Changing Seasons

The weekend started early for us, taking full advantage of a Friday night restaurant outing. Having enjoying a Friday night family restaurant trip last week, we thought we would try it again this week. This time we tried a new restaurant and it was a nice place to have a beer. If you were looking for a nice ambiance, good service, or having any of the food that is on the menu then this place is a good place to have a beer. We did skip dessert at that restaurant and headed to a second place to fill the kids with decadent chocolate cake before trying to wrestle them into bed. Strangely the slept late on Saturday, attributing this more to the recent time changes then the evening before. Sophia had yet another birthday party to go to, so Merrick, Lisa and I spent some quality time indoors at the mall. While the forecast was poor the weather was nice, but even nicer inside and Merrick needed a new pair of shoes. He is very content with his "little mercury shoes" being light-up shoes with toxic elements embedded inside of the shoes to make the lights come alive as he stomps. He did wear them home, stomping through the mall, on the back of the drivers street and generally everywhere he went the rest of the weekend. Later in the day, with Sophia in tow, we headed for the bike trail for the first trip of the spring season. Sunday was equally quite around here, Sophia and I took a hike along the river while Lisa studied and Merrick napped. We also were able to work the garden a little bit, planting some seeds and mixing in some of last years ash. Spring is almost here, but almost isn't here.

Sylvania Snowshoes and Sun

You can freeze strawberries from a late spring harvest and can beans from a summer garden, but there is just no other way than memory to preserve an early March day in Sylvania. We took the kids snowshoeing in the UP wilderness area and the day could not have been any nicer. The temperature was about 50 degrees and there was more than four feet of snow. It was the first time that either Lisa or I had been on snowshoes when they were a requirement. The snow was as deep as the sky was blue and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We drove up early on Saturday morning and had a light lunch by the truck before hiking from the "A-frame" to the boat landing on Clark Lake. There was only one set of cross country ski tracks on the route we took to the landing. Sophia and Lisa built a snow man and Merrick slept at the turn around point. Lisa and I pulled the kids most of the way in the sleds and Merrick slept most of the way, while Sophia did have her snowshoes on for about a quarter of the hike. The kids were both soaked by the time we got back to the truck. We stripped them down and changed them in the truck, plied them with fruit snacks and headed back to Eagle River to check into the hotel for the night. After an early evening supper we hit the hotel pool for an hour or so and then the kids were crashed for the night. Preserved only in memories and proofed only with photographs, but it was truly a weekend that could not have been planned any nicer.

An All American Meal

Monday night was the all American meal, this of course as any non-communist knows, consists of bacon-cheese burgers, fries and chocolate malts. Lisa and Sophia planned this meal, as it is one of Sophia's favorites. It destroys the kitchen, leaves not only a pile of dishes but also a lingering smell of restaurant quality grease that no scented candle can overpower. As in all of the finest eateries tonight's meal came with entertainment. As the kids do not seem to learn any American classics in their music classes (This land is Your Land, Puff the magic Dragon, Hurt etc.) I have taken it upon myself to teach them the music of the land. At any rate, after the meal Merrick broke into song and then was quickly followed by his adoring sister and we were able to capture it on film. Yes that is likely malt in his hair, a small price to pay for our little dinner theater.

A weekend Update

A post that has been a long time in coming, not that we haven't been busy but rather have been busy enough not to do a post. So long as Mark is back blogging I figured I could compress the past few months into a handful of anecdotes and photos from the beggining of the new decade. We enjoyed an nice Christmas eve at the house complete with the traditional frozen pizza and shrimp sauce and the family exchanged the gifts. The kids awoke to the offerings of Santa the following morning before we had a big breakfast and then made the drive to Eau Claire for some family time. This year we added what will hopefully become a new tradition of an extended family hockey game at the Altoona rink. Merrick mostly hung out on the bleachers although Grandpa Bob did get him out on the ice for a while, much to his delight. Sophia and I were out for the duration and there was a lot of fun had by all. The Christmas break came and went and much of January was lost to play dates, birthday parties and cold weather with little snow. We did get out for a family night hike in the Oconto forest. We hiked back into the woods and had some hot chocolate on the propane stove while the kids sled in the darkened woods on a small hill. Lisa and I pulled them back out, as their little legs were all done for the night. One afternoon after the 20 minutes required to dress the kids we headed over to the neighborhood sledding hill. After a nearly snowless January the hill was just a bear heap of dirt. To this point we still have not been able to go out sledding except for that one night, and Sophia doesn't seem to think that counts. We have gotten out to the outdoor ice rink. Merrick got a new pair of skates and was very excited to use them so he could play hockey. His excitement quickly turned to disappointment when he realized that he could not actually skate which more importantly meant that he could not shoot the puck into the net. He sat for a while in the chair I brought along for him to push and then he just sat on the ice until I took his skates off. With his boots on he could have spent the whole day on the ice shooting pucks. He did not cry again until it was time to go and he had to get off the ice. Last weekend we did spend a little bit of time downtown looking at the ice sculptures. Sophia also hit a new mile stone as she moves from age 6 to age 13. Her friends from school started calling just to chat, she quickly assumed the teenage girl form flopping on the couch and gabbing away.

A holiday progression

The kids were off school last Wednesday, giving them a very long weekend. We spent Wednesday afternoon baking and cooking for Thursdays Thanksgiving meal of carbohydrates and roast beast. Our early afternoon binge was also graced by some family friends and their children as well, I don't think there was an empty belly in the group. Friday Sophia and I went to get a tree and after the boughs dropped in the warmth of the living room Lisa and the kids decorated it, while I cleaned up the ubiquitous glass shards from colored balls and snow globes. We quickly found that hardwood floors are not nearly as forgiving as wall to wall carpeting of years past. Saturday's weather felt almost more spring like than later November. We found time for a short hike, although Merrick quickly tired, partly due to the time of day and partly because he is fighting some 'kid crud.' Sunday has brought clouds and drizzle, which certainly impedes what can be done outside--we will see what we can find for entertainment.

A Hanuaka of Halloween

The past few years it has occurred to me that there is a lot of money to be made during Halloween. This has occurred to me not because I am making any money on the holiday, but rather those wiser than I are making money because of me. What I recall as a single evening in the fall in which we wandered around our neighborhood, or at least no more than a three block radius has become something all together different. Today there is evil doers behind every tree, shrub, rock, bush, Bush sign and there is no way we can let our children wander the streets. At first the evenings were replaced by day time trick-or-treating but even that was deemed too unsafe. Now we spend most every weekend in October driving the kids to some new locale (parks, zoos, etc.) to trick-or-treat at a premium. The kids are still just as cute, but wandering along with a cluster of other parents in a cattle herd has lost some if its luster for me, although I understand the kids are none the wiser. We took the kids to Merrick's school party early in the week, then we went to Heritage Hill State park for some more treats. Heritage Hill is a state park about a block from the house that is home to early colonial period houses and demonstrations, such as blacksmith shops, livery stations, farmsteads. They also had some period games including apples dangling from the ceiling that the kids took turns trying to chomp on--thinking that it was cold/flu season we passed on this game. Later in the week the kids were then able to trick-or-treat in EC with their grandparents as well. Apparently Merrick was easily appeased with the initial offerings in his bag and was content to forgo all future attempts at getting more candy, unlike Sophia, and just be happy with the bird in hand. Merrick was dressed up as a fireman and convinced that he was going to "freak everyone out." While Sophia was an Alien commander complete with glow in the dark mask that did freak me out, as well as Merrick. Merrick's school party had the usually games including a pinata. Given the large German descent in the area I suspect that the pinata has been a long time tradition of Halloween. Sophia even got to take the first crack at the brightly colored paper mache donkey, the symbol of Halloween, although she no longer attends that school. Her school had no costumes (another change) nothing scary, sharp, pointy, excessively toothy, potentially offensive, political or fun could be worn. We erred on the side of caution and just kept her home that day, least her pink wardrobe offend anyone with a flamingo bias.

Autumanal bliss

After a long summer in which almost every day was a 'bloggable' day by the standards of this author, school has resumed and with it the ebb and flow of daily domestic minutia and the subtle joys of the weekends with the kids. As with most of the rest of the state we woke up to a chill in the air that was beyond just crisp, a definitive preface to the onset of winter. All of this seems too early for a summer that seldom crept into the range of summer. The leaves are about 50% of peak and I suspect will top out in the next week to ten days around here. We tried to make the most of it, and on Saturday went apple picking. It was cold, we were underdressed, not poor planning as much as too stubborn to admit that it was as cold as it was. Temperature was in the mid thirties and there was a pretty stiff breeze. The kids didn't mind too much, as the tractor ride out to the apple trees as well as the fruit picking poles was enough novelty to warm them up. The also were able to pick out their pumpkins on the way home. Both of them felt the full brunt of being in the elements and had Chernobyl style melt-downs on the way home. In the afternoon we taught the kids about Columbus day, and drove down to the spice store and claimed it as our own.
Sunday was equally cold/beautiful. The sun, while no longe warm, still was bright in the sky and we headed out for an early morning hike. Sophia wanted a walking stick to cruise the trails dappled with sun light and a palate of leaf colors and Merrick just wanted a stick so he could pretend to shoot things when he wasn't actually beating trees, brush, rocks or anything else that didn't move. The maples had lost most of their leaves and the forest floor appeared to be pockets of gold where their leaves had dropped. The previous day's gourd score was also appropriately gutted and faced into the jack-o-lanterns that now decorate our front stoop. Merrick was less interested in the pumpkins and was easily side-tracked by the balls in the back yard that surely needed to be kicked, while Sophia dutifully gutted and carved faces on both sides of her pumpkin. She figured that way no matter which direction people in our neighborhood were walking they would get to see her rendition of Comedy and Tragedy. After long naps by all we had a small fire in the back yard and then commitioned the kids to paint for us. Earlier in the week I had built some frames and stretched some canvas and prepped them to be painted. The kids doned their painting gear and were as Merrick imediately gravited to impressionistic art, Sophia started out in realistic and then migrated through Van Gogh impressionism and eventually ended with late Monet inspired impressionism. Through here artistic travel she did stop to dabble in some surrealism when her flower was the same size as her tree, she told me she was just using her imagination. After supper we made the early fall pies, apple and pumpkin, as a test run for the upcoming glutinous holiday and called it a pretty good weekend.