Spin City

Driving into town this morning I had 15 minutes to splurge before the Gs had to be at school. I was debating what to do with the free minutes when from the back seat my young girl did exclaim, “The windmill!! Daddy! Look! The windmill!”

Ah yeah. The windmill. We’re sooo there.

The windmill appeared late last week, up behind the Broyhill Inn. I first noticed it Monday driving through town past the ASU basketball arena. It. Looks. HUGE! I’ve since been somewhat obsessed with finding the best view. Seeing from where and how it can be seen. From my office window I can just make out he propellers spinning between the pineneedles.

When I mentioned the big spinner to the wife over dinner Tuesday, Gabby interrupted. “We saw the windmill at school! It’s cool!” And, sure enough, her classroom has an unobstructed front row seat to it. (Me thinks her school has the most entertaining window in the county.)

The new Boone windmill – not to be confused with the old windmill – is 121 feet tall with three blades each 34 feet long. Seen from afar it looks huge! But like a reverse rearview mirror, the closer you get to it the smaller it appears. At least, to me.

Back to the free 15. The Gs and I headed up to the Broyhill and scrambled for a good view. Coming up the hill past the Inn it does look rather gigantic. But standing somewhat closer to it, it looks big but not that big. Kinda like when you meet a pro wrestler.

As we surveyed the view, the sun was blinding from the left. And trees obstructed the view from shared spots. I couldn’t get a good photo, either of the windmill or Gabby with her eyes open. Both thought it was cool and wanted a closer look. But me thinks you have to take a brief hike to get to it, plus possibly trespass. So maybe later.

It is quiet. Closer your eyes and you wouldn’t know it’s there. I asked Gabby if she knew what windmills do. “They spin,” she said. I then explained that it made energy, kinda like her batteries. Energy makes her toys work, as well as the TV and lights. And windmills make that energy. She kinda got the jist of it. “They make energy. Like batteries,” she later told her teacher.

When we left, we of course had to drive by the baseball stadium at the bottom of the Broyhill parking lot. To which Gavin exclaimed, “Baseball!! I see baseball daddy!” He paused. “I want to see football daddy! Show me football!” So we headed over to the new look football stadium and, sure enough, you can see that spinner from there as well.

On the way to the school, Gabby kept looking for the windmill. At one point, she could make out the blades through some trees, but just the blades.

GABBY: Look dad! I can see the mills! The mills are right there!

GAVIN: Mills! Mills!

That’s right. They’re called “mills.”

Not my day

It’s her’s! The big 0-4!

Snap to it

Gabby knows a new song. And yes, she does mistakenly go from “five” to “three.” The first time she sang the song, she was VERY theatrical. Once I got the camera, she got much more subdued, until the very end.

Lillipop crew

Some backstage photos from Gabby’s big dance show a couple weeks back were just taken off the Teen’s camera. Here’s a group photo of the entire dance class, picture pretty and ready to boogy. And yes, Gabby loved ‘em all.

Where’s the hire?

Big G is ready to roll, sitting behind the wheel of a Cricket Fire Department fire truck during Emergency Fest Saturday. Gabby got her turn as well, but looks to have a much more mischievous plan in mind.

An angel with Wings

Gabby sits for a spell in the “backseat” of the Wings Air Rescue helicopter at Emergency Fest Saturday. No helicopter rides, sadly. But before we left we got to see the copter lift off from the parking lot and fly away.

Hose job

Big G tries his hand at some serious fire fighting, with just a little help from a member of the Cricket Volunteer Fire Department, during Emergencyfest Saturday. Gavin was spraying down some plywood flames on a plywood home a few feet away. Gabby was content to watch. She just didn’t care to play firefighter.

Fowl play

Excerpted from the never-to-be-released book, “Free Time with the Kids: How to have fun when time AND money are tight.”

Most mornings the Gs have day care. The doors don’t open until 8:15 on the dot, so often I have anywhere from 15 to five minutes to evaporate. Today we did so at the Duck Pond at ASU. And, of course, the Gs loved it!

I took a few slices of bread with is. As we walked toward duck land, we were greeted by a herd coming our way. Apparently they’re domesticated enough to recognize easy food when they see it. Two giggling munchkins = breakfast. So we never actually made it to the pond itself, just the outer edge. And one side note – the ducks also recognize that anyone over three feet in height is unsavory. They were up close and personal when it was just the Gs, but anytime a college student came strolling by, they fled. Only to return when the giants passed.

End result – for the cost of 20 minutes and some week old bread, we received benevolent delirium.

Chick-fil-A Play

Excerpted from the never-to-be-released book, “Free Time with the Kids: How to have fun when time AND money are tight.”

Chick-fil-A has it all, really. A playroom. Bathrooms. No pressure sales atmosphere. Free balloons. And, if you do get hungry, one heck of a vanilla milkshake. (with cherry!)

This is a favorite place to go when the kids are restless and need to burn some energy. The local Chick-fil-A boasts a slide, play car, play plane, random bits of plastic that spin and one of the creep-ist talking animal walls you’ll ever be haunted by. It’s voiced by a woman that was either –

1) Forced against her will to submit her voice to the display,
2) Just awoken from a 26-day coma, or
3) dead.

Awful audibles aside, this low-cost locale is top of the list when the kids are rowdy and it’s raining outside. Gabby now regularly requests we go there. When we arrive she becomes a comet in a closet. Gavin is no less excited, but much more restrained. He’s content to climb the steps to the slide, sit like he’s about to slide, then get up and go back down the steps. Repeat. Rinse.

It’s also a great place to make new friends. Once, the Gs and I arrived to find one other girl about Gabby’s age playing alone within the room. They two girls became quick cohorts. When the new friend’s parents came to tell her it was time to go, Gabby ran to her and delivered a giant hug. Then as she turned to return to the slide, she shouted, “Bye friend! I love you!”

Chick-fil-A. Can you feel the love?

Sweet moves

Gabby had her big on-stage debut Friday night! Some robservations.

SAY CHEESE
The wife had a hurricane schedule. She had to get Gabby dressed and alllll the way to Blowing Rock by 5:15, even though the show wasn’t until 6ish. She also agreed to starch the hair bows for all five dancers in Gabby’s class. AND she had to haul both Big G and the Teen with her. Makeup also needed to be applied (otherwise the bright lights would wash out their faces) and hair had to be sprayed.

In the midst of all this, the wife had to find time to provide nourishment for the children. She never made it anywhere, so she calls me at 5:15 requesting I pickup a pizza from Little Ceasar’s. ($5 for one topping large, EVERY DAY!) So I get Nanny Sis (the Teen’s great-grandmother) and a pizza. I arrive at the Hayes Performing Arts Center, which is crawling with a couple hundred people. I walk in with said pizza, looking for the hungry mouths. And I walk. And I walk. And I walk. I never found the fam, but EASILY could have made $20 selling that thing. Eventually, it became lunch Saturday.

No real point to all that, other than to inspire the mental image of me aimlessly roaming around a packed lobby of fellow over-eager parents while carrying a large pizza box. There’s a movie in that somewhere.

HOT, HOT, HOT
While the fam gathered for Gabby’s big night, poor Big G just wasn’t feeling it. He was hot. Feverish. And just blah. He’d been running a fever off and on the past few days. In the rabid hopscotch dance to get everyone where they needed to be, his medicine was left at home. So while we sat waiting for the show to start, my poor soccer nut was a burning sandbag in my lap. But on the plus side, he wasn’t restlessly squirming!

The show started with a couple dozen cloggers on stage dancing to a live bluegrass quartet. The back of the stage was a huge white screen, on which dozens of colors were mixed one from the other while dimmer lights interplayed. Gavin sat quietly through it all. It had to have been the coolest fever-amplified techno show he’ll ever see.

LIGHTS! CAMERA! SWEETNESS!
Gabby’s was the 13th or so class to perform. While all the previous groups ran back and forth on and off the stage, for her group they dropped the curtain. When it came back up, the stage contained five of the most adorable red and white polka dotted princess you’ve ever seen, each with a giant cardboard lollipop behind them.

And the crowd cooed, “Awwwwwwwwwwwwww!”

They also had a group leader, who led the way. I was too far back to get decent video, but here’s a sample. Gabby is, on screen, at the far left.

She did great! She smiled. Did her moves. Looked to be having fun. It was all a proud daddy could ask for.

After the Good Ship Lillipop, they did the Candyman. Afterwards, each dancer got a solo sashay across the stage.

ROCKET FUEL IN A COKE CAN
Gabby … was …. HYPER! And by hyper, I mean “Mountain Dew six-pack mixed with pixie straws and three grams of fine Columbian .. uhhh .. coffee” hyper. She was a living, breathing NASCAR restart with one lap to go. And this was at intermission! After her dance! I shiver to think what the wife and company had to attempt to control pre-show!

At one point during the intermission, walking Gabby back to our seats from the bathroom, she suddenly turned and RAN from the theater. I followed her to the lobby, only to see the polka dotted flash hug one co-dancer, jump at a stranger, contemplate swiping some M&Ms from concessions, then spring to the closest door and – with a David Banner type adrenaline rush – shove it open. All in about 10 seconds. (I jest .. more like five).

As Gabby ducked outside I gave chase. Through the doors I saw her just randomly hopping, jumping, skipping, ALL OVER THE PLACE. I tried to get her to be still for a photo or two, but really .. I don’t think they make film that fast. I did get two quick in focus shots before ZOOM!! off again.

I left soon after (the Teen needed to meet her dad for a weekend at his house). Gabby and the wife got home around 9ish. She was still awake. But, within three minutes of crawling into bed, she. was. out. Usually a nine-hour-a-night sleeper, she got a full 12 that night.