Birthday Celebrations

Britt claims that I don't celebrate my birthday but rather "birthday week." This year, it was only a couple of days of celebration.

Since this year my birthday fell on a Tuesday, which is cub scouts night, we had a family dinner on Monday: kebabs & veggies plus crepes for dessert.





Casey even did the washing up afterward.



Turning on the game at bedtime, the "boys" got sucked into the final inning of Jon Lester's no hitter. Can you see the anxiety in Casey's eyes?



With one out left to go, we were all tense,



but it was quite exciting at the end.



Next day, Mom arrived from TN, so while we all bustled off to scouts, she made a salad dinner for us to come home to.



We also had cupcakes,



and Beau serenaded us.



We ended the celebration by dancing the Macarena.

Early Birthday Present?

On Sunday, we finally got over our plot in the community garden. We got it cleaned up and put in some tomato and pepper seedlings and planted pole beans and squash seeds. Last year we got the garden underway on Mother's Day. This year, we got it in just in time to be an early birthday present to me.

Look: our plot is all cleaned up and it even has a "Beau" on it.

Butterfly Garden at the MoS

Casey's class is studying butterflies and their life cycle. So last week when there was an early release day at school, the kids (and a friend) and I went to the Museum of Science to the Butterfly Garden -- an atrium full of all kinds of butterflies. It was a warm, sunny day, so it was really warm in the atrium -- that's why the kids look flushed.



The butterflies loved the hot, humid air, so we saw many, many kinds.

Mother's Day

Budding chef Beau made dinner for me on Mother's Day.

Composed fruit salad



and spaghetti with red sauce and sausage.



I couldn't be luckier.

Girls Weekend in Atlanta

First weekend in May was "Girls Weekend." We went back to Atlanta (again) because it's easy for most of us to get to and there's plenty of dining, shopping, and gallery hopping.

We ate and shopped and went to the High Museum.

April School Vacation

April vacation started off Monday morning (4/21) with a pre-dawn jaunt -- for Britt and Beau -- to Lexington to watch the reenactment of the Battle at Lexington (first skirmish of the Revolutionary War).



As always, fighting broke out and the British Regulars left a handful of killed and wounded Minutemen on Lexington Common. (The Regulars then carried on to the bridge at Concord where they were out-manned and from which they then retreated, running all the way back to Boston amid sniper fire.)



That night, we had a seder.



Later in the week, the kids each got to go to another baseball game at Fenway with Britt. The Red Sox won the night Casey went but lost the next night when Beau went.



The weather was really nice during vacation week, so one outing was to mini golf and ice cream.



The next day we went roller blading.



Friday of vacation week was our wedding anniversary. I don't remember why, but we couldn't summon the energy to go out, so we had dinner at home with the kids.



The weekend was the start of the week-long Cambridge City Science Festival. On Sunday we went to the MIT museum where Casey built a model of the world's largest snowman and Beau got to dismantle a vacuum cleaner.





Monday, the kids went back to school...

Back to Fenway

On the heels of our family outing to Fenway Park, the cub scouts went the next night to be color guard for the playing of the National Anthem before the game. The pack had to limit the number of cubs who went, and Casey "drew a long straw" to begin with, but then when two of the other scouts couldn't make it at the last minute, Beau got to go after all.



The Fenway officials don't mind if the cubs and parents stay to watch the game, but it's standing room only. This time, though, the pack got to "stand" in the Green Monster seats -- the new(-ish), and much coveted, seats atop the "Green Monstah": the famously high (37 feet) left field wall at Fenway. Some of the kids even got to sit down for a bit thanks to the generous ticket-holders.


They only stayed through the second inning, but they got to see a bit of the game that the Red Sox eventually won 8-5 against the Yankees.

Beau's Karate Tournament

Beau's first karate tournament: 4 hours of standing around followed by 2 minutes of action.



Beau didn't win, but he had a respectable outing.



And he's almost graduated to a blue belt now.

Family Outing to Fenway Ballpark

In February, the gods smiled on Britt, and he was able to buy four tickets to a Red Sox game at Fenway for Saturday, April 12. So after soccer practice and karate class, we drove into Boston for a day game at "America's Most Beloved Ballpark" (that's what the lighted display in the picture below says) to watch the Red Sox play their rivals: the Yankees (the gods had smiled twice).



First pitch was scheduled for 4 pm, but, of course, we went early -- 2 pm -- to watch batting practice. I dropped off Britt and the kids (here fawning over the statue of Ted Williams) and went to park the car (for free) back on "our side" of the river (in Cambridge).



Our seats were in the right field bleachers, and very high up, but we were not far from "the red seat," shown here with Beau's bottom parked in it. This seat denotes the longest measurable homerun at Fenway: 502 feet by Ted Williams off of Detroit's Fred Hutchinson on June 9, 1946.



The game got underway at 4 pm (or so), and was a pretty fast game. By 6:30, the game was already in the top of the 8th inning with two outs. Beckett pitched well; Delcarmen pitched the last out of the seventh inning. Okajima got two outs in the eighth inning, but allowed two men on with Alex Rodriguez (I'm told: arguably the best player in baseball) up next. Time for everyone's favorite closer, Jonathan Papelbon, to take over. As he walked to the mound, the rain came...and...officials called for a rain delay...



Yep, there's a tarp to cover the infield.



Once the rain turned heavy, we retreated to under the bleachers and snacked on crappy ballpark food for entertainment.

About 7:30, the heavy rain had passed, the field was uncovered, Pabelbon returned to the bullpen to warm up...But before the game resumed, the rain returned. This time with lightening. By now we'd been at the ballpark for 5-1/2 hours. The kids were tired and cold and ready to go home. Luckily, the car was half a mile away -- no way we could get to it in a lightening storm. So we waited another hour under the bleachers with several thousand of our good friends and fellow Red Sox fans (and a few misguided Yankees fans).



Eventually, the tarp was rolled up for good.



And pitcher Mike Timlin came to the bullpen to warm up. Papelbon had already warmed up twice, so it seemed we wouldn't get to see him close.



But, in fact, it was Papelbon who eventually came to the mound and struck out A-Rod. (And finally, fans got to sing Sweet Caroline.) Next the Red Sox had their ups, then Papelbon finished the 9th inning: two strike outs and a final ground out for the Sox to win 4 to 3. And the tired but happy Rideout Family staggered home -- back across that dirty water.