Storyland, for the 6th time

One of our biggest highlights of this past summer was our annual trek to Story Land in New Hampshire. It was our sixth time going there as a family since August 2009. Yeah, we are a little obsessed with the place! But if it helps to know, we only hit Story Land once this summer. Some moderation never hurt anyone, did it?

What made Story Land 2012 terrific was going there with three other families. We had 18 people in total, including ten kids all under age seven, in our group. We all stayed in a four-bedroom ski chalet right across the street from Story Land for two nights. Of the 18 people, fully one out of every six was a toddler under 18 months old. It was a blast for all of the kids, which was fun for us adults, too.

(Hey, with a math major as my wife, I need to sometimes break out my math skills to get some respect in this house!)

Jessica with her little girl and our girls at Cinderella's castle.

Waiting in line for the swan boats with Mr. Moo (who didn't get to ride) and Dave and his little girl.

 

Our Little Mouse at the premiere Story Land photo op.

Goose and Momma about to hit the Polar Coaster rollercoaster. Now, when I was elementary school-aged (for time reference, this was back when MTV actually played videos and the Red Sox were still about 15 years from winning a World Series title), my family hit Story Land a couple times. From what I remember, the Polar Coaster was my favorite ride. When I've thought back to it, I seem to recall the rollercoaster being a lot faster than it currently is.

 

Wilson Party of Five photo.

Becky and Mr. Moo with her friends Jessica and her baby boy and Jenn and her boy Sam.

Hey hey, look it's Mr. Moo driving his own car! For Moose, the tractor ride was hands-down his most favorite thing at Story Land. It was a ride that he could a) actually go on and not need to be glued to his parents' hip and b) actually sort of manipulate and use. He loved steering the tractor's wheel over and over. One of his sisters rode next to him each time he went out in the tractor, with either me or Becky sitting behind them. Sometimes almost always after he had had his turn and it was his sister's turn, Mr. Moo tried to hijack the tractor's wheel. He could not get enough, and we had fun watching him be so excited and happy. At the end of Day Two, Mr. Moo and I went on this ride over and over for the last half-hour. We would ride, disembark (just to get back in a nearly non-existent line...that irked me), and get back on a tractor. I think he loved it.

 

"Sisters, sisters...there were never such devoted sisters."

 

That line is from Bing Crosby's "White Christmas." A Becky Christmas favorite, she made me watch it one year about five years ago. It's almost the only thing I remember about the movie. I think part of the reason why is because Becky and I have an 11-on-the-scale-of-1-to-10 cheese factor song-and-dance routine to that song. We break it out now and then, to our girls' delight.

 

And no, I will not video our song-and-dance routine to post it on our blog. 

 

Back to Story Land...

The next few photos below were taken in our chalet. Sounds so much more European than "condo," doesn't it? How continental of me! The place is actually up for sale right now. And I have definitely contemplated buying it. It's ideally situated for summer vacationers in the White Mountains, foliage freaks in autumn, and ski enthusiasts in the winter. The place needs some major overhauls though, so the likelihood of me becoming an absentee landlord owning a vacation home is pretty scarce.

The gang's all here in the photo below! We went to Story Land with our friends the Niemans, the Iversons, and the Spragues. Until the summer of 2011, we had all gone to the same church together. Having a big group of friends at the condo and at Story Land made this one of the best vacations we have taken as a family. It was an awesome time of good food, games, and hilarious conversations.    

Dave, Jared, me, and Ben doing our best "Brady Bunch" boys impression on the staircase:

Dave showing his iPhone to a thoroughly entranced (and supremely tired) Mr. Moo. He was showing Moose that you can whistle into the phone and it will play notes.

Breakfast out on the balcony, on the morning of Day Two. The Spragues made an absolutely killer butter syrup for pancakes. In the photo below, the Iverson boys are looking at the camera while our girls are looking at Story Land across the street, no doubt already lured by the kooky, siren-like musement park song that is piped throughout Story Land all.day.long.

I am sure that in 40 years, I will be on vacation with Becky somewhere very far away and time-wise long removed from Story Land, and that blasted music will suddenly creep back into my head!    

Adieu, Story Land! See you next summer!

First school note

Kindergarten is going well so far for Our Dear Goose. She's enjoying learning how to count in multiples of 10, and was amazed that one can count in more ways than just 1, 2, 3, or 2,4,6. She sits at a star table each day with some friends. The star doesn't mean that she's a star--each table has a different object on top, such as a star or a flower. We really do not get much info out of her each day about what her day was like. I'm not sure if she's just tired or uninterested or what.

Oftentimes lately, we get snippets of info from her verbally, and then overhear so much more when she's settled and role-playing being her Kindergarten teacher with a roomful of imaginary students and her stuffed animals. That's when we overhear her talking about recess, learning centers, lunch, recess, art, music, and the bus ride. It's a cute if round-about way of learning a bit more about what her day was all about.

The above photo shows a note that she wrote last week to her Kindergarten friend Natalie. It reads, "Dear Natalie, I love you. I like playing with you. Love, Caroline." She was so excited to write the letter, with minimal help from us. When she was done with the note, Goose drew the picture on the right, of Natalie (on the left) and Goose. Natalie is one of a bunch of friends that Goose talks about from her schooldays. Most of her friends are girls in her class, but she does have some friends from pre-school who are now in different Kindergarten classrooms.

I probably played up the sweetness and thoughtfulness of her first school note a bit. Goose was pretty blase about actually giving Natalie the note, and just shrugged when I asked her what Natalie thought of the note. She got the letter at the end of the school day on Friday, so it was likely an out-of-sight, out-of-mind thing for both kids by the time the weekend was over.

Still, pretty fun and cute.

Birthday Girl

Look quick, it's one of us parents in a moment of uninterrupted relaxation, with none of our three cute kids nearby! Our Beautiful Becks recently had her birthday, and she was properly feted with two parties (her friends threw a party on Friday morning and I planned a surprise party with friends for the next day. There was major overlap in invitees invited to both parties. In my defense, I did not know about the Friday birthday party until the day before).

She felt blessed, she felt wanted, and she felt loved. She also felt tired, but that's par for the course with young kids and serving as an unpaid general contractor for our kitchen remodel. Also, neat fact: we figured out that Becky and I have been together to celebrate 25% of her lifetime's worth of birthdays.  

Happy Birthday to the one who makes family life fun, fulfilling, and somehow manageable!

Tuff Guy

Can a 16-month-old be regarded as "tough?"

 

Doubtful, but isn't he a cute tuff guy?

S-L-O-W

You may have heard of slow cooking, the Slow Movement, the classic rock anthem "Slow Ride," and slow parenting. That last one sounds particularly appealing to me. Now, here is the latest addition to the category of S-L-O-W things in life:

Our daughter the Mouse!

It routinely takes her double the amount of time that it takes her big sister and her parents to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. We have set a kitchen timer on the mornings when we are trying to get her sister out the door to the schoolbus, especially on the two mornings a week when we also have Joy School to bring her to. Sometimes the timer is helpful, but sometimes not. We also really try to not turn these S-L-O-W eating episodes into negative experiences, for us and especially for her. We don't want to create additional food or eating issues beyond the pace at which she eats.

(So why blog about it? you ask.  Simply to chronicle where we are in life right now).

Por exemplo, I took this photo of Mouse last Saturday (a picture-perfect late summer afternoon in New England, might I add). We cut the cake at 4pm, and this photo was taken at 4:31 p.m. She was just a few bites into her slice of cake. I'm almost 100% certain that she was still tucking into this slice at 5 p.m., sauntering around our grassy backyard playing with and watching her friends.

It's cute, it's mentionable, it's head-shakingly tough at times.

Before we know it, all of these S-L-O-W episodes will quickly be over. 

Kitchen remodel

The backing track to this post is the magnificent "Under Pressure" from two of England's greatest musical talents of the last century, David Bowie and the late great Freddie Mercury of Queen. Hard to believe that song is now 30 years old. If I were to ever post my top 25, 50, or 100 favorite songs of all time, let there be no doubt that Queen and David Bowie would be well represented on the countdown.

The parents and partners-in-crime in Chez Timbeck5 are definitely feeling under pressure these days, for one major reason.

Our kitchen remodel is finally, at long last, about to begin. I've written about this before, since the spring. Well friends, we are really about to kick it into high gear. Demolition of our old kitchen cabinets and ripping up of our old kitchen floor begin this Saturday morning. Those groans you hear will either be decades-old wooden planks relenting to a crowbar, or me after my back gives out.

It may not look like much right now, but this photo to the left shows our new, waiting-to-be-installed cabinets and counters. I can almost smell the sawdust, feel the nails (and the back aches), and hear the hammering. We did not go through Home Depot for these. After all, HD wants your entire payment up-front before you ever see the cabinets delivered. Now, I have made mistakes as a home-owner over the last 5+ years, but paying in full up-front is one thing even I would not do.

Instead, Becky found a small business in a neighboring town through a good friend, and we are getting all of our cabinets plus granite countertops for about 70% (yes, seven-zero) less than a Home Depot estimate.

Good thing, because maybe within a month, we'll need some of those saved funds to pay for our Advil, knee-replacement surgeries, and back remedies. Are we ready for the madness to begin? Are we ready to be without a stove and a sink for over a month? Are we ready for a plumber, electrician, a carpenter, and us and some friends to be working in our kitchen while we go on with normal life-- school, work, Joy School, Moose's naps?

As Bowie sings in "Under Pressure," 

"Insanity laughs, under pressure we're breaking!"

Wish us luck, please. Prayers and good karma are always appreciated!

Superman and Clark Kent

I think we found our Halloween costume for this year.

And, after a steady diet of princess and other gender-targeted videos over the last 4 years, I am excited for some manlier movie marathons in the future with Mr. Moo. Like Superman, The Lord of the Rings, the Indiana Jones trilogy (forget that awful fourth one), and Star Wars.

Joy School!

Life just moves on as the seasons change and new beginnings crop up.  One week after her big sister Goose started Kindergarten, Our Little Mouse went off to her own school--Joy School! She is in a Joy School with five friends from five families in our town and a neighboring town, and we think it's terrific that at almost four years old, she is starting to make her own friends and have her  own routine.

Goose and Mouse on the first morning of Joy School, September 2012. This was our first morning as a family trying to get two kids and Dear Old Dad out the door at almost the same exact time. Goose's bus driver was starting to get into a groove of a dependable pick-up time, but some days the bus came early; other mornings, it was 5 or 10 minutes late. And this morning, we had to get Mouse to Joy School in a neighboring town, about 15 minutes from our house. Luckily, it was en route to my office, so Mouse hopped in my car while Becky walked with Goose and Moose to the bus stop. Confused? 

We are still adjusting to this twice-weekly morning routine, especially now that there's a new bus driver who is dependably on-time (and earlier) than the previous driver. It's a little mad rush trying to get everyone out the door. I am sure we will have this routine ironed out by the end of school next spring!

Becky and Mouse, Joy School morning. In week 1, her friend Laura taught Joy School twice. Becky taught it twice the following week, and because of others' schedules, now has Joy School teaching duty off until January. 

It took 6 tries, but we finally got a picture where Mouse was looking right at the camera. Kooky little girl. Our friends Loxi and Debbie took our girls back-to-school shopping a week before Kindergarten started. They were very thoughtful and bought some clothes for Mouse's Joy School year, too. 

At the Joy School drop-off.  As you can see in the first photo of Mouse and me on the sidewalk, she is channeling her inside Cyndi Lauper when choosing what clothes to wear. A horizontal striped dress coupled with yellow leggings, white socks, and silver shoes. Perfect!

The almost daily Cyndi Lauper-esque fashion show in our house reminds me of when I was much younger and I would dress like the "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" pop singer.

Only kidding.

Just seeing if you're paying attention. But my sister did try to dress like Cyndi Lauper. She had a collection of those cheap plastic bands around her wrists. Not sure, but my sister's first album might have been the album with "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" on it. It's only a matter of time before that song becomes a staple in our female-dominated home. Would it be appropriate to counter that imbalance by having Moose and me blast Stone Temple Pilots to offset all of the X chromosome influence? I, meanwhile, tried to weigh the pro's and con's of telling my friends that I thought Cyndi Lauper, with her orange hair and all, was kind of cute.

Anyhow, see how easily I digress? Aren't you glad you check out our blog? I'll have some hot stock tips next time around, so be sure to come back.

Mouse and her friend Evelyn. We were a little early to the Joy School drop-off.  In fact, Becky and Moose met us at our friend's house for some family photos and we still had time before the 9 o'clock start-time. It was really fun for me to be there for Mouse's first Joy School drop-off. I did the drop-off and pick-up for Goose a bunch of times when she was in Joy School, and I really enjoyed the extra, out-of-our-routine time with her. I'll do the same with Mouse sometimes, too. 

Here is Mouse with her friend Ellis, who is about six weeks older than she is. We brought Ellis to Joy School on the second day. I think Mouse loved having a friend her age to ride in the back of the Blue Bomber with. And if you noticed that Mouse was wearing the same outfit for Day 2 of Joy School that she wore on Day 1, you, my friend, are quite observant. Those who didn't notice...there's no way for me to verify, so consider yourself a winner, too.

Here's to Joy School! And here's to the moms who will teach it, and to the Eyres for creating it!

First day of Kindergarten (for the non-school bound)

I thought it was important and fun to note what Goose's siblings did on her first day of Kindergarten. It was a treat for me to have the whole day off and be around my family. We didn't plan anything big, instead sticking with our routine by-and-large.

Moose had an early intervention appointment for speech (gotta love Massachusetts, we get this program for free! And yes, as a native-born son of this Commonwealth, I am an unabashed Massachusetts supporter, since I all too often hear gripes from out-of-staters who call our state home for awhile). But before that, we got to take an up-close look at one of his favorite things in life: a fire truck! Every time a truck passes by our house, Moose notices it, looks to the window if he's near one, and shouts something like "voom!" 

He also enjoyed running our oven mitts through our backyard lawn.

He is the Little Guy, all set to join us in sending his biggest big sister off to Kindergarten.  For a guy who typically slept in until 8 or 8:30 most summer mornings, having him awake at 7:30 was a minor miracle.

Our Dear Mouse was excited about the day's events. Mostly, she was excited to spend the day with daddy. Who can blame her?! Here she is, waiting her turn for pictures on our someday-soon to-be-replaced back porch and our it's-finally-getting-replaced-this-Fall bulkhead. Please, avert your eyes from these housing characteristic charms glitches!

After Mouse went down for his late-morning nap, Becky had lunch and then retreated upstairs for a much-needed nap herself. Almost three hours late, she rejoined our family fun! I was glad that she got such a long rest. Meanwhile, Mouse and I had hours to spend together, so we broke out some board games, including "Othello."

Now, as Becky can attest, I am one of those guys who never reads the directions, and I take that stance to board games, too. From how Mouse interpreted "Othello's" rules, I'm sure that she inherited that particular "no-directions-reading" gene of mine. She was winning, then she and I were on the same team, and then we inexplicably weren't, and then I was winning, and then our friend Loxi was on Mouse's team (even though she was at her own house) and they won. 

Here is Moose's dirty highchair plate. I post it because, normally, such a scene in our house almost immediately gets on my radar and I clean it up. Oftentimes, this comes at the expense of breaking away from our kids and whatever they were saying to or doing with us for a bit. So, not on this day. I made a mental note to self that I had three hours all alone with my middle child, our sweet little girl for whom I harbor the typical parental angst that she is somehow getting lost in the shuffle of being the middle child. So, I stayed focused on Mouse--playing games together, looking at water spouting out of a nearby fire hydrant, watching a movie, having lunch just the two of us, and yes taking photos to document the occasion. It was a special few hours of doing little things together, and that was what made it important.

Kindergarten!

And so it begins! We now have a Kindergartner in our home. Our Dear Goose woke up with about an hour to spare before her first day of Kindergarten last week. I woke up about 90 minutes earlier, surprised that I had actually slept well that night. Let me tell you, TimBeck5 readers, the week leading up to our first baby starting full-time school was a roller coaster of emotions. It was harder than I anticipated imagining, and then experiencing, my first child setting off on such a new path in life. Maybe I got too many "sentimental dad" genes in me for my own good. But one very positive outcome of those up-and-down days was experiencing answers to my prayers.

The night before school started, Becky and I planned for me to give Goose her first father's blessing, which is a prayer in our church that dads do by putting their hands on their child's head and offering words of guidance and comfort. In a twist of fate, I thought I would be the one needing comfort, not Goose...and in fact I did, and I prayed for it, and got it.

Let me tell you, there was no way I could have performed my first father's blessing without the Lord's help getting me through it, spiritually and emotionally. It was a wonderful experience for our whole family. At times during that week before, I instantly received help and answers to prayers. It was a remarkable witness of faith and the Lord's hand in my family's life.

Now, enough about me! This was Goose's Big Day. Let's start off with the requisite family photos in the morning. My dad, whom our girls have called Bumpa since they were young enough to talk, drove to our home and just made it in time to take photos and video of the big day. We're so glad we had an extra set of hands to record these precious moments, especially on video (more on that later).

This photo shows the very moment when I came closest to losing my composure. Becky took this photo of Goose and me. The matching blue shirts were not planned! As we started to pose, Becky yelled out, "Smile, Goose...and say, 'I love you, daddy!'" Gee, thanks! For the record, Goose is not crying into or collapsing on my shoulder. She was just being goofy. On the video Bumpa took, you can see me fighting 'em off and quickly exiting stage-right after Becky snapped this photo. Later in the morning, Goose consciously steered clear of me. Good for her, and smart move! I think she was nervous that I would be the stereotypical crying parent, having played that role so well one year ago on her first day of pre-school. This was several times on the order of magnitude more significant, her starting Kindergarten.

Goose and her sister Mouse, who was also wearing her "back-to-school" outfit. She is starting Joy School with our family and five other family friends this fall, and is so excited to have her own friends and her own plans. However, on the second day of Goose's Kindergarten--when I went back to work, and Goose was gone all day--Becky told me that night that Mouse was sad and whiny most of the day. She missed her sister and missed having me home for the day. She is a sweet little girl.

We battled and sat through an insane traffic snarl to get to her school, which typically would only take about 2 minutes to reach by car. Our good family friend Loxi was also with us, and Bumpa had his video camera in full force. Goose walked hand-in-hand with us. She wasn't nervous or holding back. She marched right in amidst a throng of anxious adults, teachers, and staff to find kids that she knew. She loves being at school.

Mr. Moo, as he has done on other occasions recently, nudged his way into a line of older kids to stand right next to his big sister! He was also thrilled because, in the flurry of morning activity getting five people out the door, he got to keep his binky in his mouth from wake-up until about 9:30 a.m.! Go him!

Here is Our Dear Goose with her Kindergarten teacher. She is very energetic and was standing in a crowd of 17 little kids and many more parents, calm as can be on the outside, keeping everything together, handing out name tags and introducing kids to each other.

And here she goes! She consented to give her Dear Old Dad a high-five as she walked off, the last child in her Kindergarten class, which was the last class to march into the building. I loved the poetry of those lasts. There was only one friend in Goose's class who had also been in her pre-school class, so that disappointed her a little bit. There are 6 Kindergarten classes at her elementary school, and some of her pre-school friends are in different classes at the same school; others are at completely different schools.

And below, a priceless moment...Goose glanced back at us one last time before turning around the corner. My Dad caught this moment on video, too. Becky, me, my dad, and Loxi all commented on it right after she looked back at us.

With that, Goose's school years begun! The magnitude of the moment was surely lost on her then, but I hope that in the years to come, she'll read about her first day on this blog (and in a separate, longer journal I keep for her) and realize what a fun, cool, and big step this day signified. And it wasn't all hugs and smiles and pictures...

She was a feisty, cranky, and very tired five-year-old when the end of the school day arrived and we picked her up. I was the eager dad who initially excitedly bombarded her with questions about what she did, what she learned, who she ate lunch with or sat with, etc. The first few queries were met with shoulder shrugs, and then my questions (and my presence) were not acknowledged at all! But about an hour later, Goose warmed up to her family again, and she was her usually good-natured self.

The big First Day is over! And Goose is really liking school so far. More details to come in future posts. Maybe she'll even write a post this year about Kindergarten herself!

Chuck E. Cheese

We spent the last week on vacation, before entering a new phase in family life with Goose starting Kindergarten. I need to recap our 4-family, 18 people in one condo (including 10 kids!) trip to Storyland. Don't have time to get into that now, so instead we'll focus on another fun outing we did as we drove home from Storyland last Friday afternoon.

Our good friends Emily and Bill of Pittsburgh were in New England visiting family. Goose and their little boy Parker have been friends since their youngest days. They are two months apart, and Parker has long wanted to marry our oldest little girl. He referred to their time together at Chuck E. Cheese as their date!

All of the kids had a very fun time running around the joint, playing games and eating pizza and winning tickets. Mr. Moo even got in on the action, riding on the carousel and "driving" a few cars.

Our Little Mouse played a game towards the very end of our visit. The object was to get a small ball up a steep incline on the game window and then drop it into a small, moving barrel. It took her just a few tokens, but suddenly, the game flashed to life and the ticket dispenser started spitting out a stream of tickets! Becky and I stood there watching Mouse watch the tickets churn out. When all was said and done, she won 67 tickets from this game at once! The photo above was taken right after the machine was exhaustedly done dispensing her winnings.

The gang was all there, but unfortunately for an all-too-brief visit. We split up to go in different directions home. All of the kids were hyper, and some were hyper and cranky, which makes for a killer combo! It was great to see our friends again after a few months.