Last weekend, at a small fire circle in a friend's back yard, a girl ran up to me and exclaimed, "I have to meet you. What's your name?" When I told her, and asked why, she replied,
"I'm Amber and my boyfriend and I see you guys every year at Lollapalooza. I feel like we know you. We love to see how much the kids have grown and always end up sitting near you guys. This year we didn't see you till the 3rd day and we were saying, hey.......where's the family?!"
This year marked the 4th annual Lollapalooza held in Grant Park, Chicago. And the honeymoon's not over yet. Throngs of people flocked to the grounds for another sold out year. And we were among them.
The kids are in a Track E magnet school, and the first day always falls the Monday after Lolla. So, Lollapalooza marks the end of summer, a last hoorah before the kids don their subdued navy blue and crack the books. We always make the most of it.
For years, Dug was called by multiple networks and music industry heavy hitters, all asking him to work Lollapalooza, and every year he's turned them down to go with the family. It's our end of summer mini vacation without leaving town, and a chance to see a plethora of our favorite bands.
We got there at 1pm to see Zap Mama. 
Then we encamped in the kids area for
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, Zach Gill (from ALO), Perry Farrell and Lunch Money. Even heavy Friday rains didn't keep the fans away. 
When the littles complained, we told the kids that neither of them were wicked witches in mortal danger of melting. Then we huddled under plastic ponchos and rocked out anyway.
Perry Farrell performed a couple unlikely duets with LeAnn Rimes, which we had front row center for. Afterwards, Perry signed the kids' Lollapalooza program. He even signed an apple for someone!
We stuck it out in torrential downpours till the daily kids lottery. Every child gets one free lottery ticket, but you must be present to win. Sagie's name got called for a First Act Band in a Bucket 
and Dugan got a limited edition Lollapalooza harmonica.
Sage made use of the punk hair stylists 
and we all spent the worst of the rains huddled under the nice, dry, Rock and Roll Petting Zoo tent. Dug almost mastered the beginning of Smoke on the Water on guitar, and the kids enjoyed trying out drums, guitar, bass and vocals in the microphone. We closed out the Kidzapalooza area with a wet Remo drum circle.
Then we were off, into the sodden masses, to see The Decemberists and Depeche Mode. The festival grounds were a mud pit, but the rains eased off and we enjoyed a cool, dry evening sitting on our tarp, neat sheet and ponchos.
Depeche Mode put on an excellent show, making us all glad we'd stuck it out till the end. The screen graphics and light show were fantastic, and the band is still tight. 
Both kids enjoyed dancing, hooping, and putting on gymnastic-glow stick shows for everyone in our vicinity. We were all elated to shed our plastic outerwear.
Then we headed home to cure the dreaded "Fest Foot" with hot baths and showers
and get a good night's sleep, so we could get up and do it all over again.....twice.
The photo contest theme this week, at I ♥ Faces, is Nostalgia. Everyone is featuring pictures that conjure up a memory or story.
Mine is a story about a little five year old girl in the year 1972, who loved her red dress and wore it often. When she was in Kindergarten it was her absolute favorite. It's also a story of her Mom, who loved the little red dress, too, and saved it for 37 year! And, she not only saved it, but was able to FIND it in the basement, and pass it along to her granddaughter.
It's also a story of a little five year old girl in the year 2009, who refused to wear any of the 70's dresses, with the smocking, ruffles and tiny buttons, from the time she was 3 years old till the present. Her Mom finally pulled them, with the special outgrown dresses, and was ready to put them back in attic storage, for some future descendant to refuse to wear.
When magically.............the little girl decided she loved the little red dress, too! Despite the fact that it was more of a long shirt length and the top button had to be left open! Suddenly, this summer, it was again, the favorite dress of a little girl. And at age 6, she now adores squeezing into the too small, vintage dress...just one more time... every chance she's got.
Hot dogs and hot Shakespeare on a midsummer night. It doesn't get much better than that.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's most colorful, playful and accessible plays for all ages. The fairies, donkey headed boy, madcap mixups and mistaken identies,
and the silly play within a play, make it easy for kids to find humor in the production, even if the language is sometimes difficult to grasp.
This version was especially kid friendly, as Puck was a puppet.
We did our homework before hand, reading several versions of the story, specifically for children. The Magic Tree House Series has one book that introduces Shakespeare himself in rehearsals for Midsummer Night. We'd also highly recommend Bruce Coville's version of Midsummer Night's Dream. It helps if children are somewhat familiar with the storyline, before seeing the play, and can clear up questions while you read together. There are a number of kid friendly versions out there.
We were lucky enough to have a close friend involved with Rosebriar Shakespeare Company in the small Ohio town of Groveport, near Columbus. Dani played a hilarious Quince. 
We lucked into an outdoor performance where the full moon was visible, over the wooden shack of a stage, long before dusk. 
Everyone sat on a small hill, and visible to stage left was a cemetery, adding to the ambiance. The closing weekend, they performed in a castle! Midsummer is particularly fun for children, if you can find a production that's running outdoors where kids can picnic and snack. 
Rosebriar also gave out bubbles to all the kids and encouraged them to blow them during the show. And they gave everyone paper fans, which the kids couldn't wait to have autographed by all the characters. The fans have a special place now among the kids keepsakes.
After the show, we spent the late summer night with our friends, Dani and Tim, who now live in Delaware, OH. Sage promptly fell asleep, but Du-Jay discovered the joys of Wii fit and Guitar Hero.
We have Dani and Tim's old Gamecube, they were awesome enough to share with us. But the novelty of Wii had Du up till 1:30 in the morning cracking up and working out. He was on the floor, laughing at Wii soccer, where characters hurl shoes and panda bear heads at you to dodge.
He took top place in hula hooping, and tried yoga and step aerobics. On the tough balancing games, he shook his fists and said, "OK, TV." and clamoured "One more time." repeatedly. Dani and I drank red wine and enjoyed watching the Dugan show.
The following morning, both kids sang vocals on songs by Phish, Queen, and The Beastie Boys while Tim rocked out on the guitar. Du even tried his hand at bass. Then Tim made us a decadently huge and excellent breakfast, worthy of the 6 hour drive from Chicago.
Thanks for the great hops-spit-tally-tea. We miss you guys!
One of the highlights of Lollapalooza this year was meeting the head carver for Coco Loco earrings, from Bali, Indonesia. Coco Loco uses all recycled and reclaimed materials like wood and horn. He bowed and said, "Thank you for feeding my family." We bowed back and said, "Thank YOU for the cool earrings."
We had lots of questions for him, like what type of animal horn do you use and how do you do the intricate design work? He explained how they make the inlaid work by carving the water buffalo horn, then filling in with crushed bone mixed with glue. He smiled shyly and excused himself for not knowing the translated words a few times, but his English was excellent.
Last year, I'd bought a great pair of spiral, black, wooden earrings from Coco Loco at The Chicago Green Festival. Then Sagezilla and I both bought spiral horn earrings from them at Summer Camp music festival, this past Memorial Day weekend.
They have a post in the middle and pull apart on the front and back of the ear, to look gauged without stretching the piercing. It's amazing to me that a hand full of strangers have made nasty comments about Zillas spirals. They erroneously assume I'm responsible for stretching my preschoolers earlobes. As if someone appointed them "official, uninformed, busybody guardians of the children of strangers"! 
Far more people have been complimentary and love her funky earrings.
My all time favorite comment, however, was from our 4 year old friend, Gabby. She was fascinated and obsessed with my spirals, asking to touch them and curiously checking them out for days. Finally she asked what they were made of.
When I said, "They're carved horn." I could see the wheels turning in her brain.
She paused a few beats, then remarked, "Those must be really little sheep."
Indeed!
Midsummer Night's Dream...wine and Wii into the wee hours of the night...All A 3 days of Lollapalooza...
First Day of 1st and 3rd Grade...
Dad turns 44...
Phish at Toyota Park...
Breakfast with Frey the Viking...
Missed health fairs and green fest fun...and 3 workshops at 826CHI--Farmer's Market Fun, Music and Lyrics, and Time Capsules! Whew. I needa nap.
Time flies when you're having kids.....I mean fun. Or fun with your kids. I've been horribly lax in posting in the waning days of summer. Du and Sagezilla returned to school August 10th, and even that event didn't bring much respite.
Instead, I've been loading up on the school supplies, running a uniform trade up, assigning room parents, playing taxi driver, and catching up with the lives of our school pals.
Now, I'll try to pilot my time machine back through the blogosphere and recap all the crazy cool adventures we've had these last 19 days.
If you were reading ChiIL Mama last summer, you'll remember Du-Jay went through a streak as wininest kid ever--winning a giant hula hoop at world hoop day in Wicker Park and the grand prize electric guitar in the Kidzapalooza lottery within one week.
This is Sagezilla's summer to shine. She won honorable mention in the Graeters Ice Cream art contest and won both a First Act "Band in a Bucket" and "Fun in a Drum" from the Kidzapalooza lottery.
Our close friend, Trevor, was the lucky red, Gibson, electric guitar prize winner this year. He's the one who told his Mom, at age 5, I'm gonna grow up and be in a band called Alien Blood. Zilla wants to be lead singer, Sagie Contagious, and play Du's silver metal flake guitar, and he's all ready to rock the drums.
I'll be posting about all these happenings in more detail this week. Then ChiIL Mama will be back to blogging in close to real time. Enjoy!
This year marked the 4th annual Lollapalooza held in Grant Park, Chicago. And the honeymoon's not over yet. Throngs of people flocked to the grounds for another sold out year. And we were among them.
For years, Dug was called by multiple networks and music industry heavy hitters, all asking him to work Lollapalooza, and every year he's turned them down to go with the family. It's our end of summer mini vacation without leaving town, and a chance to see a plethora of our favorite bands.
Then we encamped in the kids area for
When the littles complained, we told the kids that neither of them were wicked witches in mortal danger of melting. Then we huddled under plastic ponchos and rocked out anyway.
We stuck it out in torrential downpours till the daily kids lottery. Every child gets one free lottery ticket, but you must be present to win. Sagie's name got called for a First Act Band in a Bucket 
and Dugan got a limited edition Lollapalooza harmonica.
and we all spent the worst of the rains huddled under the nice, dry, Rock and Roll Petting Zoo tent. Dug almost mastered the beginning of Smoke on the Water on guitar, and the kids enjoyed trying out drums, guitar, bass and vocals in the microphone. We closed out the Kidzapalooza area with a wet Remo drum circle.
Then we were off, into the sodden masses, to see The Decemberists and Depeche Mode. The festival grounds were a mud pit, but the rains eased off and we enjoyed a cool, dry evening sitting on our tarp, neat sheet and ponchos.
Both kids enjoyed dancing, hooping, and putting on gymnastic-glow stick shows for everyone in our vicinity. We were all elated to shed our plastic outerwear.
Then we headed home to cure the dreaded "Fest Foot" with hot baths and showers
and get a good night's sleep, so we could get up and do it all over again.....twice.
