Playing nicely together

Benji and Ava have seen so much of each other this summer that I think they're really getting used to each other. Benji gets excited when he finds out Ava is visiting and the word "Benji" is one of Ava's clearest words. While they certainly have their moments of not getting along (such as when Ava gets scared of Benji's energetic running around or when Benji dislikes that Ava is playing with one of his toys), they seem to get along extremely well. And they got along particularly well during our visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the 4th of July.


The alphabet puzzle was a favorite toy for everyone. Ava liked to hand Benji letters and tell him what letter each is. Benji seemed to really like his little helper.


It was so pleasant to watch them play nicely together.


See, Ava, we did all the letters!


I think later they actually both put pieces of the puzzle in together.


Upside down Ava!


Comfy Benji!


Benji shows off his spelling skills to Ava.

Libellés : Benji

Benji Bumper Bowling

Several months ago I shared pictures of Benji bowling the little bowling game at Enchanted Castle and you can clearly see how much he enjoys it. So when we got a few vouchers from the library reading program for free bowling we decided to give it a try. With the bumpers raised on Benji's turn and Daddy way out of practice (although he blames it on how dark the lanes were since they were doing cosmic bowling that afternoon), it was a surprisingly even match. And while I think Benji enjoys little bowling more, he got a big kick out of real bowling, too.


The first technique we tried teaching him was to put the ball on the ground and give it a good push. He loved watching to see how many pins he got down and was remarkably patient as the ball lumbered down the lane.


Another technique we tried was for Mommy to help him carry the ball to the foul line and then hurl it down the lane. This still didn't get the ball to go all the way down consistently and we had to call to get the ball rescued.








I just love the tiny bowling shoes!


It turns out Benji is strong enough to carry a 6-pound bowling ball pretty well.


So we tried yet another technique — walk, walk, walk, throw — in an attempt to get more power behind the ball.


It still wasn't consistent as the ball stopped halfway down the lane. There was actually a kid on the lane next to us that was younger than Benji and consistently got the ball all the way down the lane so we tried watching him to see what tips we could pick up. I think practice would be the biggest tip.


One happy bowler!

Libellés : Benji

No cheating.

Since we and the Eastern Iowa Prinses were wondering about this last weekend: How much are single tickets to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics curling (a) round-robin rounds and (b) gold-medal round? The venue holds 6,000, men's and women's tickets are the same price, and the price is in Canadian dollars (not that that makes any difference any more). Hint: They are less than the $775 for the best men's gold-medal hockey tickets.

Summer Fun

With summer in full swing, we've started the summer festival circuit again. A few weeks ago we went to Long Grove's Strawberry Festival and late June brought the Downers Grove Heritage Festival, while this past weekend was the Iowa Falls Fourth of July Riverbend Rally. Looking back at last year's Heritage Festival blog entry shows a nice milestone of how much Benji has grown and changed in one year and also how he has stayed the same.

Last year he was just getting the basic idea of the games at some of the booths. This year he figured out that many of the booths had free things to put in his pockets (we convinced him that the candy giveaways were just fun colorful things to put in his cargo shorts pockets) so he liked going over to the tables to see what they had for him. At one booth he got a balloon, which I suggested we tie to his belt loop so he wouldn't lose it. That backfired as he was confused and looked like a dog chasing his tail. Last year we couldn't get him away from the basketball hoop; this year he loved that game again but he also found more games to try. Many booths had bean bag toss games and he was really fond of those. He figured out if he stood right at the edge of the board he'd have a pretty good handicap and could play without anyone's help. And we were at the festival early enough in the day that Benji could play most of the games over and over again without waiting (as a bonus it wasn't nearly as warm as it was later in the day). There was so much to do among the community booths that we never went across the train tracks to the pay games and carnival rides.

Last year Benji could recognize his numbers and so had a great time pretending to play Bingo. For the past several months, we've been practicing with a Disney DVD Bingo game in the basement so he was ready to go in this year's Bingo tent. He had a hard time keeping up with the speed of the game's call so we ended up giving him a dead card from an earlier game for him to play along with (that also eliminated any questions about whether or not he was gambling). He definitely listened to the numbers being called and marked them appropriately; he just couldn't mark them fast enough.

Again this year Benji loved festival food. In Long Grove he was introduced to fried Oreos (which he called donuts) and at Heritage Fest he stole Mommy's chocolate fondue. This year he is far more verbal than last year and told us "I love chocolate" instead of just stealing it. In either case, he had an adorable messy chocolate face. He also had a grand time holding Grandma and Grandpa's hands and swinging and jumping between them. And he even got a pony ride!


Benji met a celebrity at the Long Grove Strawberry Festival.





Benji won a few free movies, but being able to spin the wheel was the big prize as far as he was concerned.


Oooh! Duckies!





The first of many bean bag games Benji tried at the festival.


See those cargo pants pockets? By the end of the day they were full of candy and trinkets.


Benji shows off his prizes — one flag sticker for each hand!


Pony rides!





Look mom, no hands! No Daddy hands, that is. Notice Benji is actually riding by himself.





Hooray! A basket!





Benji decided Mommy's fondue was delicious again this year. But this year he could ask for it by name — chocolate!





It's all gone, Benji.





Where's that number?


Maybe Daddy should mark the numbers instead.











What number did they just call? Do I have it?





Benji was looking for the basketball game all day long. While bean bags and Bingo were good, shooting hoops was the best.

Libellés : Benji

"The London Underground."

A couple of you noticed recently that the music player on the side of the blog had been updated with new music with very odd names. I didn't want to say anything here until I had it all uploaded, but now that it is, we'll let out the "secret," as much as there is one. It's something I've been working on on and off (the vast majority off) for the last couple years, but I was able to finish it recently.

Anyway: In the player is "recordings" (i.e. fake recordings) of my new 12-movement, long-form piece for handbells, handchimes, piano and string orchestra, "The London Underground." Yay me.

Some of the movements turned out pretty nice "recordings"; some of the movements turned out okay "recordings" but will work better live; some of the movements didn't end up exactly as I intended and I'll probably take a closer look at in a month or two at them. (I'll leave as an exercise to the listener to guess which movements I'd put in each category, although feel free to put all twelve in the first box.)

Regardless, I'm relatively pleased with the piece as a whole. I don't know when it'll ever get performed -- I wrote it because I wanted to write a long-form piece for handbells and orchestra, not as a commission or for any particular performer. But regardless, I'm glad I wrote it.

Next up in my composing queue: Music that might actually make me some money....