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This year they turned 11 & 14.
Not so long ago, the boys turned 4.
That year, Ebby turned 7.
On the day in between the birthdays that year, we went to Build-A-Bear.
Will made a dog, Cuyler made a pig and Ebby made a unicorn. No worries, we still have all 3 of those stuffed animals.
And all 3 of those kids, albeit slightly older.
Weren't they so cute? ♥♥♥
On Monday, the day in between the boys' birthday and Ebby's birthday, we had the so-called Family Party. The grandparents and Uncle, along with one of Ebby's friends and our neighbor friends, gathered for food, fun, and festivities.
Yes, there was dinner (a pot luck cook out), yes, there was birthday cake (homemade cupcakes) and yes, there were gifts (plenty of 'em). The highlight of the evening however was...The Semi-Annual Bowles Family Talent Show!
With more practice time, more acts and more judges, this show was even bigger than our Thanksgiving show. Ebby emailed the details a couple of weeks ahead of time, made score sheets and drew the order for the acts. Family talent shows are serious business. Just ask Nana (more on that in a minute). For now, here are the highlights...
To start, let's introduce the judges: In the flowered shirt, Uncle Steven. Next, Ebby's what-have-I-gotten-myself-into pal whom we'll call "J". Then we have the always ready to video tape with his iPhone, Pa. Finally, the smiliest you've ever seen him, Grandpa. Perhaps in response to Pa's perfect 10 finger scores at our last show, we revamped the scoring. Each judge was given a scoring sheet. After each act they wrote down a score, from 1 to 10, keeping their score secret. At the conclusion of all the acts the scores for each act were to be added up with the highest scorer being crowned the winner. New system = more drama!
On to the show...
Act 1: Will and large surprise guest
Entering from the stairs, Will and his 53" stuffed bear Reginald staged a wrestling match. The audience was on the edge of their seats as the boy and the bear tussled, rolled and battled. Amidst laughter and cheers, Reginald emerged victorious!
Act 2: Ebby the Crazy Cat Lady with Cuyler the cat
About a month ago, I showed Ebby the Debbie the Crazy Cat Lady dating video. A couple weeks ago, she showed me the "songified" version. Hi-lar-ious. Seriously. Catchy tune and it doesn't get old. Seriously. Every time I see it I just want to sing. And dance. Which perhaps explains why Ebby chose this song to do her talent show act to. She went all out. Props, costumes and choreography.
She had Cuyler practicing moves with her for days ahead of time.
When it was time for their perfomance, I fired up the YouTube audio and dEbby and Cuyler were off to the races. They rocked it. For reals. Such enthusiasm and polish. I laughed the entire time.
Act 3: Nana and The Fringe
Talk about a serious competitor. When she came over last week looking for some fringe for her act and left with a lampshade, I should've known she was playing to win. Nana wowed us with her rendition of "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" from the musical Oklahoma. Not being a big conoisseur of musical theater, I'd never heard the song before. Now? I can't get it out of my head ;-). Singing a cappella and balancing a lampshade on a pole, Nana sang with gusto, expression and enthusiasm.
The crowd went wild. For the first verse. Then the crowd got a little restless. Nana was not deterred. There was talk of a hook to pull her off stage. She was having none of it! For a good 3 minutes, Nana sang all about the Fringe and the Surrey. When she reached the line "don't you wish I'd go on forever" the laughter reached epic levels. As soon as I get Pa to send me his video, you can enjoy it too!
Act 4: Twin Telepathy
Like Will & Cuyler, our neighbors, A & J, are also twins. Unlike Will & Cuyler, they are not identical twins. Perhaps that's why their demonstration of "twin telepathy" met with incomplete success. Or it could've been lack of rehearsal time. Either way, J got comedy points for wearing the bike helmet.
Act 5: Jen tries to show her poise but fails
Speaking of lack of rehearsal time, my act consisted of {attempting} to walk with a book on my head. It started off well. I made it the length of the "stage" to start. My most impressive move was when I did a modified grapevine sidestep all the way back across the rug. After that, it was all downhill. Which was duly reflected in the judges' scores...A few days later I tried the act again with a different book and man, I would've kicked butt. Just sayin'.
Act 6: Bobby Law does Bobby Frost
Bobby Law truly took The Road Not Taken with his dramatic reading of this Robert Frost poem. Accompanied by music from his iPad, he read with theatrical flair and gravity. A far cry from his rock and roll guitar playing at Thanksgiving. Too bad the judges weren't that impressed.
Act 7: Bubbe channels Olga
I'm pretty sure Bubbe was a gypsy fortune teller in a past life. I can recall at least 4 times she's dressed up in some variation of this costume and character. Not that there's anything wrong with that. So Olga went around the room telling fortunes, answering questions and making bold observations in a dramatic carny voice.
Props to Bubbe for her props (excellent gazing ball!) and costume.
Act 8: The return of Cuyler... and the return of the Easter Bunny
While he was a supporting player in Ebby's act, Cuyler returned to the stage to close out the show as a headliner in the final "performance" of the evening. Ok, it wasn't Cuyler, it was the Easter Bunny! Can you believe it?? The Easter Bunny, in July. Wow. That clever fella hid plastic Easter eggs in our backyard and the audience was sent out to find them.
Interactive. Unexpected. Also unexpected, having to rescue not one, but two fledgling robins. While searching for eggs, Bobby Law found the first one on the wrong side of the garden fence. We dispatched Bubbe (armed with a piece of cardboard and a dustpan) to bring the baby bird to safety, i.e. inside the garden fence, away from Maisy. Nearly as soon as bird #1 was moved, another bird left the nest atop the garden arbor and landed outside the garden!
Too much drama. Bubbe successfully moved bird #2 as well. Phew. In the days that followed we didn't see any baby bird carnage, so we're going to assume all is well. Things did not go so well with the egg hunt as the group of us was only able to find about 20 of the 35 hidden eggs.
Oh well, head start for next Easter.
When all the acts were complete, it was time for the judges to finalize their score sheets and tally up the results.
Look, here's Uncle looking all "judgy".
It was time for the announcement of the standings. Last place was announced first. Yours truly won that dubious distinction. Soon it was time for the Top 3. In 3rd place: Nana! The tension mounted as we waited to hear the places of the top 2 acts (which happened to be Act 1-Will and Act 2-Ebby & Cuyler).
And the winner was....dEbby the Crazy Cat Lady with Cuyler the Cat!
Their reaction? Spinning elation!
Second place didn't go over too well with a certain someone *cough*Will*cough. But that's ok, Will & Cuyler have teamed up and have already started practicing their act for the next talent show.
I think I'm gonna need a real trophy!
We kicked off Bowles Birthday week on Sunday, celebrating Will and Cuyler's 11th Birthday.
Yes, 11 years old.
When you tell two 11 year old boys they can do whatever they want for the day (within reason), here's what you get...
1. Open Presents
Will had requested a scavenger hunt for his presents. Fortunately for me, Cuyler obliged. He was up late Saturday night thinking up and writing out clues. Not a big thing, they're up late every night. Will also made a scavenger hunt for Cuyler for his presents. And I mean just the presents to and from each other. There were Legos and Pokemon cards involved, 'nuff said.
2. Dairy Queen
Will had this idea in his head that on his birthday I would give him $10 to spend at Dairy Queen on the most giant ice cream imaginable. He settled for a large Blizzard with chocolate ice cream and M&Ms. Cuyler had the same thing in a medium. That was lunch. They did feast on cereal and bacon for breakfast--go nutrition!
3. Dream Machine
Cuyler's big request was to spend an hour at the Dream Machine arcade at Nantasket Beach. It was a hot, crowded, weekend afternoon in Hull. Per-fect. Luckily we have a few connections and were able to park (thank you Michael & Denise) and walk over to the arcade. The boys made short work of $20 worth of quarters. Ok, $16 worth of quarters, Bobby Law and I each took $2. What can I say, I love skee ball. I'm not the only one who enjoys skee ball. But really, the boys are all about the tickets. And they soon learned that the Cyclone had the biggest potential payout.
While I was over there ringing up 27 tickets at skee ball, the boys kept trying to hit the button at just the right time to win the jackpot in the Cyclone game. And they did. 3 times. To the tune of 250-400 tickets per win.
We spent about another hour while Will and Cuyler tried to figure out what to get with their 2,050 combined tickets. We ended up with a stuffed penguin and a stuffed M&M, along with a cool super ball. Really, not as junky as other years.
4. Reginald
After the arcade, we (Cuyler, Bobby Law and I) had hatched a plan about how we were going to stop by to see Uncle. You know, to say hello. Which we did, but really we came to retrieve Reginald, Cuyler's big gift to Will. And when I say big, I mean 53 inches big. Or as Will likes to say, "53 inches of pure happiness". Reginald will be getting his own post sometime in the near future...
5. Cake!
Yes, I did feed them dinner (ribs in the crock pot for Will, hot dog on the grill for Cuyler). Then we moved on to the all-important birthday cake presentation. This year Cuyler went first. He requested this cake after I showed him something similar online. It's a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream frosting, Kit Kats around the border, covered with M&Ms on top.
For Will, all chocolate, all the way. Chocolate cake, chocolate frosting and M&Ms all over.
We sang, they wished, they each blew out the candles. And, oh yum...
6. Photos
My favorite part of the day☺. It was a lot like herding cats this year, trying to get even just a couple of decent shots of each of them individually and then the two of them together. But still, I tried.
Cuyler
Will
Cuyler and Will
And that, along with a few really high pushes on the tree swing, is how we celebrated Will and Cuyler turning 11.
Happy Birthday My Boys!!
xoxoxo
Go ahead, admit it. You're rubbing your eyes, blinking. Doing a double take. Is that Dennis' house in Bradley Woods? Is that a...dumpster in front of it??
Yes and yes.
But oh, it gets better.
The day I told you was coming, but you didn't believe me.
Demo day.
Oh yeah, baby. Who needs a kitchen? Surely not my dad, at least not for a few weeks. I mean sure, he'll miss his old kitchen:
The orange laminate countertops, the original 1941 cabinets, the gold faux stone linoleum floor. I think I just blinked a tear away. That was the kitchen I grew up with after all. Literally.
But it finally happened, my dad removed the 5 overlapping elastic bands from his wallet, opened it up and the construction has begun. There's going to be a new, open kitchen, an updated bathroom (or two), new flooring...The list goes on. Exciting stuff.
The best part about this renovation? I get to have a say in the design choices and the finished product but get to skip the headache of construction and the bills that go along with it ☺.
So stay tuned. I'm sure to be popping my head (and iPhone camera) over there to check on progress!
A couple of weeks ago we made an evening trek to Duxbury Beach. Unusual? No. The fact that Ebby didn't have a friend with her? That was unusual. Lucky for me, that freed her up to come on a walk with me. My new thing this year is to take a walk over to the Duxbury Bay side of the beach. Mucho sea bounty or there. Or Bay Bounty as the case may be.
So anyway, we walked. I was collecting all sorts of treasures for my bucket and Ebby was tolerating my enthusiasm. After about a half hour she decided to head back. I told her I'd be right along. About 10 minutes later I got a call (because, yes, I always bring my iPhone along on my walks. Mostly for the camera.). Ebby told me on her way through the bayside beach grass she found a bottle with a message in it. She wasn't sure what to do though so she put it up on a piece of wood and left it. She told me where it was and asked me to get it.
A message in a bottle? Too stinkin' cool.
On my way back I did indeed find the bottle. It didn't look like it had much wear and tear and Ebby had found it pretty high on the beach. I was a little afraid it hadn't actually made it into the ocean. I was much too curious to just leave it there though, so I put it in my bucket and went back to the fan-damily.
Ebby was psyched to see the bottle again. It was very well secured, with a tight fitting cork on the top and the message rolled up and placed in a ziploc bag inside the bottle.
I tried to temper our anticipation but I was so excited to see where it came from and what the message was. I started twisting the cork, making slow progress. Bobby Law came over to help, he also made slow progress. Luckily he had a wrench of sorts in the car and managed to use it to pop the cork out.
Message in a bottle, come out, come out!
I reached in the bottle and pulled out the baggie with the message.
I unrolled the notebook paper and started to read aloud to Ebby and Bobby Law.
"...Here is a list of all the things I want to send away from my life. Physical and emotional pain, verbal abuse, you saying I'm not good enough, Pain and suffering, especially my brother, feelings of inadequacy, ..."
Alrighty then.
Not exactly what I was expecting. At all.
Seriously. I think we intercepted some troubled teen's therapy exercise.
Bad ju-ju.
I wanted to roll it back up, cork the bottle and put it back where we found it.
Bobby Law however, had a better idea.
Apparently overcome by his power as a minister of the Universal Life Church (just like Jeff Probst...), he determined that if this girl wanted these things gone from her life, they should be gone.
So Rev. Bobby Law took the message and threw it on our campfire. As it burned he did some chanting about taking away all these bad things and bringing some peace to the person who wrote the note.
And then it was gone.
Hopefully her troubles are gone too.
A brilliant save by Bobby Law, really.
Overall though...
Worst. Message-in-a-Bottle. EVER.
Happy Birthday America!
Wishing you a happy & safe 4th of July weekend!
{Ebby and Pa, 2005 Hingham 4th of July parade}
