biking to Obama

The boys and I biked to the Obama rally yesterday on the UW Madison campus.  It was about 3.5 miles round trip, and Three insisted on biking the entire way on his big wheel.  And he made it.  I had the trailer on the back of bike for a back-up sag wagon, but it was never used.


We saw Air Force One and military helicopters in the air above us, but no motorcade.  I worked my mojo with the police department and figured out where to stand to see the motorcade  (anywhere along Langdon Street, as it turned out), but we had to leave before the Prez rolled on through to get to football practice for One on time.  


I took this video while biking, so it's choppy and uneven, much like me (hahaha).   The line of people waiting to go through security snaked over a mile down University Avenue.  Even though we saw no one "important", I'm so glad I forced my kids to do this (you'll see their enthusiasm in the video).  It was cool to see the hoopla and to be that close to so much excitement.


In other news, I got a haircut yesterday.  I'll post pictures and give more information later.

friends

Not much time, but I had a funny realization today that I wanted to record.  A friend called me on my cell phone today, and she knew I was on my way to Woodmans to go grocery shopping, since, of course, Monday is Grocery Day in my house.  I laughed, saying, "we all know each others' schedules too well, don't we?"  It reminded me of being in the dorms in college and knowing each others' menstrual cycles.  


I love that I have a community of friends whose schedules I know, and who know mine.  Grocery Day, Chore Day - it's gotten pretty predictable around here.  


If any of you need anything from Woodmans on Mondays at 9 am, let me know.  I'll pick it up.

Louis Singer

Three's imagination is in overdrive these days.  He is a rock star in a band, he says, and he has a boss named Louis Singer.  Louis is so prevalent in our lives that I find myself often calling him on my cell phone (on Three's request) to let him know the latest news in Three's life -- Three got a hand-me-down bike from a buddy that he loves, Three knows how to say the "s" sound before "school" now, Three cannot be interrupted while in class so please, kind sir, leave him alone.  


There are conflicts in the band.  Sometimes Louis doesn't want to be the boss anymore.  Sometimes Three has to take over boss duties.  Louis is often driving down the same street as us, or walking past our house, or, even, in the next classroom to Three while in school.  


It's so sweet, yet so fleeting.  I hope I never forget these moments.  

happy (belated) birthday post

My number 2 son turned 7 in August, and we had a birthday party fit for a king that day.  Two is all about the glitz and glam.  He says he's living in a mansion when he grows up (complete with a gold fountain and a bowling alley and a butler).  I knew he would be tickled by a fancy, schmancy birthday party, so we arranged for a limo to pick him and his 10 or so closest friends.  I wanted to get the biggest limo -- only a stretch SUV for my boy!  Best of all, it was a surprise.

So, to set the stage, my parents came over to give Two his b'day presents late in the afternoon of his birthday.  I'm not sure what he thought was happening after the presents (he's a bit of a blond, my number 2, which I can say since I'm literally and figuratively a bit of a blond at times too).  After ripping through the presents, we sat, waiting, in the living room.  Two never asked what we were waiting for (??), while One (who had been clued in) and I kept checking the street.  Finally, it arrived.  Ta Da!!!!!!

 We rushed outside and said, "surprise!!!!!!" and Two got a little flustered and ran back inside to get his shoes but also to compose himself.  He won't admit it, but I could tell he was overwhelmed and was blinking back tears.  I hugged him inside, said "this is for YOU today.  Enjoy and happy birthday!!"  I was so glad to give him this gift.  As a middle child myself, I'm a bit sensitive to the middle/overlooked child thing that tends to happen.  But anyways, I digress...  Back to the limo...

 Our driver, Curtis, was very polite and seemed unflustered as he drove through windy Madison streets that were certainly not designed with a stretch limo in mind. 

Not a great picture, but it captures the mood.  Kids were excited.

 The limo slowly filled up.  We snaked around the streets of Madison, picking up kids here and there, shouting out "goodbye dahling!" to the parents as we drove away.  Many of the parents took pictures of their kids as they were getting in.  Seems everyone was excited about this party.

 It was crazy.  Lots of laughing and loud music.  And then, the mood got strange.  I think they were hungry and thirsty (I didn't think to pack water or juice for the drive - my bad, I'd highly recommend that for any of you considering this as a birthday party), and all of sudden, things got a little ugly.  Bickering, which looked like it could quickly escalate to an all and out brawl.  I started a "who can be quiet longest contest" figuring it could buy me one or two minutes.  Somehow, it worked much better than I thought and it got us past the ugly mood and to the park in one piece. 

We arrived at the park to eat pizza and cake, open presents, and play on the playground equipment.  One had football practice, so he and I tooled over to that in the limo, while Bob and a sweet friend who was helping chaperone managed things at the park.  The party ended well -- kids got good and worn out in the hot afternoon sun at the park.  The mosquitoes were briefly fierce, but we were armed with bug spray.  They drank and ate every last bit of what I brought.  We drove home as the sun was setting, and the cool a/c from the limo was appreciated.  We cranked the music, said goodbye to each child at their houses, and ended up back home just before bedtime. 

of football and chipped teeth (not related!)

Things have been kind of quiet around mooncrawl lately.  Largely because I've been a bit under the weather.  I think I'm making a turn (for the better, thank goodness), so I'm back.


First of all, welcome John!  Glad to see you found my little site here.  Hope this gives you another way to try to keep up with, what did you call us?  The madhouse?  Oh yes, the wild bunch.  Yes, that name fits us (them, really) well.  


You are all too kind about your compliments regarding our Kentucky adventure.  I do feel like I accomplished something pretty good, but I certainly did it with great moral support from Mark and Aisha.  I am extremely glad we went.  I look forward to being able to seriously consider longer car trips as a family.  Good to get to that page, finallly.  


Life has continued to chug along, of course.  Here are some highlights:

• Football games have started.  One had his first official football game on Saturday.  Traveled to Belleville and didn't get our butts whupped too badly.  One was extremely nervous, poor guy.  He played well - made a spectacular tackle that brought a proud tear to this peace-lovin' mama's eye.  He opted out of playing a fairly high profile position (wide receiver?  something like that), which broke my heart a bit.  He said he was too nervous and too afraid of making a mistake (that's the part that broke my heart - not that he wasn't in a high profile position but that he was so afraid to play that he opted to sit out instead).  We've processed this with him (I hope not too much) and have encouraged him to take risks, even scary risks.  And, with our new reward system in place (see below), I'm giving credit for taking risks too.
• To finish up the football scene, Two is also back to playing - flag for him.  He's on the same-ish team he's been on for the past couple of seasons.  He's in the level where the kids will be quarterbacks.  It should be fun and wild to watch.  His first game is this Saturday, 
• which means, between One and Two, our Saturdays are mostly filled now with football.  A good friend this week (hello Th!) was saying that she has just started having sports-weekends now, 12 years in to parenting.  I personally love the sports-filled weekends, and I miss them when they're gone.  Ah, to each her own.
• As mentioned above, we've implemented a reward system chez mooncrawl.  We've had good success, generally speaking, in the past with individual behavioral charts, and with school starting and the madness that can bring, I thought it was time to reinstate something.  So, the boys get a star/day for "peacemaker" behavior (language used at school - I love recycling!) and a star/day for completing homework before 7 pm.  And I'm giving One a bonus star for taking risks in football practice/games.  After so many stars, they earn a dollar.  I'm not above going straight for the cash.  In the past, we've used the jar with the reward slips, such as "you get to pick what we have for dinner" or "movie night - you chose!" but it seems like we just need to go right for what motivates.  Money.  What works for your kids?
• School is going superb.  I couldn't hope for it to go better.  One is in love with his teacher and class (my language, not his, but you know what I mean).  Two, also, is in love with his teacher.  Alright, I'll admit, we all are.  His class seems super sweet too.  And Three! My little Three!  He goes to a speech phenology clinic 4 mornings/week at an elementary school on the west side, and he seems to really, really like it.  He has 3 lovely teachers and a nice little group of boys.  Guess it's the boys who seem to get the poor mouth-motor-skills.  I love dropping him off because it's so cute seeing him kind of brace himself for the drop off (you can almost see him think, "it's ok, she's coming back, I'm not going to cry") and the teacher leads him off and then the look turns to pride.  He's so proud to have his own school.  I never thought of him wanting it like his brothers, but makes sense.

And, because this is a madhouse or wild bunch or whatever Grandpa John used so accurately to describe us, please check out the picture below:

That's a picture of One's mouth on Friday afternoon after Three hit him in the mouth with a plastic drill (???).  Yup, chipped his permanent tooth.  Of course, couldn't be any other way, could it?  I, of course, was a bit upset and had a hell of a time sleeping that night.  There's something about tooth injuries and my children (remember the incident last Oct when Three pulled out his own tooth?) that really rattles me to my core.  Anyway, the good news is that the chip is now fixed - hard to see where it was, even.  The dentist is a little concerned that it got close to the nerve, so we have a recheck in a month or so, but for now, it's all good.  And, it sounds, covered by insurance.  Or, as much as dental insurance covers these things anyways.  

I made a delish lemon zucchini bread yesterday, which One cannot get enough of.  So glad to make something my picky boy likes.  I'm thinking it's a day for lasagne.  No practices to rush off to, so I'll have time to make it and enjoy eating together as a family.  While sitting together at the table.  (truly, we do very good at this normally, but I have found dinners a bit rushed lately while fitting in football practices.)


More to say, but no more time.  


Peace out!

Clear Creek Fest in Berea, KY

Well, that was quite the weekend.  One we won't forget for a long time.  Funny as it sounds, since I spend just about as much time I humanly possible with my children, I really feel like we bonded this past weekend.  Allow me please to take you through a pictorial of our time in Kentucky:

I guess - to get the business end of things out of the way - I should say that the ride down was practically effortless.  The children were nearly perfect in the car.  It rained a bit in Illinois, particularly during the busiest traffic in Chicago, but that made it all the more interesting.  Thanks the to technology of cell phones, we found our Baltimore travelers with little fuss in downtown Indianapolis.  We found "the land", just south of Berea, KY, with only a bit of trouble.  We figured out where to set up camp and connected with Julie and her girlfriend Melanie and their doggie Scout on Thursday night.  After a brief moment or two of panic, because of the foreignness of it all (Appalacian country people kind of freaked me out, sorry to say), I found myself so happy to be there with my boys and other beloved family members on Thursday night.

On Friday night, we headed into Lexington to connect up with old childhood friends of Mark and me.  All growing up, it was "Teeka and Mark and Billy and Shelley."  We did everything with these kids.  We rode bikes and went on family vacations and pranked called people and went swimming and even, yes, started a gang, called the WHIPS (based off of the CHIPS tv show, but instead our name stood for We Help International People) (how awesome is that?).  Anyway, Billy and Shelley moved to Kentucky in 1982, and we have barely seen each other since.   In fact, I am fairly sure it had been 20 years since the four of us were together.  Anyway, through the powers of facebook, I arranged for us to meet at their mom's house.  We had a night where, at least the four of us, totally enjoyed reminiscing about our past.  Here we are, flashing our gang symbol (which we didn't have in the early 80's because they weren't invented yet):

OK, back to the festival.  So, there were three locations for tents.  The "quiet" area, the "celebration campground", and "camp zevon".  We opted for the celebration campground, kind of by default, and it probably was the best fit for us.  It was probably about a half-mile walk in from the cars, but a lovely hike at that.  As you can see, it was lush and green and beautiful.  Here are Mark and One, hanging out at the tents:

There were, gee, at least 40 tents in the celebration area.  I bet there were 20 or so in the quiet and vendor areas, and who knows how many at camp zevon.  I never ventured up there, but who knows.  The way they partied and howled throughout the night, they probably didn't even have tents.  Anyway, at the celebration campground, there was a workshop held regarding how to make a rocket stove.  I attended it, simply because I was sitting at the campfire already.  The man on his knees in the blue shirt led the workshop.  He was very knowledgeable and kind, and he lived in a teepee.  One whispered to me, "mom, he lives in a teepee."  "yes, I heard that," I responded.  We both chuckled.  As you can see in the picture, long beards were the style:

As was pink tinted hair.  I don't know how many people had pink-tinted hair, but it was not uncommon:

So, since we were camping, we enjoyed many campfires.  This one was at the festival grounds.  Two had a lot of fun tending to it, until he was informed by someone that the smoke was wafting towards the stage, irritating the performers:

We sat there for, oh, I don't know, a couple of hours maybe, listening to the music.  Not my first choice in music, but not that bad (country/bluegrass).  We snacked on Oreos.   Here is evidence that even Mark and Aisha ate this highly processed and non-dairy food:

Back at celebration campground, some kind man gave my children a lesson with an axe.  I suppose I should have supervised this, or at least been aware enough to permit it, but I kind of let my guard down with the hippie vibe that was going on there.  I didn't find out about it until after the fact.  Oh well, live and let live, man...

To that end, this was a neighboring tent, where my children regularly visited...

to get candy... 

Back to my children being in my presence and under my supervision, I observed some very sweet brother interactions all weekend long:

On Saturday night, after all of that axe wielding and candy eating and rocket stove making, we walked back to the festival grounds to eat (rice and beans for those healthy Baltimorians,  hot dogs and hamburgers for us) and listen to music.  An unexpected highlight was playing with the hula hoops that were laying around.  Aisha was the best at the hula hoops, though all the kids did well.  Actually, Mark did great too.  Basically, it was just me who had trouble.  Mark took a video of me to show me how I looked.  Spastic would be the best adjective to use.  Remember that Seinfeld where Elaine danced funny?  That was me, with a hula hoop.  Anyway, here are the more graceful hoopers:

And then it was Sunday morning, and time to go.  We were all a bit tired:

and didn't want to leave the warm campfire:

but we posed for one final picture:

One, Me, Two, Scout the doggie, Angry Three, Aisha, Mark (front row)
Melanie, Julie (back row)

In this recap, I am leaving out the part about vomit and other bodily fluids (you are welcome).  I also only glossed over the goings-ons at Camp Zevon, but I'm telling you, it was all howling and drumming and more howling All.Night.Long.  It was a bit much.  In fact, I wanted to get out of my tent at about 4 am and shout, "Shut the f*** up, you hippies!" but I refrained.  I also didn't talk about the live art installation about New Orleans (some guy writhing around on the ground, moaning for his father, and he may have been a wolf too).  Didn't talk about the pit toilets (quite nice!) or the spring water (refreshing!).  Didn't mention the smack down that almost occurred between me and some woman over water usage.  Didn't mention the fire dancers or the beef-a-roni or all the sweet doggies who roamed freely.  I am so glad we went, and I am so glad we are home.