Educational Friday

This past Friday the kids and I participated in the first Boston Free Friday of the summer, free admission to the Boston Children's museum. Throughout the course of the day, we learned several things, both in and outside of the museum. Here's a chronological list:

1. This deer eats leaves and probably is not long for this world.
   
   Rebecca spot this critter in the front yard about 40 mins. before we left for the museum. It proceeded to leisurely stroll around the house eating grass and leaves, completely unfazed by my kids who were running from window to window, jumping up and down, and talking excitedly (granted the windows were shut). As far as deer go, this one probably doesn't have the best sense of self preservation.


2. When there is free admission to a children's museum, your best bet is to go to your local library and get passes to the closest museum you can find to the free one. This is because everyone in the state will be at the free museum, leaving all other nearby museums empty. We lasted an hour in the children's museum before hightailing it for a much more enjoyable walk around the waterfront.


3. Kids love to watch seals. As part of our walk around the waterfront, we stopped at the Boston Aquarium to view the outdoor harbor seal tank. The kids stood against the Plexiglass for fifteen minutes and watched the 'seal ballet', as Rebecca called it.
   


4. Okay, to anyone with good taste, I apologize in advance. Here's a sublist of what we learned in this next photo:
   
   1. It's harbor seal mating season.
   
   
   2. These seals are not 'hugging', as I initially announced to the kids when I foolishly pointed them out.
   
   

Dave Rawlings Machine And Yet Another Drunk Guy

Greg and I were treated to a spectacular night of music Saturday when we saw Dave Rawlings Machine at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston. Here's a sample of what we were so lucky to experience. It wasn't shot at the show we saw, but it's one of my favorites and we got to see them perform the same song.

Sorry I didn't get my own video but Greg and I were in the FRONT ROW and it felt really rude to pull out my camera and start video taping in plain view of the musicians. Why were we in the front row? Because Greg wanted to see Dave Rawlings' hands, which he did for the entire show. I just felt extremely lucky to see such a great show and to be close enough to those amazing musicians to see everything they were doing. We were about 6 feet from Gillian Welch (enough said - she's awesome!), 4 feet from Dave Rawlings, and 2 feet from Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show.

They put on an awesome show in what Gillian Welch dubbed 'a banjo lovin town'. Also, I got to go with my sis and brother in-law, who made the trip down from Maine. Thanks Mom and Dad for babysitting all 4 grandchildren so we could all go!

And there was another 'way to drunk guy at a concert' incident (click here for the first). Right before the show started, an intoxicated, stumbling man jumped up on stage and pretended to check the mikes (all 4 of them, hello, security?) before falling over backwards, taking out a table (not the one holding 4 fiddles, thank goodness), and bashing into Morgan Jahnig's beautiful upright bass. He lay on his back for a full minute, unable to get up, before security finally decided to do something and promptly escorted him out. Anyone else out there have a good 'drunk guy at a concert' story?

How A Daisy Becomes A Brownie

We've passed a milestone in Rebecca's life, she graduated from the Daisies and is now officially a Brownie. Here's a confession though, her ceremony was actually last Wednesday, May 26th. Things have been crazy around here - sorry I'm late getting it up. Enjoy her projection - I can't imagine where she gets that from.

The Slippery Slide

We took advantage of the nice weather over the weekend to hold a cookout/sleepover with Uncle Jake, Aunt Kirsten, and the Cousins. The highlight for the kids came in the form of a Slip N Slide, or as the kids all called it, the Slippery Slide, that Rebecca got for her birthday last year. None of them had ever been on one before, so it was quite entertaining to watch. Here's some video:

And in case you're sitting up at night, wondering what a pair of 3 year olds would say when discussing their first Slip N Slide experience, you'll be happy to know you'll be able to sleep like a baby from now on. Here's Gregory and Ella doing just that:

I know it's hard to top that, so I'll just leave you with some action shots:

Now if only we could figure out a way to rig a few of those babies together!