Friday means music. And ice cream.

Friday's in Dexter mean live music in the park downtown, so that's where we headed tonight, on foot, with our picnic packed and stowed on the bottom of the stroller.  The music was rockabilly and enjoyable, and there was a pig to boot.  Really, a pig.  You can see for yourself.  We had a great picnic in the shade, then danced for a while, then chased the pig for a while, and lastly we headed for the Dairy Queen for the quintessential ice cream cones.  And, of course, the quintessential mess.  You can see that for yourselves, too.  We can't say that it's the same as The Top of the Park, but in many ways we can say we enjoyed it more - far fewer people, the band wasn't as loud, the park was far more comfortable, and the ice cream more reasonably priced - and we wonder if that's a sign that we are starting to become Dexterites.  That would really be fine with us.

More pictures in the July 2008 abum.

Summer entertainment

We mentioned recently that our calendar had been briefly taken over by Calvin's various "end of the year" events, and today marked the conclusion of that situation with a picnic and drum circle for his music class participants.  This was our first time taking part in a real honest to goodness drum circle, and it really was delightful for all three of us.  If you are wondering what a real honest to goodness drum circle is, we couldn't really tell you, but we can tell you that this one involved all the kids and their family members sitting in a circle around a big pile of rhythm instruments, and a rhythm leader who kept a steady and interesting beat for us as we made our way through such child and rhythm friendly songs as Funga Alafia and the ABCs (which can, yes, be quite rhythmic if done right way).  We all got the chance to use many different rhythm instruments from around the world and to pick songs to sing and perform.  It was truly impossible not to get swept into the movement, singing, and rhythm of the circle, and, after a wonderful potluck lunch, we all went home and collapsed at nap time.

Our evening entertainment wasn't nearly as coo, but it did involved some rhythm and dancing (at least on Calvin's part).  With so much to do in our own little village we hadn't ventured into Ann Arbor town for its many activities yet this summer, but after reading about tonight's entertainment at Top of the Park, we figured we'd better check it out.  As it turned out, Heliosphere, performed by a group called Dream Engine, was too loud, too short, and too repetitive and not nearly as much as the band that came after.  And, actually, it wasn't so much the band itself as watching Calvin dance that made that part of the evening riotous.  He enjoyed Heliosphere just fine, but when the music came on he got up and started shaking it right in the middle of the crowd.  He had quite the audience, too.  It's amazing what self-assurance we are born with that is ultimately replaced by a sense of propriety, but at Calvin's age all the world is his stage for sure.

More pictures:  June 2008, too album. 

Jammies at the Library

It's not every day that you get to wear your jammies to the library, but Calvin learned something about special exceptions today.  The children's program at our little tiny library has been one of our greatest enjoyments in our new tiny town - Calvin absolutely loves weekly story time, and throughout the summer they have at least one activity every week to get kids into the library for fun - and the activity this week was Bedtime Stories night.  For about thirty minutes pajama clad kids of all ages crammed themselves into the main room of the library to listen to our phenomenal and well loved children's librarian read bedtime stories and lead bedtime songs and dances (yes dances).  From "No Jumping on the Bed" to "I'm Not Afraid of Monsters" Calvin was absolutely captivated, plus he seemed to greatly enjoy the fact that he was wearing his pajamas out of the house.  And since, if we're making some exceptions, we might as well make a few, yes that is a lion hanging out with those farm animals on the felt board (for more information on lions as farm animals, please refer to Pete Seeger's recording of "I Had a Rooster"). 

Fudging the dates

Calvin's birthday is just around the corner - only two days away - but since this year it happens to fall on a Monday, and since a two year old doesn't care about dates, we celebrated today instead.  As with most things that are new to him, we spent the week preparing by reading books about birthdays and talking about our plans for the day.  Although he did have a solid opinion on what he wanted for dinner, that being "pizza, artichokes, strawberries, happy birthday cake" (honestly, in his words), two year olds are, thankfully, blissfully unaware of the usual birthday hullabaloo, and our party planning consisted of buying ingredients for a carrot cake, digging the last year's leftover decorations out of the basement, and deciding whether to pick up the pizza or have it delivered.  Calvin  With the recent heat-wave we decided to bake the cake (carrot) early, before it got too hot to use the oven (another great reason to order pizza for dinner) and then walk into town for the Dexter Ice Cream Social in order to get out of the house for the morning.  That turned out to be a great choice - the breeze and cloud cover made it more comfortable to be out of doors than in, and Calvin enjoyed the Social like it was one big birthday party.  He got a balloon, he got to feed llamas and goats, and he even got to take part in the all essential birthday pony ride.  Twice.  And he wasn't particularly shy about telling everyone that it was his birthday ("oh, and how old are you?"  "two!").  Then, following a much needed afternoon nap, he woke up ready to have a party all over again, which was a good thing, since the kitchen was already filled with one.  And, what the family party lacked in pony rides, it made up for tenfold with good company (his four favorite grandparents, his favorite aunt, and his favorite mom and favorite dad), food, and presents (of which his favorites happen to be a helicopter, a dollhouse, and condiments - yes condiments.  Who knew they made wooden condiments???).  We just hope he doesn't expect pony rides and a petting zoo every year.

The usual picture overkill can be found in the June 2008 album.

Rain, rain, don't go away.

It's tough being a kid.  We've had such beautiful weather lately that Calvin has become accustomed to going outside to play after naptime every day.  In fact, forget accustomed, he's down right expectant.  When he went down for his nap this afternoon all he could talk about was "painting the driveway" when he got up (with water, of course).  How dare the weather have different plans!  So when he got up, and it was raining pretty steadily, we tried to talk him out of his usual outdoor tromp before dinner, and decided that he might as well see for himself why it wasn't such a good idea.  That went about as well as giving him the hot pepper he asked for the other night and expecting him to give it back (the crazy kid ate it and asked for more).  His initial reaction to the rain was some mix between disbelief and disappointment - painting the driveway in water was certainly not a worthwhile activity anymore - but if we expected him to come inside we were in for another hot pepper style disappointment of our own.  After a moment of despondency, and several minutes of refusing to give in to fate, Calvin discovered splashing (or splatting, as it may be, since improved drainage has cut down severely on puddle enjoyment), and this new activity kept him in giggles until the rain stopped 30 minutes later, at which time he promptly begged to come inside again - now without the rain all the fun was over.  Nature just can't win.