A basically uneventful trip back. We were reminded of our luck by the weather which was precipitation effectively the entire way back starting as we crossed in to the Florida panhandle. Any place it wasn’t actively raining it was clear it had just rained and was going to do so again in the near future, until we got to the snow and it snowed the rest of the way back. Somehow we arrived back home around early evening instead of desperately wee hours of the day, so we got the van unloaded and things set up to resume residence that evening. Zina and Mara did an excellent job in keeping POset alive. The latter was so happy to see us she didn’t sneeze on me until the next day.
Glad to be back!
It was a bright and sunny day, that day we ventured forth to the Magic Kingdom.
We were very lucky with the weather, the two nicest days (and those very nice days) came the two days we had for outdoor activities, with clouds and rain coming in the next day. We had to balance use of the Disney prod between getting the kids moving and over exciting them. We held off the latter until we were on the road to Disney, at which point Alice would break down in tears every time we didn’t take a turn off, because she was sure that was the way to the Magic Kingdom. Naturally, our destination was 5 miles down a round with lots of turns off.
I suppose it’s all part of the excitement building (my rule of thumb — nothing is accidental or unplanned in the Land of Disney). The entire trip there was a series of entering events — Disney Land itself, the Magic Kingdom hinterlands (where the parking1 is), the forecourt of the Magic Kingdom (where tickets are sold2), the Security Gates, the Turnstile Boundary3, some others I have probably forgotten, and finally the very thing itself — the Magic Kingdom …
We split up along gender lines, the moms taking Alice off to do girly things while the dads took the boyen off for boyish things, like Space Mountain. Charles refused the ride, but Wolf was up for it so I went along in case of him losing it. Wolf started out with little whimpers of “make it stop! stop the ride!” but by the time we got back to Tim and Charles, Wolf was all set for another go. We did the race cars next, but Charles wouldn’t do that either. I was beginning to wonder if Charles’ precious memories would consist primarily of sitting on benches waiting for the other kids to finish, his only happy time the few minutes we spent on the monorail4.
We spent the rest of the day splitting and rejoining in various combinations as various children had very various opinions on what was fun5. I ended up spending the day with Charles and sometimes other people. I did find some Charles friendly attractions, such as a large pseudo-steam boat and the fort on Tom Sawyers’ Island. Charles really liked the fort and spent a long time there, which gave me a nice break. I just let him run around while I rested up on one of the barrels. There were mounted rifles that made sounds, which Charles used to shoot at the steam boat. Charles also particularly liked the Jungle Cruise and riding back to the parking lot on the ferry, although it wasn’t as cool as the monorail.
Corwin and Bear were let go to find their own way after the initial run. They did an OK job of answering Corwin’s cell phone and a good job at checking for messages (it wasn’t as noisy as Downtown Disney, but it was hardly quiet, especially later in the day as the crowds increased). For this reason, I can’t tell you much of what they did. Wolf ran with the big boys part of the time and with his dad other times. Corwin and Bear got stuck with the other parents when Charles holed up on Tom Sawyer’s Island and I was left holding the fort (hahaha — that’s a sense of humor, folks, chicks dig it).
As for Alice, I had her early in the day, but she was later rescued from my clutches by Mom. Perhaps Alice’s plaintive pleas on the steam boat of “I miss Mommy” and “this is the scariest day of my life” might have influenced that. Although, I will note, Mom got Alice to say “this is the saddest day of my life!” by missing the 3 PM parade at the Disney castle. I managed to save the day by holding up Alice on my shoulders so she could watch a stage show in front of the castle which featured dancing princesses! Alice said that was the very best part of the entire day. This despite the fact that at Story Time with Belle Alice got to play Chip the Teacup and a princess hat8.
As for me, I almost missed visiting the Disney Castle, the iconic center of the entire Magic Kingdom. I pointed this out to Mom and she let me go, just so that I could say I had been there. I saw the princess production facility embedded there. Despite the rather steep cost, it was packed with a long waiting line. Of course, we saw many little girls already princessified as they arrived at the park. In that same vein, we went on the “It’s a Small World” ride, which Alice found a bit too intense. But how could we go to the Magic Kingdom and not do that ride?
My favorite memory is seeing another little boy, about two or so, who was attached to his mom with a leash and a body harness. The harness itself was a monkey so both the parent and child had a monkey on their back. I mentioned this to Mom, but she didn’t think it was as cool as I did. You know how moms are. Alice, of course, had on her Disney Princess jacket over her Disney Princess shirt, which is just a different sort of monkeys on her back.
We had planned to leave around four, but due to various delays (such as watching princesses dance) we didn’t actually get on the road until six, heading for Atlanta for a quick nap before the final haul home. There was also replacing Charles’ giant lollipop, which got smashed before he opened it. Corwin managed to eat a non-trivial part of his, but I think Charles and Alice just managed to lick through the surface coloring before we got back home (and the remains are still stuck in plastic bags on the counter).
1 When you ride the trailer from the parking lot to the forecourt, do not pick a seat directly behind the engine.
2 We had some difficulty gaining entrance, as our vacation seemed to count as fraud to the credit card company. We found numerous messages from them on the answering machine when we got back. We even had the card refused at a gas station on the return, but luckily I am plentifully supplied with credit access items.
3 I, not having been to any Disney place before, didn’t realize this. Fortunately Mom would immediately correct me every time I got it wrong. She’s helpful that way.
4 Charles claimed at this time that he would have been happy to spend his entire time there on the monorail, although for some reason he wasn’t nearly as enthused about the local tram that circled around the various Lands.
5 Alice refused to meet the Disney cast member6 dressed as Alice from Alice in Wonderland, even though Mom had purchased an Alice style dress for our Alice from the Princess store in Downtown Disney.
6 All staff at the Magic Kingdom are referred to by Disney as “cast members”7.
7 Gosh this nesting of footnotes is addictive … must be strong …
8 The only thing we bought in gift shops that day, Alice once again making out like a bandit on the stuff acquisition front, matching the boys’ Lego™ plus girly stuff from Downtown Disney and the hat. Mom thought of buying some mouse ears but the sticker shock was too much. I suspect she’ll buy some online and just let people think she bought them there.
Yes, it’s made of entirely of normal sized Lego™
The trip up to the Land of Disney consisted of everyone except Tim, Sarah’s husband, heading up in our van (Tim had to work). We dumped all of our luggage in his car so that we could fit all of the children. I personally think we should have gone with the luggage but you know how moms are. Both of them wore black that day so we had the “MIB” — “Moms In Black”. They didn’t think it was as cool as I did, but you know how moms are.
The boys had much fun in the back, although Wolf hung out with his mom a bit when the rest of them got too rowdy. Eventually, around 4 PM, we arrived at our hotel near Orlando. For reasons that were never explained to me (you know how moms are) we stopped first at a hotel, then had to go around to a set of pseudo-cottages. The MIB took the van while I was forced to head off in to the wilds with the children (I thought it was on the off chance a kid or two would get eaten by alligators, thereby saving a good chunk of ticket money, but neither of the moms seemed much put out when we all arrived intact). The children didn’t understand it either, but only a moderate amount of “because the Moms said so!” was necessary to get the caravan on the path. I swear, we must have walked easily 3 or 4 hundred feet without rest before we found the main office to await the MIB. It was brutal, but the kids held up well — not one mention of cannibalism for survival.
After settling in to our temporary residence, we headed out to Downtown Disney for what the children really wanted — gift shops. The MIB wanted to head out for the princess store with Alice, but the boyen spotted the fact that there was a Lego™ store and it was on the way to the Princess Primping Palace, so that’s where we went first. The MIB did manage, somewhat later, to extract Alice and do some princessy things there while the boys and dads hung out in or near the Lego™s. Corwin got some Star Wars kit, Charles got a Sponge Bob Emergency Room kit and Alice a box of generic Lego™s because it was in a pink box (give that marketing guy a raise!). There was a three piece string band playing, with groovy minimalist electric violin and cello, the latter of which I had tried to convince Charles to demand from Mom. Even seeing it in action didn’t work. I suppose I will have to try hypnosis instead.
We headed back to get some dinner, after which we let Corwin and Bear head out on their own, with a promise to check Corwin’s cell phone for messages every now and then. They were supposed to answer it but the ambient noise level was so high that hearing the ring was problematic (which the MIB didn’t believe until they tried to call me and I couldn’t hear my phone either). The rest of us kind of wandered around for a while until we got tired, retrieved the older boys, and headed back for some sleep and the culmination of Alice’s entire life, a visit to the Magic Kingdom and the Disney Castle.
The starving beasts await their meal
We took a rather easy day today. The original plan was that I would take the spawn off to the beach or somewhere while the womenfolk cleaned and primped, but the kids managed to amuse themselves without much parental intervention and the cleaning went faster than expected (due to focus, two moms, or lowered expectations, who can say?). So I hung out keeping a general eye on the kids and doing the Dadly things of helping move furniture and being usefully tall.
The kids played on the sailboat at the dock, tried fishing (especially Charles) and visited a local friends house. At one point Charles, Wolf, and Alice headed down the street on bikes and scooters. I thought I would tag along rather than have a 4 and 5 year old lead by a 7 year old on the streets. This upset Alice enormously and eventually she had a major meltdown, screaming at me in the street and telling me what an evil Daddy I was for being near her. Charles and Wold meanwhile had found their target play place and were having fun, but Alice refused to join them unless I left, which I didn’t. After a while, Charles and Wolf asked me to come over and help push on the swing, leaving Alice crying on the street corner. She did that for a while until a neighbor came by and asked her why she was crying. This frightened Alice sufficiently to forgive Dad for his presence and come over to play with the rest of us. Naturally, Alice wanted to ride on the swing and have Dad pushed. I pointed out the opprobium that Alice had heaped upon me and how this was demotivating with regard to pushing Alice on the swing. Alice immediately said she was sorry and that I was a very nice Daddy.
The tree with the swing had huge seed pods (over two feet long for the particularly big ones) that rattled when dried, so I chased Charles and Wolf with my evil rattling seed pods. I found a lead fishing weight while searching for seeds from the pods to show the boys. I gave the weight to Charles and told him it was a Charles seed and that’s we had planted some to make our Charles.
Charles: I found some Alice seeds!
Dad: Those aren’t Alice seeds.
Charles: How do you know?
Dad: I planted the Charles and Alice seeds so I know what they look like.
Charles: So are these Wolf seeds?
Dad: I don’t know, I didn’t grow Wolf.
Wolf: Wolf seeds are gray.
After all that adventure we had a very lovely dinner with much good food and everyone ate too much. One of the guests remained behind to be torured by Sarah and I. We had to move out to the back porch because Bear demanded “dark and silence” so he could sleep in the TV room with Charles, Bear, and Alice (Corwin having already fled to Bear and Wolf’s normal sleeping quarters). But we didn’t move fast enough and Bear was forced to make the long trek upstairs to his bed. Mom tried to put Alice up there, in the top bunk (because that’s special) but Corwin whined too much and Alice was sent back to the couch in the TV room.
Alice, Charles, and Wolf were playing in the sail boat at the dock. We made them all wear life jackets, which Alice resisted. While trying to fish, Alice managed to fall off the bench. She immediately announced “I am not hurt! I was wearing a life jacket!”.
Bear, Wolf, and Corwin on the sail boat
We took it easy today but still managed to get out to the beach. Unfortunately it’s unseasonably cold so Corwin was the only one who spent time in the water. He’s well padded so he could endure a good long time playing in the waves, then warming up in the sun, and then another extended round of swimming. Mom and Sarah went off to do some Mom-bonding on a long beach walk while I watched the kids.
The only problem we had is that Charles had managed to scrape up his knees at the Nickelodeon water park. He then waded out in the water and rubbed sand in the wounds which turned out to be fairly painful. I thought he was just have to deal with it, but a kind woman pointed out that there was a washing station. I took Charles over and he spent a good 10 minutes or so washing his wounds and was reduced to sniffle instead of pathetic wails so it was time well spent.
Bear found a crab while the kids were digging in the sand and kept it as a companion for the rest of the outing, before finally returning it to the wild (he wanted it as a pet but his Mom insisted on leaving the crab to fulfill his crabby destiny).
In the evening we, the husbands and the kids, went out for a very brief attempt at sailing on the family sailboat (which we filled to capacity with our crew). The wind wasn’t very cooperative but we did manage to sail, in a technical sense.
Alice was not a good global citizen. I was watching Corwin to make sure I could pick up the body without littering should he drown when Alice said “Look, Daddy!” and showed me that she was making the ocean level a bit higher. Oh well, we’ll be out of the state before it’s washed away.
Despite the previous hard night, Mom got us up early so that we could attend a Nickelodeon ‘Character Breakfast’ buffet. The kids were able to meet Diego, Dora, Sponge Bob, Little Bill, and Blue. Except Alice who missed Sponge Bob despite his standing literally three feet behind her chair. But she did get hugs from Blue, Diego, and Dora. After that Corwin and I headed back to get started on packing while Mom did what Alice and Charles had looked forward to the entire stay — getting a toy from the gift shop1. Alice got another Dora and Charles got Plankton to add to the Sleepy Time Crew.
Alice also got a Princess Wand, when at the end of Corwin and I using up the last of the arcade credits, we turned in our tickets2. Corwin wasn’t happy that I used them to get something for Alice, but my claim was that Corwin got to enjoy all the gaming, along with some by Charles3, so it was Alice’s turn to get something from the fountain of cash. Alice told me I was “the best Daddy in the whole world” when I gave it to her, another character trait that will take her far.
The afternoon we’re spending heading down to visit Sarah, a high school friend of Mom that we visited a few years ago. Last time we flew, but this time, since we drove, Mom said “we’re doing stuff and not spending 3 days of driving for two days of visit”.
1 I have previously referred to visiting the gift shop but I realize now that is simply a means to the end, getting stuff.
2 Arcades all seem to use game cards instead of tokens now, except for some ofthe gambling games. The Nick arcade no longer issues physical tickets but tracks them via the arcade cards.
3 Skee-ball is Charles’ game of choice.
After some frantic cleaning, packing, and other put off requirements, we managed to head out of town around noon. Corwin did wait until we had left the driveway before he asked for snacks, although we had not yet finished our in town errands. Meanwhile, we had unfortunately selected a cooler for the drinks that was made of a material that strongly attracted Alice’s feet. I eventually moved it from right next to her seat to the other side but she ended up sitting slanted from the pull.
We had a long drive down to Atlanta, GA, with Corwin frequenty asking “are we there yet?” despite the evidence of the van still in motion on the high way. I was unable to convince him that “being there” implied parking and he should wait for that event before asking.
Mom fixed water bottles for all the kids, but Charles was brought to tears twice by this, the first time when he left the lid ajar during dinner and it all leaked out. The next day, he managed to lose his bottle while sitting in the van, an impressive achievement (eventually we found it).
We stopped at the Kentucky Dam on the way because Mom wanted to stretch her legs. The visitor center wasn’t open on weekends, so we walked down to the river. Corwin pointed out all the dead fish on the rocks in case we missed them.
Later in the evening, Alice peed her pants while we were on the road and Mom discovered that we had forgotten to pack any underwear for Alice. I think that distressed Alice more than having to sit on a urine soaked seat. Eventually, though, we made the hotel around midnight and crashed out.
Sunday was another hard drive, although not quite as bad. We made it to Orlando about 4 pm and checked in to the Nickelodeon Hotel. All the kids were completely thrilled. Corwin because there was a PS/2 and a TV in every room. Alice and Charles thought the bunk bed was the best part of the entire experience. Charles was able to sleep the top bunk and Alice got to sleep in a bunk bed, very life affirming experiences.
Corwin wanted to hit the pool first thing, but it was cool (70° or so) with no sun so we decided he could wait till tomorrow. We spent a slow evening hitting the arcade, watching some TV, and Corwin and I seeing one of the “4-D” movies. Charles and Alice spent a lot of time drawing and writing, with Charles producing a “Charles News” sheet which he left for Mom and I to find in the morning.
Monday dawned bright and sunny and so we hit the pool within 5 minutes of opening. It would have been a marginal experience except the pool was heated. All the kids had a truly excellent time, especially once the water slides opened an hour later. Corwin basically spent the rest of morning and afternoon there. The slides all end in basically extended bathtubs about 18” deep so that even Alice could easily ride any slide that didn’t frighten her. She spent a good hour or so trying out the smaller slides, and spent the rest of her time in the main pool which has a nice zero-depth small child area. I spent the time freezing my feet because the pool surface was wet and out of the sun and it was cold. The kids in the heated pool were fine.
Corwin was getting tired and cold by 4, but the Mass Sliming was at 4:45 so he hung on until then. Charles and Alice declined the slime, but Charles was willing to help my out by using my small camera to video record the event while I took still pictures.
Afterwards, we went to the Ripley’s Odditorium. I had to leave with Alice who became hysterical at the horrorible displays (what, precisely, was so horrible I was unable to determine). The boyen liked it though.
The next stop was the McDonald’s with the Largest McDonald’s play area in the entire world. It was a bit of a pit, very short staffed that night with the resultant long lines and difficulty in finding a clean table. The kids didn’t mind because it had a huge arcade upstairs (larger than the one at the hotel). Charles and Alice tried the play area but it was too large for them — they couldn’t figure out how to get around in it. The most interesting thing that happened while we were there was a guy who won 500 tickets off one of the gambling games and then won another 1000 tickets. The poor staff had to go out and help because he had run the dispensing machine out of tickets.
And thus passed Monday.
In case I am too busy to post, here’s what this weblog has been missing the last week or two —
I scheduled this to show up today, presumably after we’ve departed. Charles was sad because we told him that he could only take two stuffed friends along from the Charles Sleepy Time Crew
Timmy, Puppety, Porky, Porky 2, Cowie, Sharky (middle), Penguiny (middle back) Big D (right back)
I can’t wait till tonight for a hotel room full of grumpy yet not the least bit tired children.
Alice naturally peed in her bed last night. I almost said to Mom as we were going to sleep “yeah, it would be the perfect night for Alice to wet the bed” but I thought that was too cynical. Isn’t it good when kids exceed your explanations?
We’re in a panic getting ready so naturally Corwin decides this evening that his shoes are too old and small to wear and that Mom has to take him out to the shoe store for new ones. Personally I would have handed him some duct tape and a shoe horn but Mom is a soft touch. How does Corwin get her to do things like that?
Oh, right — that’s how.
We’re getting ready for a big Thanksgiving trip and one task we assigned Corwin was to find out what he would have to do that week we will be gone and get it done ahead of time. He find this a nigh insurmountable task until we said “no problem, we’ll just leave you at Jack’s house until we get back”. That got him motivated to enough to actually have a self-initiated conversation with his teachers. I haven’t thought to ask Jack and his parents what they think of themselves as being used as that kind of negative motivator. Hey, another task for Corwin!
Charles has been spending time with two particular stuffed animals, a porcupine and a hedge hog. Charles, however, calls them both porcupines, named naturally “Porky” and “Porky 2”. He and Corwin got in to an argument about the species, in which Corwin temporarily got the upper hand by pointing out that the tag on the hedge hog read “hedge hog”. So Charles got a pen, crossed that out, and wrote “porcupine”. Finally, one of my children is learning the Power of the Edit!
This evening for Cub Scouts we went out to the Humane Society for a tour. Charles seemed to like it, although I was the designated trailing parent to make sure we didn’t have any escapees so I didn’t track Charles very closely. I think he liked the cats and dogs, although he did ask if we could take some guinea pigs home. I told him to ask Mom, which he did when we got back. Mom, who we all know would end up with the responsibility, refused the request, since it wasn’t spring.
Alice: [from the bathroom] CAN SOME ONE WIPE MY POO BITS?
Mom: You can do it, I’m explaining fractions to Corwin.
The kids have been bugging me about roasting marshmallows but the weather and scheduling hasn’t been suitable for using the backyard fire pit and we didn’t have good roasting sticks. Today, though, Mom remembered to buy some while she was out and decided we should give indoor marshmallow roasting a try. I started a fire in the fire place and let it burn down to coals. It actually went well. Without open flames, even Corwin could get a nice brown coating. The kids seemed to enjoy the roasting as much as eating, sometimes accumulating several roasted marshmalllows. I don’t ever remember doing that when I was young.
We didn’t do much today. Mom took Charles and Alice to the library and Charles played chess with other kids for a while. I made Corwin work a tiny bit, which was very traumatic for him, and then he went over to Jack’s house for a birthday sleep over.
Charles got new shoes. I had thought he was just being difficult when trying to get the old ones on but Mom says he went up two sizes so maybe they were too tight. I have been working with Charles on tying his shoes. After a week he can mostly do it himself.
Alice can now get out of the bath by herself, drain the water, dry herself off and put clothes on. She had been struggling with shirts and dresses but mastery is now hers.
Alice is, unlike the boyen, developing a fashion sense (obviously innate, because she can’t possibly be acquiring it by observing any one else in the house).
One sign was the Mom tried to hand down a jacket from Charles. Alice refused to wear it on aesthetic grounds. Eventually Mom had to buy a different jacket for her.
There was the melt down over black pants along with more minor incidents involving clothing choices. Yesterday Alice was near tears because she had worn a dress for the first time the day before and it wasn’t clean yet so she couldn’t wear it again. Another was Alice complaining that she couldn’t find a “dark top” to wear with the pants she was wearing. I am just waiting for the day when Alice understands what a tiny little closet she has.
Mom was making supper for us in a serial fashion and I was first up. While I was trying to eat, Corwin was watching the Myth Busters episode about polishing poop. I decided to eat in my office, but Mom made Corwin pause the show instead.
At a later point when Corwin had finished, he tried to start the show up. Mom, who was eating at the time, vetoed it.
Mom: Turn it off so we don’t even see the poop.
Alice: Where? I want to see it!
Corwin is infamous in our family for being thin skinned about being bothered by his siblings. When it’s something like singing about Mara and him getting married I can understand. But he’s overly sensitive to chewing sounds and even just off tune singing while we’re traveling in the van. I try to tell Corwin to just not notice but he seems incapable of not being distracted.
On the other hand, Corwin is also famous for being oblivious to situations such as cars in a parking lot. Today was another incident in that vein. Around noon we got a frantic call from the orchestra director at Corwin’s school asking “did Corwin come to school today?”. Having sent him out to the bus in the morning, we had presumed he had but became concerned that he had a mishap enroute. The director said that they were leaving to go on a field trip to play elsewhere but couldn’t find Corwin in the rehearsal room, the lunch room, or his normal classroom for that period. I told the director that, as far we knew, Corwin should be at school.
We got a call back later saying that yes indeed, Corwin was at school. His class had apparently been relocated (I didn’t get a clear reason for that), Corwin had forgotten the field trip (despite the morning panic of getting the right clothes to be ready for it), and had missed the all school announcement to gather for departure.
Yet he can tell if Alice is chewing a little bit too loud.
I got a number of pictures of Corwin and Mara together at the soccer game. I mentioned this at dinner with the very happy result that Alice and Charles immediately ran with it and tortured Corwin with comments and even some improvised songs about it.
Oddly, though, Alice had a hard time remembering Mara’s name. She would tease Corwin, pause to take a bite, and then have to ask what Zina’s sister’s name was before she could continue harassing Corwin. I am not sure how important it was, as once I answered “Amalia” but Alice was still able to sing about “Corwin and Mara, they’re so sweet together”.
Of course, Mara is a very sweet girl, regardless of the horrible stories her mom spreads about her. How would her mom know better than me anyway?
I spent the day doing a bit of working, catching up on some pictures, and recovering. Mom went off to teach Sunday School which would make for some very good posts if only she liked you all enough to write about it.
Anyway, here’s a little video clip I dug up that I thought you might like.
On this cold and blustery day Corwin’s soccer coach finally managed to get the boys vs. girls game to do. For once the girls had a better turnout with 3 or 4 extra players while the boys had only one even with grabbing an extra girl (Ema) from her indoor soccer practice.
I managed to miss the early part of the game because Alice waited until moments before the kick off to announce that she was extremely thirsty, just seconds from a fatal collapse due to dehydration. I think the girls scored a goal then but I was unable to confirm or refute it conclusively.
Overall the boys play was off, but the girls did well. They had much better field dominance throughout most of the game which let them make a lot more scoring attempts. That paid off with a 5-2 victory on their part. On the other hand, one of the girls scored 4 of those goals in a single 7 minute period early in the second half. Mara scored the other goal, with a very persistent attack that took 3 or 4 attempts but she wouldn’t let it go and in the end overwhelmed the goalie.
The first goal by the boys was an excellent side shot by Brian. The second was bizarre. One of the boys booted the ball toward the goal from just past midfield just to get it in to position for an attack. But somehow the girls were zoned out and the ball just bounced on by them and was half way to the goal before the goalie realized it was going to go in. But it was too late by then. Given that it made the score 5-2 instead of 5-1, the girls didn’t take it too hard.
Corwin didn’t play particularly well either. He was cold and tired, having endured the tests of the morning. He actually fell asleep in the van on the way to the game. Still he got a few good kicks in (like this backwards kick that despite what it looks like, actually went the right direction and staved off an attack) although he was bedeviled in the first half by girl #9 who was quite fond of driving in on Corwin’s side of the field for her attacks. #9 is the one who scored the four goals, so she’s not too bad of a player. She scored one goal by taking on three of the better boys and beating them so I don’t feel too bad about her breaking past Corwin most of the time. But she’s not super-human — although she started out with short shorts she eventually put on some sweat pants.
Still, a win is a win and the girls won decisively.
This morning Corwin went off for his big tests for getting in to the University laboratory high school. What’s odd is that we wouldn’t get paid for letting them experiment on him. Mom thinks it might be a good idea anyway. He had to be there by 7:30AM after studying hard the last couple of weeks. The vocabulary has been fun, although my favorite new word for Corwin was “surly”. Heh.
Charles had a chess tournament all afternoon. I was left with Alice and Corwin because the boy vs. girl soccer game was mid-afternoon. That it as 40°F with high winds didn’t stop the game. I put Alice in snow pants and a warm jacket and she did fine, playing with Zina while I tried to take pictures on a very cloudy day.
For the evening Alice rented a movie which she, Charles, and I watched while Mom and Corwin went off to a Brandenburg Concerto which had Charles’ cello teacher in the orchestra. Corwin apparently slept through most of it. I suspect he might have been tired, as he fell asleep in the van on the way to the soccer game (he stayed awake on the way home because he wanted to rent a new Wii game).
I put the myself and the kids to bed after that. Charles was asleep within 10 minutes of going to bed. Alice stayed up until Mom got home to make sure Mom wasn’t out misbehaving or past curfew.
Back on Tuesday was Cowin’s first middle school concert. The school band performed first, then the school orchestra. The former is a normal school bad, and the second a string oriented group, although there were a few flutes who played in both.
I thought they sounded nice, although being tone deaf it’s all good to me. Corwin sadly was buried deep among the other violins so we could barely catch a glimpse of him, although he did get to sit next to a very cute girl. Naturally, Corwin had no idea what her name was and had never spoken to her.
On the other hand, a week or two ago I went to pick Corwin up at school due to an ID card mixup. As we were walking back to the car a group of three girls hanging out on the grass called out to him by name. Corwin admitted the he had spoken to those girls previously and even knew some of their names. Obviously juggling multiple girl friends is just around the corner.
We were off to see the boys’ teachers this evening. We almost missed Charles’ time because he had misplaced the paper with the date and time. Luckily Mom found it just an hour before we were scheduled to arrive.
Charles had a friend, Mason, over. We rushed over to Mason’s house but his parents weren’t there. So we took him along to the meeting with Charles’ teacher. It turned out that Mason’s parents had the previous appointment so we were able to transfer him back there.
Afterwards we went to the school book fair which is held during meeting times. Charles wanted to buy a picture book that was for starting readers. We wouldn’t let him because he should be reading more advanced material. Charles responded by pretending to cry about it. He faked that so well that he ended up crying for real all the way home. Alice said he was annoying. I tried to point out how this might apply to Alice when she was crying but I don’t think the concept penetrated.
I took the little ones home while Mom met with Corwin’s teacher. Maybe she’ll drop a comment on how that went.
Mom bought some new clothes for Alice recently and decided to have Alice wear some today. Alice was reluctant, but Mom convinced her to try them. This was initially successful but later, just as it was time to leave, Alice decided that she didn’t like the pants because they were black. I asked Alice about the black dress she likes and she replied that she liked only because it had sparkly things on it. I didn’t quite catch all of Alice’s complaints, but a big one seemed to be that Cadi, a friend at school, didn’t like black and it would therefore result in social ostracism should Alice commit such a fashion mistake. Mom tried to convince Alice that Cadi sometimes work black (just a presumption, but reasonable) but Alice was not convinced.
What turned the tide was that I found Alice’s new locket / doll toy which she is her current favorite. This distraction got us over the immediate hump and we rushed out the door to take advantage of that.
When Alice and I arrived at school, who should we meet in the sign in area but Cadi and her mom. And what should Cadi be wearing except black pants. Cadi’s mom looked at me a bit strange as I directed Alice’s attention to Cadi’ pants, but I explained Alice’s little meltdown and dependence on Cadi’s fashion sense so no police were called.
Mom decided that we should bike out to vote today. As we started to leave we spotted a massive cloud of smoke rising up from the park. It turned out that the Park District was doing a prairie burn. I tried to get out and get a picture, but because of the burn we couldn’t take the normal quick path and by the time we had navigated around the long way, the burn was mostly over. I guess the grass was dry enough to burn quickly. Ah well. Maybe next year.
Today was yard work day. Mostly we burned things that had been in the yard. Mom had a lot of old branches which she tried to chop up with a hatchet. That did not go well. I finally got out the large hack saw and cut them down to size. This naturally prompted Mom to find more old branches, which in turn prompted me to say “hey, Corwin, saw some wood!1”.
We kept the fire going from around noon until 9 that night, feeding it branches and lots and lots of pine needles. Mom even through big wet glops of needles one, which took a long time to burn down because we had let the fire mostly burn out by then. By the end it had all been consumed down to a thin layer of charcoal and ashes.
Mom also worked on cleaning out the gutters and drafted Corwin for handling the ones around the sun room roof. Corwin acquiesced because it meant he could climb out his bedroom window and walk on the roof. Mom ended up going on top of the high roof without falling off. I made sure to get some pictures early in the process, though, just in case.
1 Wow, that’s a nicely ambiguous statement. I will have to remember that.
Corwin had a soccer game and pot luck dinner afterwards today, but I was off helping out with a high power rocket launch out at the family farm.
The weather was effectively perfect, almost no wind, very nice temperature and no clouds. We got all five of the student rockets off by noon. I hung out for a while afterwards but because of my busy week and trip the day before I didn’t have anything to launch so I headed back home around 1 PM. The rest of the family arrived back soon afterwards.
Students wait for their rocket to return
We immediately shifted in to panic cleaning mode because Mom had invited another family over for dinner. They used to work at our former company sort of in our group, but in California. Our group here had interviewed both the husband and wife before they took the jobs and moved out to California. Eventually, though, having kids caused them to wise up and move back to our lovely town. Mom decided to welcome them back in her own top of the line style.
Despite some initial shyness, the two visiting girls (Sophia, 6, and Amy, 2) eventually were willing to play with Alice and Charles. They played in the basement for a while, then we had supper and cooked marshmallows. Corwin didn’t really cook them, he would just jam them in to the coals and set them on fire as rapidly as possible.
Sophia, Amy, and Alice
