S A N T A

Turkey Shoot

My St. Helen kindergarten's November Family Project was to show how I could catch a turkey. Dad thought a picture book might be fun, so we set out to create some construction paper characters and props, including a cartoon gun and bullet. Casey made a great turkey, which Dad and I provided feathers for. Once everything was complete my hunt for Thanksgiving dinner began in my front yard. I spotted Mr. Turkey near the pond and fired away... but he was too quick. Luckily, the local store had plenty of frozen turkeys on hand, which Casey was more than happy to throw in the oven for Dad and me.

Oh, Mama Mia

One night, while returning from a visit to Gigi and Papa's, Casey and Dad stopped the radio on a station playing an epic song that started quietly, then slowly built to a fantastic rock explosion. Casey and Dad seemed to know all the words and even did some head banging. I asked what the song was and my dad explained it was called "Bohemian Rhapsody" by a band called Queen. By the next week Dad added it, and a couple other Queen songs, to my playlist and made sure I saw the origins of the singing and head banging by showing me the famous scene from Wayne's World. We also watched The Muppets' take on the classic. After a couple months of almost daily listening and eventual performance, I really nailed it on the way to Madison's birthday party.

All Hallows' Eve

Halloween fell on a Monday this year, which meant an entire weekend's worth of fun. It started on Saturday, when my Mom unveiled my awesome costume, Jack Skellington from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. I showed off at a neighborhood party that afternoon and on Sunday I made an appearance at Brookfield Zoo's Boo! At The Zoo, where I got cheated out of best costume due to a judge's ignorance of the "No store bought costumes eligible for a prize" rule. Finally, on Halloween, I went to school in costume, then met up with Ethan for some trick-or-treating in my neighborhood. Much to my Dad's surprise, most of the homes and apartments had candy and one block even had a street party complete with cider for the adults. When we got home we ordered some pizza, then Ethan and I combined all of our candy and split it evenly with each other. Our parents were shocked.

Oh, Canada or How I May Have Just Repeated A Title Cause There Are Only So Many Available For Canada Posts

It happened again. I found myself in Canada. Toronto specifically, plus the part between Detroit and Toronto, but that was mainly experienced through a car window. This marks my sixth visit to our friendly neighbor up north and I am not even six-years-old. Dad hopes Canada has a 'visit us ten times and get honorary citizenship free' offer, then I can go to the University of Toronto while he feigns illness, moves in with me, and basks in single payer health insurance. Unfortunately, this was the quickest of the six visits, so not much activity, but nice visits with Aina and Zane, plus lots of bread, thanks to Papa.

Thanks Christopher Columbus

A long, long time ago this Italian guy Christopher Columbus was paid by Spain to go look for land and the riches that come with it. The land Chris found was in the general area of where America is today, which was good enough for some serious and continued recognition in street names, statues, circles and- most importantly- a holiday that nets me a day off from school. And what did I learn from this year's day away from the education grind? Well, without Columbus' discovery of "America" I would not get to go to zoos with my family or play mini-golf and skee ball with my dad. Thanks Mr. Columbus!

Unlimited Rides

Every August my new school, St. Helen, has a carnival complete with rides and games. I've attended it each of the last three years, but now that I am a St. Helen student, I am able to purchase a magic green wristband that leads to unlimited rides.
On very the first night, it took me about 30 minutes to get my monies worth; thanks to about five trips through the Fun House, another few through the Indy Adventure and about four trips down the Fun Slide. Dad joined me a couple times on the Matterhorn and Pharaoh's Fury, plus had one go around on Zero Gravity, which I can be seen above waiting to exit from, but can't be seen on while flying through the air. Dad could only stomach the one ride, but not me. By the end of the weekend I rode it almost 10 times! I may have ridden it more, but Gigi's heart might not have survived my going up one more time.

Weekend At Owen's

Even with school starting, there remained one last gasp of summer fun, when my cousins- Alexa, Madison & Quinn aka The Girls- came to Chicago for a visit downtown, a sleepover, a Sox game, and pizza, pancakes and gelato.
The weekend started with a trek out to Naperville through some serious rain to pick-up the girls. We headed back to Chicago, where the weather cleared up and allowed for a quick bus trip to Michigan Ave. for some window shopping and head scratching when we got to the city's newest public art piece, a giant sculpture of Marilyn Monroe. We hoped the bus back to West Town and stopped or some pizza at Roots, then dessert at Black Dog Gelato. Stomachs filled we headed home for bed.
The next morning we slowly made our way out the door for brunch at a brand new restaurant nearby called Prasino, which also has a location near Gigi & Papa's. That sat us in a cool alcove, where we all enjoyed our food, which was mainly pancakes. The weekend visit with my cousins ended with a trip to U.S. Cellular Field for the White Sox vs. Texas Rangers. It was a hot day, so we ventured from our seats to find a mini-carnival midway set-up in the outfield concourse. I played some games, won prizes and hung out with stilt walkers and the Sox mascot Southpaw. Madison tried the batting cages and we both tried to throw strikes at a moving target, which Madison had better luck with. We left the rare Sox victory early to beat the heat and the traffic back out to the burbs, where the summeresque weekend came to an end.

KINDERGARTEN

On Thursday, August 18, 2011, all 3'11" and 49 lbs. of me walked through the doors of St. Helen School in Chicago's Ukrainian Village neighborhood and began my educational career with my first day of kindergarden... at my third school.
Only 16 years and 9 months to go until I enter the robust job market.

The End Of (Summer) Days

It had to come to an end eventually and that day was Wednesday, August 17, when my summer vacation officially ran it's course. However, thanks to the downtime between Summer Camp and kindergarten, I had a great last three days of summer. I spent one whole day with Gigi & Papa, Casey and my Dad on the very last day.
We started the day by visiting Dr. Z and receiving good news that I only had to wear my patch two hours per day. Post eye Dr., we went back home, hopped in the car and headed to Novelty Golf & Games (ne' The Bunny Hutch) for a round of mini-golf. I love me some mini-golf and when I am reminded that I am not a lefty and I concentrate for at least a second, then I am a pretty good shot. Dad had a tough time because he was distracted by the fact the place was stuck in time. Although, he was not distracted enough to not win the round.
After mini-golf, we headed to "Aunt" Silvija & "Uncle" John's for a famous quesadilla and a trip to the super awesome Lincolnwood pool. I splashed around in the kiddie pool before Dad persuaded me to try out the water slide. I had previously been skeptical about the slide because you have to be able to get to the edge of the pool after you hit the water, but Dad assured me I was tall enough to walk myself over and he waited in the wings the first couple times. After that though, I was hooked and didn't need any help at all. Twenty plus times down both slides later, it was time to head back home. Not surprisingly, I fell asleep, and Dad probably wished he could have slept through the next two days, to let his now water slide sore body heal.

Pure Haven

Papa gathered the family for another trip to South Haven, Michigan, where we once again stayed in the big house with the big pool to match. Everyone enjoyed the usual sunsets and ice cream, corn and hamburgers, and beach and dunes. However, this year also brought some new things, at least for me. For example, I played the card game War with Gigi and my cousins, we took a day trip to Saugatuck, Dad took me and the girls to minigolf and we all enjoyed a huge thunderstorm that very briefly cut the power to the house. The storm ushered in the best part of the trip, when we went to Lake Michigan on our last day and I battled almost five foot waves. Luckily I had my life vest on and Dad played a human backstop, which prevented me from falling under the water. Can't wait for next year's trip.

Crashing Gigi Camp

Every summer Gigi hosts her grandchildren for a few sessions of Gigi Camp, which feature various arts & crafts projects, movies, museums and Papa driving us to those places.
A few days after my Gigi Camp session, Dad and I decided to crash my cousin's last one of the summer, so on a beautiful- albeit too hot- July morning we hit the bus and headed for the Brown Line, which would take us to our first stop, The Sears (ne' Willis) Tower. This was my first visit to the tallest building in North America and my Dad's first visit in longer than he could remember. There's plenty to look at and learn from on the way to the Skydeck and it goes without saying the view from thousands of feet above Chicago is stunning, especially from the new Ledge that seemingly floats outside of the skyscraper.
After our sky high trip, Gigi, the girls, Aunt Lori, Dad and I headed to Navy Pier via water taxi, another first for me and also for my Dad, who can't say enough about the perspective of Chicago from the Chicago River. At Navy Pier, we had a nice lunch at Riva, then headed to see Pinocchio at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. I liked the play and it's songs and Dad found the seat very comfortable.
When the play ended we said our goodbyes and headed the bus back home. Not surprisingly I fell asleep and Dad got to carry me the three blocks home in the heat and humidity. I have it pretty great sometimes.