Maycember

I saw a funny video about how May is the new December.....hence, Maycember.  That really sums it up, doesn't it?   Cub Scouts, baseball, school isn't over yet but we want it to be.  And so much rain.  That's what May has been.

William had Cub Scout Rank-up on a Friday night: graduating from Webelos 1 to Webelos 2 (Arrow of Light), which will be his last Cubs Scout rank.  In February of the 5th grade they advance to Boy Scouts.

That same weekend he had baseball team photos in the morning, then we went by the high school to see the fine arts fair where he had art on display.  Then we raced home to get ready for a baseball game (well, he was already wearing most of the uniform from pictures, but he needed lunch!).  We got to the baseball game just in time for a giant storm to roll through and cancel the game.   It was rescheduled for the next day and we got it in around the rain.  There has been so much rain this month!

At the rescheduled game (or another one after that?), he took a pitch to the knee which hurt and still looks gross, but he did get a teammate advanced home!  His last at bat was down the first base line and almost hit the giant goose that has been hanging around the field during their games.   Of course two teams of 9/10 year olds got a big kick out of that!

I picked him up one day after school (usually John does that), so I went ahead and snapped the "last day" of school photo.  I'll have to pull up all of the K through 4th first day/last day photos to do a comparison on his actual last day at Brookdale (Wednesday, June 5), not to be confused with the last day of school (Thursday, June 6) which he is missing due to our trip to NYC.

 A pretty, rain free day meant a trip to the Arboretum to see the Lego Nature display that just opened.

At home, we had time to make William's 10th birthday cake a few days early, so we made it....and then ate it!  It was gone before his birthday but then we had cupcakes for his party, so we've survived!  This was our first use of gel food coloring, and wow, is it vibrant!  I was really pleased with how the cake turned out, and we had fun making it.

The night before William's birthday he had a Cub Scout meeting at Cantigny to learn about battlefield first aid, so we invited the boys over to the house afterwards for pizza and cupcakes.  It was a fun way to have a party without having a party.

Little League Baseball

We are off to another fun season of Naperville Little League Baseball.  He is on a 3rd/4th grade team again this year, but now is one of the older guys among the group of 8, 9 and 10 year olds.   All of the boys go to his school, so the families are a lot of fun to hang out with at the games and cheering for all of the boys.   He has greatly improved his batting and fielding.  He has played mostly 2nd base and outfield with a little 3rd base thrown in.   One of the teams we played recently is sponsored by a sports photographer, so he photographs many of the games and posts the pictures for sale on his website.   I thought these were a lot better than the ones I take through the chain link fence on my iphone!

Member Night at the Field

We usually get one "big" membership per year and this year we picked the Field Museum.   Since we wanted an ASTC reciprocal membership for some other travels, the choice was between Museum of Science & Industry and Field; we had done MSI previously so William chose Field.   Since we just got it we hadn't even been on a regular visit yet when Members Night was announced.   John was still in Florida so I knew I would be at home to get William on a random Thursday night, so I registered us.   Turns out John got home from his travels early and all three of us were able to go!

 

There was SO MUCH behind the scenes to see that it was hard to decide what to do.  We focused our evening on the scavenger hunt they designed which included 5 stops to collect buttons which were then presented to "win" a plastic dino.   It took us from the basement where they were dissecting specimens, to the upper floor offices where there was moon rock - and all the floors in between!   The real highlight of the evening was seeing a stuffed Okapi, which is William's favorite animal on the Animal Kingdom safari and the souvenir we gifted him after our couples trip to Disney earlier in the week!   William also got to create his own animal:  the Priviate.   It was a lovely evening in the city.

Adult Disney

Shortly after our Easter/Spring Break family vacation to Disney, I had the chance to accompany John on a business trip back to Orlando.   We stayed at the beautiful Waldorf Astoria hotel,  spent a date night eating and drinking in Disney Springs, had dinner at Animal Kingdom Lodge's Jiko restaurant with his colleagues, and spent a leisurely day touring Animal Kingdom park.   Oh, and via an elaborate setup between his laptop, our home DVR and the hotel TV, we were able to watch Game of Thrones.  Whew, successful weekend!  At the end of it, I flew home to relieve my mom and John had to stay for three more days of meetings.   

The morning we left was Muffins with Mom at school.  Instead we had Donuts with Everyone at home! 

From our balcony, we could see parts of Disney World:  Tower of Terror at Hollywood Studios and Spaceship Earth at Epcot.   This would end up being a fireworks trifecta for me on our last evening as I saw Studios, Magic Kingdom AND Epcot fireworks simultaneously.   Amazing!!!

 

At Downtown Disney, we started at Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar, the Indiana Jones themed bar/lounge.  We had seats at the outside bar where we could hear the music of one of the Disney Springs performers and watched the gathered crowd dance.   Best was the moves of Eddy Maserati, a local celebrity.    We also met a couple from North Carolina that was very friendly and funny.  Their sons were a few years older than William so we enjoyed their stories.   

Sunday morning we got up bright and early to be at rope drop at Animal Kingdom.  Since we didn't plan the trip 60+ days in advance, we couldn't get a fast pass to Flight of Passage.  But we figured with just the two of us we could get through the crowd easily and even if we had to wait, we didn't have anything else we needed to be doing.   We were in line about an hour before the park was scheduled to open at 9 a.m., which was about 30 minutes before it actually did open.  Since we got in early and they actually open that ride early, were are already off the ride at 9:03.   The rest of our morning touring wasn't particularly efficient but we enjoyed looking around in all the nooks and crannies of the park we usually walk right past.  And we did get to ride Everest twice - both times waiting to get front row!  And when the rain deluge began, we raced for Nomad Lounge and waited out the rain while we enjoyed a late lunch.

 

 

We stopped by Hollywood Studios after our rain/lunch break to see whether we could get on a few rides and to do some shopping.   We rode Rock 'n Rollercoaster and again made sure we waited for the front row!  This was the first time we had ever ridden together since one of us is usually sitting with William and the other alone.  And we decided to meet BB-8 since there was no line, and we were in the building buying William his birthday present (a custom Boba Fett Magic Band). 

Back at the Waldorf we had dinner, watched the fireworks and watched Game of Thrones.  I also had a piece of the famous Waldorf Astoria Red Velvet Cake.   It was tasty, but my mom does a better version on Valentine's Day!  The pictures do no justice to how happy the fireworks made me!

While we were at Animal Kingdom we bought William the Okapi stuffed animal that he was eyeing on our earlier trip when he decided to spend his souvenir money on Goofy.   He was so happy to get "Oko" and have him join his safari.  His favorite stuffed animal friends are all safari animals:  Chester the Leopard (we thought he was a cheetah at first....); Paws the African Painted Dog; and Oko the Okapi.