I had seen Peter and his drum group perform around town. They always had these great drums made out of gourds and other fantastic things. I noticed they always invited kids to come try out their instruments, and it occurred to me that he might be a great field trip in the making.
He happily obliged, and invited the kids to a small class at his drum barn. The kids were kept busy for an hour, drumming and tapping and banging out beats. Peter was fantastic with the kids, and they all got a chance to play nearly every instrument, learning the differences between wood, metal, and hide.
As vacation looms in the distance, I have begun to think that I had a major lapse in judgment when I convinced Tom that a 12 hour drive to the beach would be totally doable. 12 hours. In a car. With three children under ten. And then we have to drive back.
Seriously, what was I thinking?
In order to continue sleeping at night, I needed to begin formulating a plan.
My first step will be to go to the library and check out 20 DVDs the kids have never seen before. Then I will check out some audio books of the Magic Treehouse series, which kind of get under my skin, but the kids find fascinating.
I will load the phones with free apps of every kind.
But, inevitably, all this media will become boring.
So part two of my plan is to bring out one new entertaining thing every hour of the drive. Each hour I will unveil some thing they can fiddle with for at least fifteen minutes.
This seemed like a really great plan until I did a quick calculation of everything in my cart at Target, and I had a small heart attack. So part 2B of my plan was a challenge myself to find one thing to entertain three children for a twelve hour drive, both ways, for under $100. (That’s 24 things, if you’re counting.)
One of the things that happens when you live in a small town is that the phone could ring on Tuesday and be someone trying to sell you something or it could be your friend who works at the library and would like your kids to dress up as book characters and march in the Independence Day Parade.
Of course, I said “yes” and then promptly pushed it out of my head until Friday, at which time Neko decided to be the girl from The Red Book and Shep decided to be Harry Potter, neither of which we had any of the costume pieces for as of Friday night. I had this really great idea for someone to be the pigeon from the Mo Willems books, holding a big sign that said, “LET ME DRIVE THE FLOAT!” But none of the kids seemed to think my idea was as funny as I did, which I sense is a recurring theme in parenthood.
So Tom sewed a cloak and then he and Shep went shopping for glasses and a scarf. Then I furiously knitted my first hat, crossing my fingers that I would finish in time for the parade. (I did!) Kudos to Neko for wearing a hat and scarf in 90° weather.
Then off we went. Ellery graciously understood that she was too little to participate, bless her, and became more concerned about finding the nearest bathroom.
Despite apprehension, the kids had a great time, and delighted in the goodie bags they received for participating. And people, if you do not smile at Shep dressed as Harry Potter, your heart is made of stone. He was making folks smile up and down the block.
Then it was back home to watch fireworks with friends and family from our very own yard. Nothing like fireworks in your pajamas, folks…nothing quite like it.
I know I say it after every field trip, but I am always amazed at what folks are willing to do if you just ask. I give Susie full credit for this trip, as it was her idea to ask the man that runs the local geology museum if he would be willing to lead us on a fossil hunting trip. And not only did he say he would, but it would be free, as community outreach is part of his job.
So off we went, on a journey just a bit west of us, as he knew of the perfect fossil spots. The first one we went to was a home run for the kids, as there were fossils everywhere, but mostly one kind. Every kid had a full sack in about half an hour.
Then we wandered a bit further down the road where there weren’t as many fossils, but there were tons of different kinds. The kids hunted and sorted and chipped away at the rock with small hammers. Our guide was perfect with the kids, answering every question, and identifying the same fossil over and over, never losing his enthusiasm. He even joined us for lunch afterward!
We have so many great trips coming up this summer that I can hardly wait. Hooray for good people, who seem to be all over the place.
Ever since Neko got her new trundle bed, it’s been quite popular. Tonight Shep and Neko convinced me a sleepover was in order. Even Daisy joined in on the fun.
At the weekly preschool program I help run, Alex and Neko found these tiny toads in the sandbox. Of course, they immediately came home with us for a day or two.
You can see how truly tiny they are by the whorls of Neko’s fingerprints and the grains of sand stuck to their little bodies.
After a week of crazy, we ended up taking a spontaneous trip to the Big City to hang out with a nice guy we met at the Letterpress workshop and his family and friends. Super-nice folks all around.
Good food, good folks, popsicles and water fun. Really, how can you go wrong?
In that last photo, Shep is sharing his new tooth, which is coming in quickly!
Because I have completely lost my mind, I scheduled a Get-to-Know-Your-Camera workshop for the day after our week-long letterpress workshop. A basic class for folks who want to get off the green square on their SLR cameras.
It was a bit of a blur, but I think it went well.
This is one of my few photos of the day. I think I was demonstrating “shooting from the hip”, which I think we can all see is always a bit of a crapshoot.
