Memorial Day Weekend in Pictures

We don't do much, we don't get out much most of the year. (It's hot here, you know.) But on Memorial Day weekend, somehow we find a way to pull out all the stops and go for broke. I don't know why it happens that way. It just happens, thanks to friends that help jump start us into action. Thanks, friends. We love you.

On Sunday evening (on the recommendation of 2 sets of friends) we went to the Zilker Hillside Theater to see a production of DREAM! A Midsummer Night's Dream with a 1960's Music Beat. It was hot - the weather, I mean. So very hot. We have a suggestion for the people that put on these summer programs: How about Winter Shakespeare in the Park? We would totally go for that. Summer heat + lots of people committed to keeping Austin weird + all of their dogs = Not as much fun as it could be. Just a suggestion. Winter. I have a coat. It would be awesome. In spite the heat, though, we really did have an awesome time. Next year, we plan to hit the April shows.

My kiddos, aren't they sweet? They only complained a little. Only fidgeted a lot. In the end, they were enchanted. There were fairies. And 60's music.

The kids got to meet the fairies at intermission. Can you say, HIGHLIGHT? This is Emma with Mustardseed (I think.)

Jared with Puck, a very mischievous fairy.

On Monday, we went with some friends to Bull Creek (our first time after many, many years in Austin.) There is no better way to beat the heat than to have your ten little piggies submerged in cool flowing water. Ahhhh.

My son, so serious, about to slide down the slippery rock 'slide.' From his expression, you'd think he was about to go for the gold.

Tadpole fishing. Good times.

Not my kid, our friends' kid. He doesn't know it, but I love him. He used to think I was okay, when he was four. Now, he's not sure he knows me. Oh, to be 8 again, carefree, and bask in the creek bed!

Not my baby - our friends' baby (the cutest baby EVER!) When Titus helped her go back to her mother, a child who was playing nearby told him, "Someone's stealing your baby!"

This face, this sweet, adorable face, pretty much sums up Memorial Day weekend 2010.

Can I get a LOL?

Everyone thinks their kid is the best. You know you do. Everyone secretly ('cause let's be honest, it would be obnoxious to flaunt it) believes that their kid is the cutest baby. The smartest kid in the class. The most talented kid on the team. The most beautiful child EVER.

Well, mine is the funniest. There. I said it. You'll have to take my word for it, though, as most of her witticisms do not translate into the written word. Plus, well, humor is highly subjective. But whatever - my kid is funny.

Take for example, the other night at the dinner table. We (and by 'we' I mean the children who eat at 5 times the speed of sound) had completed the main portion of our meal, which is the cue for one of the kids to ask a specific question. This night Emma did the honors.

Emma: What can we have for dessert?

Daddy: You can have some nice, fresh air!

Emma: Can we have some fruit with our fresh air?

The girl does not miss a beat. And the deadpan expression is simply not conveyable. Are there any open mic nights for 8-year-olds?

Daddy material

We have some friends who have the cutest baby EVER. Although, she's not much of a baby anymore, streaking pell-mell into toddlerhood. My son, who has a soft spot for babies (much like his father before him), got to spend some time playing with the cutest baby EVER this past weekend. He shared with me afterward how he walked her around the playground, holding her little hand, making sure she didn't fall. He told how, when her adventurous nature led her to imitate some of his prowess on the playground equipment, he helped her to climb and how he held her tightly so she wouldn't slip and hurt herself.

This child is constantly inquiring as to when he will be old enough to babysit. This child has often spoken wistfully about the things he will do with his own children ... someday.

Yesterday, we happened to meet these friends in the gym parking lot and the cutest baby EVER was strapped snugly into her carseat in the back. My son asked if she was in the van, and could he please see her. The mother obligingly rolled down the window and allowed my son to greet and fawn over the cutest baby EVER for a couple of minutes. As I was concerned about the traffic flow in the parking lot, I finally said to him, Okay, enough - time to get going.

My son thanked the mother, and as we walked away he mentioned how happy he was that he got to see her and then added, in all seriousness, "It's an honor."

Young ladies, he'll graduate from college in 2021.

15 years

If, 15 years ago today, the day of my (outdoor) wedding, it had been as humid in Austin, Texas as it is today, I would have cried. It's possible I may have also passed out. And I may have sweated more than it is decorous for a bride to sweat (er... perspire.)

I'm not saying it wasn't warm. Or that the sun wasn't glaringly bright. Or that I didn't get sunburned on the left side of my neck and back. Or that certain parties weren't concerned about the icing on the cake. Or that someone wasn't overheard saying, "It's Africa hot." I'm just saying it wasn't as humid as it happens to be today. So I didn't cry.

We had a good time. We didn't pass out. We got married.

The cake survived, and it was super yummy.

I mentioned to a co-worker today that it was my 15th wedding anniversary and the question came, "So, you still love him?"

Yes, I said. Yes! YES! I love him! I like him. I still love him. I am in love with him. He is my best friend. He makes me laugh. He makes my breath catch in my chest. He is my champion, my protector. He is my hope. He is my completion. He is me and I am him. And yes, I still love him.

Well ... all I actually said aloud to my co-worker was the emphatic, don't-even-have-to-think-before-answering, Yes! But I'm pretty sure the rest was implied.

Game Time

For my rapidly retreating recent birthday, I received a gift of cash, which I finally found time to spend on myself a couple of weeks ago. Yes, mama did get a new pair of shoes! 2 pair, in fact. Plus some other clothes - yea! After my shopping spree, I had a handful of dollars left in my pocket, not enough really for a 3rd pair of shoes, and I have been contemplating what to do, what to do. Today, as we took an impromptu stroll through our local bookstore, I saw the perfect cherry on top to complete my birthday gift....

A little game I have been eyeing for quite some time now. A cute little game that comes in a little yellow zippered pouch shaped like a banana. BANANAGRAMS! I brought the little yellow banana-shaped pouch home and eagerly anticipated playing it with my kiddos.

--thud--

That was the sound of my hopes and expectations for a new family favorite hitting the floor. Don't get me wrong - I love it! But I quickly realized (helped along by my daughter's whimpering, frustrated little face) that it is a game that might just be more fun when the players' skills are more evenly matched. Me vs. my 8-year-old (and my 11-year-old, for that matter) was a little lopsided in the skill department.

Eh. We did what we could. I'm sure we'll amend the game to suit our needs (specifically my need not to make the kids cry.)

Which brings me to my next board game tidbit. One of our current favorites is Apples to Apples. The kids love it, mostly (I suspect) because game time is the time that Daddy breaks out the silly voices and the silly comments and we all break out into general silliness. Plus, the game itself is fun. But we have begun a new tradition recently with the game that everyone looks forward to nearly as much as the game itself.

At the end of the game, each player is left with about 6 or 7 Red Apple cards. Each person takes a turn trying to weave their cards into a coherent sentence/story. For example, if your leftover Red Apple cards were: Airline Food, Vampires, Noisy Neighbors, A Flat Tire, Baby Showers, The Beatles, and The Green Bay Packers, your sentence/story might go something like this:

The Beatles were living next to some Noisy Neighbors, The Green Bay Packers, who kept throwing Baby Showers for Vampires. So they tried to get away, and on the way to the airport they got A Flat Tire, which saved them from eating Airline Food.

Results vary, depending on your cards, but are generally good for a chuckle if not outright hysterics (like the time we played with my parents and my mother had us in stitches!) Recently one of us hit the jackpot with the cards: Bill Clinton, Waterbed, and Glazed Donuts.

Want to play along? Here are a few randomly selected Red Apple cards for you:

Hockey, Brain Surgeons, Nicholas Cage, Girlfriends, Country Music, Elvis Presley and Toasted Marshmallows

Ready .... GO!

Date Nights

This week just concluded was Staff Appreciation Week at my place of employment. A week with perks like free concerts, tours, giveaways, food discounts, etc. Now, I could have saved some folks a lot of trouble putting this week of appreciation together if they had bothered to ask me my opinion. My opinion is that what really would make me feel appreciated is if the powers that be would lift the morale-killing salary freeze they have imposed. But I'm sure the powers that be are under the assumption that we, the masses, are just so darned happy to even have a job that we really don't mind taking one for the faculty team. What starts here changes the world and all that.

Ahem ... I seem to have veered slightly off topic. Where was I? Ah, yes ... date nights.

Of the wonderful perks offered to the staff this week were free concerts (2 tickets, to be exact) from the School of Music. I checked out the calendar and found there was a concert scheduled each night of the week. My first impulse was to take my son, who recently participated in the All-City Music Memory Contest and who has a taste for beautiful music. Upon further reflection I realized that I could not possibly leave my daughter out of the special treatment and decided to take each child on a separate night.

My son and I decided to attend Wednesday evening's concert, featuring the Wind Ensemble. The concert was long, and I wasn't sure my exhausted 11-year-old gymnast-in-training was going to make it through. I gave him the opportunity to leave early, but he declined. My favorite part of the evening was at the end when I looked over at him and he flashed me the sweetest smile and spontaneously exclaimed how great the concert was. I also was quite tickled when at one point during one of the pieces I looked over at him and he was attempting to stifle some giggles. When I leaned in and whispered to him to find out was so amusing, he quietly responded, "I tooted!" Yep. He's eleven.

My daughter and I chose to attend the Thursday evening concert featuring the Jazz Band. I had mentioned to her earlier that people sometimes dress up when they go to a concert and my girlie girl ran with that little tidbit. She appeared ready to go in her fancy long black skirt and a black sparkly top and had pulled her hair up in a fancy little ponytail. I wore jeans. Two things were learned this evening: 1) My daughter likes jazz, and 2) I do not. Like her brother before her, she was given the option of leaving the concert early. She was ambivalent, expressing that though she was very tired (and cold), she really liked the music. In the end, the jazz won, we stayed.

Notwithstanding my earlier comments, I am very happy to have been appreciated this week, as it afforded me the opportunity to spend some sweet one-on-one time with 2 of my favorite people on the earth.

My glam girl on the way to the concert

An embarrassment of riches

I told you exactly 2 weeks ago, as I giddily professed my love for the local library, about my latest stack of books. Six books, to be exact. Books which are due in exactly 1 week. You knew I was kidding when I said I was going to try to read ALL of them in my allotted 3 weeks, right? Just a little literary embellishment. I do that sometimes. Seriously - 6 books read in 3 weeks just isn't going to happen. Not by me, anyway. Especially since two other books I had put on hold became available last week, increasing my stack to 8. Talk about too much of a good thing.

A few I will finish, a few will be renewed, and a few will be returned to the library until next time.

• Franny and Zooey -- Finished!
• The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings -- I inadvertently left off the "and Other Writings" when I listed this last time. I have finished the Tell-Tale Heart (all 5 pages of it - whew) and am tackling some of the other stories/poems when the mood strikes. (Honestly, though, the mood for Poe does not seem to strike often.)
• The Count of Monte Cristo -- I'm on page 174 (of 580) and am completely enthralled.
• Wintersmith - Emma and I started this one, but, as she is currently enthralled with her own chapter book in which she has been working on for a while, we have not gotten very far.
• NurtureShock -- This is one of the newcomers to the stack and I'm about 2 chapters in. I allowed it jump ahead in line because (due to its apparent popularity) someone else already has it on hold, so there will be no renewing.

The rest of the stack, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Handmaid's Tale, and Foundation (the other newcomer, by Isaac Asimov) may not get cracked at all this go-around. But it's okay. I prefer to have too much of a good thing than none of it.