Friday, August 14, 2009

Summer Hodge Podge 3

Here is a fun story. One Saturday night in July Mulu and I went down town to hear some hip hop groups at the Memorial Union. He has been taking hip hop dance classes and loves to show off his break dancing moves - so I thought it would be fun to do together. He got to stay up way past his bed time, because the bands didn't START until 9:30 - we had a great time - listened to good music, people watched, walked along the water, and then we sat down on some steps. There was one guy break dancing close to us and a nice lady told Mulu to check out how good he was - Mulu gave her the "you haven't seen anything" look and without saying a word got up and started dancing. Naturally (because one random 7 year old was dancing by himself at 10:30 at night) a group of people stopped to watch him and for about an hour he had an audience all to himself! He was on cloud 9 (as was his proud and smiling Mama). At about 11:15 we started walking back to our car and a food vendor hollered at Mulu to ask what a kid his age was doing up this late. Mulu said "dancing at the union". Food vendor guy replied " then show me some moves" and Mulu obliged. Two random college boys walking by threw out a "hey - not bad - kid" and gave him some money! Mulu thought this was amazing! He got to stay up late, dance and earn $3! When we got in the car he said "Mama - we should do this every Saturday night! but next time we should bring a blanket to dance on ( his hands were pretty torn up from the concrete), a pillow for my head and a bucket that says "money"! He's got it figured out!

Mulu showing off his moves.




more tricks (he spends a lot of his life upside down)


all three Johnson kiddos on a rainy afternoon - doesn't it almost look calm at our house - its all a facade . . .


Aaliyah with our two favorite neighborhood friends at a botanical gardens.


We had been working on Aaliyah spelling her name (that's a lot of letters for a four year old) so each time we would sit down to color you could hear me saying - over and over - A a l -- i y -- a h . . . . A a l -- i y -- a h. So now Aria refers to colors or writing as "i - y's".

Here is Aria hard at work on her "i-y's". and . . . . oh yes . . . . that is one of my Harry Potter books she is writing in. While I was vacuuming she asked one of the older kids for an "i-y" and they hooked her up with a pen. So my "Half Blood Prince" book has some adaptations by little Miss thing.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Summer Hodge Podge 2

At the Johnson family land up near Rhinelander over the 4th of July

All the kiddos watching the fireworks



Charlie and Aria taking a break from swimming - mmmmm that's a big bowl of snacks


Mulu showing off his catch - he was so proud


Aaliyah and her 1st fish of the weekend. Reeling it in was much cooler than actually dealing with the fishy out of water


Aaliyah out for a canoe ride with Uncle Dave, Auntie Lex & Charlie

sleeping arrangements in the pop up camper - Mulu on the right, Aaliyah on the left, Aria in the pack n play & Brian & I in the bed behind - cozy quarters, but I loved having all of the family within arms reach.