A midsummer dream

When I said we were on the few days between travels, I really wasn't kidding. Back from Chicago on Sunday, headed to Stratford on Friday. Calvin asked for tickets to see A Midsummer Night's Dream and Alice Through the Looking Glass for Christmas, and thanks to his grandparents we all got to go. This was our second summer trip to Stratford, and we hope to make it an annual tradition, especially now that we've found the perfect place to stay, and the perfect place to stop for ice cream.

The shows were both completely wonderful, of course. I think my favorite part was watching Calvin totally eat up A Midsummer Night's Dream. When we walked into the theater and took our seats next to two gentlemen, I think they were a little surprised, possibly even a little concerned, to see Calvin seated there. I can imagine they were concerned about wiggling and attention spans. I noted that all through the show, the man sitting next to me kept looking over him, perhaps surprised at his delight, because I have never seen Calvin quite so into a show. He loved it.

Alice Through the Looking Glass was also done very well, but it was a little more abstract or eccentric than I think I had expected. Fascinating, though. As a special treat we made reservations to have lunch with the characters before the show. Stratford, it seems, is taking notes from Disney. The lunch itself was a little on the weak side, but Calvin had a great time playing croquet, competing in knight races, laughing with the characters, and, most of all by far, trying on the costumes from previous plays in previous years. We had a hard time getting him out of the costume trying area even to eat lunch.

We couldn't have asked for a more wonderful weekend.

Detroit Zoo

Our time at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago made us miss our own zoo. So, with just a few days between travels, that's where we went. Some may wonder how we can stand to visit the same zoo so often, but if you really spend time with the animals while you are there, you'll find that while the exhibits are fairly much the same from time to time, there is always something different to see. This trip we thought it would be baby otters, but it turned out to be a number of other things, from the Black Crowned Night Herons nesting in their rookery, to the polar bear performing for a crowd. Yes, it's always a different place for us.

What did the turtle say to the cormorant?

that is one sleepy camel...

This is Talini, the polar bear that was born the year before Calvin.

Summer reading

It's all Harry Potter all the time now.

Independence weekend in Chicago

(A photo essay)

Archery

Our homeschooling group is a 4H club. In my life before child, before homeschooling, before homeschooling groups, I thought 4H was about raising livestock. I thought it was a club for future farmers, an association that put on a good fair, and the society that supplied good local eateries with fresh meat every fall. Needless to say, I was surprised to learn that our group was a 4H club. I was, perhaps, even more surprised to find myself 4H leader of said club. Since then I have become increasingly familiar with the 4H system and have found it welcoming, if not entirely organized. Their heart is in the right place, even if nothing else is.

Over this past year, in addition to participating in our club, the Homeschoolers of Ann Arbor, Calvin also participated in their summer day camp, will again enter projects into their Youth Show later this summer, and this week he joined the archery club for their Tuesday night practice.

Here's what is really, really fabulous about this organization. On Tuesdays nights, three men who are very capable and very knowledgeable in firearms and such dedicate several hours of their time to teaching archery to kids ages 7-18. They cart all the equipment to the fairground field, where they set up targets at a few different distances and assemble a couple dozen bows for kids of all different sizes. Then they spend two hours gently instructing and guiding. They have the patience of saints, while still being focused enough to keep the kids from killing each other or anyone else. Their great love for the sport shows.

Calvin loves it.