Rib Therapy

So, first off: Church with Michael Patrick is a nightmare. Squriming, and crying for snacks, and yelling for his paci, and physically harrassing the people around us, and singing at the most solemn parts - neither Brian nor I get anything out of Mass these days...maybe David is listening to the homilies?? ;)

Brian was in a bad mood yesterday during naptime (as opposed to me, who was in a grouchy mood pretty much all day ;). So much information for him to learn for the new job, and so little "free time" in which to do it. Well, I tell ya folks, ain't nuthin better to cheer up a grouchy man than a good Ribfest, and a good Ribfest is just what we got round these parts. We sampled ribs from 3 different vendors, and got roasted corn on the cob and to-die-for cornbread to boot. By the time we left, Brian spirits were high. Happy tummy, happy man.

Incidental Lesson Learned from Ribfest: Huge inflatables for kids to climb on and jump on kind of suck. At least for kids who are more timid. Even Michael, my bold child, got trampled by some vicious 2 year olds and got cold feet at the top of one of the steeper inflatable slides and needed to be rescued.

Michael's Latest Tricks: He can count to ten all by himself. He can do a somersault, all by himself. He can do a cannonball pool jump. Not all by himself. (FWIW, David has mastered the cannonball as well, complete with obligatory bellowing of the word, "CANNONBALL!")

Has anybody heard of a game called Bunco??? Well, Brian's boss's wife, Trish, is in a Bunco group. A dozen women get together to play every month or so. Trish says its the easiest game to learn ever, and that it's not really about the game, its about the socialization. If one woman can't attend Bunco night, it is her responsibility to find a sub. Well, Trish can't go tomorrow night, so because I am so "personable" and looking to make friends in my new city, she asked me to be her sub. And despite the fact that without Trish there I will know nobody and despite the fact that I don't know a darn thing about how to play Bunco, I said yes. To be continued...

Draw Thy Sword

The morning began with great drama. Allow me to summarize: A huge rainstorm all night. Which disguised a malfunctioning external sprinkler right above our apartment. All of which served to cause a whole row of leaks from the top of our sliding glass doors onto our carpet. The sprinkler set off the building's fire alarm at about 9:30 am. All is fixed and well and we have some industrial looking fan drying out our carpet, and a maintenance guy coming to repair the leaks on Monday.

After the drama, we decided to head out to the Siouxland Renaissance Faire. I gave it a 3 out of 10. Bad part is, it wasn't just disappointing. It kind of made me feel dirty. In general, I feel like Renaissance Faires are heavy (no pun intended) with overweight busty nerdy people. I have actually really enjoyed most of the others that I have been to (Sterling and Bristol), but the straw that broke the camel's back today was when I was sitting on a bench with my family, trying to eat a pulled pork sandwich that was drenched in barbecue sauce and full of nasty fatty pieces while watching 6 women, all between the ages of 35 and 55, all somewhat overweight (and one with lots of stretch marks) doing a bellydance routine on a stage where about an hour earlier I had seen somebody milk a goat. I mean, need I even say it...YUCK. Ahh, you live, you learn...

We tried out the pool in our apartment building today for the first time. The boys LOVED it. And then just in time for dinner, my childhood neighbor, Andrew, and his 2 girlfriends from college arrived. They are driving cross country and will stay with us tonight before heading on to Denver tomorrow. Our first visitors! (Sorry Mamo and Papo - you came with us, so you dont count!)

Zoo Camp!

David and Michael went to Zoo Camp on Friday morning at the Great Plains Zoo right here in Sioux Falls. The theme was Crocodile Rock. They read a book, made a snapping crocodile craft, got to touch a gecko and learned about the similarities between a gecko and a crocodile. They toured the zoo and saw crocodiles, among other things, and they got a snack (Michael's favorite part because it was fruit snacks, his absolute fave ;) Overall, I wasn't THAT impressed with the program. I think its because everything is free in Sioux Falls and this is not, so that made me think it was going to be incredible. And probably because I've heard that some zoos have really excellent zoo classes for kids. Like the zoo in Portland OR. I hear that the instructors there are super well-informed and excellent in every way. ;)

Making New Friends

On Thursday night, Brian's boss, David, and his wife, Trish invited us over to their home for a Legal Team Summer Kick-off party. While we adults bonded and enjoyed some yummy food, the kids played with David and Trish's kids (ages 6, 4, and 15 months) and Trish's sister and aunt. We all had such a nice time. David and Michael seemed like they had the time of their lives. When I went downstairs in the basement to check up on them, David was in a helmet with some sort of weapon chasing the other kids around, and suggesting that they turn off the lights to "make it scary." I guess somebody is coming out of their shell a bit in Sioux Falls.... ;)

Silly Noises

First of all, it had been brought to my attention that just reading our blog can be exhausting to some people and that perhaps we are overdoing it a bit here with activities galore. It has also been pointed out that if we don't slow down, we will run out of things to do in Sioux Falls ;) (Thanks Andrea and Liz!)

Allow me to explain myself. First of all, I believe that part of my drive to get out and do things is to keep at bay any sadness that might be trying to creep in. As exciting as it is to be here and to be making new friends and seeing new things, I miss my old friends, we miss our old playgroup, we miss our family, we miss Lincoln Square. So the plan is just to keep as busy as possible until, lo and behold, one day Sioux Falls becomes "home.' And once we have a home, we'll just sit here and do nothing. But until then, we'll keep uber-busy. Deal?

Second, there is literally no end to the activities that they have planned for kids in Sioux Falls over the summer. We won't run out of stuff to do. I just packed up my calendar for the rest of the summer last night. There were several occasions on which I had scheduled conflicts and had to do some re-working. The Zoo Class interfered with the Children's Theater performance etc ;)

My big fear is that the reason why summer is so packed full of fun is because the winter is going to be interminable and AWFUL. I guess we'll just have to wait and see about that.

Finally, I seem to enjoy these kids activities as much if not more than the kiddies do. Today we went to a Library Event called Sound Waves. "The Noise Guy" came and put on a show for the kids that had us all cracking up. I thought it was fabulous. The dude can imitate any sound and has actually written a book called Flush about all the different kinds of toilet flushes - he can do them all of course: the turbo flushers at the mall, the weird sound of the airplane potty. Silly, I know, but so amusing. (As many of you already know, David is terrified of flushes, so I may get the book for him, as desensitization ;) If you ever need entertainment for a kids event, I say check this guy out. He had about 75 kids enraptured for 45 minutes. As he said himself, he is living proof that you can make a living out of doing almost anything ;)
www.soundsafaritheater.com

The Big Cheese

Every so often, in this ever-changing world, we encounter something so timeless, so classic, so familiar, that it allows us to transcend the years and the miles that we have travelled and to feel right at home, no matter where we are. Chuck E Cheese is one such place. (The dramatics are not for real - I feel like I need to make that disclaimer since I have been known to be overly dramatic before ;)

The water got shut off in our building this morning, so I wanted to be out and about. The movers actually packed up all of the boys' coats by accident and it was only in the low 50s this morning, so instead of going to the park, like I originally wanted to, we ended up at Chuck E Cheese. At 9 am. Yep. The only ones there (except for some video game inspection guys) for a good 45 minutes or so. And by the way, if you ever are looking for a job in retirement, consider the video game inspection gig. These two middle aged guys, just played every video game in the joint and shot the you-know-what about trucks and steaks and stuff. And apparently, they get paid to do this. Anyway, David was thrilled and in disbelief that Sioux Falls actually had the same Chuck E Cheese as in Chicago. "How many Chuck E Cheese's are there?" he asked incredulously when I told him where were headed. Not enough, young David, not enough ;)

Thanks Mom and Dad

So, we attended our first Parks & Recreation event/class in Sioux Falls this morning. (Like almost everything else that P&R does here, it was $FREE.99!!! Yahoo for Lower Cost of Living!) I saw a woman who had been introduced to me at some other park on Friday when I was with Brian's boss's wife and kids. I had only spoke to her for about 2 minutes on Friday. But of course, I went right up to her and reintroduced myself today. We starting chatting and before long she had introduced me to another woman who has two boys, nearly exactly the same ages as David & Michael. We are now all friends on facebook and will likely be setting up playdates soon. I am starting to get the idea that making friends is not going to be so hard here...As my dear friend Liz pointed out, it is a blessing for me that I have not a shy bone in my body. And for that blessing, I thank you, Mom and Dad, two of the most gregarious borderline-obnoxious (I kid!) friendly people I know. Love you guys.