The World According to Brooke Part 2

"It's going to be a week to remember!"

--referring to her week-long jazz dance camp which starts today!

Let the Goodtimes (III) Roll

Tuesday we all headed downtown for a two-hour cruise on the Goodtime III, "Cleveland's largets excursion ship." There were four decks that we could move around between. It took us out on to Lake Erie and a little ways down the Cuyhoga River (we learned that "cuyahoga" is an Indian word for "crooked.") We had great views of the North Coast Harbor, the Flats, downtown, and the amazing bridges that line the river.

There was also an air-conditioned lower deck complete with a dance floor! Andrew said he would have danced if they hadn't been playing corny 70's music (my words, not his).

Someone got caught dancing!

Once again, this was a fun way to get to know our fair city a little bit better. Thanks for the fun boat ride, Grandma!

Backstage Pass

Playhouse Square offers free tours on the first Saturday of the month. Grandma hooked us up and it was all access, baby. We got to go on three of the four stages, see the dressing rooms, and learn the history. The theaters and lobbies are beautiful, but what else would you expect from the country's second-largest theater complex outside of New York's Lincoln Center? And you just don't get to appreciate everything when you are at a crowded show.

These are the seats we had when we saw Wicked in March...yes, the ones on the floor!

One of the lobbies...can't remember which one (oops).

The future Broadway stars getting ready for opening night...

Four happy kids and their less-than-thrilled cousins

The men's bathroom (I told you is was all access!)

Check out this gorgeous ceiling (either the Ohio or Palace...again, can't remember!)

The newest revival of Barnum

Playhouse Square...just one of the many reasons why CLEVELAND ROCKS!

Lightning Fast

I think Glenn fully understood that phrase when he tried to take a picture of the beautiful lightning show we had Friday night. I was in bed, half asleep, when he told me to look at the lightning out the window. Great, I mumbled, you should take a picture. So he headed downstairs, with some garbled instructions from me on how he should try using the action setting on the camera, and snapped probably thirty shots. Now, while we have a great camera, we do not yet fully understand how to use it to its fullest capacity, so about 28 of those 30 shots were of the night sky. But then there was this one--it may not win any photo contests, but I think it is beautiful.

To be added to the list of things I am going to do when the kids are back in school: Read and study the camera instruction book!

Zoo Crew

One of the cousin's traditions is to get matching t-shirts and decorate them. The kids decided to wear their shirts to the zoo on Thursday. The bright yellow sure made it easier to keep track of all 8 kids! We covered a lot of ground in the heat.

Now I don't usually take many pictures of animals, because what would I do with them? But you can't tell me that this baby koala is not the cutest thing ever.

And these little guys were all snuggled together on their perch--they even intertwined their tails! (All together now...Aaaaah!)

A Surprisingly Surprising Surprise Party

As previously posted, my fabulous husband hit a pretty big birthday milestone last week. A moment like this cannot be overlooked, and so a couple of months ago I decided to throw him a surprise party. Nothing too big or out of control, since Glenn does not like to make a big deal out of things (he is not the propose-over-the-jumbotron-at-a baseball-game kind of guy), but just enough for those closest to him to show how much we love him.

I did not realize how much planning goes into one of these things....how are we going to get him out of the house, how are we going to get him back to the house, when/where will we actually call out "Surprise!", gifts/no gifts, just cake/more than cake, and exactly what kinds of lies are we going to have to tell to pull this thing off?

Decoy party the night before

Here is how it all went down...

I told Glenn that his mom would watch the kids while we went out to dinner for his birthday on Friday (clue #1: dinner and no movie?). Pizza and movie night would be moved to Saturday so Daryl could make wings (clue #2: Daryl took Friday off and had plenty of time to make wings). We had the girl cousins over for a sleep over Thursday (clue #3: Grandma calling about the cakes and me chalking my non-answer up to the confusion of getting the girls settled) so we were ready for some peace and quiet the next evening. Glenn got to come home early from work that day (clue #4: Nate showing up with the ice chest and me shooing him away) and we went to dinner at Five Guys. This took about 30 minutes, so I suggested we go over to Old Navy (clue #5: I usually get very stressed out when shopping with Glenn at a store like this, but I was cool as a cucumber and took my sweet time). We then had 20 more minutes to kill, unbeknownst to Glenn, so we stopped at Giant Eagle to get some made-up thing I needed. A quick stop in the bathroom (clue #6: the grocery store bathroom? Really? OK, maybe that isn't such a stretch for me) for a phone call to alert the troops, and we were headed home. My stomach had been in knots the whole time and the climax of the evening was just ahead...

We pulled into the garage and the decoy was the turtle sandbox on the side of the house. I made up some song and dance about how the kids were playing and must have moved it up there and could Glenn put it back on the patio for me? I ran our bags inside and then went to catch up, amazed by the silence in the backyard.

We turned the corner and, to Glenn's genuine surprise, there was everybody...all of Glenn's family (even his sister and her kids from Utah), old friends we haven't seen in ages, and even our neighbors who just happened to be at my father-in-law's 40th surprise party more than 20 years ago! I was so pleased to see how nicely the kids had decorated the backyard, to see how much effort had been made by family to get things set up, to see people come to celebrate Glenn and the great guy he is.

We had four cakes for Glenn's four decades of life, decorated by the girls and me (Andrew helped with the baking). And then we thought it would be fun to have everyone bring the funniest birthday cards they could find. This added another level of suspense...would someone bring a Hallmark card? Are there any funny American Greetings cards at all? It was a lot of fun to hear Glenn read them and see him check the back of each one. (I think the debate is still up for grabs.)It was a wonderful evening. The weather was perfect, the cakes were yummy, the company was fantastic, and it was all in honor of an amazing man. There was stress and hard work involved in pulling the whole thing off, but with a lot of help--we did it! The kids loved it, and it was so worth it to hear Glenn tell me how much he appreciated the thought and the work that went into it, how it made turning 40 so much more meaningful to him (even more than, say, Indians tickets would have been--I know, I asked!). Sure, I know Glenn doesn't like to be the center of attention, but that's what you are when you have a birthday--the center of attention. There's just no way around it. I am glad that I did this for my husband, and what's even better--he is glad too!

There's no crying in baseball...

...unless your the mother of a little boy who has the love of the game in his blood, who plays his last game of his first season with his heroes Zack and Tyler cheering him on, who swings at every pitch, who covers home plate on every play even though there's never a throw, who regards his first trophy as if it were made of solid gold. Moms can read their kids' faces like a book, and I could see every single emotion that passed over Andrew's last Wednesday night. I watched him and understood it all, and it was overwhelming to me. To see your child doing something he absolutely loves with all his little six-year-old heart is a beautiful thing. To have family supporting him throughout the season makes it even better.

This is Andrew's last at bat of the season. He was disappointed that he did not make it on base, but he had a great slide and he did a great job fielding the ball in the next inning.

I am not eloquent enough to really describe my feelings that evening. Outsiders would call me silly, overemotional, dramatic. But moms will know. When it comes to your kids, something as random as baseball can bring you to tears. Hey, I'm just a mom being a mom.