Punk mom

Just to add to the pre-spring break insanity, my school has dress-up "spirit days" the Thursday and Friday before spring break. This year Thursday was "Would you still be my friend if I looked like this?" day. Always looking for a teachable moment in the absurd, I decided to unleash my inner punk and challenge the kids' stereotypes of what a punk might think, despite her outer appearance. My students were more challenged to think of me as an anarchist than my own children (no surprise). Jonas and Niles didn't have too much reaction to my new look. Jonas asked why I didn't color all my hair orange, "because it would look cooler". Niles just asked me to go outside with him and tried to climb my fishnets when I got home. Perhaps if I looked more like a "soccer mom" I'd get a reaction out of them.

Normal breakfast of graham crackers while revving up to The Ramones.

 Normal after school anarchy.

Normal dinner to the incantations of Patti Smith. 

Jonas must be burning the candle at both ends.

Preschool Players Presents: Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars

Jonas and his 'actor' library friends have been hard at work the last 3 weeks preparing a top secret show.  We could not get one peep out of him as to what the performance would be about.  The show received rave reviews by the standing-room-packed-house attendance.  Support your local library.

At the after party, after everyone else had left....

still at the after party....

we would leave within the hour!

2012 Maple Syrup Festival

Jonas and Sara took a little mom and son time to revisit the past at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center.  Jonas loves the chapter called 'Sugar Snow' in the book Little House in the Big Woods.  It takes place in western WI and tells the story of the Ingalls' family tapping, harvesting, preparing, and celebrating the maple syrup harvest.  Jonas got to do many of the things that the European and Scandinavian setters had done, including playing corn darts, hand-drilling the hole for the maple syrup tap, eat and see a plethora of maple syrup goodies, and do some writing with the quill of a turkey feather.  Obviously with he ridiculously warm weather we have been having the maple syrup production was miniscule compared to a normal weather cycle.

Drumming for Hope 2012 Madison

I had to put this one in because it has been summer weather and its not even spring.  Lets break some more records.

We got a chance to head to the Goodman Community Center to go to the African Youth Outreach's 'Drumming for Hope' fest.  After pulling Jonas away from the arcade car game (he had to stretch to reach the pedals) the kids picked out some unique facial paint designs, tried out some drums, danced to the drums, and played outside a bit.  It was a great event and one that we will make an annual tradition.  The goal's of the project are great, and there is a lot of evidence that these education programs help save lives.  Its just a matter of not blocking and limiting access to knowledge, something that has throughout history left people on the short-end of knowledge resulting in shorter and less healthy lives for those without the access to education.  I hope our legislators can learn from the progress that these advocacy groups like AYO to not limit citizens access to education and health services so that people may live healthier and happier lives.  By the way, Jonas really got a chance to get his groove on, he certainly has had a lot of practice during the many dance sessions we have at home.

Tower to the top.  Niles did a lot of the base work.  He has been really into skyscrapers lately.

This pose does not look very comfy, but it lasted most of the walk.

The golden solar egg mystery will be solved.

We have not seen the rooftop hens for quite a while. 

Niles followed Jonas around to watch how to interact with the lady chickens.

Jonas got a chance to feel the velvety soft pigeon feathers before the pigeon was released for a little flight around Madison.

Candlelight Vigil at the Capitol

One year anniversary of the bill that changed WI forever; may we heal stronger together in spite of all the pain our most vulnerable Wisconsinites are experiencing because of the passing of ACT 10.

Lots of great adventures.  The kids got a chance to have a family weekend starting off with a visit to Aunt Carol's house for Great Grandma's birthday.  As usual, all the kids had their choice of exactly what they wanted and ended up being the entertainers most of the day.
Aunt Ashley came up to visit to celebrate her staying in the US and heading out East.   Jonas setup a game of 'chutes and ladders' and was the first one to count to 100 to win the game.  There was a bit of snow that came down that allowed for some outdoor fun.  Ben let Jonas use his skis so that Jonas could get his first cross-country ski experience.  Jonas had fun. but he kept on insisting that he wanted to go faster, and felt that he should be able to do some jumps and zoom down the hills off the cliff.  We also managed to get together a quick snow creature using the icicles that Jonas found.  Niles has had to switch from shoveling the snow to shoveling sand due to our big warm-up.  You can tell that he really likes because of the serious tantrum objections to coming inside when clearly he wants to be outside digging holes.  We got a chance to enjoy the last bit of snow on a mid-50s day at Dream Park where the kids just slushed around and Niles jumped off the dragon's tail.

Snowy March Day

Almost all the snow was gone 3 hours ago and now we have a winter wonderland.  The trees were bowing to the heft of the snow and the kids plowed right through.  We were able to build a snowman with an oversized head, a snowy cephlapod.  It will all be gone in a couple of days as the temps will be in the 50s.  Get out there and enjoy it, the sun is getting more direct every day.