Happy Canada Day!

Saturday's Simple Pleasures

Run-Ins

We seem to keep running into the Schultz family. No complaints.

After a busy Thursday (spent at Legoland and the Woodfield Mall), we stopped at Target to get two key supplies to survive this heat wave: a pool and a fan. I heard Kelly's voice before I even turned to see them there.



We spent the rest of the evening (what was left of it) with them, including a trip to Margie's Ice Cream, where the extremely long line for a table convinced us to order our ice cream to go (and even that took half an hour).

We went to their house on Friday for some fun hanging out (and some interesting girl vs. boy games), and then we all headed to the pool (their pool is quite a bit nicer than our tiny blow up pool, to put it mildly). What fun we all had...so much it seems, that I didn't take a single photograph.

Legoland

Took a Master Builder "class," and the kids made their own small Sears Towers.



There's now a ride there!



We built our own race cars.




And then they made their own Leaning Tower of Legos.

Heading Home

The conference was officially over in the morning. We gathered for a final craft and lots of goodbye hugs. Then we checked out, somehow managed to get everything back into the car, and we headed to a nearby donut shop for breakfast, a funny little restaurant which served donuts, muffins and wonton soup. We stuck with the sweet stuff.



While we were dining, a couple came and asked if that was our polka dotted Passat out front, and when we confirmed, they told us about a VW show that was happening across town. We decided a detour was in order.






We picked out several VW buses that we loved, and we admired the insides of so many of them, fantasizing of what it might be like to have our own bus, traveling around the country together. The boys would love to do this. After eyeing the size of most of the interiors, I am somewhat skeptical, but I'm definitely willing to give it a try, at least on a vacation by vacation basis. Martin has been looking into renting a VW van or bus for a future adventure.

We arrived at the Maefield B&B in the early evening, and Sue welcomed us back, and offered to make us some dinner. We happily accepted and enjoyed pasta and salad and conversation with Sue. After dinner, we all sat around the campfire and roasted marshmallows.





In the morning, we got to visit with all the horses and even sit on one of them. This was such a treat, and it felt like so many wonderful things just flowed our way on this vacation: birds, cars, horses, funny little restaurants.





Leaving the farm.



Quick stop at the post office.



Another stop at a store that will remain nameless.



And one more very necessary pit stop.

Day Three of Shine

Exhausted little sweeties.



Shine Street Faire. Max and Otto sold magnets and pins, mostly from Max's Batman drawings, but a few of Otto's creations were there too (mostly, he cut out pictures from the Big Backyard magazine and glued them in the magnet. Otto is definitely the salesman and Max is the temperamental artist who doesn't like to discuss his work. He was pretty happy to collect the money, however.




For dinner, we hiked up to the Spicy Olive, a restaurant we had heard raves about. We only wished we had found it sooner: calamari for Max (and us too!), delicious green salads, and when they called them mixed greens, they were indeed dark beautiful greens, with melon and grapes on top. Wow! It definitely beat out the iceberg lettuce I had been served everywhere else. And the pizza...well, it was just what we all needed.




The Amy Steinberg concert was that night (and I had once again almost missed her, since I thought the concert started at 8, but when we got back to the hotel at 7:30, I realized the schedule had her down for 7-8). Eeek! I ran down, determined to see at least a couple of songs, and luckily, the concert had started late, and she was only on the third song. I made it in time for "Exactly" and so much more, and I have to say, she puts on an amazing show.

And then we danced.

Day Two of Shine: Maid of the Mist

Today's shining extra: Maid of the Mist. We all gathered together to get absolutely soaked. It was thrilling. We were sort of at the end of the line and wondered if we'd get a good spot to view the falls. Martin boldly walked forward, and to my complete surprise, we found an open spot at the very front of the ship. We then proceeded to head directly into the falls (well, we didn't actually head into them, but right toward them, and definitely into the mist.







And, as if we didn't get wet enough on the boat tour, the boys decided to sit down in the river.



With all those wet clothes, we required a trip to the laundromat. As luck would have it, the one we picked just happened to have two cockatoos and a parrot. This one is Jake.



The girl who got him out (and on whose shoulder he is perched) actually works next door at the burger/hot dog stand, but she seemed very at home at the laundromat. We went over to the stand for dinner while we waited for the laundry to finish. There was a little picnic table, and it was a beautiful sunny afternoon. Martin and I ate bread and cheese that we had brought with us (from the Cheese Truckle), and the boys had food from the stand. And everyone was happy.

Back at the hotel, we just made it in time for the Bird Kingdom demonstration, where two of the staff members brought along hissing coakroaches, a giant centipede, a skunk and a parrot. Max was very disappointed he didn't get to hold the parrot, but, hey, he got to pet these little cuties.



And then we hopped out the back door to see all the old cars parked in front of Planet Hollywood.



And we visited this sweet guy.



To finish the day: fireworks in the park. Anne handed out bubbles to everyone, and the kids ran around on the grass until it was time for the big show.



Ahhh....

First Day of Shine, a.k.a. Otto's 5th Birthday

The first day of the conference was also Otto's 5th birthday, so as much as I wanted to be there for the opening welcome from Anne and to feel a part of it all, the more pressing (and important) thing was to be with my sweet little Otto on his big day. And so that is what we did. Starting with the early morning placement of his present from Max on the bed.

Max and I had gone to Target last week, and Max had such a great time picking put all kinds of things for Otto: two different Lego sets ("he will like this Bionicle because it's blue!"), a Spongebob sticker puzzle ("because Otto loves puzzles!"), some gummy cherries ("THIS is the kind of cherry Otto will like!"), and the most exciting find of all: a Boba Fett Bobble Head ("he has been wanting this FOREVER!"). When we got home, he helped me wrap them all, went on a great search to find the perfect ribbon in our art supplies box, and then he made a bag to put all the goodies in. He had been keeping his "secret" of the gift contents for so long, he couldn't wait for Otto to finally see everything.

We woke up before Otto, so Max put his goodies right there for him to see as soon as he opened his eyes.



Let the present opening begin!



Why wait to get started on playing with all this great stuff? (Notice the puzzle is already built and stickered).



We switched to the other bed for building the Lego City vehicle.



We did convince the boys to head over to the conference area so that we could participate in some funshops. This one was making duct tape flowers. After some initial reluctance, both boys got very excited about this craft and made really cute flowers.



After a brief bit of meeting up with the conference goers, we were off again to pick up Otto's cake. Back story: we had looked up a bakery online before coming to Niagara Falls, knowing we would want a pretty and delicious cake for his big day. We saw some really nice creations from this bakery, which also happens to be all organic and uses natural colors for the frosting (not that Otto would care, since he is perfectly happy with the bluest, most non-organic frosting imaginable, but it made me happy to find them). We got there on Wednesday (the day before his birthday), thinking we'd just pick out a cake from the available offerings in the display box, only to find a sign on the door that they had closed their doors to the public as of May 9 and were now only open for wholesale and special orders. I called the number on the sign, thinking I would just ask her recommendation of another bakery, and Tracy answered. She was so nice. She asked where we were, and when I told her we were parked out front, she came to the door, let me in, showed me some cakes, talked me through options and said she'd have a special cake waiting for us at 12:30 the next day.

And here's Mark, showing us the creation he made just for our little Otto. (That's Tracy behind him.)



Don't worry, there's a better photo of his creation later.

While we were waiting for Mark to put the finishing touches on the cake, Tracy gave us a tour of the bakery. We got to see the giant bread mixer (the biggest one I've ever seen: it had two "arms" that kneaded the bread, as opposed to the ones that look like a big Kitchen Aid mixer). She said that this was here when they took over the bakery, and that she will never go back to any other way of mixing the bread, that it makes the most airy and delicious dough ever.

They also bake bread, and they gave us a sample of their grape skin seed bread, made with a powder that apparently has amazing nutritional properties. All grapes grown in the region here, which is apparently some of the best fruit growing soil there is. Mark told us how they keep building on the land, how the lovely luscious land is disappearing, and we talked a while about that with him until the boys got antsy and ready to leave. ("Too much talking!") Needless to say, we really loved Mark and Tracy and their bakery.

Here's the bakery from the outside.



And right across the street:



Mark and Tracy both raved about the Cheese Truckle and practically insisted we go there. (We didn't need much persuasion, of course!) He had a really nice selection of cheese, and the boys loved looking at all the flags which were posted above each cheese, telling you the country of origin. They have been very interested in flags recently, so again, another wonderful connection. The counted up all the flags of England, all the ones of Scotland, they were so excited to see France and Italy and Austraila! And looks, here's America! We picked out several Canadian cheeses: Niagara Gold Washed Rind (a semi soft cheese, very mild, very very tasty), BioBio extra sharp 5 year cheddar (Max loved this one), La Sauvagine Soft Surface Ripened (a brie, so creamy and delicious, another Max favorite), a Maple Cheddar (definite maple flavor in this, we thought Max would love it, but actually he thought it was too maple-y), and Oka (a last addition to our already full cheese, but once we tried it, we couldn't resist.

The shopkeeper gave the boys honey sticks to suck on while we were choosing our cheese, gave us samples of everything, and even had lots of Canadian chocolate on hand for our chocolate-crazed boys:





Back at the hotel, we took Boba Bobble and all our birds to lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. We sat right by the fish (and right under the thunderstorms!). Our waitress was far too busy to give us the attention we would have liked, and yet we all still had a great time.



There were several other birthdays happening at the same time, and each child stood on a chair and the room yelled out birthday greetings to them. We had told our waitress that it was Otto's birthday, and when the end of the meal came, she said she would bring out his sundae and put him up on the chair for his birthday wishes. We told her we'd rather have plain vanilla ice cream and no grand birthday wishes, just our little table. She completely got that (yay!), and brought us a simple vanilla ice cream. She still thought she'd sing happy birthday to him, but accepted the request that she just say happy birthday and leave it at that.



Back at the room, we decided it was time for cake (and more presents).



A close up of this BEAUTIFUL cake.



We had decorated the room with balloons and streamers, and Max picked out these plates and the Yoda napkins at the party store.



The cake was truly delicious, and I am not exaggerating to say it was the BEST CAKE I HAVE EVER EATEN. It was so simple: a vanilla cake with a vanilla cream filling, also decorated with a vanilla buttercream (and some fondant for the polka dots, but this fondant was not nearly as hard and inedible as most fondant). I couldn't believe how absolutely melt in your mouth good it was. We should have taken a picture of the sliced cake so you could get a glimpse of this inside. Alas. Hindsight.

After stuffing ourselves with cake, we headed down to the Shine Talent Show. Unschoolers' talent shows are simply the best talent shows there are. I absolutely love them and remember that even at our first conference, that was one of the things that grabbed me the most: celebrating the talents of every single person, making them all feel completely safe and loved for anything they shared with us. Max has never been one who wants to be public about anything he does, he doesn't play the piano for other people unless he can do it sort of secretly, without any presentation about it. He doesn't like "all eyes on him," and neither do I, so when I saw the sign-up sheet for the talent show, it did not even occur to me that he would want to participate.

We arrived at the show and were there (early, for once) in time to see all the acts getting their stuff together: guitars, a violin, a boy in a magician's costume, girls in fancy dresses, and Max became very upset. Why didn't we bring his violin?, he demanded to know. We only got the violin from my parents last month, and so far, we know absolutely nothing about how to play it, aside from making great screeching noises. I knew if there had been anyplace on earth he could get up and screech some violin strings in front of a crowd, this would have been it, but honestly, I didn't even think of packing it, knowing our space was limited and the likelihood of playing it was beyond slim. But I suppose I was wrong. He saw a little girl setting up her violin and began to cry. We had brought his glockenspiel and Otto's drum, thinking those would be fun things to have during the street faire, knowing that might be a place where he would feel comfortable to share his music. I asked Max if he would want to play those, and he seemed finally somewhat comforted and said, "Yes." So Martin ran back to the room, got their instruments, and I added their name to the list.

I truly did not believe he would actually play. I assumed that perhaps we would get up for our "time" on stage, look at the audience from the other side and realize he wasn't up for this after all. But instead, he anxiously waited, wondering how soon they would call him up. He watched all the acts with interest, and when Kelly got up to play her violin (she is 11 and has been playing since she was 3), Max was especially keen. As soon as she started playing, he turned to me, with a look that I think signified he realized it was probably best that he did not bring his violin, and he said, "She is REALLY good." There were other acts he was more critical of, and when one particular girl was singing, Max turned to me and said, a bit too loudly, "She isn't even any good at all!" I had to laugh inside, knowing that we had absolutely nothing prepared for our own portion of this event, knowing that this is the one place where these kids can be safe and sing the alphabet song to a roaring and enthusiastic crowd, knowing that Max could not understand that this was the place to share yourself, the safest place imaginable.

I finally had to go to the MC and ask how long it would be until Max and Otto had a turn, and Anne said, "Oh, we're not really going in order, we're going by who is most anxious to get up NOW!" So that was that: they were next. I was probably the most nervous of all of us, having no idea what Max was planning to do and knowing there was a 3 1/2 minute time limit. I suspected Max would either decide against it completely or he would be up there all night. To my complete joy and a bit of dismay, it was the latter. ;)

It was a piece that Philip Glass would have appreciated. I think I would have been hard pressed to convince anyone that Max actually can play a recognizable melody. Max was yelling at Otto at one point because Otto wasn't really playing, and Otto responded by hitting himself in the head with his drumstick, which became the thing he did throughout the rest of the "act." Max got even more irritated (but also seemed to be loving the attention of the crowd), and when Otto didn't play quite as Max had decided he should, Max hit him in the head with his wooden mallet. Luckily, a full brawl did not ensue, and I was able to wrangle them off the stage by repeatedly asking them to wrap it up...and after what was likely 3 minutes of some seriously avant garde music, Martin told me that I pulled them off the stage too early. You have to love Martin, who is so proud of his children that he felt absolutely no embarrassment about this moment. I, on the other hand, was bright red, I am sure, and felt a strong need to "help" them wrap up their piece. As Anne said, "I want them to be free to play, but I do have some limits. I'm not afraid to bring out the hook." I am quite sure she wouldn't have actually used her hook, but I wanted to make sure she didn't feel that she had to.

And yet, I do have to say, I was really amazed that Max wanted to be up there, I was so pleased that Otto even joined him (he had no desire to be up there, but he did it because he wanted to do whatever Max did). And I felt like it was a big shiny step forward for them both.



After they had played, they were ready to go. I missed some of the later acts, which I would have really loved to see, but then again, it was a good time to go back to the room, to celebrate what was left of Otto's birthday and to have some quiet time with just our family. I had gotten a game of "pin the parrot on the pirate," to make more of a party out of his day. They thought this was hilarious, and we all got a kick out of the times the parrot didn't even make it on the picture, but hung, at least a foot to the left, on the hotel wall.




And then it was time for bed. I think Otto had a nice 5th birthday. It's always different to celebrate somewhere other than your own house, where everything is more familiar and just how you would like it. But Otto is a pretty "make the most of it" kind of guy, and I think he enjoyed his day. He said more than once, "It's my birthday, and I can do what I want." It's not much different from every other day of his life, but I guess he liked to think it was even more so today. Full of cake (we had one more slice, as we couldn't let it sit there untouched), we all went to bed, happy and full of a big wonderful day.

Happy birthday, my darling little five year old boy. I love you so much.

Bird Kingdom

One of the highlights of our vacation in Niagara Falls was our tour of Bird Kingdom. The boys continue to be enthralled with all things related to birds, and they carried their own stuffed lorikeet and puffin (brought with them from Chicago) with them almost everywhere we went for the whole week.



We started in the reptile room, where we got a really up close and personal look at many of them.



The thing we most liked about this museum was that the birds roamed freely through the entire place. You could get really close to them, as long as they were interested in that. If you moved too quickly, they would usually run or fly away, but if you were quiet and slow, you could be with them in their space. It was really cool for everyone.










The museum had its own falls.



Apparently we got a bit too close to it here. Check out the look on Otto's face.



Family photo.



The highlight of the visit is not captured here, however, and that was the lorikeet feeding. You could purchase a cup of nectar, and all these lorikeets would land on your arms or your shoulder or your head and drink from your cup. It was so thrilling for both kids, and we did it twice. We did purchase some of the photos (they wouldn't let you take your own photos in this section), and I'll have to scan them in and post them at a later date.

We were amazed at how much fun it was, especially given that so many of the other attractions in the area seem so extremely touristy. This was really wonderful.

Niagara Falls, On First Glance

Our first views of the falls, in the evening.





We walked from there along the walkway, which lead us from the American Falls closer to the Canadian Falls (the Canadian falls are the horseshoe shaped falls). There was a tall tower near the Horseshoe Falls, which Max kept pointing out. He thought it looked like Seattle's Space Needle, which he has really wanted to visit. He really wanted to go to the top of this tower. We had no idea what it was or how far away it was, but we kept walking toward it. It turned out it was the Skylon Tower, the "ultimate place to view the falls." For a small (?) fee, you could ride a glass elevator to the top (that little yellow thing on the outside of the tower is the elevator), and once up there, you could walk around, inside or outside, for an amazing view.



By the time we arrived, it was dark out, and we tried to convince Max to come back the next morning for a better view. But he was so anxious to see it that we decided NOW was the time. And then, we'd get a beautiful view of Niagara Falls at night.

Here's a bit of that view. Very blurry. Shaky hands? No flash? A lot of wind? A combination of all of those things.



And truly, it felt a bit more like this to me:



Here were the reluctant three, clinging to the inside wall. Max got a bit more confident as we were up there for a while, and he and Martin did a tour closer to the edge than Otto was willing to go.



Back down to the safety of the bottom, we went to a 4-D movie about the legend of the falls. The movie was awful, but we were the only people in the theater, so we had a good time.



In the next few days, we would be so swept up with all the other things to do that it was really a good thing we did this when we did it. And the weather for the next few days was rainy, so the view would have been terrible. I'm so glad we followed our Max's instincts.