Anyway, this is the post from last week with Liam’s last day of school and my birthday, along with a few snapshots of things that have been going on this week here at the Menagerie House. Last week on Liam’s last day of school, we had a sweet little festival to mark the end of kindergarten. We arrived at school and went out into the play yard. As the children romped and played, the parents worked on a craft project-a little butterfly puppet-that was meant to be a toy for younger siblings to take home at the end of the day. After the puppets had been finished, we formed a big ring together and had circle time for everyone. We then went inside to share a snack together. At the end of snack, the older kindergarteners-the ones who will be going on to 1st Grade in the fall-presented a puppet show as a gift to their parents and siblings.

The children had been working on this for several weeks. They made the puppets and the set. It was a story of a little boy and girl and the various adventures they had as they played through the year. There were a number of animal characters, including a little bird who always chirped exciting suggestions to the children when they needed a new idea for a game to play. Of course they had a loving mother and father who supported them in their adventures, and they always returned home a bit wiser and more worldly at the end of each day. The children worked so well together handling the puppets that I found myself getting lost in the story instead of just focusing on Liam – it is really amazing what children can do when they have the right support around them. There wasn’t a dry eye in the audience by the time the show ended.

At the end of the show it was time to leave, but Liam took a moment to give his teacher a gift he had made for her. Kevin cut a squirrel figure out of some poplar wood, and then Liam spent quite a bit of time sanding the little fellow down to silky smoothness. He then decorated him with Stockmar beeswax crayons all over the surface of the wood. The little creature is an “oven squirrel” – holding him by the tail, one can use the groove behind his neck to pull out hot oven racks, while groove over the paws can be used to push them back in. Liam made a squirrel for his teacher and one for each of the two assistants, so he really did a lot of work putting these gifts together, and I think the teachers thought the squirrels were very sweet.

A freshly sanded squirrel…

…and here is the very colorful finished product. The beeswax crayons make the squirrel smell like honey!

After Liam handed out his gifts, it was time to leave. I will miss this kindergarten scene in the morning next year, and I’m looking forward to doing all over again with Kieran in two years’ time.

After going out to lunch with friends, we went home and had a birthday party. The boys treated me very well with strawberry shortcake, ice cream, and homemade birthday cards. I really couldn’t ask for anything sweeter or more fun. Here are a few shots:

My boys!

(Aren’t all three of them adorable?)

Cutting the cake…

Mooching for crumbs…

And here’s Kieran mugging for the camera. I love his curls. I told him the other day he is so not allowed to get a hair cut!

So it was a fun day – the last day of school and my birthday all at once. Since then we’ve been trying to get into some sort of a routine for the summer. We haven’t quite figured out our schedule yet, but we’ll get there. We’ve been to the park several times, watched a couple of movies, played in the sprinkler, played hopscotch in the driveway, and gone for bike rides around the block. Typical summer stuff!

Kevin and I planted some snapdragons and marigolds in a small bed under our dogwood out in front of the house….

I think this bed will be really nice once the plants mature and fill things in a bit more.

The butterfly garden Kevin put in last summer is doing very well, particularly the echinaceas.

Back inside the house, my orchids are blooming really well this summer. The flowers are beautiful, and they stay around for weeks.

I love the deep purple of this bloom…

I just love these plants!

Moving right along to other lovely things, I present…

…Liam and Casey. Every boy needs a dog, and these two are best of friends.

Then, finally, to finish out the week, this afternoon was Liam’s first piano recital. He started taking lessons after Christmas, and today the teacher had her students present a little recital for parents. The children write their own songs and learn to play piano by playing their songs, so we were treated to a number of wonderfully named pieces. There was “The Little Frog”, “Princess and The Pea”, “Flying to the Moon”, and Liam’s final piece was entitled “The Cat Knocked A Marker Into The Piano.” The children played really well, and they seemed to really love sharing the pieces they had written with us.

Liam’s turn to perform.

Listening to his classmate play.

After all the children had performed their pieces, they finished with a parade of puppets.

Marching with their puppets…

Taking a bow at the end of the show.

After the performance was over, we went outside for refreshments. The children ran and played under the trees while the parents talked. It was a good show, and a good day.

It’s been a week of milestones here-the end of kindergarten, and a first piano recital. No wonder everyone looked a bit tired tonight. Now we are looking forward to a summer of swimming lessons, playing outside, catching fireflies, and listening to the crickets at night.

Life is good!

]]> http://menageriehouse.com/2010/06/18/june-is-a-busy-month/feed/ 3 liesl OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA http://menageriehouse.com/2010/06/10/lookee-here-baby-wrens/ http://menageriehouse.com/2010/06/10/lookee-here-baby-wrens/#comments Fri, 11 Jun 2010 03:34:35 +0000 lieslf http://menageriehouse.com/?p=816 ]]> We had a fabulous day today – it was Liam’s last day of Kindergarten, and so his class had a festival day complete with a puppet show performed by the children. Today is also my birthday, and I had a wonderful birthday lunch with Kevin and the boys and friends from Liam’s school, and then we had a celebration at home this evening. All of this was just amazing and I have a lot to blog about, which means that I don’t have time to write it all down tonight, I will get to all of that this weekend when I can do a decent job complete with pictures rather than just cramming a few things together tonight.

However, there is one very sweet thing that the boys and I discovered today that I just have to show everyone. First a little background-we have a little red birdhouse that we bought from Duncraft two summers ago. Each March since then we have faithfully cleaned out the house and hung it from the light on our back deck, outside the toy room door. Birds have used it each year to raise young ones, and this year is no exception.

We have had Carolina wrens nesting around our house for several years now-readers who have been around for a while will remember our little wren who accidentally got inside back in 2007.  Anyway, about three weeks ago Liam and I spent an afternoon watching a “Mommy and Daddy Wren” pair fly back and forth from a place where our neighbor had cut down a pine tree and left lots of needles to the birdhouse. Back and forth they flew all afternoon, flight after flight, each time carrying in one long pine needle. A wee bird would fly through the entry hole of the house, carefully tug the needle into the house, stay there a few seconds apparently arranging the needle, and fly out again back to the needle pile. This went on for several hours, and then the adult birds seemed to disappear.

Several days went by, and we did not see the wrens, although the nest remained in the birdhouse. In the meantime we were distracted by a pair of downy woodpeckers who have been raising a family up in our redbud tree. We have seen the parents visiting our feeders and feasting on peanuts and sunflower seeds. We have heard them calling to the babies, but the nest was too far up to be easily seen. Then on Monday, Kieran and I were sitting on our dining room floor and looking out onto the deck. We saw the adult downies come down to the feeders, and then within a few seconds they were joined by four juvenile birds who were very clearly just learning to fly and navigate the collection of feeders we have out.

It was very sweet to see the youngsters fly inside the feeders and peck at the seeds. It was not unlike watching human babies learn to feed themselves. Just as babies inevitably spill food and end up wearing some of it, the birds had a similar experience. Each baby would peck gingerly at the seeds. Once in a while each little bird was rewarded by being able to grab one or two seeds, but a lot of the pecks resulted in either not getting a seed out, or else dislodging a small cascade of seeds that would travel down and slide off of the birds’ backs. Eventually they got the hang of it and were able to get a decent meal out seed by seed.

Since then the downies have been out and about at the feeders and flying around the yard. I still was not sure what became of the wren nest until Tuesday when the boys and I were combing Casey on the deck. We were finished and went back inside, leaving a football size pile of dog fur on the boards. Not long after we went inside we heard the Carolina wrens calling to each other, and all of a sudden they were down on the deck grabbing bits of fur and flying them up and into the birdhouse. Evidently dog fur makes a great lining for a nest made of pine needles!

Then, this afternoon, we heard an amazingly loud chorus of baby birds cheeping loudly and constantly. Whenever we got near the back door the birds would quiet down, so we couldn’t be sure if they were in the birdhouse or in a nearby tree. We tried to get near the birdhouse as quietly and slowly as we could, but each time the birds would quiet down, and it was too dark inside the house to see much of anything.

Finally I had the bright idea of holding the camera up just outside the opening of the birdhouse…I took a series of shots…

…not much to see here…

…I think maybe I see the edge of a beak??…

…mmmmm, I’m not sure at all…

…BINGO!

When I finally did get a quick peek into the nestbox I could see four little mouths all gaping open. Each little mouth could hold a blob of food the size of a pea, and the wee birds are just incredibly adorable. I have never gotten such a close-up look at baby birds before, and I feel so lucky to have gotten a glimpse this afternoon. Kieran and Liam are just as excited by our surprise babies as I am- we’ve never been able to get such a close look at the wren nests before. It will be fun to see the babies grow and fledge over the next few weeks!

We got home and wrapped up the gifts, and then the boys decorated the birthday cake.

“I know Daddy will wove his cake – it’s wemon, you know!!”

After Kevin came home, we had dinner, and then we had our cake and ice cream. Here is Liam putting the candles on the cake.

(Yes, we had a bit of a heat wave the last week or so – it’s been in the upper 80′s with humidity to match – but the heat finally broke today.)

Is this not a textbook picture of a “Made with love by young children” birthday cake?

A candle for each decade was about as close as we got to specifying which exact birthday this was.

And here is our birthday boy…

…and the loyal Casey, mooching around for fallen bits of birthday cake. The saddest day of his life occurred when the boys learned to eat dessert without spilling a bit, I tell you.

And then Kevin opened his presents, and we spent some time all playing together until the boys’ bedtime. Kevin loved his shirt, and the cap was a big winner, too, as he’s been feeling a bit strange without a baseball cap to wear around the house.

The rest of this weekend was a winner, too – since we live very close to Six Flags, we have always gotten season passes to the water park. It’s wonderful just to be able to pop over for an hour or two in the heat of the day and then come home again. This year, though, Liam has gotten tall enough to ride a number of the rides in the amusement park, and there is now a “Wiggles’ World” for the nursery-school set, so we decided to get the combination pass that is good for the water park, amusement park, and safari all together. So on Saturday we went over to the amusement park, rode a few rides, and had a pizza lunch before deciding we’d had enough of the heat. The boys loved riding in the Wiggles’ Big Red Car, and Liam and Kevin rode one of the intermediate roller coasters – it has a runaway mine train theme. Liam was thrilled and scared at the same time about riding it, and although he’s proud that he actually did it, I have a feeling it will be a while before he asks to go on another roller coaster. However, the big Ferris Wheel was a hit – the boys loved looking out and seeing all the places we’d been in the park, and even being able to see over to the water park was exciting for them.

Then today, Kevin took the boys back for a swim at the water park while I stayed home to enjoy some peace and quiet, pay the bills, and finish up some loose ends on some fundraising work I’ve been doing with Liam’s Waldorf school this winter. Liam’s last day of school is next Thursday, and so he’s quite excited about that. There will be a party, of course, and the kindergarteners will be putting on a puppet show for their parents and siblings. I’ll definitely post about that later this week.

So, all in all, it was a fun family birthday, and a great first weekend of summer around here. I always love summer – it’s nice not to have to be anywhere in particular most mornings, and just being able to do fun things with the boys is great. Hopefully I’ll get lots of blog material out of our adventures!

]]> http://menageriehouse.com/2010/06/06/birthday-weekend/feed/ 4 liesl OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA http://menageriehouse.com/2010/04/08/kiris-third-birthday-party/ http://menageriehouse.com/2010/04/08/kiris-third-birthday-party/#comments Fri, 09 Apr 2010 01:45:47 +0000 lieslf http://menageriehouse.com/?p=776 ]]> (I started this post last Saturday night, but only now have found the time to finish it. Enjoy!)

The big event was this afternoon, and we had a good time. During the last couple of weeks Kieran has had us a bit confused by saying he only wants Daddy, Mommy, Liam, and Casey at his birthday party. When I would suggest that we invite friends of his, he would refuse any company at all. So finally we asked him if instead of a party he would like to have a play-date with ice cream and cake. That solution was happily accepted, and so we  had our “play-date”today.

We spent the morning running errands, and by the time we got home, our birthday boy needed lunch and a nap. After lunch he napped for a bit,but soon he was up and ready for his birthday playdate!

A quick game of tackle proved quite effective in waking the sleepyheads, and they went on to play with their guests.

We had a beautiful day and pretty soon we had eight children on top of the dome, enjoying the sunshine.

The dome was a present from Gran-Gran for Liam’s birthday. Kevin put it together on a mild January weekend, but now that Spring is here it is getting a lot of use. Thank you, Gran-Gran!)

Then we came on inside to open presents – additions to his GeoTrax Town!

Liam was right there making sure that everyone knows that the GeoTrax town is a joint ownership venture between him and Kieran.

Kiri also got a bunch of his favorite paints and crayons, and my friend Lisa knit him the sweetest doggie puppet you could imagine. The doggie has been named “Squiggles”,and he lives in a shoebox doghouse made for Kiri by Lisa’s children, Isaac, and Violet.

It was a fun day….

…but all that present-opening was just too tiring for certain big dogs.

You’ll be relieved to know, I’m sure, that the mention of the phrase “Birthday Cake and Ice Cream!” somehow enabled Casey to make it to his feet again.

Kiri was SO EXCITED by his cake – “Look,Mommy! Daddy! A Fire Truck With a fire dog driver! Wowoee-kazowee!”

It was a chocolate-chip cake with vanilla butter cream frosting, and several lucky children discovered that the fire engines tires were made from chocolate doughnuts!

(No, my cake making skills have not improved that drastically – it was done by a local bakery known for fun birthday cakes.)

It was a happy day for one sweet little boy:)

Happy Birthday, Kieran, and always remember that Daddy and Mommy love you from the Earth to the stars and back again!

And thank you to my readers for sharing this big day with our family!

Me: “Kiri, how old are you now?”

Kiri: “I is two but after my birthday party I will be 6!”

Liam: “No, silly, today is your birthday and you are 3!”

Kiri: “But I want to be 6 and go to kindergarten like Liam!”

Liam: “Kiri, 3 is way fun and you don’t want to miss it. You’ll get to go to nursery school – that’s like Kindergarten but only three days a week and without all the work. Trust me on this!”

Kiri: “Why?”

Liam: “Because I taught you how to write a letter to Santa that got you everything on your list. I know stuff!”

**********

As promised, 3 is treating Kieran quite well, although his party is not until Saturday, and I’m clinging to the notion that he’s still 2 until his party….I’m such a doting Mommy!

With a splash and a shriek and a very confused look on his face, Liam emerged from his Mommy’s tummy, all cute, and shiny, and wet, and angry at having fallen out of his nice cozy dark watery world into this place the rest of us call “The Real World.”

Liam wasn’t angry for long though, because the friendly OB standing by Mommy’s feet caught him with warm strong hands, wrapped him up in a soft warm blanket, helped him expel some particularly bothersome strands of mucus and gunk, and then handed Liam to his Mommy, who promptly nursed him for the first time ever. Judging from the look on his face as the first squirts of warm colostrum slid down his throat, all of a sudden being ejected quite quickly from the only watery world he’d ever known did not seem to be such a bad thing after all.

All that took place on Thanksgiving Day 2003, and so for Liam’s proud parents, Thanksgiving took on a whole new richness since this wonderful little boy had come to live with them on Thanksgiving Day.

In Liam’s first  years, we would celebrate Thanksgiving in NJ with GiGi, sometimes Uncle Bob, and Gran-Gran and Pop-Pop. It was  fun-a typical American Thanksgiving complete with lots of food, hugs, football, chatting and sometimes even a long walk in the evening after the kitchen had been cleaned up.That was a lot of fun, and I will always treasure those memories.

But the times, they do change, and things happen and so sometimes even long-standing traditions have to change along with everything else. Almost three years ago, Gran-Gran and Pop-Pop moved to Texas. Since then, we who stayed behind in the Garden State slowly started doing some things on our own to build a new set of holiday traditions, but were largely unsuccessful, mostly because it’s hard to have a traditional feast with only Mommy, Daddy, and one, and then two, little boys.

This year, however we are doing things differently. Our plan was to have a nice Thanksgiving Dinner here at home, and then a long walk on the canal with friends. Then, over the weekend, we would head for the Poconos, where there is a lodge-style hotel complete with an indoor water park. We would drive up in the morning, play in the water all afternoon, and perhaps for a bit after dinner. Then we would go to our room for some reading or a movie. The next day we would splash away the morning, have a good lunch, and return home in time for bedtime and Liam’s birthday celebration at school on Monday.

Well. well, so the first part didn’t quite go as planned, but we are rallying and continuing on with the  first year of of our new tradition. You see, I woke up Thanksgiving morning with a migraine headache. I haven’t had one in a couple of years. thankfully, but I was completely unprepared for this one to strike. By noon yesterday, Kevin and the boys were driving me to the ER. The helpful people there were able to get me some relief quite quickly, which was welcome, but because of all the H1N1 caution, the boys were not allowed to stay in the ER with me. So Kevin had to take them home. It was not the day I had envisioned where I would be cooking goodies for my family and playing with them. On the other hand, though, I did get some much-needed rest as I spent 4 hours waiting for the radiologist in Australia (certain services are outsourced on holidays, apparently) to read my perfectly normal CT scan. Kevin and the boys bounced back and forth between home and the hospital, and at one point one of the nurses came back to tell me that there were two cute boys sitting on the floor out front amusing the receptionist with knock-knock jokes and eating M&M’s. So apparently the boys had a decent time themselves. Poor Kevin, who had to manage these active little ones, was a bit the worse for wear as the hospital didn’t manage to release me for 6 hours.

However, I am proud to tell you that I was fine yesterday, fully functional, and was able to put together smaller version of Thanksgiving dinner. We did indeed take our walk on the canal and spied many treasures such as rocks, colored leaves, sea gulls, and a heron or two..We were accompanied by Liam’s friend K and her parents. K’s Mom and Dad and I first met singing in a local choir. K was born about a year after Liam, and has grown up with him. They are fast friends, and it was to our great surprise and honor that K was placed in Liam’s Kindergarten class this past September She is now one of Liam’s favorite Kindergarten classmates. We all went out to lunch, and then returned home.

While eating our delayed Thanksgiving dinner last evening, we announced our travel plans to the boys, who were very much in favor of the trip, as you might imagine. They had a bit of trouble getting to sleep last time as they are quite excited about our trip coming up in under two hours now.

I’m on my way to pack now, but I think that our trip today will be nothing less than wonderful. So with that, I bid you all good day and a happy weekend. The lodge does have wi-fi so if I have time I may post a few pictures and tell some funny stories.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to my readers!

They are touring again this Fall, and tickets for their November show near us went on sale this morning. Since I can never tell when I’ll be able to get on the computer, and we had a feeling the tickets would go quickly for this show, Kevin bailed out of a meeting and returned to his office in search of tickets as a present for Liam’s 6th birthday. He pulled out his trusty Disney Visa card, phoned the theater on two separate phone lines, and got online on three different computers. At 10:03 he emerged victorious after managing to snag four tickets up near the stage and about eight rows back. By 10:13 when he e-mailed me to tell me that he had the tickets, the going price for similar seats on Stubhub was $400.

We are so excited and can’t wait until Liam opens his birthday present in a couple of months. The look on his face will be worth his weight in gold, if not more. But if you run into him befire then, don’t mention anything and just act normal. It’s a big secret, ya know?

And this:

To this:

All in one school year. Liam’s last day of school was last Wednesday. It was also my birthday, so it was a big day all around. Lots of evidence of people growing bigger and older around here these days!

School’s out until after Labor Day, and it feels good to have several weeks of nothing much planned after the last rush of the school year. It will also be good to not have to spend three hours a day in the car driving back and forth to school!

Then in the Fall it all starts up again. Liam will have the same teacher again next year, and we are all thrilled about that since Mrs. S. is a superbly talented teacher, and Liam has grown so much under her nurturing care this year. He’s still a bit intimidated by the idea of grade school, so that’s another reason we’re glad he’ll be in kindergarten next year, too. (Waldorf schools use 2-year, mixed age kindergartens, and only those who are already seven or who will turn seven early in the school year can be considered for first-grade readiness. Liam is still five and has just finished his first year of kindergarten.)

Kieran and Liam helped Kevin blow out the candles on his cake tonight.

Liam and Kieran helped me bake their Daddy’s birthday cake – lemon cake with whipped vanilla buttercream frosting. We mixed up the batter and baked yesterday, thus introducing Kiri to the fun of licking the beaters. We frosted and decorated the cake this afternoon. I did the writing and the boys did the rest of the decorating, including picking the colors. I was impressed with their color choices given that I have about 15 different colors in my baking supplies. Kiri picked the green, while Liam picked the teal and the pink.

The boys with their newly-finished delicacy. Kieran was all business about making the perfect cake, while Liam was more amused by mugging for the camera!

June holds many birthdays for our family. Kevin’s big day starts it all, and then my birthday is the 10th. Then come Kevin’s Dad and Grandma on the 29th and 24th, respectively. Liam’s last day of school is next Wednesday. Add all of those things together and it sums to a whole lot of partying going on around the Menagerie House this month. To quote Kieran, “Fun, guys, FUN!”

It is impossible that you have been with us for two years now. I swear you were just born last summer, but no, that can’t be right. After all, Liam hadn’t even started nursery school when you were born, and now he is in kindergarten. You have grown rapidly into a tall little boy who still looks a lot like a baby. One moment you are nursing, the next throwing a temper tantrum, and then you’re right back into showing your beloved Yee-Yee and Casey the new drum set you’ve made from Tupperware.

Through the course of any given day I see several children who all look like you but who have very different temperaments and different play things and activities. Of course, there is only one Kiri here, but you have so many contrasting sides that sometimes you make me dizzy. The age of 2 seems to be the year of contrasts for many children, and you, my dear Kieran, are right there with that description.

You love to cuddle and hug, you love to run away from Mommy in the store.

You love to eat, but what you will eat is a different story each day.

You scream loudly enough to wake the hibernating bears, and then, when you see Casey flopped on the floor napping, you put your finger to your lips and whisper, “Sssshhhhhh!!! Casey sweeping!”

You’ll throw a tantrum to get things your way, but all the while you’ve got one eye open to make sure Daddy and I aren’t getting mad.

You love to play with trains and trucks and dolls and gnomes.

All toys are kissed sweetly before being whacked with a hammer.

You love to hug Liam, and sometimes you love to hit him.

(Sometimes Liam loves you, and sometimes he loves to think about hitting you.)

You love to fingerpaint with mud, and you love to use use tiny brushes to paint delicate ovals on paper.

You ask for a fork, then use your fingers to put the food on it.

You run around like a crazy elf, smashing into walls and corners, but you pet the ferrets ever so gently.

You answer “No!” to every question. It takes you five seconds or more to realize you really should have said “Yes!”

(Please remember, son, that there is no imaginable circumstance under which the answer to the question “Do you like ice cream?” is “No!”)

If you even suspect someone is thinking about taking whatever is in your hand away, you yell “Mine!” loudly enough to rattle the windows. But if you try to hand something to someone and your offer is not immediately accepted, you burst into tears.

Life is very confusing and every event is huge and every emotion is loudly proclaimed, and that’s why 2 is such a big and exciting year, Kiri. I hope you have an amazing time being 2. I know this year will be amazing for your Daddy and me.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Terrific Two!

Love,

Mommy