Month: July 2016

William and I have many things in common, and one of them is that we both have summer birthdays.

I know it can be a little tough to have a summer birthday — your friends are often out of town and can’t come to a party, you never hear your classmates sing “Happy Birthday” as part of morning announcements, and sometimes your birthday falls during your family’s vacation and you don’t get to have a party at all. OH THE TRIALS OF MY LIFE.

Therefore I made an effort this year to make sure William felt special about his birthday. And I may have . . . overcompensated . . . just a wee little bit.

For example, by getting up early and making a giant German apple pancake for breakfast on the morning of his birthday proper.

And then that same day, using my “Baking for Two” cookbook to make him a wee little six-inch layer cake (this was actually the perfect size for my family and I will totally do this again). William still has chocolate on his cheeks from when he licked the mixing bowl.

Later that week we had a birthday party. This involved pizza (featuring MORE root beer from the Root Beer Store because we are gluttons for punishment and also a bottle of the Flying Cauldron Butterbeer, which William snatched up immediately because he is reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone for the first time and loving it).

Then, a pinata . . .

. . . then a game in which the boys built a tower out of cardboard and then knock it over with water balloons. Eleanor decided to stand next to the tower and taunt the boys. So guess where everyone began to aim? And guess who got soaking wet and chased everyone afterwards?

Later: MORE of William’s goofy cake-face. He’s going through a phase where all pictures require making a silly face. William had requested that his party be “birthday themed,” and that he therefore needed a “birthday flavored cake.” I had been planning on just buying an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins, but his request for “birthday flavor” melted my heart (he remembered the rainbow sprinkle cake from last year!) and I pulled out the baking pans.

The evening was rounded off with presents. Katie decided ten minutes before the party started to give William a present of some stuffed animals that had been hiding under her bed. Eleanor helped her wrap them up. I thought it was touching, although I think William was kind of baffled.

And we’re still not done! Today (Sunday) we are still opening presents from Mom & Dad (a cardboard MakeDo Space Pod kit. Wim and Jeff are working together to assemble it as I type this) and the grandmas (knight figures and a remote controlled BB8). Call me crazy, but I think we can consider this boy well-feted.

Not that he doesn’t deserve it. William is the sweetest sunshine guy I know, a sweet-to-the-core boy whose catchphrase is “Happy Day, Hooray!” and lives it like he believes it. There was a period a few months ago when William was declaring every day to be his “Best Day Ever,” even if it was full of what I’d consider mundane things like chores and school. Didn’t matter to him: every day was full of something that made it better than the last. Can’t go wrong with an outlook like that.

 

 

We’ve had two rounds of houseguests so far this summer.

Round One was William, his wife Melody, and their tiny toddler son Peter. I somehow didn’t take any pictures of them during their stay. Perhaps because it was the same week as this:

Wimmy’s sewing camp! It coincided with the same week as Shakespeare Camp, so the carpooling duties were exhausting. But everything you see him wearing/holding in that photo is something he made, so it was worth it.

Round Two coincided with this:

Yeah, Cub Scout Day camp. That week was so exhausting that I can scarcely summon the energy to remember it. My day as a chaperone involved hearing the boys getting lectured about hydration, gun safety, and a retelling of the Robin Hood legend that was riddled with inaccuracies (Robin of Locksley was not a real person! OKAY?)  but which was retold by an incredibly butt-kickin’ grey-haired female archery rangemaster, so I was in a forgiving mood.

The houseguests for Round Two were Edgardo, Liz, their three children, and Julia. Brooke, Liz & Julia: The Charlie’s Angels of Roommates, united under the same roof once more! They were just the kind of people to be understanding that their arrival coincided with my annual job running the neighborhood book-drive fundraiser.

We celebrated Pie & Beer Day (i.e. Salt Lake’s subversive answer to Pioneer Day) with trips to Shari’s and the Root Beer Store. Afterwards, I realized that our previous root beer tastings were paired with regular food (protein, veggies) instead of sugary pie. Soda & Pie: a classic culinary blunder that resulted in a sugar crash of neck-weakening proportions.

We also took a trip to Seattle Center together, but my phone ran out of juice and therefore I have no photo evidence. (In sum: Katie was terrified of riding the monorail, people are competitive about seating in the Armory, and the playground was hot. That makes it sound lame but I actually had a really good time. I love the Monorail!)

Let the record show that I love summer houseguests. There are two more rounds of them this season, and I can’t wait!

We’ve had quite the week of Bardolotry around these parts.

First, our trip to the Utah Shakespeare Festival. We had both sets of grandparents, plus Uncle Michael, Aunt Natalie, and Cousin Anderson along for the trip.

We saw four plays in three days: “The Three Musketeers” (eh. They gave D’Artagnan a spunky kid sister, which was super annyoing), “Mary Poppins” (solid production, cute child actors), “Henry V” (good enough; stole too much from Kenneth Branagh film, but it was preceded by the official opening ceremony for the Engelbert Theater, so that was nice), and “The Cocoanuts” (excellent musical based on Marx Bros. film; guy who played Harpo was amazing).

In between all the theatricals, we managed to eat quite a lot of good food at a little outdoor cafe called The French Spot. It’s run by a French chef and his children; his wife is a visiting professor who has a summer teaching position at SUU for five years. So while Mom teaches, Dad decided to set up the one restaurant in Cedar City with decent food. OHHHH my the croissants! The quiches! The crepes! The tarts! The omelettes! The creme brulee! The macarons! There was also le bifteck, but I never got around to trying it.

Eleanor was lucky enough to be chosen to participate in the Greenshow on English Night. She and another girl played Hot Potato, and Eleanor won! (The actors even got the audience to chant Eleanor’s name.)

We also managed to squeeze in a side trip to Cedar Breaks National Monument. As a happy coincidence, the rangers were celebrating a Wildflower Festival that day, so there were extra games and activities for kids to do. A “Master Astronomer Volunteer” had sunscopes set up for viewing a solar flare, and Eleanor, William, and Katie all played Wildflower Bingo.

Everyone trooped out onto the viewpoint trail together. The flowers were marvelous.

Our vacation was rounded off with a slower-ish day in Provo. Brian and I had been planning to attend the new Provo City Center Temple together, but luckily we managed to squeeze that in the morning before we drove to Cedar City:

That left us with an entire day of free time. I logged on as many hours as I could at the piano (more on that for another post), the kids played games with Aunt Caitlin (who they adore) and then we hied ourselves up to Midway for lunch at Tarahumara. Brian and I have come to grips with the fact that we will likely never find Tarahumara’s equal in Seattle.

We played more games and took Caitlin out to dinner again that evening (and I logged on still more hours on the Steinway). But soon it was time to pack up and drive home.

(Ah, road trips in the West. Where else can you find yourself parked next to a pickup truck full of antlers?)

Fortunately, we had a fun week of MORE Bardolotry lined up! Upon our return, Eleanor and Jeff participated in a week-long “Acting and Combat” theatre camp for kids aged 11-15 with the Seattle Shakespeare Company. The kids learned some stage combat, and they rehearsed and performed a mini version of “Hamlet.” Jeff was cast as the ghost; Eleanor was absolutely thrilled to be cast as Ophelia (how often do you actually get the part you want? Hardly ever!)

 

Katie and I were able to watch the performance together, which was followed by stage combat demonstrations by the kids. Eleanor beat up Jeff multiple times, which was fun to see.

Other Miscellaneous Events:

We celebrated Free Slurpee Day at 7-11, as did half of my friends on Facebook:

Katie finished her little 5-week Pre-Ballet class at the rec center:

Jeff and Brian hiked all 20 miles of the Burke-Gilman Trail in order to finish the requirements for the Hiking merit badge. It was Jeff’s idea to do an urban hike for the badge. It certainly made things more convenient – they didn’t have to pack a lunch, but stopped at Un Bon Pain for sandwiches.

This is the map of the trail:

This is a screen capture of when I was tracking the GPS signal on Brian’s phone to follow where they were. (Yes, they played “Pokemon Go” for a good chunk of the way.)

All finished! Brian was moaning about his feet all evening long.

I’ve noticed that we’ve fallen into a pattern these last few years. During the odd-year summers, we visit Yellowstone; during the evens we attend the Utah Shakespeare Festival. As traditions go, it ain’t so bad.

This year was a Shakespeare year. But before we headed down to Cedar City, we spent some more time with the Neweys in West Point.

Specifically, the rockin’ 4th of July festivities of West Point. Oh, how I love that small-town parade.

Horses and antique tractors and a million little girls in sparkly leotards with their jazz dance teams! Since Katie refers to this holiday as “America Day,” my dad kept hollering “HAPPY AMERICA DAY!” at the people throwing candy. Hence, we scored about 8 lbs. of saltwater taffy, plus several frisbees and a t-shirt.

My dad also hollered “HEY WATER! RIGHT HERE!” at the people on the floats holding squirt guns. Not quite as amusing (buuuuuut I will admit the cool water did feel nice in the hot sun).

The rest of the day was spent watching “Finding Dory,” then gorging on burgers & baked beans, then collapsing in a nappinh heap while the children watched “Voltron: Legendary Defender,” and then groggily collecting ourselves together to watch fireworks.

Poor Katie! She had been looking forward to America Day for weeks, but then took sick when it finally arrived. We let her come to the fireworks display anyway, although she spent most of it curled on a blanket with Huggy Bear.

Pat was visiting with his daughters for the weekend, and glorious Cousin Times were had by all.

Katie wasn’t sick for all of the Cousin Times. She and Emmy played for a long time together in the fairy garden:

The only downside to the holiday (besides Katie’s illness) was the unfortunate fact that Utah has legalized arial fireworks. It was like the friggin’ Battle of Antietam all night long. When we left the West Point fireworks, we discovered that idiots had set off smoke bombs in the parking lot. One of them set a patch of nearby dry brush on fire, but fortunately Brian and another man were able to stomp them out before it grew into a wildfire.

July 5 was a Salt Lake kind of day. We began with a picnic lunch at Silver Lake, at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. Katie was still feeling a little under the weather, so she insisted on carrying a bucket around the trail with her, “in case I get sick again.” We got lucky and saw two moose!

 

This was followed up by a visit to Banbury Cross Bakery:

and then a turn through Gilgal Gardens. My mom (who had come along for the day) had never visited this wonderfully odd collection of “outsider art.” We had to rectify that immediately.

By this time we were parched from the heat and still had 3 hours to go until we were to meet our friends for dinner. My mom voted that we head down to the City Creek Center to hang out at the Disney Store. Who am I to resist that? (No photo evidence of that part of the trip, but everyone walked away with Tsum Tsums. Which meant we had to carefully keep track of Tsum Tsums for the remainder of the trip.)

Our final stop in Salt Lake was at the Seven Canyons Fountain. It had been two years since we had visited this place, and I was a little dismayed to see that my older kids didn’t play on the water structures in quite the same way they had before.

Jeff and Eleanor were far more inhibited and at a loss for what to do at first. I had to keep making suggestions for how they should play (“try making a dam in one of the water streams”). But eventually all our Plethora friends arrived and they got along as well as they always have.

We had a fabulous picnic with various Pleth people until it began to get too dark and nearly all the other park patrons went home. It was a devil of a time getting the kids out of the water. But the lure of the next grandma’s house did the trick.

Our first “summer camp” coincided with the last week of school this year. William and Eleanor auditioned for the annual theatre production produced by the Missoula Children’s Theater, and got in — but all the rehearsals were during the last week of school. The play is sponsored by the Shoreline Arts Council (the performance of the play is done as part of the Shoreline Arts Festival), hence the lack of coordination with the school district.

The play this year was “The Frog Prince,” with extra moral lessons about Friendship and Being Yourself and a million extra small parts added including an anthropomorphic aspen tree that only speaks in rhyme.

Eleanor was Flamingo #8 — part of a troupe of flamingos that also know how to flamenco — and William was a Turtle. He was so excited about his part.

WILLIAM: Mom! I got into the play! And I get to have a SOLO!”

ME: What, you get to sing a song onstage?

WILLIAM: No, I get to say a line! All by myself!

Yes, just the one line, but for a boy who as always been part of the faceless chorus, this was a big deal. His “solo” was to walk slowly forward, and then say “What’s the rush?”

But unfortunately, his costume didn’t fit him properly and he could not stop squirming the entire time he was onstage. Ah, theatre.

Jeff missed the performance because he was off doing his First Real Backpacking Trip with the Boy Scouts. They hiked 9 miles and camped on the shores of Ross Lake. Even though we taught Jeff how to use his little backpacking stove, he was nervous about it and therefore ate nothing but beef jerky and dry ramen (dry! ramen!).

Because of all this busy activity, we didn’t get to do our traditional last-day-of-school activities until the following Monday. Namely, eating way too much sugar at Menchie’s:

Followed by a trip to the grocery store to pick out Summer Cereal. When Brian came home that evening, he took a look at the four sugary cereals on the counter and guessed which child picked which cereal. He was correct on all counts. Can you do the same?

Froot Loops, Reese’s Puffs, Lucky Charms, French Toast Crunch

 

(answers: Froot Loops = Katie, Reese’s Puffs = Jeff, Lucky Charms = Eleanor, French Toast Crunch = William)

I would also like to add here that French Toast Crunch is the cutest little miniature toast cereal ever. Makes me almost not-sad that my favorite website, The Toast, closed down this week. (With a sign-off from Hillary Clinton! Never have I been pandered to so effectively.)

The kids didn’t have much time to munch on their cereal because we took off for Utah the following Friday (which is where I am now).

The only remarkable thing about the drive here is that we needed to make an emergency bathroom stop, and the only place we could find at the time was the Chamber of Commerce building for the tiny town of Glen’s Ferry, Idaho. The volunteer working the desk said we were lucky they were even open that day.

And then she gave us all free lollipops, pins shaped like potatoes, and happily marked down in her ledger that the CoC had six visitors that day. Also, half of the postcards for sale there were of places in Utah. And when I wanted to buy one of the interesting mural in Glen’s Ferry, she said, “But did you see the one with the train? That train one is so lovely, it shows how we have the desert and the farmland here,” and she was so bursting with hometown pride that I am now the owner of a very boring postcard of a train going through a field.

Also, the mirror in the bathroom was made of a horse yoke thing:

And there were benches made of wagon wheels outside. My mom’s response to this story was “That is so Idaho,” but come on, Mom. You know the Syracuse Historical Museum is basically the same thing.

We’ve had a happy couple of days here in West Point so far. My mom made a tipi for the kids to play with, and the fairy garden is bursting with little figurines and play houses.

Best of all, we were able to “kidnap” Sol and Joseph, who moved away from our neighborhood and moved to Utah a few weeks ago. Jeff and William have been missing their best buddies, and relished playing Edge of the Empire all day.

I even got to visit Danielle in the evening and take a spin on her new baby grand Baldwin. It sounds so great! My performance of the 3rd movement of “Waldstein” was terrible, but hey! I know how to play it now! (More on that later.)