A few short hours after landing in Green Bay, I was at Lee's gymnastic lesson, followed by Collin's ballroom dancing lesson. And the action never stopped after that rocket start!
One of the things I had been looking forward to was Collin's performance at Green Bay's Harmony Cafe' Open Mic night. We had been talking about it for months. At the last minute, Than signed up for a slot, too. The Cafe' is a great gathering place, as you can see...
(that's Collin on the left, friend Maddy who is in the play "Our Town" with both of the guys, and Than looking in on the texting)
Apologies for the poor quality, this is the only still photo I got of Collin, the rest are videos clips that I still haven't figured out how to play on my laptop. He did a great job playing and singing. Than's photos are even more blurry - sorry! The guys were so relaxed and proficient, so fun! Their guitar and voice instructor came to cheer them on, along with many of their homeschooling co-op group, and the family of course. Brent even made it from work, slipping in at the last second to proudly applaud his guys.
During some of the other performances, there was shopping to do at the connected Good Will. With Halloween just around the corner, this is serious stuff! And yes, Maddy is very pretty - she's 14, right inbetween Col (13) and Than (15). She's also in Collin's ballroom dance class, they sure have fun with the cha-cha and tango!
Oh my - there's a gremlin practicing "boo" in the clothes rack...
Lee is a real clothes horse, he loves costumes and finds some pretty cool things to wear. He and Collin have distinct tastes in clothes, they are stylin'!
The first Saturday there, I got to take the guys to one of our very favorite places - Woodland Dunes Wildlife Refuge. I was so excited to find I had planned my dates to include the annual Owl Festival - it's a super family activity, we always try to go. They had over 600 people show up on this beautiful fall day - perfect weather. One of the sessions was Raptors, presented by a rescue group - fascinating and fun to meet 6 of their "education birds" who will never be able to live in the wild again.
Also at the festival was Randy Peterson, an amazing entertainer and singer, with a connection to kids. We have no shy guys in the Wright family - Jayden was up in a flash when Randy asked for volunteers. We had SUCH a good time!
Friend Tammy and her three youngin's joined us - it was nice to have a second adult to help keep track of where everyone was. Randy did manage to keep them all in one place for 30 minutes!Tammy herded the youngest ones through the face painting - everyone got to be SawWhet owls. Except little Madelaine (another Maddy), who wanted a spider.
Randy had the whole audience participating in a salute to the military, with a song he wrote with a 4th grade class at one of the local schools. It was great - wish I had recorded it! Jayden is toting his punkin' head which was quite an artistic creation.
Maddy loves Than - can you tell?
Oh, here's our other Maddy. Yep, that's three we have to sort out each time someone says "Maddy". The yellow-shirted blonde girl is Madison, and this is the living room of one of our homeschool families, where they have Art History lessons each week. I think I mentioned, these kids love chess!
Mary Jean had just adopted this Coon Hound from the animal shelter. His name is Norman. He fit right in with the group.
The Wright living room has only 3 pieces of furniture. Two sectional couches - and a piano. The guitars and djembe drum make up the rest of the music studio half of the living area. It's a BIG room. The punks are becoming good-size young men, they need the leg room!
Music is such a joy in the home. With three taking piano lessons, two doing voice lessons, one doing guitar lessons (the others are picking it up on their own, thus the number of guitars - Than just bought two, one is his "Scout Camp" guitar), and all of them singing favorite songs at any given time, we are blessed with music all day long. One night Lee and I were up until midnight playing guitar, another night it was Than...love these talented punks!
A field trip to the Milwaukee Museum to see a special Frog display. It's a fantastic museum, three floors of exhibits - I could have spent three days there.
Some of the more exotic frogs of the world were in special habitat displays. I forgot to write down the names. These little fellows were really different from the frogs on the farm!
The other attraction at the museum was the Halloween bash. We had tickets for a yummy dinner and dessert, then the kids got to don their costumes and trick-or-treat all three floors, with sidetrips to the haunted hall, spooky craft room, and scarey elevator. Max had to put up his pirate eye patch to get his sucker unwrapped.
I couldn't resist some snaps of the cuties around me. While the gang were getting their bags stuffed with treats, I sat and people-watched, taking in the largest variety of costumes I've ever seen.
This chick was such a cutie, her grandparents were really getting a kick watching her preen and play.
Did I mention - there were 3,000 people at the party. Now THAT'S a par-tee!
Randy had the whole audience participating in a salute to the military, with a song he wrote with a 4th grade class at one of the local schools. It was great - wish I had recorded it! Jayden is toting his punkin' head which was quite an artistic creation.
Maddy loves Than - can you tell?
Oh, here's our other Maddy. Yep, that's three we have to sort out each time someone says "Maddy". The yellow-shirted blonde girl is Madison, and this is the living room of one of our homeschool families, where they have Art History lessons each week. I think I mentioned, these kids love chess!
Mary Jean had just adopted this Coon Hound from the animal shelter. His name is Norman. He fit right in with the group.
The Wright living room has only 3 pieces of furniture. Two sectional couches - and a piano. The guitars and djembe drum make up the rest of the music studio half of the living area. It's a BIG room. The punks are becoming good-size young men, they need the leg room!
Music is such a joy in the home. With three taking piano lessons, two doing voice lessons, one doing guitar lessons (the others are picking it up on their own, thus the number of guitars - Than just bought two, one is his "Scout Camp" guitar), and all of them singing favorite songs at any given time, we are blessed with music all day long. One night Lee and I were up until midnight playing guitar, another night it was Than...love these talented punks!
A field trip to the Milwaukee Museum to see a special Frog display. It's a fantastic museum, three floors of exhibits - I could have spent three days there.
Some of the more exotic frogs of the world were in special habitat displays. I forgot to write down the names. These little fellows were really different from the frogs on the farm!
The other attraction at the museum was the Halloween bash. We had tickets for a yummy dinner and dessert, then the kids got to don their costumes and trick-or-treat all three floors, with sidetrips to the haunted hall, spooky craft room, and scarey elevator. Max had to put up his pirate eye patch to get his sucker unwrapped.
I couldn't resist some snaps of the cuties around me. While the gang were getting their bags stuffed with treats, I sat and people-watched, taking in the largest variety of costumes I've ever seen.
This chick was such a cutie, her grandparents were really getting a kick watching her preen and play.
Did I mention - there were 3,000 people at the party. Now THAT'S a par-tee!More on the trip coming up - stay tuned!
I can see why you enjoyed this Halloween party so much!
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