that an old friend made for my 40th birthday.They are gorgeous and match my gloves, but unfortunately I get so many static shocks when I wear either, that it's absolutely painful. It has always saddened me. (Kind of a weird metaphor for what happened to our friendship.)

Anyhow, after the yarn store we headed to BJ's to exchange R's copy of the new Harry Potter audio book, which, horror of horrors, actually had a scratch on it! Boy, to say he was upset about it is an understatement.

Finally, we finished the day off with E's last piano class at the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven. The class was called "Meet the Piano", and was a six week introduction, in a fun setting, with other students present, to the piano. I signed him up for the class thinking it would be a good way to find out if private lessons would be welcomed. It worked out really well, since the parents were allowed to stay in the room with the kids, and as you can see, the class was very small (although one girl did still manage to be somewhat disruptive).

Here is E during his last class, clapping out the rhythm of the notes, which a classmate is pointing to. In addition to a few simple songs, they also began learning to read music. Very cool!


Here is E playing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" with his teacher, who is doing some nice chords for background. He really liked his teacher. It didn't hurt that she brought brownies and apple juice for a small "reception" after their "recital". Unfortunately, B couldn't get off work early to attend, because he is off from work tomorrow so we can head out to our camping weekend nice and early.

E really loved the class, which I am just thrilled about. He has announced that he is going to ask Santa for a piano (as you can see we have a small keyboard). I guess one way to tell that a kid loves what he is doing is that he wants to share that love with others. Here is my boy teaching his own student how it's done:B was a willing and patient student.

I will be asking a friend who is very happy with her own children's private piano teacher, for the name of that person, very soon.

Busy summer days

I hate not blogging. I'm sure I've said it before, but as I'm getting older my mind just doesn't retain what it used to, and this blog will be my memory for later. I feel like life begins to pass me by if I don't sit down and dwell on it a little bit.

I have photos and snippets of what we've done over the last two weeks, but don't know how much time I'll have to write it all down. So rather than start way back when, I'll start with today and go backwards. This way I won't feel like I have to catch up and can just stop when I run out of time.

Let's start with a photo:
Unless you are familiar with the exquisite aroma of oriental lilies, you simply cannot imagine just what this photograph means. The whole house smells heavenly, and B hasn't had any allergy problems yet. I think I will always have a cutting garden. It's a downright heady feeling I've been enjoying.

Today we skipped playgroup. So many people are in camp and couldn't show up till 2:30 or so, and I just didn't feel like driving the hour round trip to Hamden for an hour and a half worth of play. So instead we went to Sears and got my car a new battery. Then we went to Walmart (gasp!) to get some water shoes since we do need them and Target is done for the season. We did a few other errands along the way, and stopped into Good Will where the boys were thrilled to find golf clubs for $1 each, since E flung one into the woods last time they played in the rain, and they haven't been able to find it back there.

I'm glad we got our errands done so tomorrow we can concentrate on laundry, grocery shopping, and packing for our camping trip this weekend, which we are really looking forward to!

Winged Migration, Southington Fun, and Harry Potter

Today we started out at the movies, at 10 am, to see a free presentation of Winged Migration. I've heard about movie theaters showing free movies during the summer, but this is the first time we've gone to one. Mostly they show all the animated stuff we've already seen, but I was happy to find something I thought would be of substance.

This movie was visually spectacular and I'm glad to have seen it on the big screen. For two reasons. One is that the exquisite cinematography might not translate as well to a smaller screen. And two is that if it were on TV the boys would have turned it off after 15 minutes. The movie really is visually stunning, and I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys just watching nature. But I was extremely disappointed in the missed opportunity to learn something. Me and my kids, both. Imagine March of the Penguins without any narration, and that's pretty much what you've got. Once in a very small while there were subtitles which blinked by too fast for me to read the whole thing to the kids.

What my kids were saying through the movie:
"What kind of bird is that?"
"Where is that?"
"Why is he doing that?"
"I wonder why..."
It was so darn frustrating! And it's so unfortunate, because with some decent narration this movie could have rocked. The kids actually wanted to know about the birds, not just look at them!

After the movie we walked around the mall a bit. I let the boys dictate what we did for quite a while. They spent all the money Grandma Rocks had given them on Saturday at their cousin Sean's birthday party. We had a pleasant and easy going afternoon. At one point we stopped into a book store in the mall and R saw the strategically placed Harry Potter display. Seeing it up close and touching it had him asking if I would buy it and read it to him. This from the boy who only wanted to hear Jim Dale read it on CD (list price $79.99). I had reserved the audio book at the library, which we were due to visit, and told him to let's wait and see if we could find out where on the list we were for it.

On the way home we stopped at BJ's for gas and I ran inside to get a soda. And there it was: the ENORMOUS Harry Potter display, with the audio book for only $42.99. R agreed to give up his allowance for a month, and I would pay the balance. However, we'd still wait to open it till after the library. Well the librarian told us we were "way down there" on the list, so we now officially own our own copy. Needless to say E is losing his mind without someone to play with.

We finished up the day with some Southington Fun. The first show was a performance by a Polynesian Dance school. It was very interactive for the kids (click on the photo to see it closer):It was great that they got to interact, but it would have been nice if they could've had the kids sit down during the straight performances. It was very difficult to see. I did not get any photos of all the cool hula skirt numbers because they saved all that for the end, and by that point all the kids were standing and we could barely see a thing. E was getting really pissed.

Unfortunately, all the interaction made it challenging for the next entertainer; a juggler. Get a load of this...
Ha ha! The guy really was amusing, and very talented as well. He did an admirable job staying patient with all the kids running up onto the stage to touch "this" and "that" too. I have to say the parents were really neglectful in their basic good manners lessons for the evening. The performer did manage to refrain from screaming at kids, but I could see he was wishing parents would pay attention and help him out. His frustration was pretty obvious.

Later the Southington Park and Rec people actually started speaking to the kids, especially as the show got to the point where being onstage or even too close wasn't a good idea.

The guy was a really good juggler. The lawn chair thing was my favorite. It was also fun when he got up on his six foot unicycle and took bites out of an apple as he juggled it, a machete and a juggling pin.

We had actually seen this guy perform during Southington Fun a couple of years ago. Yes! I remembered it! But the boys didn't.

R was thrilled when I told him he could stay up as late as he wanted to listen to his book. He turned in an hour after his regular bedtime. As I write this he is on disk four of 17. And he keeps wondering why he keeps hurting himself. I had hoped he'd sleep a little later than usual the day after, but the garbage trucks woke him up.

What an amazing day. It was one of those days when I wasn't thinking about anything but where I was. And totally enjoying it. I'm so glad to be getting better at it.

Sean's second birthday

We spent some time in New Jersey with B's family this weekend. It was his brother Matthew's son's second birthday. It was a loooong drive to get there; driving in Jersey always SUCKS. But we had a great time. The boys always adore playing with Uncle Matt and Uncle Eric. After all they are only over sized kids themselves.
Plus Uncle Matt has an enormous pool, served large quantities of amazing grilled filet mignon, had a pinata, an awesome cake with chocolate covered strawberries, and sent us home with a gigantic goody bag. And the drive home wasn't all that bad.

Alice in Wonderland

We were supposed to have gone to the beach with playgroup yesterday, but it rained. So we went to see Alice in Wonderland at the Oakdale Theater. It was lots of fun. We've enjoyed seeing these musicals for several years. They are decent performances of stories the kids have only seen the Disney versions of, they are inexpensive ($6.50 per person at the door), and I love supporting Kaleidoscope Theatre.

We were disappointed that none of our playgroup friends were joining us, but it worked out well since with just the three of us we got 6th row seats. The woman at the box office said they save a few seats in the front for performers to use, and if they don't get used, they release them to the public the day of the show. Woo hoo! E: "Mommy that caterpillar has an excellent costume."

Afterwards we headed to our usual rain location for playgroup: The North Haven Library, but found that everyone had gone to someone's house instead. So we soaked in all the great stuff at this new (for us), fantastic library (coming home with five audio books and several written ones), and then headed over to our friend's house.

R is now done with golf camp, and finished up tennis lessons today.He had a wonderful time doing both and wants to do two sessions of each, next year. Next year E will be old enough for golf and will probably do tennis too. I love having athletic kids.

B in Alaska

It was torture to be without a camera while B was away. It was also difficult to be without him. It was a lonely and long week for all of us. I got a good taste of life as a single parent - ew.

We did do some fun things though.

We got a very cool invite to do some swimming with friends in Glastonbury at an awesome spot. (Thanks for the photos, Debbie.)

We spent some time with Nagy Papa. He joined us one night for Chinese food and a Steel Drum Band performance at the Torrington Public Library, which was excellent. The guys who did it not only performed but informed, as well. Great show.

R had tennis lessons every day at 8 am. Yeah, that's 8 am.

We attended three birthday parties, the last of which B joined us for. His flight was delayed for a whole day since they were fogged in, or he could've attended two.

Yes, he had an incredibly amazing time. Check out his photos by clicking on the link on the right. In the meantime, here's a clue:
Two hundred and sixty pounds. Getting that thing in was a group effort, but I understand that Matt did most of the work.

And now I have 100 pounds of halibut in my freezer, a fish which is relatively high in mercury and that we shouldn't eat more than once a month. Whoever you are, next time you see us, expect to get some fish!

Another Movie

We were scheduled for a playdate with some new folks in Waterbury today. We "met" through a yahoo group I'm on. Four families were to have gone. Were.

At 12:50 just before walking out the door, something prompted me to check my email one last time. There I found all the cancellations. Actually, two of the three. One cancellation showed a time stamp of one hour before we were to have met, one was timed 17 minutes before we were to have met, and one actually cancelled AFTER we were to have met.

I understand it was a hot day, but common courtesy, people! It would have been nice to know before we got all slathered up with sunscreen. Thank goodness I checked my mail, as I would have been incredibly frustrated to be sitting in 97 degree weather in the middle of Waterbury waiting for no-shows with two boys having no one to play with.

So we went to the movies instead. We just couldn't sit here looking at each other all day, especially after the prospect of meeting new friends. We went to the dollar store in the mall and stuffed my bag with goodies before heading in to see Evan Almighty, which I must say, was very fun. The boys had seen trailers for it several times and wanted to see it, and after I read through the review on Screen-it, I had decided it was okay. I got a book out of the library about Noah's Ark so they would know what the heck the story was about, and they both really enjoyed it. I did too. It was fun.

I wish they'd be more careful about the scenes they show before the movies though. The scenes themselves are supposedly acceptable for "all audiences", but to have my seven-year-old watching this was definitely NOT appropriate. Check out Rule #1.

We've picked up quite a bit on the reading around here, which is a giant relief to me. E picked up Arthur and the Minimoys at a book sale after seeing Arthur and the Invisibles (which was quite good), and we've been enjoying reading that. R and I have been enjoying Henry Winkler's books about Hank Zipzer immensly. Hank is dislexic and in the fourth grade and R really relates to him. The books are very funny, and although I wish R was capable of reading them to himself, that would mean I would miss out on the fun. And the conversations about beating up on oneself, trying one's best, etc. We are getting there though; R is finally making some long strides in his own reading ability.

R finished up golf camp a while ago, and is now enjoying tennis lessons every morning for eight days. We are still discussing the pros and cons of the Academia Futebol League (soccer), but it looks like we are leaning toward waiting at least another year before becoming that competitive. Thank you Uncle Larry for your incredibly insightful perspective.

It's been hard without B here. Even though we speak to him daily, E is close to the edge almost all the time, and R is missing him too. My heart goes out to all the children out there who don't have fathers to share their lives with. And all the moms without partners. I have to admit to missing B more than I thought I would.

B is in Alaska, fishing

His first day he caught a 67 pound halibut. He's also caught some salmon (which I am glad of since it has less mercury than halibut). He's having an amazing time. He took my camera, so hopefully we'll have some good photos to look at when he returns. Luckily he gets phone service if he stands "just so" outside his lodge, so we've been able to speak to him every morning, despite the four hour time difference. Having that cell phone from work has been handy.

That first day I spoke to him, he called from Juneau and said there were five cruise ships in the harbour. I was glad to hear it as this was the main reason I could not muster up excitement to organize a trip for the rest of us to go. It would have been like going to Disney World during vacation week in February. R and I have discussed it and someday we will get out there together. It is a place I will see before I die.

It's been tough living without a camera here at home.

Independence Week

The boys and I went to Maine on Monday afternoon, and had a really enjoyable couple of days. In no particular order, we saw the movie Ratatouille and watched some excellent fireworks over Square Pond. R played some par three golf with Aunt Debbie, Uncle Rob and Uncle Rob's partner Sheila's son Christopher, while E and I played miniature golf with Grandma and Sheila. R was incredibly thrilled to have beaten Christopher, and more importantly, Aunt Debbie.

We also paid a visit to the dollar store, compliments of Grandma, went for a walk to the waterfalls near Grandma's, and had an amazing time at Granny Kent Pond (Grandmother - my grandmother - has a house on that pond where the clan gathers for summer fun). Both boys had an amazing time playing with their cousins. In 1997 FIVE boys were born to my Grandmother's family, so the boys have a bunch of cousins to play with. R also had an excellent time tubing off the back of Uncle Larry's boat, and E had the chance to drive it. Uncle Larry is cool (and only three years older than me).

We all hated having to come home on Thursday, but E had a piano class that I didn't want him to miss. There are only six (very expensive) sessions, and I didn't want him to fall behind. He and I were both very happy to have returned for it.

A Homeschool Protest

On Thursday, June 28th, I left the decision to R. He could have Nagy Papa pick him up from golf camp, then spend a few hours with him, or he could skip golf camp and join E and I at Connecticut's Capitol to protest abuses toward homeschoolers. "Let's see. One day of camp, vs years of homeschooling." My kid rocks.

We carpooled with some friends and had a great day learning all about fighting for our rights. It was very very cool to see how many people I knew there, and I am definitely proud of the fact that I am in with the people who show up.

I'm not going to get too deeply into the issue. Here are links to fill you in if you care to read further. They are all in order so you can get the full story.

Homeschoolers Under Attack
Announcing a press conference regarding abuses toward homeschoolers by DCF
Press conference results
A meeting with the governor and probable new head of DCF
A call for a homeschooling protest
First impressions on the protest
The protest (Look for a picture of the boys and I on the third photo down. Click on that photo to make it larger.)
Making progress

Judy Aron is Research Director for National Home Education Legal Defense (NHELD) so she always knows the scoop on the legal front in CT. I read her blog every day.