Category: Culture & Media

4th (Somewhat) Annual Backyard Circus!

brookeshelf2 Comments

Yup, backyard circus.  If you’re new around these parts, here’s the concept: kids put on adapted circus routines in my backyard.  Doting adults applaud and cheer.  A hot dog roast is also involved, and at the end, everyone eats ice cream.

Brian and I began hosting these on a somewhat annual basis back when we lived in Pittsburgh.  The previous circus was held in 2009, you can read about it here.  Last summer I was too sick/exhausted with early pregnancy to organize one, and my kids were really disappointed.  This year I decided to make amends.

Which means I cleaned off the back porch.  This was a serious undertaking of heroic proportions.  But it was worth it!  The kids came up with such clever ideas for their acts!  Here’s a sampling:

In this group is a Human Pyramid, a tightrope walker, a comedian and her straight man (Eleanor was the straight man), a bareback horse rider (with the pink parasol), and a MIME. There was also a lion tamer, an archer, a puppet show, and a really magnificent ten-year-old ringmaster.  Everyone was great!

Eleanor was a juggler, who spun rings on her arms while standing on a balance board . . . with a CAKE ON HER HEAD!

William was a sword swallower, using those plastic telescoping lightsabers.  It was darn adorable, especially when he referred to himself as a “sword sucker.”  When the act began, my friend Justin yelled from the back row, “No, Luke!  It’s not worth it!”

Annnnnd Jeffrey.  He had the most unusual performance of all.  During the week leading up to the circus, he kept coming up with outlandish, impractical ideas for his act.  He wanted to build a boat in the backyard.  He wanted to bounce off a trampoline and smash his (helmeted) head into a wall.    He would accept no substitutes.

So he was kind of bummed when we informed him that none of these ideas were going to work.  After a lot of brainstorming, he finally came up with something that could:

He had a duel against a kitchen chair . . . using a rubber chicken.

Obviously, this was inspired by The Great Gonzo from The Muppet Show.  The bad thing is that this picture really doesn’t capture the ferocity with which Jeff attacked the tuna salad out of that chair.  The other bad thing is that Jeff was originally going to wear a Roman centurion helmet as part of his costume, but it got too hot so he took it off.

Oh, yes — one more thing: this was also an unofficial birthday celebration for me.  34 years!  Whoa!  My sweet in-laws brought this yummy ice cream cake. This was an excellent choice, as my love for Baskin-Robbins’ whipped cream frosting knows no bounds:

Plus they also brought clown cones for the children.  (They are amazing in-laws, no?)  This caused a Nostalgia Moment for many of the parents in attendance:

The kids are already begging for next year’s show.  It’s definitely on — maybe next year I’ll finally convince one of my children to be a snake charmer.  (What?  They’re cool!)

Epossumondas

brookeshelfLeave a comment

My mother-in-law’s birthday is today, and she loves receiving a grandchild-produced home movie as a present.  Last year we made Sleeping Beauty — a stunner of backyard theatrics if ever there was one — but this year we decided on simpler fare.

Eleanor and William chose Coleen Salley’s adaptation of Epossumondas, a “noodlehead” tale.

I’m impressed by their performances.  Ellie’s animal voices are for the win.  And yeah, I held Katie in one arm while filming.  If you notice jiggly camerawork, that’s Katie grabbing my hand.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, yes that is real butter melted on Wimmy’s head.  He had a bath directly afterwards.

What This Tradition Needs is Big Flamboyant Hats

brookeshelf2 Comments

Jeffrey went to his first Pinewood Derby this past Friday night, and this is what he looked like:

That’s right, a blur.  When Jeffrey gets excited, he gives it his ALL.  The kind of All that you usually only see in the drunken infield of a NASCAR race.  At the end of the evening, his voice was hoarse from all the cheering.  Yes, cheering — he rooted for everybody, and hardly cared if his own car placed first or last.  In this picture, he zipped out of the frame just as I clicked the shutter button:

(Jeffrey’s car is the one on the far left.)

It was exhausting to watch him — we had gone downtown to the Living Traditions international festival just before the derby, and I was groaning from the Tongan Hula Platter I’d consumed — but at least he got out enough energy to sleep like a log that night!

Brian held him still long enough for this portrait, and as you can probably tell, he nearly exploded after all ten seconds of it.  His car is painted gold with what Jeff calls “pirate decorations” all over it.  At the last minute, he taped a Lego knight in the driver’s seat.  Ain’t he cute?

The Gentle Madness

brookeshelf1 Comment

Apparently I have a problem:

This is what my living room looked like after hitting the county library book sale a week and a half ago.  (Oh hey, and Katie’s on the couch, too.  I just noticed that.)

Keep in mind that I had brought home just as many books after the city library book sale two weeks before that.  (Whoo, and I had to be quick to nab ’em at the county library sale, because people there were RUTHLESS.  When I arrived, there were four bookshelves full of children’s novels, and after twenty minutes in the picture book section, I returned to find only ONE shelf of novels left.  Wow.)

Obviously, I’m a fan of the picture books.  ‘Tis true.  I’ve been collecting them since I was a teenager; I brought my more valuable ones to college, which lead to Brian and I becoming friends (we traded books a lot).

But it’s becoming a problem.  When I first began to collect picture books, I chose them based on the quality of illustration alone.  Now that I know something more about children’s literature (more than the average person ought to know, really), I focus on finding books that are out of print, or likely to be so.  Therefore, my book sale splurges are done with the attitude of, say, rescuing Holocaust refugees (“If I don’t take them in, they’ll disappear forever!“).  I despair whenever I see really good books that are only a year or two old showing up as library discards.  Didn’t anybody want to read them?  Or did the librarians not do a good enough job of promoting them?  Oh, tragedy. And schadenfreude — because those books are now mine.

*rubs hands together with evil grin*

Cinema Camisas: The Lion and the Mouse

brookeshelf4 Comments

William’s preschool is observing spring break this week.  I was hoping to go out and give him some adventures, but it keeps snowing!  When we woke up this morning, flakes were once again falling outside, and I decided that we needed to make a movie.  It’s been ages since the last one.  (And hey, notice that all of our family films are in the left sidebar!)

But what story can be adapted to the acting abilities of a preschooler and a baby?

This is the answer.  Enjoy.

Katie’s Kingdom

brookeshelf2 Comments

This weekend during General Conference the kids hauled out all the blankets and built this:

Welcome to “Katie’s Kingdom,” as Jeffrey calls it.  Not only did the baby girl receive the full Queen of Sheba treatment, but they also used pillows to cordon off a “storage cupboard” and a “kitchen.”  When I entered the picture to feed the girl, I was automatically designated the “dining room,” and the nursing pillow was the “table.”

Here’s the other notable event of the weekend:

Count ’em, that’s ten kids crowded around our kitchen table eating pizza and chocolate-dipped strawberries.  I invited two of my friends over during the Priesthood session, and between just the three of us, there were TWELVE children in the house for the evening. My mom came too, and I am impressed by how much she was able to enjoy herself despite the thundering herd.  Much was the zaniness thereof, especially when Eleanor turned on old episodes of She-Ra: Princess of Power and she and other assorted kids began to dance around to the eerily addictive theme music.

You gotta admit that among fictional princesses, She-Ra rules.  I thought I was a big fan as a kid, but Eleanor is hard-core.  She has the whole opening monologue memorized.  (“Secrets were revealed to me on the day I held my sword aloft and said, ‘For the Honor of Greyskull!'”)  It’s pretty amazing.

Art & Science Weekend

brookeshelf1 Comment

This month the Utah Museum of Fine Art has free admission on Saturdays as part of its “Art & Science” program for families.  Each weekend features different art activities and science experiments based on different elementals (fire, air, water, earth).  Naturally, I had to take advantage.

Here’s the big reason why: the UMFA has a “real live mummy,” as Jeffrey puts it.

He was actually kind of appalled that the mummy wasn’t in a Natural History Museum, like the mummies in Pittsburgh were.  “Call President Obama!” he insisted.  “The mummy should go in the natural history museum!”  When I told him that the President of the U.S. wasn’t in charge of such things, he was doubly appalled.  What was the point of being President when you couldn’t decide where mummies should go?

Eleanor brought along a sketchbook and her colored pencils.  This African mask was the only thing she took time to draw.  (I can’t find her notebook today, or else I’d have shown the drawing, too.)  The exhibit label said the mask was used as part of girls’ coming-of-age ceremonies.  Oh, and that big foreheads and neck folds were considered attractive by that culture.

We went on a treasure hunt to find art pieces related to the element “water,” like this ancient Indian carving of a river goddess:

Both kids insisted on getting their picture taken with the samurai armor.  Jeffrey and I watched The Seven Samurai a few weeks ago, and he’s still jazzed about it.

My favorite part was the time we spent in the art room.  The kids were encouraged to make watercolor paintings of cloud landscapes, and all the volunteer docents were out in full force.  Therefore, even though there were lots of families there, the whole thing was organized and fun.

Eleanor spent a long time carefully crafting a cloud landscape.  Jeffrey painted two landscapes in record time, and as he finished each one, he would hold it up and declare, “there it is!  MY MASTERPIECE!”

There’s one more free weekend at the museum this month, so if you have the means, I highly recommend going!  It was a blast.

Katie’s Muppet Twin

brookeshelfLeave a comment

My sister-in-law, Kristen, came to Utah for a visit last weekend, and she was quite pleased to meet Katie.  Kristen’s main theory is that Katie looks like one of the Doozers from Fraggle Rock.  And to prove it, she sent me this handy comparison photo in an e-mail today:

Oh, I admit it!  My daughter is a Doozer!  Who likes to doze!  Awwww.

And to round out the Muppet comparisons for the rest of the family (personality-wise, anyhow):

Jeffrey = Gonzo

Eleanor = Prairie Dawn

William = Grover

Brian = Kermit

Me = Um . . . there really aren’t very many adult female Muppets, so let’s just say that I claim Sweetums and leave it at that.

Gotcha?

brookeshelf3 Comments

I was feeling so smug, thinking I had finally managed to capture one of Katie’s smiles on camera.  But then I realized that Katie smiling . . .

. . . really isn’t all that different from Katie not-smiling . . .

 

. . . oh, well.   But I see the difference, and trust me, the smiles are cute.  They go a long ways towards moving her away from what I call the “Beardless Orson Welles” phase.

In the meantime, when I was downloading pictures off of my camera, I also found about fifty different variations of this photo:

This, according to Jeffrey, is titled “Blueberry Muffins in Mountain Landscape.”  The foil represents the mountains, and he referred to the muffins as “the villagers.”  Ah, there’s nothing better than child-created Outsider Art.  Do you know of any good examples?