A Hogwarts Halloween: Introducing...

Jacob as Professor Albus Dumbledore, the quirky, marvelous, and powerful headmaster of Hogwarts...



















and Alex as Ron Weasley, the bravest and most loyal best friend an ill-fated wizard like Harry Potter could ever have...





















Happy Halloween!

Fall is here

Before Halloween preparations devour me again, here's a glimpse of this past SUNday! It was so good to feel the sunshine on our faces. First, here's Alex raking and smiling...



...and throwing some leaves in the air.



And now Jacob doing the same...





I took a little "fall" in the leaves...


And Mike got us all a new treat: A Leaf Vacuum! Very cool.


We all loved testing it out. We highly recommend it.


But nothing really beats throwing leaves in the air on a beautiful October day. Happy Fall to One and All!

Here comes the brass!

Jacob brought his trombone home for the first time on Tuesday. He was so excited to play it that he didn't even take off his coat before he was unbuckling the case to take out the instrument! First, he practiced with the mouthpiece and did the exercises according to his music teacher's instructions. Next, he assembled the trombone and asked me where he should empty his spit valve in the house. So I found a scrap of old material that will forever after be used for that lovely part of musicianship. Finally, he started playing! His first two songs were "Hot Cross Buns" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (see if you can tell which one he's playing in the video clip below). For first attempts, I think he played fantastically well! But I might be a little biased. I love the way his eyes light up at the mere thought of making a sound, and I love the proud smirk he makes when he finishes playing a song. Classic Jacob.








Stay tuned tomorrow for a spotlight on Alex and his cornet, which he got to take home for the first time on Wednesday. He had to settle for practicing in the school hallways yesterday while I helped out with the book fair after school. Then at this morning's rehearsal, my camera battery was drained, so I took some photos with my cell phone instead, but I can't figure out how to download those to the computer... Ah, technology!

Girl Time

Over the weekend I got to have some quality time with my family, specifically my nieces Rachel and Emily, my sisters Mary and Sue, and my Mom. (I did enjoy seeing Brian, Bob, and Mike, but they just weren't the focus this weekend [although Brian's nervous wailing at the thought of his little girl's first date night was a little distracting...]. And I did miss my Mikey, Alex, and Jacob...but they were having plenty of fun without me.). Anyway, back to the girls. We cheered on the Vikings' pom squad (fyi -- they call them "dance teams" now -- whatever!), shopped at the craft store, dusted off Mom's ceiling fans, ate mac and cheese, watched Rachel get a mini-makeover at the day spa, ate cookies, gave advice about dance dates and tipping, laughed, watched Project Runway and The Cosby Show, felted an awesome knitted bag, and started a new knitting project. The video shows Rachel's JV dance team doing a routine on a cold Homecoming Game night. They were terrific! The rest of the snapshots are from the night of the Homecoming Dance. Rachel was beaming and beautiful, and Emily kept us all laughing during the anticipation of Rachel's "fashionably late" date's arrival! One of her famous one-liners: "Well, Rachel's gonna have the time of her life tonight, so we should at least go to Nippon's." I have to remember to ask Rachel if the two senior boys ended up treating the girls for dinner, or if Rachel had to mentally calculate the tip -- nerve-wracking at any age!!! It was a great day for me to just soak up all the girlieness of their lives and be a part of what goes on in my family but outside the walls of my own house for awhile. Love abounds -- it was a very sweet Sweetest Day!

The Badlands should be renamed The Awesomelands

On August 1, 2009, at about 2 pm, we were about 13 hours into our Great American Road Trip/National Park Vacation, heading west to the Mt. Rushmore National Memorial and eventually, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. But on this first full day of the trip, we made a very memorable stop at the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Alex especially loved these amazing landforms. (Click on the photos above to see them in more detail.)

We all adventurously climbed on the steep, slippery slopes and peered over the edgy tips to see the views they were concealing. It felt like we were exploring a new planet in a Star Wars movie! Later in our vacation friends asked me if we saw the many signs warning of rattlesnakes nearby. All I could say was that it was a good thing that I never noticed any of those signs--or worse, a rattlesnake itself!--at the time, or this short side trip into a magical netherworld would have been a lot shorter!

Friends who just know you...

In this life, you have lots of friends who just know you, and if you're blessed or lucky (or both!), you also have some friends who just "know" you! Here's a quick post in honor of Jodi, who truly knows me and always leaves me feeling blessed to be her friend!

A good season for the Mojo Daddies!

The Mojo Daddies have had some great gigs lately. Here are photos from Sept. 2, when they played to 600+ people, their biggest crowd ever, at the Chicago Botanic Gardens' Music on the Esplanade series. Very cool to get to play for a nice crowd in such a beautiful setting. Lots of new and familiar Mojo Daddies fans danced, listened, and enjoyed the picture perfect evening! And here's a video link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZOMPpYfrJU)for a tune played at the big CD Release Party/FMSC Fundraiser, held at Flatlander's on October 2. The guys rocked the house. It was a standing room only crowd for most of the evening. Lots of great friends and family showed up to support the band, and we raised about $2000 for our church's effort to pack 1 million meals for the organization Feed My Starving Children. Check out that website at www.onemillionmeals.info.

Origami for Change... a winning slogan

So this past week were the elections for class representatives in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classrooms. Jacob decided to run again this year, even after his disappointing defeat the year before. He had a very realistic attitude about the whole thing this year. In fact, he was quite sure that he would not win, but he still was excited to campaign. On the playground he gave out stickers with his picture that said Vote for Jacob. He was so happy when some of his friends agreed to be his "human billboards." He also designed a very simple poster, but he put his special touch on it when he made a large origami frog to attach to the poster next to his photo. The frog was the bearer of his slogan and promise: "Origami for Change -- I will jump to the challenge!"

Here's his speech:
Hi. I’m Jacob. There are 5 letters in my name and 5 good reasons to vote for me to be your Student Council Class Representative:
J: Jinxing: I would not support jinxing or other bad behavior in school.
A: All students: I’d do my best to represent all the students in our class on Student Council.
C: Class: Our class is the best, and I’d like to be your representative. You can count on me to do my best.
O: Origami: I like to do origami and other projects that let me think divergently and help other people. Student Council needs people who like to work hard and have original ideas.
B: Bee of good character. I try to "bee" a person of good character just like our theme for Character Counts this year.

When it’s time to vote, VOTE FOR JACOB!
Remember my slogan, Origami for Change!
I will JUMP to the challenge of Student Council!

So as you can see from the title of this post, he came home on Tuesday with a victory! He was so excited, and I'm not sure who among us was the most surprised by the election results!

On Thursday, the student council was inducted in a candle-lighting ceremony, which was a bit dramatic and kind of inspiring. I'm so proud of Jacob and I know he will do his best all year. Who knows? Maybe there will be an all-school Origami Day?

Star of the Week

This week Alex is Star of the Week in his 4th grade classroom. As he worked on his All About Me poster, he wrote this for My Personal Hero: "My dad. He has his own band." Needless to say, learning this tiny tidbit of what makes up Alex's inner world made his dad and me feel kind of mushy and happy inside.

Today at school, Alex got to tell his classmates about the special items he brought in to show (a Statue of Liberty bear donned with National Park Service Junior Ranger badges from the summer, a piece of real amythest, a handmade ship he made at Mystic Seaport, among other things). Then he talked about what was on his poster, which he had covered with photos from our summer of adventures all over the United States. He garnered much adoration from the boys when he talked about how he got to ride a waverunner last May and he went "at least 37 miles per hour." (If I can get the photo to upload on this blog, you'll see that the look on his face kind of says it all.)

According to his wishes, I made his favorite Swedish almond cake to share with his classmates, and also brought in pepperkakkor cookies so he could show everyone how to make a wish and then see if it will come true by tapping the middle of the cookie and making it break into the magical three pieces. The kids loved it all.

But the best part was when his hero Dad/Mike was playing the guitar and singing for the class. He led the kids in singing "Upside Down" by Jack Johnson (from the movie Curious George) and the school fight song. Alex was beaming next to his Rock Star Dad. Along the way, all three of us answered lots of thoughtful questions from the kids in the class. It was a great day!

Check back tomorrow. I just committed to taking part in a challenge for National Blog Writing Month, so I'm going to try to post something... anything... once a day during October. Let's see if I can do it.