More photos

The boys went bowling on Sunday while I was off scrapbooking in a community room at a bank with other scrappers for four hours. They had a great time, and B remembered the camera. When I uploaded them onto my computer I found about 40 pictures that look similar to this: I am so happy that we take lots and lots of photos. I was so resistant to the digital thing, but not having to print every photo is so awesome. I can keep them inexpensively and watch incredible slide shows later on. I really have to find the time to play with the software I have and figure out how to make more cohesive slide shows with music and everything. I really want to do that with our digital video camera as well. I think I have to move these things higher on my priority list.

Okay, so here are some more photos. The valentine boxes we made for playgroup:and how they all looked on the table there:
We were surprised to walk in and find a huge buffet full of cupcakes, brownies and other crap. E's eyes totally lit up when I told him to go to town and have anything he wanted. Remarkably, his plate was nowhere near filled as much as I thought it would be.

E posed with one of the mustaches we gave out. It's held in place by a lollipop. The girls all got big lips. I was kind of bummed that everyone took their boxes home to open; I would have liked to get a group photo like the cool one I got the last time we gave these out to a large group.







This past Monday we got together with our old playgroup. Seven of the eight families were able to make it. We haven't seen everyone together since once or twice last summer. We all had an enjoyable day.

The boys are visiting with friends this morning, so I have some time to myself. Blogging during the day is *so* much faster. Uploading all these photos was no sweat, unlike between 7 and 9 pm when I usually do it. I found this before I sat down:It's amazing where those cars show up (clicking on the photo makes it larger).

Well, off to enjoy some time alone :-)

A moment in time

Me: E, please put your shoes on so we can go. This is like the fourth time I'm asking you.

E: No it's not, it's the third. I'm counting. My record is ten.

Finally...for real

Right after a 1.5 mile, 30 minute walk on my treadmill, I was invited to try out my new snow pants. So I actually put them on right over my pajamas. Boy, they are warm! I went up and down the hill about a dozen times, I guess. We've finally discovered a benefit to being fat: it makes for faster sledding. I won every race, but R is the champ on distance.

Valentines Day was really great this year. The snow forced B to work at home, so he had time to enjoy family time too. He made me a very creative card this year. We all had a great day.

A Week in Photos

I uploaded a bunch of photos from my camera today. We've been doing lots of fun stuff!

R made a castle wall out of the candy legos he got for his birthday:

















E finally talked me into giving him the basket full of washing machine treasure I've been collecting for the last six months or so:












We went swimming at the Cheshire Pool with the Greater New Haven Homeschoolers. Happily, our favorite friends from the group showed up:












We visited with a friend's family this weekend. The boys had the opportunity to learn how to ice-skate for real. They had excellent teachers, and made "new" friends,











while the dads ice-fished, or had fun trying:











We all had a really relaxed and fun time. I'm glad my family enjoyed spending time with this family as much as I've always enjoyed spending it with their mom.

R got a giant bruise from a fall he took out on the ice. It's really hurting him but he says it was worth it. He had a great time.












We spent some time working on Valentine's Day cards:












And this evening we are ready and waiting for the 4 to 8 inches being forecast for overnight.
I'm looking forward to actually using the snowpants I finally found to buy.

We have an ice-skating rink in front of our house!

I have to admit that during R's birthday party yesterday, I was somewhat embarrassed by the huge sheet of ice at the end of my driveway which forced people to make their way up the grass. But today I'm kind of glad the town didn't do it's job as well as usual when it finally snowed. What a beautiful day. The sun is shining, the air is crisp and refreshing, and the homeschoolers are outside playing in the 20-degree weather.

After five minutes of videotaping, I made them come in to put hats and gloves on. Frostbite is a lesson I'm not willing to have them learn for themselves.

After some skating, and some sort of improvisational hockey requiring five or six blocks of ice the size of a soft ball, they took off into the woods behind the house to explore for 30 minutes. R must have had a watch on, because he came home right in time for Cyberchase, which is a PBS cartoon that uses lots of math, and computer lingo.

I am so loving my yellow livingroom. The sunlight is just everywhere; it is so invigorating. However, some people don't appreciate the sunlights effect on the television:












He is quite proud at having finally worked it out because it's been disturbing him for weeks. The stool came out of his room because we needed it to seat all his friends for cake yesterday, and it is likely that it will not make it's way back into his room anytime too quickly. Someone will be eating hunched over on a stool for every meal till spring. Or till I get tired of having to remember who sat on it last.

We are off to Watertown to pick up our raw milk and raw honey.

R's 10th Birthday Party with his friends

At 3:10 I stood alone in my house with ten 9- and 10-year-olds. We played a couple of party games before R opened his presents, then enjoyed the cake before playing even more party games. I always loved playing party games when I was a kid. I hope that my son and his friends do too. These days everyone seems to rent a bouncy house and send the kids off, but my hope is that R's parties will not blur into memory with all the others. Some of the kids had even remembered a couple of the games since they played them at R's last drop-off party two years ago. (Last year he saved his party for six months after his actual birthday so he could have an outdoor water party.) There certainly is a lot more laughter at R's parties than I've seen at some others. But on the other hand, at other parties the kids are off, so maybe they are doing just as much laughing, without my getting to enjoy it.

Okay there you have it. I throw R game parties so I can be in the middle of them having fun too. They bring me back to my own happy childhood parties as well.

It's interesting to see how the kids are all growing up. The girls are getting more lady-like and immediately jumped to help when I asked the crowd at-large to help with the wrapping paper. And some of the boys are getting quite aggressive, and free with the put-downs. At least no one was too mature or refined or cool to really work at smashing that pinata!

R is very pleased with the gifts he received. "I guess my friends really know me."

I feel blessed that R can have a party with nine other children his age. He is such a social person and I've worked hard to find him a large and diverse group of children for him to choose friends from. He'd be popular if he were in school; he makes friends so easily, so nine children his age who are all homeschoolers is a pat on the back for me :-) I only wish our house were bigger so we could have included all the siblings, who are actually all also his friends, and a few friends who we were not able to invite because of the space limitation!

E and B went out for pizza during the party, but returned home 30 minutes before it ended for the pinata. Now that we are doing the livingroom over, that useless hook in our ceiling is gone, so we needed to hold it up while the kids took swings. That thing was so jammed packed that it was like a rock; no give at all. All the kids had a second chance at three swings, and a few had three tries. It was nice that it ended up being E who finally smashed it open.

I'll post photos in the sidebar tomorrow. For now I'm off to watch Heroes.

Man Day

B has no real interest in football, except for the week leading into, and the day of, the Superbowl. He really does enjoy watching it every year though. For the past two years we have spent the day with friends, but this year we were not included on the guest list. I thought the kids would be way more disappointed than they were, since they got to see many of their friends there. And I was pleasantly surprised to hear B say he would have "called in sick" if we had been invited. So it actually worked out quite nicely that we were home alone for it.

I made mini pizza bagels, mozzarella sticks, buffalo wings, and we got pretzels and Doritos and Cheeze Doodles. And the boys enjoyed their ginger ale along side B's Heineken. Later we had hamburgers, macaroni and cheese - out of a box, no less - and potato salad. They were all in manly junk-food heaven. They were all so cute lounging around watching TV snuggled in with their blankets. Actually, that was for about the last hour only; before that E had been running all around chasing balloons with his sword. He sat down when the food arrived, and pretty much passed out shortly thereafter. R went to bed before it ended too; his birthday party is tomorrow and he wants good energy.

Yes, while Man Day was being celebrated and catered to, I was also preparing my house for a birthday party. Clean kitchen, arrange furniture so all the kids have seats, put up streamers and balloons, make and decorate a cake... I so lived the Suzy Homemaker stereotype today. It can sometimes be somewhat disconcerting, but today I didn't mind actually. Throwing really fun kids birthday parties is something my mother taught me to do well :-) And I do enjoy them.

Friday found us at friends' house. We hadn't spent alone-time with them in eons. And both R and E had a wonderful time. R has always enjoyed C's company in the absence of a crowd, and thought he had "really cool stuff". E loved playing house and horses with R, and came home with a bunch of stuffed animals; gifts and loans. And I enjoyed checking in with my friend too.

On Saturday during R's basketball game, E starting noticing the really cool pattern on the bottom of his new sneakers. He wondered if he could use the texture to paint when we got home. When we got there, he gathered up a bunch of textures to use and set right to work. I was very glad "he" decided to use his old sneaker bottoms instead of his new ones.

Favorites? The boot bottom, the monster truck wheels, and his own feet, (of course)! Hands were cool too. He's loved finger painting since he was about 18 months old, that kid.

I'm reading The Edison Trait. A friend recommended it to me a long time ago, and although I've picked it up, I've always put it back. I think because maybe I was in denial. Anyhow, I'm into it now, and find that I have a Discoverer with huge Dynamo tendencies. The Dynamo is the part I find so challenging. It's been a really helpful book so far, in that I now know I'm not alone in some of the things I've been feeling. I'm not even up to the "what to do for the kid" part yet. It's going to take me a while to get through this book. Hopefully I'll be able to renew it since I got it through Interlibrary loan.

I guess I'm still coming to grips with the reality of who E is, and accepting that he will always keep me on my toes. He will continue to challenge me to see things differently, and to question my perception of how this world should work. He will continue to expand my horizons. If I could just get him to stop bouncing off the walls. Occasional silence would also be incredibly welcome. But I suppose the book will help me adjust that attitude...

A Gemini Dragon Discoverer Dynamo.
Now that's a label.

The Rockstar Supernova Concert

R and I went to see Rockstar Supernova on Saturday night. We had gotten tickets as soon as they went on sale, soon after the TV show concluded. We had been voting along for who we thought the best singer for the band would be, and when I suggested we see the concert, he was definitely enthusiastic!

R hadn't been feeling well on the day of the show, and we realized he might be starting to get the illness B had earlier in the week. So I gave him some Tylenol, and he took a nap. I wish now that I had brought the Tylenol with me.

We met friends who were seeing the show with us, and had dinner beforehand at a restaurant called Archie Moore's which was fun, and where my food was great. I'm glad we arrived a little early at the Chevrolet Theater. We got a really good parking spot, bought our shirt, used the bathroom, and found our seats in plenty of time. The 3600 capacity theater was about 2/3 to 3/4 full.

Dilana came on exactly at 7:30 and played for 20 minutes. That woman is awesome. She's the one I went to see. I can't wait till she comes out with some amazing music for me to buy. Magni actually showed up playing guitar for her too.

Toby's band, Juke Kartel came on next, after almost no break, and the crowd went wild. People had obviously come to see Toby. R really enjoyed their perfomance a lot. I did too. They are an amazingly energetic band, and remind me of U2 before they got into who they are. They played for about 30 minutes. After Juke Kartel I went back out to the merchandise table and bought their CD, which although it only has four songs on it, is really great. While out in the lobby our we noticed a huge line forming for a "meet and greet" with the performers. So when the next band came on and our friends weren't back, we knew where they were.

The Panic Channel is Dave Navarro's band and they don't get a link. They were awful. When the band leader told the audience we were all his bitches, I had to laugh because I don't think anyone in that whole entire audience was there to see them. Unless of course their mothers were there. They seemed very out of place with all the Rockstar TV performers. Toward the end when the singer proclaimed that he had "one more little nugget" for us, someone behind me said "oh no, please don't". Enough said. The only redeeming part of seeing this band was at the very end when they played AC/DC's Highway to Hell and Dilana came out to sing it. It really made sitting through all their other crap worth it. That chick rocks.

Our friends came back to their seats in time for Supernova, oh excuse me, Rockstar Supernova. They had gotten to meet Dilana, Toby and Magni, and other band members from Toby's band Juke Kartel. Our eight-year-old friend had her shirt signed by all the performers. She was very psyched. And some kind strangers took photos of her schmoozing it up with them all. They all apparently loved her and fawned all over her. What a great first concert for her! We had actually met up with our friends on the line, but R was feeling low by that point and didn't want to get on line with them. So we headed back to our seats, and were happy to see them return and share their adventure with us before Supernova came on.

So how was Rockster Supernova? R had voted for Lukas and was looking forward to seeing the show. He really liked all the lights which looked like stars. The rest of the lighting though, was awful. This is the very first show in the dozens I've gone to, where the lighting actually distracted from the show. They had all this back lighting which was glaring in the audiences faces. Maybe they wanted to see the audience, but we wanted to see them! I sincerely hope the lighting designer gets fired, and they are able to fix that mess before the tour is over. I hope they realize how awful it is.

The whole set design was actually quite poor, and very amateurish. There was a large platform about 10 feet or so back from the edge of the stage, which all the performers were on. So, a stage on a stage. It really separated the performers from the audience, and some of their wires weren't long enough for them to step closer to us. Also, Supernova had a platform above Tommy Lee, and some stairs to his right. So he wasn't centered, and he certainly wasn't up high enough. Like I said, it looked very amateurish.

The music was way TOO loud. Even through the earplugs. And Lukas? Lukas needs to get over himself. He is way too cocky. I don't know why the heck they decided to perfom Boys of Summer. Lukas was singing out of his throat the whole time and he actually couldn't reach some of the notes. If he keeps singing this way, it's just a matter of time before he loses his voice. On another song (I don't remember which one) he was actually off key for the second half of it.

The girls were going bezerk for him though; screaming his name and all. I was pleased that the infamous tittie-cam was not brought out. (Wherein the drummer uses a small video camera to encourage female audience members to lift their shirts and be broadcast over the giant screens above the band.) Special thanks to Tommy Lee for recognizing that some younger fans would be attending this band's concert. And to Lukas for not cursing as much as in his interviews.

I have to admit to being disappointed at how poorly their whole show was produced. I had listened to their album half a dozen times and thought the show should be pretty good, but I was disappointed. R enjoyed what he could, but I could see he was getting sleepy, so I asked him if he wanted to leave. He stayed another couple of songs before asking "are you sure you won't mind if we leave?" I'm guessing we only missed two or three songs. And there were a lot of other people leaving at the same time as us.

My poor R. I feel badly that he wasn't himself for the show. But he says he did enjoy it, and he got a new t-shirt. I'll take a photo soon and post it here. As for myself, I'm glad to have seen Dilana and Juke Kartel. And to have had dinner with some friends. The rest of the night was totally expendable.