Long Weekend indeed

The opening of Summer is as much about looking back as it is about looking forward to the start of Summer. We easily packed two weekends, and maybe three, into this long weekend. The Clan Bryan made the trip over on Friday night and were able to spend a couple of nights with us. It was an adjustment in weather for them and once the furnace was turned back on I attempted to get them to take their jackets off, but that would have to wait until Saturday. Friday night we set up a cot-town in the basement with the idea that all the kids could camp out downstairs. That ended with all the Bryans on the floor in the office and me sleeping in the basement with Sophia and Merrick. For anyone playing along at home, that means that not a single bed in the house was used. Saturday night the kids were camped on the living room floor, but I made sure to find a bed. Saturday morning found the weather oscillating between sun and rain but constantly cool. Becky and I loaded up all the troops and headed out to find some treasures at the thrift sales that pop like the crocus of spring. He hit a gold mine at the first stop were everyone got a new gun and Sophia picked up a new Hula-Hoop. After only a few more stops and a recognition of the amount of parenting that is required with 5 kids at thrift sales we went to the park instead. Ollie helped dry off all the slides for everyone before we took a short hike along the bike trail that wanders through the park, even saw a couple of deer. The kids were even able to play hobo and sit under the bridge. The intent was to have the kids take a short nap (mostly a failed idea) after lunch and then head to Bay Beach (also a failed idea). We expected a big crowd but had no idea it would be so large that we had no place to park. The new roller-coaster was finally open and it was drawing a large crowd. We opted for the wander through the wildlife sanctuary instead and then a nice woodland loop. Jake managed to miss the trail a little and get lost his shoes in the mud, similar to the old Uncle Willy story. We headed home for some brats and partial talent show while the kids used tarps and jump ropes to build forts out of the swing set in the back yard. We attempted to get the kids down early but that was mostly a no go and Sunday brought the inevitable and unenviable sleepy kid syndrome. It was our intention to hit the disc golf course and then maybe the Hall of Fame. The big hill was too much for them to resist running down and before the first tee we had 3 of the 5 kids injured. We played about 3 holes before Becky and Brad tossed in the towel and pointed the van towards home.
Sophia, Merrick and I headed home for a little lunch and a nap. With a little rest behind our eyes we wandered down to Voyager park for DePere days party. Plenty of bouncy houses and face painting for the kids as well as a midway of games for the kids to challenge each other at shooting water in a clown's mouth. Sophia even talked tough about the back flips she was going to do on the bungee trampoline, it appeared to me that she was done long before her time was up. Our blanket and back-pack were prohibited items and the weather still being a little cool I opted to not hang out for another 3 hours to watch the fireworks. The kids were not pleased, although both of them were home and sleeping before I heard the first distant boom and were somewhat placated by the backyard campfire and smores. Monday was a pancake morning and then Sophia had to get to a birthday party. Merrick and I hit the store to find a new kite, and find some straw for the garden. We picked up Sophia and headed over to Pamperin park, which was packed for the holiday. Sophia quickly found a girl she knew, shocker and the kids played in the heat of the sun. They were rosy cheeked and thirsty by the time I piled them back into the truck. I got them home just in time for a serious water balloon and hose fight to cool off and learned just how devious the kids really are. Merrick easily convinced me that he would throw the water balloon at Sophia only to have a Jekyll/Hyde facial transition and through it at me. Sophia thought this was hilarious and then felt left out and wanted a balloon. I told her that if she through it at me then we were all done. She just ran into the back yard and hollered at Merrick that when They "were tired and cold we just have to throw a balloon at Dad!"

Rain, Guns and What?

Friday night we ate at an old haunt in Manitowoc, Marretti's deli. The food was good, not that the kids noticed but I thought the three entrees we ordered were quite fine. Saturday morning consisted of monkey bread and realizing we need to go to plan B. If life gives you rain then head to EC, the weather is still crappy but at least you can get a snack bag from grandma. That was the story for this weekend, our only indoor plans were to get soccer cleats for the upcoming season and I figured we could do that in EC just as easily as GB. Grandma and Grandpa were pretty glad to see the kids, themselves figuring it was better than hanging out in the cold, wind and rain. We did set up the camper and get the winter aired out of it. Merrick and Grandpa were able to shoot the BB gun on Saturday, an activity that was also required on Sunday when we got home. Between the two of them they were able to put a serious hurt on a coke can. Meanwhile Sophia and grandma were off putting the hurt on retail, as Sophia was able to drag Grandma around the stores to buy clothes. Grandma concluded that she was a pretty serious shopper. The two of them did find some very nice clothes including some lacy socks for Sophia. The drive home was a continuation of the kid's game of "you own it." This game apparently consists of asking "Hey, Dad?" until I say "What," at which point they laugh and giggle at me and holler in unison "You, own it." I am then stuck with the word "what" until I can trick them into saying "what". Revenge being a dish that is best served cold, I would tend to wait until they had long lost interest in the game and then make them own it. This of course just leads to another round of the game, but I didn't want to own it. We headed out of EC early with the camper in tow and a bag of cinnamon rolls. It was naps for everyone when we got home and then dried out the camper from Saturday's rain and got it all set up for a summer of camping. Sophia had a couple of neighborhood boys come over and play. 90 minutes, one bloody nose, four happy kids while I cut the grass equals good entertainment for all. Merrick did get to try his new soccer cleats as well and he thought he was much faster in them than his non-soccer shoes. Sophia's cleats of course have a of a touch of pink. We will see how those work on Tuesday night.

May we please see some Sun

These was the first weekend that the sun made an appearance in what seems like nearly a year. Sunday was a dry day with high winds and clear blue skies. The rest of the weekend was pretty busy, well pretty busy for Sophia. Friday night was the end of Brownies and required nearly a 3 hour awards banquet complete with an ice cream social. Each of the bluebird, brownie and girl scout troops did a skit and then handed out their respective awards. Sophia's troop put on a skit in which the final joke is that the camera man has no film in the camera. The irony was of course that I have no pictures of this because the battery in my camera was dead. Sophia played a valley girl and has been practicing her lines for the last month, which consist of inserting the word "like' between every word of importance in the line and performing the lines with great amounts of hair flipping. She was flawless in her role. Merrick was not feeling well, and considering as much, was very well behaved. We gained a kid that night as one of Sophia's friends came home with us for a sleep over and the girls crashed on cots in the basement in front of Punky Brewster movies surrounded by left-over chocolate Easter rabbits and popcorn. Saturday morning pancakes. We then headed out into the street to explode a couple of bottles of diet Sierra mist by adding Mentos. The kids loved it and we had a nice discussion on gas suitabilities, which the second graders seemed to grasp. Merrick and I worked on cooking up some chicken soup stock while the girls ran around the house doing girl-sleep-over things. Sophia's friend had not even left before another one called to take her to Circ du soleil, when I told Sophia it would be the coolest gymnastics she had ever seen, she said "where is my leotard." She was ok with not performing and seemed to enjoy the event thoroughly. Merrick used the quite house to catch up on much needed sleep and I brewed up a batch of beer. Sunday morning was another birthday party for the oldest kid, but not before Merrick and I found time to make an apple pie and wash all the windows. He was feeling much better and we were able to buy new play sand and seeds. While Sophia was off partying, Merrick and I were able to plant the peas, beans and potatoes in the garden. We are so planted some new morning glories with the hopes they will climb the trees in the back yard. Him and I headed to the park with the spider man kite, that flew so well last year. This year, not so much. Not sure if there was just to much wind of the kite had aged, at either rate it didn't make the return trip home and was left in a crumpled heap in the park garbage can. On our way back to the truck we past a small sign by a tree that identified the tree, in concrete, as a 'kite-eating tree." Had we only known. Moved a couple of hops plants and then played a lot of baseball in the wind. Merrick and I did get the groceries this morning including all the ingredients for how the weekend will end, spiced meats, onions, mushrooms, sauce, and mozzarella cheese for a big homemade pizza

Spring comes Slowly

We are between seasons and with winter giving way to spring, so too will gymnastics give way to soccer and Hockey to baseball. April has been a busy month with new routines and a lot of rain. We have been trapped inside a little more than expected, this having been the rainiest April on record, but we found time for Merrick to turn 4 and have a party and have been getting plenty of baseball practice in the backyard. Merrick had a nice party with some of his friends and it was one of the nicer days in April allowing everybody to play a little backyard soccer. We smacked the heck out of a Spider-man pinata with all the kids scrambling around for the loose candies. He even racked up a pair of hockey nets from his extended family members, which have been getting much use (the nets, not the family members). Merrick is also old enough now, he thinks, to use the iron. He apparently prefers his camouflage to be wrinkle free. I on the other hand think maybe waiting another year or two before the iron gets plugged in might be a good idea. Sophia finishes up Girl scouts at the end of this week with an awards/badge ceremony. She and her troop will be putting on a play, so we have been working on her lines for the play. As has become typical, we spend most of our weekends chasing her birthday party friends around and giving me the illusion of a social life. The kids are doing great and Merrick asks almost daily when we can get out fishing combining that with Sophia's new favorite poem about nothing being on TV from Shel makes me feel like raising outdoor kids is the way to go.

Hey, hey, Ho, ho--this snow has got to go!!

Continuing with a protest theme we are trapped in by the snow and we are mad as hell. Actually not so much, as it is giving us time to do the normal snow day routine of getting caught up on the domestic duties and make some banana bread. The "domestics" have fallen behind because we headed out last weekend to the Dells, an extended family retreat that has been in hiatus for a year and honestly had a pretty weak return. Mark and Kate were otherwise committed and Bob and Nancy just kept checking the road conditions on I-90 like they had OCD. Bob did find some time to read a little Shel Silverstein to the youngest two, easily entertaining both ends of the age spectrum. The kids had a riot and are not only old enough to not fight with each other all the time, but even old enough to head to the arcade alone, well the oldest ones anyways. Without the biggest kid present, Mark, us other three didn't even stay up too late and Brad was forced to complain Sunday morning about how well he felt from all the extra sleep and lack of a hangover. Becky and I agreed with him and we figure we will have to do it up right next time. Evan moved up the pecking order without Munky Arky present and became the brunt of several jokes including an atomic wedgie when everyone in the condo spent 20 minutes looking for his ipod only to have his mother remind him that it was in his pocket, of the pants he was wearing.

Been a slow week other than that, Sophia is on spring break and all of her weekly activities are postponed and Merrick's skating concluded last week with the acceptance of his level-two badge and a red-plate meal. During Sophia's break from gymnastics she was told that she passed to the next level which is pre-team. so she is head towards competitive gymnastics and loving it. The previous Sunday, the day after we returned from Madison, the whole family headed to the YMCA for a little pool action. The pool pH was too high and after waiting on the deck for about 20 minutes Sophia started to chant and was immediately followed by Merrick, "We want our Pool time, we want our pool time." As they seem to understand that protesting is how it is done, I was happy Sophia didn't cry out "This is an injustice, I will not stand for this, I will be making a sign!" when I asked her to clean her room--although it did appear that she engaged in a work slow down as a job action. The kids at the Dells routinely broke into protest chants with Ollie having a panache for "kill the bill" and Merrick selecting the call and report of "Tell me what Democracy looks like, This is what Democracy looks like"

With 10 inches of fresh snow on the ground and another 4 inches expected by this evening, I suspect we will head out for a little snow boarding, after the shoveling. With the expectation of spring the patio had already become littered with toys. Fortunately I remembered where the jump rope was hidden under the snow so as not to hit it with the snow blower, unfortunately I didn't remember that there was also two hockey sticks, a hula-hoop and the final coup de gras a baseball bat. It is almost April, the snow will melt soon anyways. The official report was 17.8 inches of snow.

Less hiking, More Marching!!!

Friday night was about indoor campouts, popcorn and movies, as the kids drifted off to sleep on the livingroom floor in their sleeping bags, Lisa and I were making plans for a trip to Madison on the next morning. With a snow and rain mixture coming down we packed a knapsack with peanut butter sandwiches, bottles of waters and a ration of girl scout cookies and started the drive south, to help drive home our political message. We waited in orderly lines to take a shuttle bus down to the Capital building. The kids have been helping out with the local protests around town, but it was time for the big show. A show that did not disappoint. Merrick spent most of his time on my back and I packed a section of rope and quickly fashioned a tether to keep Sophia tied to us. I meet up with one friend down there and bumped into two others, but the meet up still took two adults with cell phones 20 minutes to find each other, a kid would have been lost for a long time. The crowd was immense in size and generosity. Estimates around the capital were near 150,000 people and that didn't include the spoke streets leading to the capital circle that were equally filled with humanity. One lady gave Merrick a granola bar and then in the spirit of fairness gave one too Sophia. An hour or so later and another lady kindly handed me a kleenex, because she said Merrick had a runny nose. These throngs were the masses of generosity and kindness that easily parted to allow people to move in and out of the pulsating mass of frustration, with excuse me's and thank yous. I suspect it was the first time any of these people had been considered thugs, they were librarians, nurses and farmers they were firefighters, professors and teachers. We decided we needed to go down for a variety of reasons including to make sure that the kids knew what a jilted democracy looks like and to give them context for a government that is meant to be by the people and for the people. This an experience and a lesson that should give them a very organic sense of other grassroots movements and uprisings that does not come across on the printed page in which it is impossible to capture the bumping, gyrating, noise and foot stomping emotional chants that spring up with little leadership and create a mass of individuals with a single voice. Coincidentally it was also day light savings time in Wisconsin, so we set our clocks back 100 years.

Princesses and Snowboards

A montage of the past couple weekends finds us in the woods, fairyland and even the slopes. Seems like we haven't spent much time outside this winter, be it horsing around in the backyard after supper or just getting out for a walk. The weather has been pretty good, but the kids have gotten so involved in skating lessons, floor hockey, gymnastics and girl scouts that by the time you toss in the occasional play date or sleep over there is little time or motivation to create outdoor experiences. Two weeks ago Sophia and I had much anticipated night out, while Merrick and Lisa went to a movie and dinner, we had a meal at nice restaurant and then went to the father daughter dance at a local high school. Sophia spent about two weeks planning what I would wear after getting her ensemble put together in about a month and a half. She was even able to ask me before we left, "Is that how you are going to comb your hair?" We had a wonderful time and Sophia quickly got used to me opening every door for her and generally leading me where ever she wanted to go. She had a couple of her friends at the dance, but she still generally chose me to dance with, a choice that still warms me greatly as I recognize the fleeting moment that the choice represents. We danced to every song but one, when Sophia had to stop for an ice cream break. Some of the high school girls were there dressed in massive 'princess' prom type dresses. Sophia wanted, and received, her picture taken with the princesses, at great risk to my own career of having high school girls pictures on my phone. My princess, Sophia, was certainly worth the risk.

We have been able to get some outdoor time by hiking near the house and watching the rabbit tracks weave in and out of the dried bamboo canes. Last weekend Sophia had a friend over and we headed north to the Oconto to take a hike. On the way up the friend said she had never been in the woods, so it was nice to introduce a 'new kid' to all of the tracks that we came across in the woods. With a fresh bit of snow we ended the weekend with a trip to the sledding hill armed with new snowboards. The kids did great. Turns out Sophia is a goofy foot and rides as a lefty, Merrick with no real surprise seems to excel at this athletic event. He rode all the way to the bottom of the hill several times and then just stepped out of the board when it stopped. Sophia did much better once we switched her bindings around. We rounded off the weekend with a solid spaghetti and meatball supper. Oh, but lest I forget about the restaurant of Friday night, I will sum it up with only that when we left the host asked Lisa "Are you sure you got all of your kids?" not a pleasant outing.