Via Firenze

This morning we had breakfast prepared by Chef Fransisco. He did not speak a word of English, but he conveyed this point to us repeatedly and made us feel so welcomed. We sat on the rooftop terrace of our hotel, surrounded by plants, flowers, and the Vatican city wall.

The couple we met outside of the hotel last night told us we could find lots of shops with fairly reasonable prices just two blocks up from our hotel. Mom bought a couple things at a store with no dressing room. You just picked things from the displays in the windows and they pulled them off the shelves in plastic bags. I found several cute things at a place called Ovi, which reminds me a bit of Urban Outfitters. They even had undergarments. YAHOO! Mom picked a pair without a price tag and it took them about 20 minutes to decide how much they were. Even though there was about 12 people in line behind me, they still called the manager. He and the clerk discussed the situation at length, called a third person over and somehow eventually figured it out. Nothing like my visit to Target yesterday where the checker didn't know the price of bananas and said, "How about 20 cents?" Click. Click. Done.

We also got a phone charger at a little Radio Shack-like store about 8 x 10 feet wide with three gentlemen having espresso. The clerk there talked mom into getting the wrong brand charger for cheaper. He even showed her that it worked. It never worked for us. The battery died in Florence on our 4th day. Two stores down we bought a pretty good sized backpack for 14 Euro at a very shady store. We re-packed it on the street and caught a cab to the Railroad Station.

While in line for our tickets, we met three girls from UW Whitewater. For those who don't know, Whitewater is about 15 miles from Delavan, where I grew up. When we arrived in Florence (Firenze), we bought our tickets to Riomaggiore, the city we thought we were staying at in Cinque Terre. We had a Coke Light (which tastes like Coke Classic) while we checked the map and set off for our hotel. On the way, we checked out Santa Maria Novella. Later we were told that the inside is the most beautiful church in Florence. Wish we would have paid to go inside. It's not like we were loaded down with luggage!

We stayed at Hotel Bretagna which is located right on the river Arno. This is the view from our window.

When you enter, you think you are in the wrong place. The entry looks like an ordinary apartment. You can take the lift to the second floor, but two people and one bag is all that it will hold, but only if you haven't had any pasta yet that day. The lady who ran the desk was Eastern European. She spoke English very well and whenever we asked for help she said, "OKeh. Dees is vat we do." Later, we asked our buddy the bartender what her name was and he told us that he didn't know her full name, but she goes by Dudé. SERIOUSLY! Dude told us that the hotel was once Napoleon's home in Florence. The walls in the lobby area had a checkerboard pattern of boxes, each containing a porcelain dish. One near the door was broken, but how could you ever fix it?

Mom and I freshened up and set out to explore Florence. We really wanted to visit the Duomoand go to the top since we weren't able to go to the top in Rome, but it was closed for Saturday night mass and was closed on Sunday. Another bummer, but Dudé had told us how to get to the market surrounding St. Lorenzo's and the Medice Chapel, which was very close. Actually, the wonderful thing about Florence is that everything is close. While we were at the market, mass let out and church bells rang all over the city. I bought each of the boys a Pinocchio marionette doll. Mom and I each bought a shawl.

We walked a few blocks down to Piazza della Repubblica where this wonderful band was playing. We decided to get some dinner Paszkowski Restaurant's outdoor patio and listen to them. The food, wine, and service were all outstanding! We watched the drama of the Florence adolescents and for dessert, I had a really nice tiramisu.



















We decided to head over to the Piazza della Signoria, outside the Uffizi Museum. On the way, we came across the first of many live statues. This one stood perfectly still, but occasionally would stick her tongue out at you and wrinkle her nose. We passed many street vendors selling knock-off Gucci purses and sunglasses. Then there was these amazing pastel drawings in the middle of the street. It was a street only for pedestrians.

We rounded into the Piazza and stopped first at the Loggia dei Lanzi. Under the shelter, we were reading the information map about each of the statues. There was this old crabby man who was tattling to the security man about tourists touching the statues. He presently was tattling on a two year old boy and his mother. I thought that the man in the picture above was her husband, as he appeared to go to her rescue, but I guess I wasn't really paying attention. A few minutes later, the same man was standing behind us, looking at the map and asking the security guard if Perseus use to be made of marble. I turned to tell him that I had a picture of it from four years ago that was in fact bronze, which lead to a conversation about where we were from. Then his sister was from Maple Grove and his other sister from LaCrosse, but she teachers at UW Eau Claire. "Oh, what does she teach?" I asked. Turns out she teaches English in the School of Education and she was my professor! Morris is the youngest of seven children who grew up in Gary, Indiana. He's now a fashion designer and lives across the street from Oprah! Quite a successful family. We told him about our luggage and he shared a much worse story of coming to a fashion show and losing his luggage. Morris and I are tight now. I feel like we are old friends and we only met for a moment in Florence.

Separating for Morris and his friend left us a little lost and we meandered past the rest of the Piazza. Here's mom with the replica of David.

We past some more street painters and statues, then went on to watch the sunset from Ponte Vecchio. When we got back to the hotel, we enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine in the sitting room before we headed to bed. That was when we got to know our bartender, William (not how it is said or spelled), who is there all afternoon, night and morning. He said he goes home for about 3 hours a day, but he also had had a few himself. Turns out he probably does work those hours since he was there, freshly showered in the morning and again the next evening. Anyway, he served us cherries with our wine. It was very nice.

Our First Day: Rome

After we convinced the Aitalia baggage claim people that our luggage was actually lost and made a claim, we stopped in the conveniently located and extremely expensive clothing store that was on the way out. Mom bought a white shirt and I bought a sleeveless shirt (which is now covered in the pesto that broke in my bag), a jacket that is a hideous color and I will probably never wear again, and a pair of black capris that are low rise, which drive me nuts due to constant hiking all for well over 100 Euros. Exhausted and irritated we were conned into taking an unofficial cab, costing us another 60 Euros. I had to nap, which meant we didn't make it into the Vatican Museum and Sistene Chapel which close at 3:30! Bummed out, we vowed to make it on the way home and decided to see as much other things as we could to make up for all our bad luck.

Since we were staying near the Vatican, we started with St. Peter's Cathedral. La Pietá brought me to tears the first time I saw it. The size of Mary's body compared to Jesus, I think is such an emphasis of what a mother's strength would have to be to endure the death of her child.
My other favorite part of the cathedral is this stain glass. The cathedral is so dark inside and is just filled with sculptures looming in every corner. Everything is gilded in gold. There isn't one unadorned corner, but this stain glass just beams from it's wing. This simple dove seems to be the only simple thing in the whole cathedral.
After we left the cathedral, we walked down the street toward the Bridge of Angels and the Castel St. Angelo. Mom was skeptical of my map reading abilities and of course, I took a wrong turn right away. She said she was too tired to get lost, but I showed her a better, more direct route to the Colosseum and she agreed.

I was glad we went this way because I saw some things that I didn't see the last time I was there. We found Piazza Navona, an oasis from the intense traffic and smog. We were squeezing through some sides streets and suddenly came to this opening with street vendors, art and music! This musician was rocking out on Stairway to Heaven and nobody even clapped. Man, I just really don't like Rome. Then he started in on "Oyé Como Va" by Santana. Wish Dad could have been there!

Every time we rounded a corner, there was something huge, old, and amazing. Such is Rome. As we walked on, we were suddenly bombarded by tons of bikers. It turned out we were in the middle of Critical Mass. Gina, Jim's sister, actually bikes in their events and was in the paper for it last year.







The bikers seemed to be on the same path as us, which made walking hard and driving even harder, I'm sure. Such is their plan to increase awareness about the rights of bikers. However, they got ahead of us as we came upon a "sacred area" which was really a depression in the ground about as big a city block that was filled with ruins.

Apparently there is no way for people to get down and explore the ruins and it has been taken over by cats. I bet we saw 30 cats down there.

Finally, we came to the Roman Forum area. We stepped into an area loaded with over sized domed buildings that may be called the Preffettura and a few big statue monument thingies, one which may be Colonel Traiana. It's funny, but there is just so much to see that you just have no idea what half the stuff you are looking at is. You would need at least a week to properly see Rome's highlights and that would be packed full from morning 'til night.
The Roman Forum area seemed to be under construction. We couldn't figure out how to get down to it, but we were able to see some of it. The poppies were in bloom while we were there and they are simply beautiful. They litter every grassy area like dandelions.
This bronze statue on top of the National Monument of Vittorio Emanuelle II, seems to stand guard at the entrance of the Roman Forum. This was taken from the back side. The Roman Goddess Victoria seems to be halting the setting sun from behind her horse drawn chariot.

Finally, we came up on the Colosseum.

I wasn't impressed when Jim and I visited the Colosseum four years ago, but this time I was a bit more excited. Maybe it was just the fact that our vacation was actually happening.

By the time we finally got the the Colosseum, the sun was setting and the sky was brilliant! Here's a shot of the Colosseum with St. Sebastian's and St. Theodore's churches in the background. (At least I think that's what they are.)

We were getting pretty hungry, but decided to walk all the way around the Colosseum. That is when we happened upon this gem of a restaurant. The Café Art Restaurant - Royal Roma had a balcony with a view like no other in the world. They bring you the most refreshing juice you've ever had in a champagne glass, instead of water.
While we watched the sunset and the Colosseum light up, we were serenaded by what my mom called "The Gigolo" They had a guy playing various Sting and Elton John tunes on his keyboard with pre-mixed beats. It was soothing after a long walk.

We took a taxi back to our hotel and found a gelateria right across the street. We decided not to share a bench with the couple entwined outside and instead sat on the stoop of hotel. Some Americans came walking up debating what they should do on a Friday night. I pointed out the gelateria and we ended up talking with them for the next 30 minutes. Turns out one of them is a film maker in LA in Europe for a film festival. He met his new wife here for a vacation and they met their friend from Miami in Rome. They were the first of many interesting people we would meet.

And we're off!

I can never leave the details out of a good story, even if it is too long. Here's the story of our trip to Italy. It started out rough, but I learned many lessons along the way. If you want a good, but more abbreviated story, scroll down to the bold letters.

First, I was a stickler on us packing light. I told mom she could only have one bag and it needed to be a backpack because we were going to be hiking in Cinque Terre and I didn't want to be embarrassed by the echoing thud of her luggage wheels trekking down the cobblestone streets of Italy. So, we each checked a backpack and had one small carry on. Mom had her purse and a bag and I had the top of my backpack, which is like a fanny pack.

We flew out of MSP on Northwest even though our flight was through Delta. The waitress at TGI Fridays in the Northwest terminal noticed our itinerary and said, "Oh good, you're flying Delta." Perhaps this was some sort of omen. When we got back to our gate, they were boarding. Mom and I did not get seats together so we took our separate seats. I had the window seat next to a jolly Jewish man wearing a skullcap. When I scooted in and sat down he considerately told me and the guy on the other side of him that he had placed the arm rests up for comfort, but we were more than welcome to put them down. He sat reading the paper with his arms stuck out in front of him, not to impede on our space. I already respected this guy and I hadn't even talked to him yet. When the plane started to take off, he quickly folded up his paper and took out his prayer book and began to muttering. I felt rude doing my sudoku in the presence of this, so I closed my book and folded my hands, hoping to hone in on some of his goodness.

There were already two lessons that I will have learned from this day thus far. One, always pack a change of clothes in your carry on. And, two, don't pray to false Gods! HA! Mom was squished between two guys. One of which asked her if she wanted a mint, TWICE! I said that she should have asked, "Do you want me to have a mint?"

We only had two hours to catch our next flight at JFK airport in New York, so I rushed up to the gate to find out our connection. The lady told me we had to take a train to Terminal 3. I now HATE Terminal 3! We ended up asking three more people how to get to terminal three.

When we got off the train, the only place to go was to an elevator. We followed a pack to the elevator. As the doors opened, I could see a women inside who was visibly distressed. The first two people to enter the elevator were TSA employees and they seemed to be helping her. Everyone who got on the elevator was asking them how to get to terminal 3. As they were all trying to figure it out, the women was saying, "My son. My son! I have to get back to my son." I immediately thought of when I lost Owen at the zoo, but as I searched her face I could see the panic wasn't nearly as deep as mine would have been and I supposed that her son was older. We passed him once and I could see through the glass elevator that I was right. He was about 8 or 9, still very scary, but not as scary as if he was three. Some passengers complained about going back down, but the boy was actually on the floor we were all suppose to be going to. they didn't even know where they were going and neither did we. When we got back to the boy and the doors opened, the boy was completely unfazed. As we got out, I looked back to make sure mom was with me and she was fighting tears. It was not the last time one of us will cry on this trip.

When we walked into Terminal 3, an attendant told us to use a kiosk because we weren't checking luggage. Apparently this was suppose to save us time. The kiosk didn't work for us, so he came and helped us. It still didn't work, so he sent us to the kiosk help line. We were third in line and waited 30 minutes! Meanwhile, the entire baggage check line wound down and re-lined up in the security check line. Turned out the reason ours wouldn't work was because mom was assigned an emergency exit row. Jim thought he was doing us a favor with that seat.

Mom got her boarding pass, but they said what I had was fine. We went to the now very long security check line. There was only one guy checking passports and he was chit chatting with two friends and was very possibly stoned. Occasionally, an employee would bring a customer to the front of the line and let them through. I'm now guessing that these people were running late. Had they not done this, our 40 minute wait may have been more like 20 minutes. When we got through the check we had only 15 minutes before our flight was scheduled to leave. I told mom that I was going to run ahead because we didn't know how far it was. It was far & they were loading.

By the time mom got there, there were still a lot of people to load so she went to the bathroom next door and then I did. When I came back, mom was in line and there were only a few people left to board. Mom saw me and started to go as I was getting my stuff together. She went through, but I was sent back to the gate desk because I didn't have a boarding pass, just a seat assignment. The same paper that got me through in St. Paul. Anyway, when I got to the desk I set my stuff down and handed her my papers. That's when I noticed I no longer had my passport in my hand!

As soon as I noticed, I felt a pang of panic and I uttered, "My passport." She must have misunderstood because she said she didn't need it, but as I began to rifle through that damn fanny pack it became clear. "I don't have my passport anymore." I looked up to mom with fear on my face. She told me to run back and check the bathroom. As I ran I could hear her voice echoing in my head back in St. Paul, "Do you want me to hold onto that?" Why didn't I let her!? I ran into the stall, checked the counter, and ran back in seconds. "I don't have it! I don't have it!" Mom wanted to come out and help me look, but they said she couldn't unless we weren't taking the flight. That's when I lost it. I couldn't think straight. Fragments of thoughts raced through my head: "Mom can't speak Italian. What if she had boarded without me? I've ruined the trip. How many times did she ask to hold my passport for me? What will we do? Did I get pick pocketed? Did I drop it? Did somebody pick it up? What will happen? Where will we stay? What about our reservations? I've ruined the trip. Will we miss our flight? Can we catch another?" All of these things rushed through my head as I tried to figure out what to do.

Kelly, the most amazing Delta employee there could possibly be, who was printing my boarding pass, was so calm. She had obviously seen this before. In her New York, J-Lo accent, she told me to check my bag again. I emptied it. Not there. She told me to go back and check the bathroom. I asked if I had time. She told me I had 4 minutes. I sprinted back to the bathroom, banged open my stall, scanned the counter, saw the garbage hole, flipped open the door for it, pulled out the can and dug in, tossing used paper towels everywhere trying to push thoughts of other contents from my mind. From the corner of my eye, I saw I was being watched. I glanced up without stopping. The TSA employee said, "Can I help you?" I shoved the can back yelling, "My passport! I've lost my passport!" quite aware of my hysterical state. As I ran out the door, I heard two other patrons gasp.

Back at the desk, they were paging the last two passengers on our completely full flight. Three employees were now at the desk: Kelly, ___ Strickland, and Rolando. My came out of the gate now, which sent me in more hysterics. She said it doesn't matter. We're not going. Which made it even worse because I just couldn't accept that. Kelly and Rolando were asking where we had been. I told them, still in hysterics, "I ran! I just ran! I don't even know where from." They called up to the check point, but they said no passport had been found. Then Rolando, my hero, said he would go see if he could find it. I looked at him in disbelief and heard Kelly say, "Go! Go!" and he ran!

The last two passengers boarded and Kelly admonished the last one, who strolled up to the gate and answered, "What? I had ten minutes left." Kelly then started working out the details for us. She began by pulling our luggage from the flight. She found out, it hadn't even made the flight. This was my first breath of relief that this may have happened for a reason. Then she told me that had I got on that flight without noticing I didn't have my passport, I would have been sent right back as soon as I got there. Who knows what would have happened with mom or the cost of things, but that would have been some serious disappointment and jet lag. She started telling us how I could get an on the spot passport, but it was VERY expensive. And there was another flight leaving in two hours. She checked availability. She made my impossible situation feel much less dismal. She tried to cheer us up by telling us that now we could spend a night in New York, but so far, we were not impressed with New York, other than I did get to see the Statue of Liberty as we were landing. Then Kelly said, "He's got it." I was totally confused, but then realized she was looking down the terminal. Rolando was running up, out of breath, with my passport! Turns out is was at the check point. Probably sitting with the guy I accused of being a stoner. Hello, karma. Lessons number 3 & 4: don't judge others and listen to your mother.

I walked out to embrace him. "Did I make it?" he asked beaming, but with concern in his eyes. Kelly replied, "It just left four minutes ago." I told him I didn't care and thanked him profusely. Now Kelly really went to work. She was determined to make the rest of our journey carefree. She found out there were seats on the next flight and made several phone calls to her manager and the manager of Aitalia to get any additional costs waived. She wasn't able to speak directly to the Aitalia manager because he "stepped away" for an indefinite amount of time, but she was assured that her message would be taken to him. She told us to go to the main desk and ask to speak to Rosario. Then she spent about 10 more minutes making sure our luggage was located at the baggage claim and could be taken to the flight on time. All the while Rolando stayed and lifted our spirits. He was so proud of his work and to give Delta a good name. Eventually he had to leave. Kelly stayed on the line. She had another flight to open across the row and eventually she had to pass the phone to the third person, the Strickland girl. She left her with specific instructions, but we lost some hope when Kelly left.

When the Strickland girl hung up the phone we asked her if the bags would make the flight. She said, "Yes. Probably." She had some trouble printing our boarding passes, but finally got them out, gave us directions and sent us on our way. We now had a little over an hour before our next flight. We found the terminal with only one wrong turn. We ended up in an Aitalia office. The people inside completely ignored us for several minutes and finally told us to go upstairs. Upstairs the hospitality was much the same. We walked up to several Italian ladies sitting around talking. We said we needed to speak to Rosario and explained our story. Two of the women walked away and the third one looked at us skeptically, did something on her computer, and then said, "Ah" and called Rosario over. She didn't let us talk to him. She basically just asked him if he knew our names. Obviously he had not gotten the message, but they must have figured out that we were legit and they sent us down to the baggage check area. As we walked up, the Italian women said, "No. Go to her," pointing to the second, older woman. The first woman didn't seem to mind this rudeness. The second lady checked us in and gave us seats with a whole row to ourselves and nobody behind us, so we could recline! Now we were really happy with our situation despite how stressful it all had been.
We went through security again, mom holding everything now, found our gate and with over an hour left, we decided to get a glass of wine at the bar right next to the gate. We ended up telling the bartender our story as we watched the sunset over the skyline of New York. I was feeling optimistic again. Shame on me. We asked our bartender to take the first picture of the trip, knowing that I had to blog about this. As we squeezed past two other patrons, Mom's wine spilled all over her red sweater. Not wanting to ruin the picture perfect moment, I stood in front of her and got some wine absorbed into my shirt! All of a sudden we hear our names being called to the gate over the PA. We still had 40 minutes before departure and we had checked in at the gate! We paid and boarded with the panini I bought thinking it was too late to get a meal.

We sat on the plane waiting to leave. I ate my sandwich shortly after we got in the air and then we were served a wonderful dinner of pasta, fish, vegetables, bread and dessert. Afterwards, I took an Ambien and tried to sleep, but I was never able to. We arrived in Rome the next morning and guess what? No luggage.

Saga to be continued....

Happy Birthday Alex

Today we went to a birthday party for our good friend Alex. He turned three over a month ago, but his mom was waiting for the perfect day to have a birthday party at North Mississippi Park. You can see why. We had LOADS of fun!

The park was huge with so many things for kids of any age, we didn't know where to begin. The biggest hit (at lease for Jackie) was probably this gigantic teeter totter. She's going to love me for posting this video, especially the beginning!

Jackie's son, Owen, really enjoyed it, too. Evan... not so much.

But he did like standing in front of it and doing his own little dance. I filmed this from across the park. He was just standing there dancing when I turned to see him. He danced long enough for me to get out my camera and start filming. I wish I could have filmed just 1 second longer because in the end, he turned to me and gave me the biggest grin.

Later, after all the other birthday guests and school kids left, Jackie and the 3 year olds boarded the teetering spaceship again.

After a long journey with the birthday boy in an Owen sandwich, they went alien hunting.

Here they spy an alien. Me.
Jackie is really just a big kid. The boys adore her.

While the big boys were alien hunting, Evan wanted to play a little football. First he runs about 20 feet away. This is how he crouches down in his stance. Then, Jim or I say, "Hut, hut, hut, HIKE!" and he runs (well, toddles) towards us for a hug.

Evan also made some new friends his own age today. Well, they are about 6 months (Ayden) and a year (Grace) older than him, but since most of his friends are 3, it's a step in the right direction.

We recently have started calling Evan, Independent E, because he wants to do everything himself. He climbs in his carseat and his booster seat himself. And today, he was determined to go down the big kid slide himself. This is the kind of slide Owen has only ventured to try maybe a half dozen times. As people have repeatedly told me, I'm going to have to watch out for this one!

When the alien hunting wore down, the big boys boarded SS Imagination and Captain Owen sailed the weary travelers home.

We had so much fun today. Thanks to Dawn and Alex for making my last day with the boys before I leave fantastico!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!!!

Sorry for all the video snipets. Mom and I leave for Italy tomorrow and if I get a chance to stop by an internet café, I want to see my boys in action.

The Museum with The Smiths

Jim works late most Fridays and I'm always looking for ways to entertain the boys for those last moments left in the week. Lucky for me, the Minnesota Children's Museum is open late on Friday nights. Last week, they had chalk pastels in the Exploration Station, Live Animals up in the Earth World, and bedtime stories. We met my best friend Nina and her son Henry there.

The chalk was not as great as we thought it would be. The boys amused us as we tried to encourage them to find the inner craftiness that we enjoy so much. Here I am tracing Henry's hand.

He is so cute. He just turned two and, of course, had to do it himself.

The "Live Animal" turned out to be a snake up in The Earth World. Pre-kids, I don't think you could have found me doing this. There is tenseness in that smile.

Owen really likes the Earth World room. There are caves to explore, a thunderstorm that you can trigger by moving clouds across the the "sky" and his latest discovery, Animal Chess. This is a puzzle where you move the "Mama" animal to her den, nest, or burrow where her babies are waiting to be fed or nuzzled. Right up Owen's ally. He played with this for about 20 minutes.

Story time was a near disaster. The other parents didn't really appreciate that Evan felt the need to get up and touch every page and help the reader change books. The boys just can't help getting excited when they are together. I'm hoping to upload a video to display this extreme energy, but this picture almost says it. The three of them thought this photo booth was way more interesting than some of the other activities of the night. Henry demanded they have privacy with the curtain drawn, so Nina stood next to the booth with her camera ready while I periodically whipped open the curtain and said crazy things to them. This became an even more hilarious game than just playing in the booth.

"CHEESE!!!!" We had a really great time. Henry is like another little brother to Owen and Evan. He is smack dab in the middle of the two and they can be three peas in a ... uh..... a rocket. A pod would be too constrictive for them!

Nina is one of the few people outside of our family that has watched our kids. They love her like any of their other aunties. She watched them for us on a whim last week when we went to the Rilo Kiley concert. Thank you SOOOOO much, Nina. We love you!

Kicking off Memorial Day Weekend

Jim's cousin Anna and her husband Paul came over tonight to help us kick off Memorial Day weekend.

Owen started the evening with his planned and well practiced drum concert.

Then he showed his big kid skills by carrying kindling for Jim. He loves helping with yardwork. He talks in his deep, gruff, know-it-all, manly voice whenever he's helping now.

Evan and Owen gave moral support as Jim built the fire. Jim said the pressure was on since Evan and Owen were both watching to see if Dad could really build a fire. Although at this age, Jim could do just about anything and the boys would be in awe of him. The other day Jim mowed the lawn and Evan stood watching him jaw dropped. He still walks around saying, "la mowah, Daddy" (lawn mower, Daddy).

Evan had one of his 1st s'mores tonight.

We think he enjoyed it.

Drum Festival

Today we met our friends at Peavey Plaza in Minneapolis for Orchestra Hall's free Drum Festival in the park, sponsored by Target.

The warm-up "band" was Mu Daiko, a taiko drumming ensemble. They actually performed at Folwell when I was teaching... I cringe at saying this.... years ago. I enjoyed them so much then and was really excited at the chance for the boys to see them. The outdoor distractions and lack of an intimate setting made it a little less profound, but still quite amazing. This clip is one of their warm-up songs. I wish I had one of them when they really get into it. There was a women next to me hooting and the boys thought it was too funny to ignore. I wish we had sat a bit closer, but the grass was so much more appealing than trying to keep two rascals at a table with chairs. I was hoping they would want to dance, at least Evan, but I guess they were not so inclined.
Soon we were joined by our good friends, The Barclays and The Yeagers. Owen adores Kylie Barclay. He parked himself right next to her and was cuddling her. She was trying to entertain him with her smiles, but he thought the music was a little loud.

Kylie's big brother, Connor, adores Evan.

Jackie adores Evan, too. I think they are two of a kind.

The Orchestra came out at noon and played a delightful number of tunes. I especially enjoyed the pieces from "Carmen" and "The Barber of Seville." It was hard to get the boys to sit still. Connor was really into playing with some nearby dirt. But, finally, they all sat down on the step and .... well, chatted. I don't know if they listened, but you couldn't help but hear the music.

Towards the end, a group from a nearby school left and there was room to romp. Owen and Owen Y. began to leap and cavort just in time for the concert to be over.
Later tonight, Owen decided that he wanted to put on a drum concert. Friday night he is inviting Anna, Paul, and Hawes to see his performance debut. This is their rehearsal. We call it Tootin' Drums.

We're so glad it's spring

Saturday Jim took Owen down to St. Peter to see Uncle Tom's trucks. I wish I could figure out how to download the video from our new camera because the video is priceless! Owen LOVED it. Of course you couldn't tell by his face, which is always stoic, especially when he's taking in something that is completely fascinating. The only way I knew, other than the video, was that when I asked him how St. Peter was, he first said, "good," as usual, but then, after a pause, he remembered that he really did had fun and went into a 10 minute saga about all of Tom's trucks and bulldozers, which apparently he drove!

While they were away, Evan and I had an afternoon with Brenna, while my cousin Brock and his wife Tracy went out to celebrate his graduation from finishing his MBA. We had a good time making muffins and finger painting, but nothing as cool as driving a bulldozer. Luckily Evan doesn't know what he missed.

Sunday was like a make-up for Mother's Day for me. I got to do one of my very favorite thing to do on my birthday or Mother's Day:

weed my gardens. Evan gave me a hand.

Owen helped plant some of Jim's new forest plants.

Here is the Red Bud in Jim's "forest." It's really looking good this year!






And here is a look from my garden window. I love looking out my kitchen window at this view!