The kids know how to rock now

Blue Man Group was my kids' first rock concert and wow, it was awesome. I had never seen the group perform but everyone told me they put on a great show and the kids would love it. Oh yeah, it was.

L. had the arm waving, head-bobbing and raising the roof arms down pat by the end of the show. The whole rock star parady theme the group had going was tons of fun. The kids were too busy following all the Rock Star Fan "Rules" during the show to really care why Fino and I were laughing so hard at it all.

If you ever want your kids to have a concert experience - and enjoy the show yourself - Blue Man Group is it.

There were so many glowing cell phone lights in the crowd last night I couldn't resist taking a shot of our own.

Check out our Seen Team photos of the audience last night

Kids are teachers too

Yesterday the kids and I spent the afternoon and evening at the Cumberland Fair. The kids' 4-H club sponsored a geocaching booth and we introduced a few new families to the game. I had several little-helpers at the fairgrounds and I have a few new "learnings/re-learnings" to report.

Make all the kids in your group wear matching bright orange shirts to keep track of everyone (thanks for the tip - and the shirts - Meg!)

Using someone else's GPS units doesn't always work as planned, especially when the unit's settings aren't the same as yours and it interprets your waypoints differently (i.e., end up a totally wrong location).

5-year-olds get tired a lot faster than 8-year-olds so snack breaks are all-important.

Do one thing at a time. Realize that you can't manage to take photos with 4 kids walking the fairgrounds while 2 of them, in addition to you, have GPS units and are trying to find geocaches (even though it's a bummer you don't have any pics of the fun you had).

Kids love glitter pens (thanks MaineToday) and pins (thanks County Extension Office).

Plan to visit the bunny barn at least twice - and plan to deflect the multiple requests for one because daddy said no.

Kids love stickers (especially bright orange ones)

Let the kids be silly, you might think it's funny too
 

Kids love to dance (btw, the band never said who they were last night but my crew liked them alot).

Don't be surprised when the kids linger to chat with the vendors in the Exhibition Hall.

 

You never know who you'll meet at the fair (her photos from Iraq were great)

No matter what you say about what you will - or will not - buy at the fairgrounds, Grandma will always get the kids what they want anyway. Thanks Grandma!

View all our photos from the fairgrounds yesterday in Seen.

Good times on Day 1 of the fair

We were at the fairgrounds to volunteer in the 4-H Food Booth yesterday. The kids and Fino were wiped out by the end of the day (I arrived late from work and was a bit of a slacker) but we all agree it was for a good cause. The proceeds from the booth go to the county's 4-H programs and they offer some great stuff throughout the year. And here's an insider's tip: the booth has some of the cheapest grub on the fairgrounds.

The girls did work hard but in classic L. and G. style, they also had plenty of breaks.

Fino and Josh worked the grill and made some really tasty burgers according to L.

As a reward for a job well-done, we treated ourselves to a big bowl of fries.

The kids love the vinegar spray bottle. Good thing we like lots and lots of it on our fries.

And per usual, the kids took charge of the camera and I had the pleasure of sifting through the 100+ photos this morning. About 25 photos were from poultry house of various chickens. Apparently we don't have enough chicken photos at home. Another few dozen were taken inside the 4-H Hall. There were some really great entries this year -- the rat maze and living history costumes were a few of our favorites.

But these photos by G. cracked me up. Sometimes she really captures more than just an animal.

Why did the (blank) cross the road?

My day at the office begins at 5 a.m. a few of days a week and since I live about 30 minutes away, I'm out of the house well before dawn.

I often see animals on the secondary roads I take into Portland but this morning it was like wildlife central. Luckily I avoided hitting anything (well, everything that wasn't already dead).

Mile 1: A possom scuttling across the road.

Mile 3: A dead skunk I smelled long before I actually saw it.

Mile 8: A slow moving racoon that crossed the road and required a quick stop to avoid hitting.

Mile 9: A deer that lept about 20 feet in front of my car before running into the woods.

Mile 13: Another freshly dead skunk with a potent aroma.

Mile 15: A racoon walking along the dirt shoulder.

My nerves were a little frayed by the time I got to work in my attempts to avoid killing anything or getting into an accident. The kids of course we disappointed they missed it all when I told them about it.

Have others see a lot of roadside wildlife lately? Must be the seasons changing.

Geocache at the Cumberland County Fair

My family will be spending several days next week at the fair for various 4-H activities but the one we're really excited about this year is the geocaching. On Tuesday the kid's club is hiding several geocaches around the fairgrounds. Mark your calendars for this one:

Geocaching
Tuesday, Sept. 26
4-6 p.m.
Cumberland County Fairgrounds
Pick up coordinates at the 4-H Hall

Anyone can pick up coordinates at the 4-H Exhibit Hall from 4-6 p.m. (but, the caches will only be available during that time on Tuesday).

For those who don't have a GPS unit, a 4-Her will be available to take you on a "tour" (with one of several GPS units loaned to us for the day by the Cumberland County Extension Office) to find the caches and show you how geocaching is done.

This is a good opportunity for kids - and their parents - to give the high-tech treasure hunting game a try. It's a lot of fun.

See you at the fair.

"I'm freeeee!"

For the past couple of weeks the girls have been getting all their 4-H projects together for the Cumberland Fair (it opens Sunday). Taste-testing recipes for G.'s final baking entries and L.'s 10-recipe cookbook hasn't been a hardship for anyone in the family. Well, except for G.'s first version of gingerbread that had a 1/2 cup of salt instead of a 1/2 teaspoon. The chickens didn't complain though, they ate every last crumb.

Of course it would have been easy to gain a few extra pounds this week with all the baked goods around so we shared the goodies with friends and co-workers.

And putting the final touches on their project posters and notebooks was enjoyable as well. I especially like the Lucy the Chicken poster G. did. Her addition of the actual cast to be displayed with it was a nice touch I thought.

Completing the paperwork required to show their projects in the 4-H exhibit hall however has not been much fun for them. There are multiple pages to the forms that require a lot of writing and something they always procrastinate until the last minute because they don't like doing it.

But last night L. finished the last of the paperwork.

She leaped off the chair with a huge smile, did a little circle jig while waving her arms in the air and chanted, "I'm freeeeeee! I'm freeeeeee!"

And me, I let out a big sigh of relief. No more worrying about how hard on both girls have worked on their projects all year and not getting all the proper paperwork done to display them in the fair's exhibit hall.

This morning we're carefree and have a renewed excitement about the fair opening on Sunday.

"They're so cute!"

The kids, especially G., has been asking for a while to see a seal pup release by the Marine Animal Lifeline. Yesterday we finally found a release time that fit into our crazy schedule.

Both girls enjoyed watching the seals swimming around once they were in the water and we asked one of the volunteers a few questions about them. She said they look really cute but they aren't so nice up close. They're wild animals and act accordingly (i.e., bite if you get too close).

There's some great photos of the pups as patients on the Lifeline's website that the kids love to look at. There is also a species identification page that gives lots of interesting details about the pinnipeds (another word for seals - a new vocabularly word for me :) in the Gulf of Maine.

G. caught all the action on the beach during the release -- and specified which pictures I should share.

The pups are transported in large dog carriers. There was a hooded seal that needed a lot of coaxing to leave his carrier yesterday.

The pups swam near the beach initially and the kids had fun trying to guess when - and where - they would pop their heads above the water.

Volunteers use large wood "shields" to re-direct any errant seals. Some were staying close to shore initially and needed some coaxing to swim out to sea.

L. can not leave any place we go without something. Note the new "seaweed collection" in her hand that she has decided to start.