Memorial Day!

This is going to be a great weekend for a lot of reasons - best of all, it is a long-anticipated breath of relief from the hectic daily schedule we've been keeping as the school year races to an end. We're all so excited to kick back and enjoy 3 lazy days in a row! Of course, Memorial Day also marks the beginning of summer around here ... as of this weekend, my little seaside town is running on all cylinders: the harbor is filled with boats, the ice cream trucks and tour buses start to make the rounds, the beach activity is bustling, the smell of hamburgers on the grill wafts thru the neighborhood every night, and the sun shines for over 15 hours a day. Yup, summer is the time for our little town to shine!

(image courtesy of j&j graphics llc)

In just 2 weeks our school days will turn to camp days - and around here, summer camp looks just like this ...

... that's my 8-year-old in the center, kicking back in her own tiny boat, not much bigger than a bathtub. So when summer looks like this every day around here, you can see why Memorial Day is the weekend I live for all winter long ... bring. it. on!!

volcanoes and lava and tourists - oh my!

So today was a big due date in the 3rd grade. Their first-ever long-term project has come due after two months of research and staggered due dates ... their projects on America's National Parks Service! Over the late winter, each child gets assigned to a particular National Park and the research begins right away ... they write letters to their particular Park Service for info, they research facts in books and online, and from there they create a display with an information poster, a diorama, and a Park Service pamphlet of their very own. It's a big event with all of the parents coming through to see the displays throughout the first a hour of the morning, followed by the entire school cycling through during the school day. The kids have to be ready to talk about their display and answer any questions about their particular Park. So what did my 3rd grade get for her Park?

Yup, that's Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park right there ... my daughter was thrilled to be assigned to this attention grabbing Park - the drama, the volatility, she wanted it all! However, when she realized in the homestretch of the project that she could not, in fact, have an explosion mechanism firing off throughout the day in her diorama, her disappointment was deep. Ever the tough cookie, my 3rd grader rolled with it and forged ahead with the cutest diorama you ever saw:

Notice the sweet old grampy with his crooked walking stick pointing at the wonder of the flowing lava ...

And the young man taking a photo (that's a flash going off at the top of the camera) while his wife reads from the fold-out pamphlet ...

And even though she wasn't able have the display actively firing off lava explosions, she was determined to have it erupting somehow ...

Yikes, I'm sure glad I'm not those poor tourists just beyond the fence!!

i'll never be LOST again ...

My name is Sloan and I'm not just a LOSTie, I'm a LOST-a-holic. It was my brother who first tempted me back in the Fall of 2004 - he had been recommending the show for weeks when we finally caved. My husband and I had to watch the first 6 episodes on the internet to catch up - I'll never forget that cold and rainy November Sunday when we snuggled in with the laptop and watched them all in a row. That day was pure bliss. Mesmerized and completely addicted right from the first scene of the first show, I loved everything about it: the drama of the plane crash, the complex characters, the mystery of the island, the flashback (and later flash-forward and flash-sideways) storytelling, and of course, the shock value of the cliffhanger presented in the last 5 minutes of every episode. Well, tonight is the night I've been waiting for ever since that snuggly November Sunday, the night when all of those puzzling questions are supposed to be answered, the night of the series finale.



So please, LOST, please I beg of you - 121 hours of episodes is a huuuuuge time investment. Please reward me with a convincing and fulfilling conclusion tonight. Unlike my husband and even my brother who hooked me, I have loved you and been faithful to you for the duration, even through the '07 writers strike and that horrible season on Hydra Island. So whad'ya say, LOST? Pretty please?

5th grade regatta ...

The end of the school year is quickly approaching, and my big girl, my first born, my beautiful oldest daughter is about to finish the 5th grade. Today was the day of the 5th grade regatta - it's as big a rite of passage at her school as the May Day event is for the 3rd graders. The kids spend a little over 4 months in a woodworking class making their boats from scratch - they plane the wood, they hollow it out, they dig space to secure a mast, they reinforce the keel, they paint the hull, they cut the sails, they do it all! A project that begins as 36 plain blocks of wood ends up as 36 uniquely gorgeous model sailboats:

As a bonus, today was the most beautiful sunny day you could imagine - a perfect day for a regatta on a sleepy local town pond. All of the 5th graders assembled at the far end of the pond:

And off they go ...

So congratulations to my amazing 5th grader - another big accomplishment is under your belt, sweet girl! Now it's time to sail into Middle School and enter the next phase of your young life ... may the winds always fill your beautiful sails just as they did on this special day:

the BFF ...

Do you have a best friend? I do. Her name is Lauren (she also goes by the nickname LT) and I've been lucky enough to call her my BFF for about 20 years now. She's amazing - thoughtful and articulate, hilarious and intelligent, and so much personal style packed into that tiny lil' size zero body of hers! In short, she's what I like to call 'LT-fabulous'! Since she's all of 5'2" next to my 5'9" frame, I often feel like a giant next to all of her adorableness. Here we are together, like fric and frac. Of course, I'm the tall one on the left:

With no sisters of our own, Lauren and I are the next best thing - we stood next to one another at our weddings, we're godmothers to one another's children, we sometimes chat several times a day, you get the idea. But with Lauren raising her family in North Carolina and me doing the same in Massachusetts, it's not often that we get to see one another in person anymore, usually just twice a year - such injustice! I miss having a daily dose of LT-fabulosity ... her funny sense of humor, her honesty, her incredible ability to break any situation down and tackle it, and her outstanding advice on everything from paint color to motherhood. I'm so grateful that we've been able to remain close despite the distance in miles. She's just a genuinely wonderful person right to the core and I feel lucky as a ladybug to call her my friend. So I'll ask again - do you have a best friend? I hope so ...

oh my goodness ...

For the second time in just a few days, there's been another viral video circulating that I can't get out of my mind, although this one isn't exactly sticking with me in the same warm and fuzzy way as sweet Greyson Chance's piano performance (see 5/14). This video also features incredibly talented kids, but it definitely has a different kind of wow factor for me ... kinda like "wow, what the ...?!" I'm curious to see what you think ...

These girls are 8-9 years old, and as the mother of a little girl exactly the age as the girls in the above video (the one who just last week (see 5/7) skipped around a maypole with a wreath of flowers in her hair!), I have to say I'm a little stunned by the skimpy costumes and gyrating hips - wowza, they seem ready to dance around an entirely different kind of pole! Clearly this is a world apart from a May Day setting, it's a national level urban dance competition - and good lord do these girls ever have impressive skills and talent, I'll give them that, and they surely put an incredible amount of work into this routine. And listening to the crowd, their routine hit a home run with the audience. But even if my 8-year-old had this level of talent, I'm just not sure I could stand by and watch this if it were her! Please, be honest with me, is there something that I'm just not understanding here?!

Update ... looks like YouTube has made it more difficult for this video to be shared. Click here to see the video.

more fun with sky high wifi ...

I don't know what it is about me and the return end of airline travel, but it just doesn't seem to work out well for me. On the bright side, I tend to have smooth outbound flights that are filled with good karma (note 5/11 entry) ... no traffic, no lines, decent seat, on-time arrival, first bag off the baggage carousel, you get the idea - it's usually something akin to those old British Airways ads: "this lane for Sloan".

But the return leg of the journey? Not so much. Like today for example. "This lane so not for Sloan". Today I think I may have encountered every possible reason for travel delay - all in one simple non-stop flight. Mechanical problem? check. Plane needs new part? check. Part needs to be flown in from another state? check. Special mechanics need to come in from an hour away? check. Original flight crew had to time out due to the extended mechanical delay? check. New flight crew delayed in arriving? check. En route thunderstorms forced a detoured flight plan? check. Circled my hometown airport for an hour while said weather moves out? check. You get the idea. It's been a comedy of errors but without the comedy. And I'm writing about it all while I circle round and round and round in my airplane high in the sky. 7 hours late ...

The toughest part is that I'll miss that exuberant airport greeting from my two sweet girls who I've missed so much over the last 3 days, for they have long ago gone to sleep ... I will arrive to an empty, sleepy airport in the middle of the night with no one waiting for me. So depressing. It's not easy for a complainer like me, but I really must force myself to see the bright side: we'll land in the clear weather behind the storm line, I'll be in my own bed shortly after midnight, I'll collect my hugs and kisses in the morning ... and, oh yeah, that mechanical problem was discovered while the plane was on the ground and not 36,000 feet up. I guess life isn't so bad after all ...

how amazing is this kid?!

So unless you've been living under a rock, by now you've already seen the clip below from this uber-talented 12 year old boy from Oklahoma, he's a 6th grader named Greyson Chance:

I first saw this via Facebook on Wednesday when his YouTube post was still at about the 2 million mark. By the next morning he had well over 8 million YouTube hits and he appeared on the Ellen Show (his first time on a plane!). This morning, Greyson's YouTube clip has over 11 million hits and he has a quickly growing fan base on Facebook - a superstar in less than 48 hours! The most amazing part is that he has also written 2 original songs that show even more talent - one is called Broken Hearts and the other is called Stars, about a young wife dying from cancer, the lyrics are amazing from someone so young. The mother in me is just in love with this adorable, humble, and of course, incredibly talented kid ... but at just 12 years old, I so hope that he has good solid parents, a tight extended family, and a strong community back home in Oklahoma to help him navigate his instant fame, I can't even imagine!

blog pals ...

Let me start by saying that I have told no one at all about this blog of mine - at least no one in my "real" face to face world. I just meant for this to be a journal of sorts, a quiet way to document my thoughts and the daily musings of my crazy life. But since I also comment regularly on at least 6+ other favorite blogs, a couple of those bloggers have come here to check around, and as a result, I have actually made a handful of 'blog pals'. It's been a fun result that I wasn't anticipating.

Lisa at Lists in my Pocket was the first person to "visit" me here over the winter, my first blog pal! She also has a young blog, though she tends to hers far more diligently and professionally ... she's been fun to follow - recipes, organizational ideas, daily thoughts, etc. Right now she's running her first 'giveaway' (see what I mean about the diligence?!) and I wanted to give her a shout out right here. Good luck with it, Lisa!

more krazies ...

I thought about it, but I didn't end up doing a Mother's Day post (maybe still riding on my mommy-high from the May Day fun on Friday), but I did enjoy reading all of the great MD posts from fellow bloggers on Sunday ... as always with my fave blogs, they were inspirational with a touch of funny - they way life should be! Thanks, friends ...

So as I write this I have something krazy to report ... like krazy with a K krazy ... I am writing this from 36,000 feet in the air - wowza!

So let me set the stage: I am traveling without my children (or the bulky things that travel with them) ... with my laptop ... aboard a wifi equipped airplane ... and the flight is only about 70% sold - elbow room abounds! Can you say bliss?!

May Day!

Today was a huge day at school for one of my girls ... May Day. It's a big rite of passage for the 3rd graders, something they look forward to for years. The girls wear floral wreaths in their hair, the boys wear a coat and tie, and the entire Lower School gathers to sing songs for the May Day concert ... naturally, my 3rd grader chose pink polka dots with pink patent ballet flats:

... and as if the outfit wasn't sweet enough, I later got to watch her sing her little heart out at the concert, followed by the big event: the May Pole dance. Adorable. Imagine a cheerful folk tune accompanied by lots of rhythmic audience clapping ... then imagine a bunch of 8 and 9 years olds skipping around the maypole in opposing circles while weaving in and out of one another's path - all the while raising and lowering their own special sash attached to the top of the pole. So sweet ...

Afterwards, the woven pattern at the top of the pole was perfection - previous years haven't always been as lucky - my daughter was thrilled:

My heart bursts just thinking of it - the music, the cheers, the proud look on her face, the shine in her eyes ... not sure if it's a mom-pride thing kicking in ... or maybe I'm just a sucker for traditions, but it really was a very special day - I'm the luckiest of ladybugs today!

funny stuff ...

OK, so this hilarious clip came to me via facebook today - and I laughed out loud I thought it was so funny! All I can say is ... where my mother fathers at? LMAO ...

krazy may ...

It's been a very confusing spring here in Massachusetts - never in my 15+ years here have I ever seen a Spring as early as this one ... not only early, but warm and colorful too ...

It began as a fluke on Easter weekend: record-breaking temps followed by more warmth and one more record-breaker (90 degrees - unheard of!) ... from there, the leaves and flower buds sprang into action weeks ahead of schedule - it was amazing. By last week, we were mowing the grass and fertilizing the rosebushes (that normally don't bud until June) - now that's what I call krazy with a capital K! Spring in New England is usually a painful waiting game for me ... it's not until the first week of May that the trees just barely start to unfold their budding leaves and yet this year it looks like a lush July day outside my window ... on May 4th. The Spring flowers have peaked and faded and the tree leaves are as large as my hand - a canopy of green as far as the eye can see. We've even had our first line of thunderstorms roll through ... July-like indeed. Krazy - absolutely krazy.

silly branch ...

so there's this funny little curved branch that caught my eye on a pear tree in front of our house ... i've been watching it grow for about 4 weeks now. since it caught my attention, i've taken a few pictures along the way, sort of like a time-lapse project. not sure what it is about this little branch, but i've become somewhat attached at this point ... here goes:

now the fact that i've been taking these photos probably screams 'crazy cat lady', but i assure you, i have a life - a full and busy life. there was just something kinda cool about watching this little branch come to life that captured my attention each morning ... and there you have it!