Banbury Woods

Despite being a little on the chilly side, we decided to spend the afternoon over at Banbury Woods. Scott thought everyone would enjoy canoeing on the flooded creek, but that was just one of the opportunities for adventure.

Warren (and a few other dudes blessed with upper body strength) shimmied up this rope.



Satchel and Jiro spent most of the day swinging on a different rope.



Until Jiro discovered the skateboard. We own plenty of skateboards, but he hasn't ever shown much interest. I guess the Banburys' sloped driveway inspired him. When he first attempted to ride down standing up, I thought for sure he was destined to injure himself, but amazingly, he did pretty well.



He kept going back up and back down. He had a few spills, but he kept getting back up. It was pretty awesome. After a half hour or so he had a small group of admirers watching him go, none of whom could believe this was the first time he stood up on a skateboard.

We've been trying for years to get him to ride a bike--the hitch hiker may have ruined him--and I was actually starting to think he lacked balance, but today changed my mind.

"I think I'll just skateboard instead of ride a bike," he said as he zipped past me up the driveway.

Amy noted that his worn in Vans and skinny jeans made him extra legit.

I think we need to take another road trip to the Oxford skatepark.

Madagascar Live

We took the monkeys to the Orpheum for the Madagascar Live show earlier this evening and really enjoyed it. I'm pretty sure we never made it through the actual movie--at least in the theater. I distinctly remember Satchel, Jiro, and their cousin running around the screen at Studio on the Square when we still lived behind it. (And when they still showed kids movies--a.k.a. the time before the Paradiso.) I'm sure the kids have seen the movie at school or somewhere, but the story was only half familiar to me.

I was worried that we were going to be late, but we got there in time to get some candy and get in our seats before they started exactly at 6pm. There were plenty of people streaming in for the first 30 minutes or so which was distracting, but considering how many little kids were in attendance, I can see why so many people were running late. Regardless, it was a packed house.

They gave out free lemur glasses to all the kids and there was plenty of cute merch for sale. I swept the monkeys past the merch section as quickly as possible. "I want a stuffed animal!" Jiro screeched as I nudged him towards our seats.



The costumes were really cute. I especially liked the giraffe, who we later found out was a hypochongiraffe. The hippo was spunky and the zebra was funny. And uh, Alex the lion was really hot. Yes, I said hot.

The main plot lined centered on them escaping from the zoo, which I totally support. (I don't actually support animals running wild on the subway, but I do support them being in their natural habitat.) When the animals end up in Madagascar through a series of unlikely events, they don't know how to survive in the wild. They mourn the fact that there are no people there to feed them. It's kind of sad, actually. Three of the four main characters are vegetarians and quickly adapt, but the lion needs meat. (He actually sings a whole song about steak.) Spoiler alert: the lion soon wants to eat his friend the zebra. They neatly wrap it up with an overarching message of friendship being stronger than the lion's natural instincts. The penguins come to save them and take them home, but they leave it ambiguous as to whether they will actually go back to the zoo since the lion discovers sushi.

So yeah, you might want to sub in some actual facts for the older kids when the show is over.

The story moved quickly and provided lots of laughs. King Julien was really hilarious and entertaining. He pretty much dominated the second act.

The songs were catchy and I saw several kids singing along--especially when they played "I like to move it move it." At the end, they even encouraged everyone to get up and dance. I think the monkeys were on the higher end age group, but I'd say the show would be fun for ages 2-10.

The show lasted 90 minutes and had an intermission. It was the perfect length. We probably could have waited and had dinner afterwards.

Tickets are pretty affordable ($15-$38) and there are five more shows this weekend (Saturday 11am, 2pm, 5pm and Sunday 2pm and 5pm). If we end up with rain all weekend, Madagascar Live just might save the day.

Evergreen Montessori Outdoors Club

For Warren's final semester of school, he has to implement a six week teaching project at a school. Since he did his student teaching last semester, he opted to do a project at Evergreen.

The Outdoors Club had their first meeting yesterday in Overton Park. I stopped by on my way home to see what they were up to.





They measured out ten meters on the road and then took turns pacing to see how many paces equaled ten meters. Then they measured the distance between other things, just using paces (and math).

I was really impressed to see how into it the kids were and how effective Mr. Oster is as a teacher. I even learned a few things!

Next week, the club is going to practice using compasses. Their goal is to be able to do a scavenger hunt in the forest at the end of the six weeks.

Turtle Park

Turtle Park may not be all that exciting to everyone, but we like it. If anything, it's good for some fun photo ops. Despite the frigid temps, the monkeys and I played around for a bit while Warren fiddled with the TomTom in the car. (Shut up, Chip!)






And just for fun, here's one from our trip two years ago:



And four years ago:



Where have my babies gone!!??

Magic House

On our second day in St. Louis, we slept right through the free breakfast at the hotel and then some. (We were tired! And daylight savings didn't help matters!)

When I asked the kids what they wanted to do, they said, "Go back to the City Museum!" Believe me, I considered it. However, Sunday hours are a bit limited (11-5) and I feared I'd be stuck staring at the ball pit all day.

Faced with a high of about 50 degrees for the day, I convinced the crew to take a trip to the Magic House, the St. Louis Children's Museum. The Chockleys raved about it on their last visit, and it just so happened that they were also in town and planning to visit again. I sent Stephanie a text, and after lunch we met up.

Now, let me just say that the City Museum is an incredibly hard act to follow. And let me add that after all of the raving by the Chockleys (not to mention, Liz), I was fully prepared to be let down. Once we realized that it is actually in the suburbs and required a 20+ minute drive from our hotel, I'm pretty sure that Warren was prepared to hate it too.

We arrived around 1:30pm and found it to be quite packed. From the outside it looks like a huge house, and inside there are a bazillion different little rooms. Oddly enough, we found it more difficult to navigate than the City Museum. (There were frequent announcements about lost children waiting at the registration desk.)

Amazingly enough--and through the magic of texting I suppose--we quickly found half of Team Chockley. Then we proceeded to check out the offerings. We had the advantage of Chip & Connor knowing what was cool already, which I appreciated.

The Bubble Room was fun.



We all liked sticking our hands and faces through this light bright thingy. (Chip on the left, Warren on the right.)



We ran into the rest of Team Chockley near the Louis & Clark exhibit, and continued together to what we dubbed the "Montessori area."



Eventually "we" (*cough*Chip*cough*and*Warren*) lost Connor and Jiro. I wasn't worried since they were together and when we located them about twenty minutes later near the two story spiral slide it was clear that they had no idea they were lost. They seemed to be having a fine time without us.

Meanwhile Satchel continued to check out the exhibits with Warren.



Actually, I was pretty surprised that Satchel liked it as much as he did. I think it appealed to the future teacher in Warren. I'd say that eight is probably the maximum age for Magic House visitors. It was nice and clean with lots to do, but...eh. I don't have to go back. I think I'd rather do two days at the City Museum.

Have I mentioned how much I like City Museum lately? I know I'm a broken record, but there really is nothing like it.

If you have kids under 8--preferably under 6, I think--I'd say it's worth a visit, especially if you need an indoor activity. Not to mention, if you are a member of CMOM, you can get in for free. (Regular admission was $8.75.) There's a cafe inside, so you could even take a lunch break. It seemed as though there were a few things to do outside, but the weather kept everyone inside.

Then and Now

From our first trip in 2006 when the monkeys were two and four.

I dressed them in shirts with their names and wrote Warren's phone number on their arms in Sharpie in case we got lost.

From last week. At 6 and 8 they asked if we could have a meeting spot in case we got separated. Satchel pointed out that if I wrote my number on his arm there was no way he'd ask a stranger to call his mom. (A shy/cool factor combo.) In the end, we purposely separated to enjoy our own pursuits for a bit.

City Museum

After my proposals to go camping over Spring Break were met with little interest, I floated the idea of a trip to St. Louis instead. The big draw for us is the City Museum, and it's been a couple of years since we last visited. Needless to say, the idea of going to St. Louis was met with a LOT of enthusiasm by everyone. Satchel specifically requested that we go on either a Friday or a Saturday so we could stay late. (They are open until 1am on weekends.) On our last trip, we did a morning visit, rested, and then went back at night. That seemed to be everyone's preference again.

We drove up Friday night and headed directly for the museum on Saturday morning. We were bummed to learn that the roof was only open during the Summer, but found plenty else to do.

After a trip down the big slide near the doorway, we headed out to the Monstrocity. We took turns playing follow the leader. However, Satchel & I skipped the following for some bits.

Jiro was pretty fearless, which should come as no surprise.



Warren is not one to be outdone.



Once we conquered the Monstrocity, we headed for the caves and the ten story slide. Jiro was actually apprehensive about this, but I think he mostly doesn't like climbing the ten flights of stairs. He's also not a fan of the dark caves that lead there. (In the summer, you can more easily access the top of the slide via the roof!) One trip down was all we could muster from the boys. They were most enthusiastic about the ball pit.



The balls are really fun to throw at people apparently. Warren and I grabbed a burger at the adjacent grill and watched as the boys engaged in some friendly ball pounding with strangers. After awhile we coaxed them out with hot dogs.

After lunch, they wanted to play on the Monstrocity some more. Warren and I were a bit worn out by it, so we decided to let them explore it on their own while we went up to the fourth floor "thrift store" called Bale Out to do some shopping.



We could see them out the window, and they were having a blast without us. We were having a pretty good time without them too!

Once we were done shopping we collected the monkeys and headed for the Everyday Circus. On our last visit we saw a fire eater, but this time they had the full troupe of kids. It was awesome.



After that we headed over to play in the whale, and the adjoining tunnels. I went under the floor for the first time. It's pretty crazy down there!



After four hours of non-stop action, I suggested that we take a little break. The monkeys were not ready to leave even though it was clear that they were tired. We did some low key activities like visiting the gift shop and the shoelace factory.



Then we checked out the newly expanded architectural remnant section. The monkeys quickly bored with that and headed over to an area filled with sponges. There they happily built sponge structures until we convinced them it was finally time to go.





We left for about five hours. We went swimming at the hotel, took a little rest, and then went out for dinner. By the time we made it back to the museum it was 9:30pm. I was pretty tired, but we'd promised, so in we went. All the monkeys really wanted to do was play in the ball pit. Warren and I sat above and watched as they totally held their own in the ball wars.




Once the ball pit got just too rowdy, we headed into the caves with our flashlights for a bit. By 11:30pm the museum was pretty much 95% teens and older and I was 95% spent, so we said our goodbyes to the greatest place on earth.

Melissa's Baby Shower

On Sunday I had the pleasure of sipping wine, eating miniature foods, and talking about babies with Melissa and her cabal of awesome women friends.

I know she feels as though she should be orbiting the sun, but never did I see such a sexy mama. I certainly never looked that put together when pregnant, much less not pregnant! Melissa, you wear it well!



Our hostess, Sarah, was a hoot, and she had one of the most fabulous houses I've ever seen.



A former teacher, Sarah was dead set on teaching us something before we left. With the help of a YouTube video and her live instruction, we all completed a paper crane. I tried really hard to make a second one, but couldn't without the step by step! In my defense, they are one of the most complicated origami critters I've ever seen.





Our goal was to fill up a jar for the nursery, but we fell a little short. It was fun joking about what the baby was going to say when he (or she!) saw our crooked-y cranes.



Lest you think we aren't a talented bunch, I give you the tissue paper flowers Laura made for decoration...



...and the delicious cakes Melissa's sister made as party favors.



My only talent on display (other than taking these breathtaking photos!) was my mad shopping skills. I picked out this cute Edgar Allen Poe onesie in New Orleans and Melissa hinted that one of his three names might be of significance. Hello--I can totally see Harlow's little brother Poe wearing that onesie in my mind's eye.



Based on the flowers we were asked to put in the vase, most people thought Melissa would be having another little girl.



But the ring test was all BOY.



I love that Caleb is making Melissa suffer through not knowing the sex a second time just like Warren made me suffer. I say suffer, and it is suffering, but totally worth it. Whether sweet Melissa has a boy or a girl, Poe is sure to be a tiny dreamboat. I can't wait to do some serious head-smelling and snuggling when s/he comes along. (Current estimations have him/her arriving on my birthday.)

Rock-n-Romp Recap

Saturday was our Rock-n-Romp pre-season fundraiser at Escape Alley Sundry. (You can read all about it over here.) It turned out great considering we had some pretty nasty weather. It really makes me happy that there are so many families who will come out and support us.

It helps make up for the fact that my own kids could care less about it. On Saturday Satchel said, "Rock-n-Romp is really cutting into my free time." Thankfully, I decided to laugh and not cry when he told me this. Translated, he means that he has a new video game he is trying to beat and until he does so nothing else matters.

I agreed to let him stay home until Warren finished Wing Chun (his latest obsession). Jiro, my current favorite, opted to go early and help me set up. (He really just hung out with his buddies, but I appreciated the fact that he still wanted to come with me and participate.)


Photo by Chip Chockley

Satchel and Warren arrived around 3:45 and caught the last act. Satchel was mostly pouty the entire time he was there because the one person he cared about seeing already left. I did see him run around a little bit once the show was over and it was just a few of us hanging out and cleaning up.

I'm thinking if he ever gets interested in girls, he might be more motivated to come and hang out. The girls definitely seem to appreciate this event a little more.

Oh well, I still enjoy it.

Prepared

Last year, we were featured in an MLGW commercial about gas safety. The boys had such a good time filming, I volunteered us again this year, but with one caveat--I would not pretend to smell gas again or do anything to warrant endless teasing by my *cough* friends.

This year we were simply asked to put together an emergency response kit. Done.

We arrived early yesterday morning for make-up and hair. The make-up artist told Jiro that he was so pretty, he should be a girl. Thankfully, he thought that was hilarious.



Then she tried to flatter me by saying she loved my perm. (I don't have one.) Then she asked if I had anymore of my mascara with me. (I don't wear mascara.) This picture is for all of my friends who like to put lipstick on me when I'm tipsy.



Once we were all dolled up, we were sent in to the studio to wait for paint to dry. Literally.



The white set is a little high maintenance. We even had to take our shoes off and wipe the soles.

The kids didn't mind waiting since there were unlimited snacks and drinks to be found next door. And we all had electronic devices to fall back on once the wait time ran over an hour.



Now that I'm looking back over last year's experience, I realize I put Warren in the same sweater! Oops, sorry honey!

Once we started filming, the director, once again inspired by our natural talents, decided to have one of us do something embarrassing. I'll just keep you guessing until the commercial airs. I'll give you a hint though--it may or may not involve "jazz hands."