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Entries in activities (81)

Sunday
Aug142011

Dexter Daze

Once a year our little village comes alive with all the party that a little village can muster—live entertainment, "art" booths, fundraiser food, kiddie fun, and a beer tent—and every year we make our way down to our little main drag to take part. The stores take advantage of the increased traffic and hold sidwalk sales, the neighbors take advantage and have garage sales, and I spent most of the time cooped up in the library basement running the biggest used book sale of the year. The boys, on the other hand, took advantage of the mock train rides, the bounce house, and the instrument petting farm. And there's always the food. Friday night we ate home cooked pulled pork and cupcakes, Saturday lunch we ate grilled chicken at the local church, and Saturday dinner we made our way into the beer tent for brats and brew, and then to the Dairy Queen for dessert. And when a weekend goes like that, there isn't room for much more, nor energy with which to say much more.

Saturday
Apr022011

waterfowl

It was sunny this morning. Chilly, but sunny. We got an early start because I had to be at the library early in order to work the monthly book sale. I love monthly book sale day. I love talking to other book lovers and I enjoy stretching my organizational skills outside of the home, not to mention I love to shop. But while I was looking for a good copy of the Parlement of Foules, the boys were off looking for other kinds of fowl with our county parks and recreation nature guide. Rain boots, borrowed binoculars, and some winter gear was all they needed. The program was about waterfowl, and they found swans, several varieties of ducks, and even sandhill cranes. I'm feeling jealous. We hear the sandhills in our neighborhood all the time, but have only caught glimpses of them overhead, so this was a treat. I gather that they had a wonderful time, and Calvin keeps telling me that the "red head" duck was his favorite. Jon was most blown away by the powerful and expensive scopes some of the participants brought, and were willing to share with our interested son. And as the program came to a close our wonderful nature guide asked the participants if anyone would like to follow her over to a pond in Ann Arbor for more viewing, an offer which Jon and Calvin readily took her up on. I know Calvin had a great time, and I know he was greatly interested in the birds at the lake, but I understand he may have been a little side tracked by getting to walk over the railroad tracks to get to the second location. It's hard to tell.

Saturday
Feb122011

Make believe

A wizard is a fantastic thing. There's almost nothing he can't do, and you're wish is his command. The wizard in our Oz books has done everything from creating an entire campsite and meal from nothing to saving a poor man from spending his life as a mable statue.

I think a wizard could be a lot of help around the house. Laundry, sweeping, cooking...what about paying the bills? And I Have a veritable library I'd like to read by the end of the year, do you think he could help me with that? If nothing else, my wizard seems completely capable of making snacks appear, of erecting amazing Lego creations, and losing anything and everything he lays his hands on.

Is there really anything better for the heart and soul than a good dose of make believe? We open all the blinds, we put away all the technology, we done our self-chosen personalities, and sometimes we even unplug the phones, then we live the magic.

Monday
Jan242011

NAIAS 2011

It comes this time every year, sometimes bringing with it great festivities and sometimes even growth of wisdom and knowledge, and no I'm not talking about my birthday, I'm talking about the North American International Auto Show. As sad as this may seem the show is usually the only time we make the trek into Detroit, but we do try to make it every year. Last year was Calvin's first time and while it wasn't a tragedy of epic proportion or anything I don't think the kid really got anything out of it and what we got out of it most of the time was the creaping in of a headache after the repeated "when are we going to be done" questions. Last year nothing engaged his interest and all he could think of was the People Mover trip that was awaiting him the minute we finished wandering between all those darn cars. So this year we tried something different. Having learned from last year that cars by themselves are not exciting we spent the week prior to our trip reading a book about cars, learning a bit about their engines, and creating a scavenger hunt and activity booklet for him to use while we were there. It was a success, the results of which can be seen below and are also mentioned in a post on Live and Learn.

"gull wing doors" was on his list of things to find and with a Mercedes this color it was not hard to find.

I much prefered this one:

And here he is drawing the logo in his activity booklet:

And a Tesla logo, too (good taste):

There was definitely an electric car craze this year...

More drawings for the book (this time a plugged-in vehicle)

He loved getting to watch the pistons in action

They actually want you to vote on this:

Octo-Scion

Surrounded by V engines

The forces of good and evil?

Actually making the pistons from this mock flat engine do their thing

Ford Vertrek, I think. Pretty cool looking inside.

All those cars and the People Mover was still the hi-light of his day. Calvin liked it, too.

Tuesday
Aug242010

The Huckleberry Railroad

Actually, we kind of like touristy kinds of things. It's something I come by naturally; while other families might have steered far clear of Wall Drug, my family followed those signs, which started 500 miles away on remote and well traveled highways alike, to get our free cup of water and snap a few photos. Jon and I have mostly stuck to national parks on our own travels, but every once in a while a sign with enough bright touristy appeal will take us off the beaten road and right into the trap. One of our most regularly beaten paths, of course, is the line of highway between here and "up north" in Michigan, and we've become familiar with the traps along the way—mystery spots, overlooks, and discount malls alike—but the one sign we had yet to follow was for The Huckleberry Railroad and Crossroads Village. Having our four year old train lover always with us it's hard to believe that we'd resisted this long, but until this past trip the timing had never been right; often we've tried to spend every last moment possible in north country and then we've passed the railroad sign too late in the day to stop, or else it's been winter and the place was closed. But this time we planned ahead and left Petoskey with a stop at the Railroad in our sites for just after the lunch hour.

So let me just say that sometimes there's good planning, more often even the best-laid plans go awry, and then, once in a blue moon, there's something far better than well thought out plans—there's good luck with a sprinkling of good timing. We left Petoskey knowing that the forecast was for showers and storms and a 90% chance of rain that afternoon, but as we neared the park in a determined drizzle, we could see blue skies behind the last of the afternoon clouds. We decided to go for it. What does a little rain matter when you're riding a train, right?

I can think of only one thing that would make a tiny, out-of-the-way attraction like Crossroads Village busy beyond belief on any given day, and that would be the Day Out With Thomas Celebration Tour, but since it visits each railroad only one weekend each year, what were the odds we'd run into that trouble? Yes, we really are one in a million. As we approached the two ticket booths we were pretty sure we'd be out of luck, but instead were informed that there were a handful of tickets for the last train of the day. Great! We only needed three, after all, and now all we had to do was come up with something to do while the rain blew past. We walked past the incredibly long line of families waiting to board the 2pm train in order to use the bathrooms, and afterwards regrouped on the suddenly deserted (and covered) platform to form a plan. Then, through the rain and the whistle of the train, came a quiet "psssst" from one of the sharply dressed train conductors; "Want to ride in the caboose?" he asked with a wide smile showing underneath his ancient-looking but appropriate handlebar mustache.

Uh, yeah. He was not bothered by the fact that our tickets were for a much later train, and he ushered us quickly down the line, handing us into that happily bright red last car, and then boarded with us. I figure the rain worked for us in two ways. First, it kept the ticket sales down so there were a few left for us, and second it sent some of the people with pre-purchased 2pm train tickets home so that we got to enjoy our 40 minute ride while the last of the rain showers blew past.

I remember Calvin's first swimming class, back when he was only 6 months old; the teacher was concerned that he was afraid of the water because he didn't crack a smile once during the first few weeks, but he wasn't afraid—he was absorbing and taking stock of the situation. It was this experience that kept coming back to mind as we sat in the little caboose for 30 minutes before seeing anything that even remotely resembled a smile, and even at the end of the ride our little thinker was only vaguely pleased in a visible sense. I hoped that our friendly conductor wouldn't be disappointed, thinking that the little boy chosen for such a coveted seat was ungrateful or uninterested, but the story of the swimming class seemed a bit much to share at the moment. In any case, Calvin thanked him for the ride as we descended once more to the Crossroads Station platform.

Again with the timing, our need for indoor entertainment had come to an end; as we had pulled up to the station at the end of our travels, the rain had stopped and the sun come out to shine through the thick air of a now warm and steamy afternoon.

Once stopped we explored the caboose a bit (something we missed out on doing at the front of the journey since we boarded last minute) and then spent a few more minutes exploring some of the retired cars near the station while we waited for the next train to board and depart so we could watch it.

There's not a whole lot more to Crossroads Village than the Huckleberry Railroad itself. Really it was like a much smaller version of Greenfield Village with much less attention given to the old buildings and their stories. I wonder if we had visited on a less cartoony weekend if maybe things would have been different.

My very favorite find of the day was the old farmhouse. It wasn't so much the farmhouse, though, as the lady and her vacuum inside. Look at the name on that vacuum, and then look at the floor she was in the process of cleaning when we walked through (with dirty feet, I'm sure).

They don't make vacuums like that anymore (in more ways than one).

The upside to the Thomas situation, though, was the activity fair. Attentions may have been drawn away from the beautiful old buildings and their lessons, but after a morning in the car an afternoon of craziness might have been just what the sane-parents fairy ordered. Bubbles, model trains, and even a little ice cream sent us back to the car well exercised, both mentally and physically, and well fed.

And would you believe, after all the good luck we'd already had, and even though I parked the car without a second thought for any more than the rain and the crowds, when we walked back to the car through a baking, sunny heat, we found it parked in the shade. Who put that tree there? Thank them kindly, please. Yes, sometimes luck far surpasses the benefits of planning.

It was also at this time that we finally learned how much Calvin really had enjoyed that train ride. "Can we come back next week? Please?"