Making the world safer and justice-ier for another year

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To celebrate successfully making it a full time around the sun again for the 4th time, we threw the Boy a party.

Last year, it was all about the racing cars. This year, he seems to have picked up a superhero fetish somewhere along the way. So we shifted gears (Ha! I'll wait here a second while you appreciate that one), and decided on a new theme to properly celebrate this momentous event. Besides, I figured this would be easy than building another set of working vehicles. 

Capes for a dozen kids? Check. What kind of cake? Superman, of course. What about games or activities?

Hmm. What do young pre-schoolers with burgeoning superpowers do for fun, anyway? I did a little research (finally... a legitimate reason to watch Linda Carter's Wonder Woman for hours and hours). Turns out, Super Heroes like to overcome things. Villains. Tall buildings. Cupcakes. Whatever you put in front of them, really. 

Shazam. Instant obstacle course. 

Over! Under! Weave! Dodge! Crawl! Jump! Repeat! And again, until you're feeling the burn. They don't just give those Justice League lapel pins to anyone, kid, so put a little effort into it. 

We put out the call to a couple of friends to find cones, and a sole, lonely hoolahoop (what the heck happened to all the hoolahoops? They weren't exactly a huge thing when I was a kid either, but I swear we always had at least 2 or 3 leaning dejectedly on a garage wall. Now: nadda). Off to Agway for a dozen bales of hay, and re-purpose some of the pig-roast cinderblocks, throw on an old pallet, and we're up and running. Oh, and parents, please sign these indemnity waivers before your kids crawl under the pallet-cum-Tunnel of Doom. I think I bent most of the rusty nails down, but you never can tell, can you? The clock stops when you touch the flag at the end of the course. 

The Boy made the first run through the course, to show the rest of the Super Friends wannabees how it was to be done. 

Soon enough, they all had it down. 

(Editor's note: I can't help but think to myself "no capes, dahling," when I look at this picture.)

Hey, wait a minute... who let that guy on the course? 

That'd be Dan, our neighborhood crash-test-parent. No cape, it doesn't count, Dan. Off the course. 

Lest the kids get too arrogant in their new found superness, we stepped it up a notch. Now do the whole course over again... this time carrying a water balloon. 

Ha! I bet you didn't see that one coming, did you young super-dude? (It was going to be 'water balloons with lasers strapped to them,' but that felt a little trite.)

When they weren't racing the clock to top the times of their comrades in arms, the super-kids were hanging out in the shade, or climbing in the treehouse (a.k.a. Fortress of Justice and Awesomitude). And drinking some juice or water. It's important that a hero stay hydrated. 

Eventually, there was cake. As there should be. 

What more can be said? The kids had a blast. There were minimal injuries, considering. And everyone went home with an extra cupcake and their own cape. 

Because fighting Evil is hungry work. 

Happy birthday, my boy, and rock on. 

Note: if you had a kid at the party, and wanted to check out other pics of your own little darling crusader for Truth & the American Way, I've uploaded many of them to Flickr, here. 


If you can't score a lobster in the next month or so, I'm sorry. I ate them all.

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 A couple of weeks ago, we packed up the family and headed to Maine. Even though I've been at work and traveling again since returning, I'm still enjoying the fantastically chill post-Maine vacation & relaxation buzz. Though that also could be the large quantities of melted butter I consumed with my lobster rolls.

To accommodate the family, dog and relatives for a week, we rented a house on the coast south of Boothbay.

I don't know how the heck we found a place on short notice that had its own private beach, but I'm going to chalk it up to clean livin' and excellent karma.

Every day, I would wake up to this view out to the ocean. 

A short walk down the hill would get you this.

Since we were kind of in the hinterlands, I kept telling the kids to keep their eyes out for Moose. A moose. Mooses. Moosi. Whatever.  We did not see any moose. I was disappointed. I did, however, see a lot of smaller wildlife.

The absence of large fauna might have been due to us bringing our own. Maggie came along for the week. She seemed to enjoy it. 

The kids definitely enjoyed it. The Critter and I tried to eat all of the seafood before the week was over. Fish? You bet. Lobster? Surely. Clams? Pass mine to her, please. Her standards are lower. I draw the line at bi-valves.

As much as The Boy enjoyed the beach, on the other hand, he insisted that I pick up and inspect any shell he found to ensure there was nothing alive within it before he'd handle it. 

I respect his sense of self-preservation. 

We were joined by my step-mother, and her lovely friend Batty. Batty's real name is Betty. But she told us a story about a little girl calling her 'Batty', and I will forevermore call her this. (I did ask, and she said this was ok.) A classier and more game pair of ladies, you could not hope to want along for any adventure. That's Batty on the left.

Most days were spent toodling around the Maine coast, or thinking about what to eat next. Or toodling around while thinking of what to eat next. But we managed to squeeze in a little time for games. Like staring contests. 

Did I mention we ate a lot of seafood? If you're anywhere within the New England area, figure out how to detour through Wicasset, and get yourself a lobster roll. Holy crap, that's a lot of lobster. And you'll notice that there's no mayonnaise, only a small tub of healthy, wholesome butter. Because mayonnaise comes from the Devil. And butter is straight from Heaven.

And Red knows that. 

Mostly, there was just a lot of relaxing, and enjoying the company, in as peaceful environment as you might wish. 

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd put this week in Maine someplace just above "perfect"