Shout! {Music in the Park}

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This is only about 1/3 of the crowd that showed up!

Remember how I started writing regular posts about our Music in the Park outdoor concerts? (Yeah, I should never try to do things like this - I almost never complete them!) Anyway, the one concert that I look forward to most took place a week and a half ago! My family knows that it is mandatory to attend this concert and no one ever makes excuses to skip out.

MANDATORY! Guess who the most enthusiastic one was...

Who was playing, you ask? It was a Beatles tribute band called Shout! (if you're ever in Michigan, check to see if these guys are playing near you.) Little Guy's favorite DVD all summer has been Yellow Submarine (I swear, we sometimes have it playing 2-3 times a day. I hate to admit this, but I'm kinda getting sick of it!) Oh, and ever since he was just a few days old, we've used a CD I made of John Lennon's slower songs to put him to sleep every night. Just seeing that kid's face when he saw the group on stage was worth going down to the park. He was actually star-struck!

Little Guy's Musical hero - John Lennon!

Shout! played three sets - each with different costumes. The first was the Fab Four black suits and Beatles haircuts, the second was the Sergeant Pepper's outfits, and finally (this was new) they came out dressed as the Beatles were on the cover of Abby Road - Paul was even barefoot!

Needless to say, we all ended up having an amazing time. Little Guy even got into the fun by repeatedly requesting "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" at the top of his lungs between songs. They even played one of my favorites - Rain. There's one line at the end of that song that is recorded backward on the track. They got it perfectly! Oh, and I have to brag - I managed to impress both my sons when I showed them I knew all the words to "I Am the Walrus" (goo-goo-ga-joob!)

By the time the group was through, we were all thoroughly exhausted. It was a hot and humid night and, with the crowd that was there, the little bit of breeze we had wasn't noticeable. Unfortunately, we had to stay a little longer than expected. You see, as I was packing up our stuff, I looked around and saw a ton of trash laying everywhere. I couldn't believe the mess that was left behind. It's not as if there were no trash cans - they were everywhere! So, much to the kids' dismay, we stayed and cleaned up the best we could. I know the park has workers that would come the next day, but I just couldn't leave it like that. The park is on the river, which leads to Lake Erie. We were expecting rain and wind overnight, so I could just imagine how much of the mess would be blow away. Anyway, we did our good deed and even managed to make a few bucks - cans and bottles are worth $0.10 each when you recycle them in Michigan!

Not cool... I'm very disappointed in the people who live in our community.

Stay tuned - This weekend we will be attending the yearly River Raisin Jazz Festival and Fine Arts Fair!!! Three days of music and art! I can't wait...

Keeping A Busy Guy Happy When It's HOT Out

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Yep, it's hot outside! Even with the sauna-like heat and humidity, I'm still going to say that I like summer best and this type of heat wave is to be expected at least once a year. I can live with it, but I'm not sure Little Guy can. We've had to keep him inside during the day, as the heat index has regularly been hitting the upper 90's and has gotten over 110 degrees F a few times in the last week and a half. Add 75% or higher humidity and you've got a catastrophe waiting to happen with this kid. He's like Forrest Gump - he MUST run everywhere. It's hard to wrangle him up for a drink of water. He just loves being free. I swear, the kid giggles the entire time we go for walks or to the park, only stopping when he wants to tell us something. You could pick him up off the ground and his feet would still be going.

When he doesn't get his daily outings, he can become a handful of trouble. He's got so much pent up energy that he needs to release that it can turn into fury. He just doesn't know what to do with himself. He'll end up hitting, throwing things, having tantrums over the simplest things... it's a nightmare. So, hubby and I decided to alter the whole family's timetable. We've been putting Little Guy to bed around midnight rather than 9:30pm. We stay up until 1 or 2am to get some alone time. Little Guy usually doesn't wake up until 9-9:30 in the morning now, instead of his usual 7am. Strangely, nap time has only moved back a little bit, but it's lasting longer (YES!)

What do we do while we're up so much later? We go for walks and head to the park! On our walks, we encounter lots of interesting creatures that you just don't see during the day. Little Guy and I have been looking for moths and other insects (and arachnids!) in trees, on lampposts, in bushes, and on our own porch. Check out some of what we found in just one night (the first three pics are of a moth that was about 3 inches long!):

My husband says he said his name is "Irving"

These guys remind me of Murano glass beads.

I've seen this type moth in some amazing colors - from brown like a leaf to fluorescent purple. They all are the same size with the same shape. Someday, I'll find out what they are.

In addition to our walks (or Little Guy's "runs"), we've been hitting the park. I've been having a ton of fun taking pictures blind - it's so dark there that it's really hard to see anything, especially through the lens of my camera. As you can see, the flash can be a blinding surprise!

Sometimes I caught some pretty cool photos by just pointing and hitting the button!

There are some drawbacks to taking a little one to a very dark park - if he's running faster than you, he can disappear into the night. I shot the above pic in hopes that the flash would show us where he went. Oh, and there are wild animals at the park. Little Guy was running toward the shelter, where people picnic. It has a nice trash can filled with all kids of leftover goodies that attract animals. Just as he got to the shelter, I saw the shadow of a small animal scurrying away. Then we noticed something... n odor. It was a skunk and Little Guy had surprised him. I took off like a bat out of hell toward the shelter, screaming, "STOP!!!" at the top of my lungs at 11:30 at night. I grabbed up Little Guy, praying that he'd still smell like citronella oil and NOT Eau d' Pepe La Pew. He was fine. That's when I noticed that every house across the street from the park had its lights on and people were mulling around on their porches and front yards. Oops - guess the screaming must've woke a few people up. After this incident, we kept Little Guy in MUCH closer range! 

Looking at the stars.

 We also took advantage of the lack of players on the tennis courts. Now here was a place that was partially lit and fenced in - our little freebird couldn't get too far away from us! He loved throwing his ball and chasing after it. Plus, we didn't have to run after him. We managed to sit down, drink our ice water, and talk! Oh, and I want to mention that, when we got home on the night these photos were taken, we checked the Weather Channel - the heat index, at 11:45pm, was 90 degrees!

So, what do you do when it's too hot for your little ones to get outside and burn off some energy??? 

***I just want to add here that the really cool bug shirt little guy is wearing is from Tea Collection - it's a prize I won from a giveaway on Abby Approved! Isn't it awesome?!