Cloud Man, Cloudless Sky

It's Chicago Humanities Festival the next two weeks, and thanks to another homeschooling mom who organizes tickets for these shows every year, we are going to see five different plays in the next 12 days. The first one was so very good I can't imagine we will top it. But we will certainly attend the rest with hopeful anticipation.

Cloudman was a quiet, sweet, beautiful piece that touched us all. Otto couldn't stop talking about it all night. Here they are, after the show, meeting Cloudman.

For a very brief glimpse of what the play was like, see their website.

And afterward, we went out into the sunny gorgeous day. We didn't see any Cloud Men, but we had fun cooling off in Millennium Park.

We convinced our friend Ruben to join us for science class.

Then we came home to spend the afternoon in the back yard with our chickens. Glo has been pecking on Junior. She doesn't even let Junior into the chicken house when she is there, she doesn't let her get to the food when she is eating, she doesn't let her up on the roost at night. We are not sure if we should do anything about it, but while I am trying to figure it out, the boys took matters into their own hands. After a pecking episode, they put Glo in solitary confinement. Not sure this is a good idea, and I explained we may just have to let them figure it out, that it's nature, and it will hopefully sort itself out. But before I released her, I had to capture the moment.

Here's Junior, free from her terrorizer, at least for a short time.

Sushi, Friends, Music, Zoo, Pie, Sun, Garden (or, What More Could We Ask For?)

Sushi at our favorite Hachi's Kitchen to kick off our Friday night start to what would be a wonderful weekend.

Saturday was busy. We went to the CSO with friends, and afterward, we walked to a nearby gallery to pick up some art Martin had purchased when we were out of town (he is supposed to consult us before he buys art, since we often have different opinions about what we want to hang on our walls, but we were quite happy with his find). The kids found a quiet corner to play while we all looked at the art.

Then we headed to the zoo with Michele, Lincoln and Tallulah. Added bonus: popcorn.

New male lion at zoo looks like he feels right at home.

Tallulah really wanted to ride the carousel, and the boys were happy to oblige. It was Tallulah's first ride without a parent standing by. She gained new confidence with her big boy friends.

There were at least 30 of these nests with this bird I do not know in a small area of the zoo. I have never seen such a thriving community of birds, all so busy building their nests and hanging out in the trees. What are they? Please tell me if you know.

After the zoo, we all headed to Prost! for beer and pretzels as big as your head (not exaggerating). And more fun with our lovely friends, who we don't see nearly often enough. Luckily, I have some sort of charm that draws little girls to me (maybe because I don't have a little girl of my own, so I get this magical little experience when we hang out with friends). I got to hold Tallulah's hand all afternoon at the zoo, and sit by her at dinner, and when she was tired at the restaurant, she just climbed in my lap and fell asleep. Otto looked at her fondly and said, "I remember when I used to do that." I remember it too, and it was nice to have a sweet little child curled up on my lap. It was also hard to eat and sit straight/comfortably. 

I loved those times when my boys were small enough to crawl into my lap when they were tired. But I am so loving to see my not so little boys stretching out and exploring what it means to be growing up. They comforted Tallulah when she was sad (for instance, when the photo booth took a photo without her in it, since she was too short) and were happy to make her feel better when they could (another round at the photo booth). It's so sweet to see this, and to realize that I am truly enjoying every age, every stage with my lovely family.

Sunday was brilliant. As if the best biscuits and pie in town weren't enough to offer, the Bang Bang Pie Shop has an enclosed garden with picnic tables. And it's dog friendly! I think we will be spending many more summer mornings and afternoons here.

Oh, yeah. There's also bacon.

Home Depot. Always fun.

We spent the rest of the afternoon chicken-proofing our garden.

So good, this weekend was.

Warm Weather Activities (for a whole day)

Strange weather continues. This week we had one day which reached almost 90 degrees, followed by the next day which was so cold and rainy that we had to wear our winter coats again. But while the sun was shining, we got out the sidewalk chalk. (The boys may have gotten a bit too enthusiastic—they expanded their canvas to include Lilli.)

She's such a good sport.

We took advantage of the one warm day to have our first grill-out of the season.

Tennessee Trip

We spent a week in Tennessee with my parents. We had a couple of beautiful sunny days and then several cold rainy ones (perhaps we brought the rain from Chicago along with us). But we still found lots of fun ways to spend our time. And the rainy days were good for Grandma to teach the boys some basic multiplication (since Grandma specializes in multiplication flash cards from her many years as a third grade teacher). 

My brother came for about 24 hours, so that was a treat, even if it was too short a time to really hang out together. And Grandma and Grandpa played lots of games with Otto, which made him very happy. Grandma even played an epic game of Munchkin with me and Otto, although she could barely wrap her head around the complicated rules.

The Nashville Zoo is one of our favorite zoos. It is beautifully landscaped and features a lorikeet exhibit where you can feed the lorikeets. This is the boys' absolute favorite part of the whole zoo experience.

Otto and these flamingos looked so good together.

We had some issues with the car that we trusted to my parents' long-time mechanic. (He used to be my mechanic too, when I lived in Franklin.) One issue required that we drive out to a junk yard to pick up a spare part. This proved to be a very exciting adventure for the boys. Ah, I suppose they will always have a special place in their hearts for their first salvage lot experience.

And while in the Music City area, we wanted to see some live music, especially when we heard Abigail Washburn was in town (thanks, Dad, for realizing that and buying us all tickets to this fabulous show!). It was such a treat to see such a wonderful collection of musicians, including a special guest appearance by her husband and fellow banjo player, Bela Fleck. Abigail Washburn is more than 8 months pregnant and still managed quite a show: she even clogged! Maybe she's trying to bring on labor.

We weren't really supposed to have our cameras out, but since I had my phone out right as they came out for the second half, I snuck a blurry photo of Abigail and Bela (she was laughing at him because he was all tuned up and playing the intro to the song in the wrong key). It was fun to watch them work together, and of course, they played beautifully together.

Rainy afternoons and multiplication facts.

 

My dad was hard at work in his wood shop for a couple of afternoons. They are expecting a delivery of bees to add another fun element to life on the farm. Dad has designed a really cool bee house, but of course, he decided to make not two, but four, and needed them all ready by Thursday, when the bees were scheduled to arrive. I think this photo was taken on Sunday. Still quite a lot to do, but he was pretty well organized and hopeful he would be ready for them.

Here's one bee house, almost ready to go.

We also spent an afternoon in the studio with Grandma, making some stuff on her pottery wheel. I was so covered in clay for the whole session that I didn't take any photos, but we all made some cool stuff.  

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa, for a good visit. There's always so much happening at your house, so many projects and opportunities for art and nature and music and adventure. And after a few days of really dreary rain, I was so happy we were able to end the trip with an afternoon in the garden, with the sun warming us all.

Winter 2013

I thought we hadn't gotten much snow this year, but it turns out most of my movie footage from the season contains some fluffy (or maybe it was more like soggy and slushy) white stuff. It was a long slow slog to spring, but we have recently had a few warm days which indicate some sort of warm up. Unless you count today, which is cold and dreary. Seems like the perfect time to watch this tinkly little reminder of our winter days.

Quiet Weekend

Deep Water

It rained and rained and rained some more. For the first time ever, our basement flooded. When Martin came up to report we would have to scoop out a couple of inches of water, Max responded, "That sounds fun!"

Daffodils that come before the swallow dares

It was another lovely weekend at the cabin: the daffodils were just starting to bloom, the sun was shining. We planted some grass, we picked up sticks, we played in the yard. We even had our first-of-the-season beach picnic. Inside, we built fires, played games, watched Freaks and Geeks.

Max has been cooking and baking quite a bit, and he has even staked the claim that his French Toast is better than mine. Otto wanted in on the action, and he has been trying to figure out which dish he can make from start to finish without any help from anyone. He found it on Saturday night: hot chocolate. Here he is, proudly serving it up.

There was quite a lot of Lilli Love this weekend.

Modified Jenga.

At the beach.

Back at the cabin, checking out the open daffodils.

Lilli loves this boomerang, but it makes it very tricky to play with it when she is around, because in her opinion, the game is Fetch. And Chew.

The boys spent the last remaining hours of sunlight digging in the dirt.

It used to be a regular sight to see Max and Otto playing with these trucks, but the trucks have been boxed up for four years or so, sitting in the basement, awaiting future orders. I took them out to Indiana, wondering if they might be rediscovered there, and that was exactly what happened. They cleaned them all in a big tub of water (their were cobwebs on them—it was necessary). They made cement. They dug in the mulch.  

Max remarked with a bit of surprise that it was still so fun to play with them. I am astonished to realize that I look at this photo and clearly see my 6 and 3 year old playing right inside my 11 and 8 year old, with so many of the same expressions, gestures and feelings. The hair is longer, and the legs are too, but the intentions are so much the same.