The Frog and the the Toad

Meredith got to see The Frog and the Toad at the Orpheum sometime last year. All of a sudden the other day she started asking (with great desperation) to see it again, and it just happened that there was a production at The Circuit just down the road. So today Daddy and Mer set off for the little theater. Mer got a very short nap, thus the hesitant smile and the goofy as ever Dad.

And while they were gone, I took one more picture of the orange Mexican sunflowers and the orange leaves, 'cause it's going to freeze tonight and then the flowers will be gone, gone, gone.

What We Do after the Time Changes

It's tough. The rainy, cold weather makes it hard to fit in outside time, and then the time change pretty much nixes it completely. Oh sure, sometimes you could squeeze in a walk before naptime, or maybe around 4...But when do you NEED a walk? At about 5:30. That last half hour before dinner is ready and daddy is home. And then you're trapped. So, no, we're not big fans of the time change, but we do what we can.

You can play on the porch until the rain starts going sideways.

You can watch ballet videos (thanks, Marme!) and perform your own rendition of Swan Lake.

And if it's really cold, and you're really desperate, you can always cut Daddy's hair for entertainment.

Hope and Change on a Small Scale

The nation is all excited about hope and change these days. So am I, but today it's on a slightly smaller scale. You may remember a few months ago I railed about the possibility that ChickFilA was going to tear down a beautiful building on Union to build a new restaurant. In the scheme of things, this was less important than, say, global warming or the AIDS epidemic, but it seemed like a little thing in which the community could do the right thing. So the Memphis Heritage group did the heavy lifting and a few of the rest of us made some pesky phone calls and sent some persuasive emails to the Corporate Office of Chikin. And guess what? It worked. The whole building won't be saved, but they're incorporating elements into their design. Rather than losing another great element of Midtown Memphis, we're gaining decent fast food AND good design. There are a few more details here. We'll return to our regularly scheduled programming soon.

Put Another Dime in the Juice Box, Baby

We go to the Young Avenue Deli frequently. It's not a Deli at all. It's a restaurant/bar/music venue/pool hall. Yes, I know, you're thinking "how dare you take a 3 year old there?" The thing is, between the hours of 5 and 8, the place is like a kindergarten. It's full of kids--and folks of all ages. And it's kid friendly cause the music is loud-ish, so no one expects the kids to be quiet. Or still. See? You'd take your kid there too.

So Mer's favorite thing about the Deli is the "juice box"--known in some circles as a juke box. It's a fancy touch screen one that lets her do all kinds of fancy things without inserting a dime (or a dollar, as the case is these days). She could do it for hours. We're hoping she'll move on to the foosball table when she's tall enough...fun for the whole family.

Halloween in the Dark and Spooky Forest and a Long, Long Run

This weekend one ballerina, one race car driver, and all involved parents went to Wynne, AR, for Halloween, a marathon, and cabin camping. How could we not have fun? A good time was had by all, with the possible exception of parts of the marathon for the running daddies and the ice baths that followed. Although it must be said that listening to the screams coming from the ice baths was fun for the rest of us, so balance was restored.

We carbo loaded at the marathon's Italian dinner before heading out to trick or treat. Boring picture follows, but since it was Mer's first real trick or treating excursion, I'm documenting.

On Saturday morning we saw the crazy people, I mean daddies, off from the start line and then went a pancake breakfast. Aren't they sweet in their matching shirts?

The kids did a pretty good job of cheering. At least at the first cheer stop. As you might imagine, cheering at a marathon is kind of endless, so they hung in as long as they could.

The kids were excited to see Chris come around the bend, who was doing really well 16 miles into the course. I means seriously honey, if you've got the energy to wave, are you really leaving it all out there? Here they're cheering for Josh, the speed demon on the left.

The race finishes on the high school track. Mer looks anxiously over her shoulder to see if daddy is going to make it in time.

And he did. He made it in good time, though he would probably say differently.

And then we ate some Mexican food and headed back to the park for the aforementioned ice baths, naps, and some hiking. Village Creek State Park is an unusually great park - and only about 45 minutes from Memphis. The leaves were changing, and while we can't claim much New England glory for the South, it was pretty.

The kids "fished" with big sticks. Well, at this point, obviously Walt was done fishing.




Sunday morning saw one final hike, during much of which the daddies ran ahead, hid behind trees, and jumped out to scare the kids who were hunting "Gruffaloes." We were just proud the daddies could still run and jump.