For Kate’s birthday in April, my sister gave her a great gift – a promise of trying out a different cupcake bakery each week this summer.
I love experiential gifts, as opposed to more stuff, and I thought this was a great idea. Kate has had so much fun this summer taking a weekly trip just her and Aunt Anna. She even made a notebook of charts and graphs to rank the cupcakes in several different categories and takes that with her when they go.
Type A first-born FTW!
This week they tried out Ashley’s Pastry Shop in Oakwood (which, according to Kate’s scientific ranking system, is currently in the lead), and the owner saw Kate’s notebook. She took a picture of Kate and posted it on their Facebook page.
Don’t you LOVE this cupcake Connoisseur… Hope We Scored Well… ENJOY!
On the way home from one of their trips, Kate declared it the best day of her life.
Cupcakes are a simple thing, but the time Anna has taken out of her schedule and spent one-on-one with Kate this summer is something that will stick with them both for years to come.
What summer adventures are you experiencing this year?
Several months ago, I remember that it was the night before Easter in fact, my husband and I attended a dinner for the sail boat club his family has been sailing with for 40 years or so. This annual dinner is an awards banquet, but mostly just a time to catch up and see the sailing buddies you haven’t seen for several months.
One of the couples I look forward to seeing each year is a couple of empty-nesters named Mr. and Mrs. Goff. They have a daughter about my age and another a few years younger, and they are just really nice people. Mr. Goff even attended the small college I went to (thirty years before I did). After all these years of knowing them, I don’t really know them, but I really, really like them. {Do you know anyone like that in your life?}
On this particular occasion I noticed that Mr. Goff arrived late and was alone, and before I could even ask where his better half was, he whipped out his iPhone with a picture on the screen and said, “I’m a Grandpa!” He had just come back into town to attend the dinner, having been a couple of hours away with his daughter and her new family. His wife was still there.
“Oh!” I cooed, and oohed, and ahhed over the picture. I knew his daughter had been married quite awhile and the Goffs had waited patiently to become grandparents. The baby was just precious. I carefully looked at all the photos.
“What’s his name?” I inquired.
“Tommy.” he said, with a smile.
Mr. Goff’s name is Tom.
And that’s when I lost it. Like, really, lost it. I started to cry. Not misty-eyes that I could hide, but big, fat tears. Tears of joy for Mr. Goff. For his daughter, for his wife, for his other daughter, the proud aunt. Tears of joy for Tommy, because he had been born into a family who loved him.
I was embarrassed. “Mr. Goff, you made me cry! I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” I said sheepishly.
{Okay, there are a lot of things wrong with me.}
And yet I know that for me, my reaction was perfectly normal.
I cried big, hot, tears for a family I don’t really know that well because I know that they are a good family. A family that loves and puts each other first, and now, will be extended into another generation. I cried because I was happy for them but most of all because new life is beautiful. I cried because a man’s unabashed pride and joy in his namesake is truly touching.
Even as I’ve been writing this post I’ve been crying. Because it’s poignant, the love for a child.
What’s beautiful in your world today?
(Photo found on Pinterest with no link back to the original. Anyone know who I can credit?)
This post is sponsored by the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery & we LOVE THEM for supporting Mommin’ It Up. We are so proud to partner with this wonderful resource.
Every quarter, our local children’s museum, the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, has a fabulous new exhibit. And every quarter, I write a post about it and say, “This is my favorite one yet!”
I’m saying it again. But this time, I am also saying, “I have NO idea how they will ever top this one!!!”
The Animation exhibit, designed in conjunction with Cartoon Network is WILDLY fun, ENORMOUSLY educational, and RIDICULOUSLY captivating. The kids and I had a blast, blast, BLAST at this exhibit. (Did ya see all those caps I used? I love this exhibit!!)
There are honestly too many great features for me to tell you about in one post, so you WILL need to go see it for yourself with the kiddos! But here are a few highlights!
The quality the kids and I loved most about the exhibit? It’s HANDS-ON! You definitely learn about animation by DOING here. Sophie particularly loved all the stations where kids can draw their own animations.
There were also several parts of the exhibit where kids could do an activity and see immediate results! Joshua and Sophie made this by posing objects and taking a picture at each stage.
Here is a few-seconds long video I took of the resulting animation!
To move this activity even further into real life, there was also a station where you could jump around a grid and pose at intervals and then watch a video of your live-action animation! It was SO fun. The kids loved it and did it a million times!
They were cracking me up with their poses!
They loved seeing themselves on the big screen when their animation was done!
Our favorite, favorite, FAVORITE part of the exhibit, which we all (including moi) did over and over and over again was the Visual Effects booth where you struck a pose and a camera took a 360 -degree photo and animated you. Then, within a couple of minutes, you got to see yourself on video!
It was so cool. We felt like we were in a movie with special effects! I was able to use my phone to capture Joshua’s best pose on the resulting video. We loved it!
(I apologize in advance for how loud and excited I was about it!)
I think maybe Joshua is a ninja!
After all that posing and jumping around, we were a little tired, so we plopped down and enjoyed some vintage cartoons in the Screening Room. It was spacious and perfect for taking a little break from all the Animation excitement.
There was so much more to this exhibit! The kids learned about careers in animation, the animation process, and so much more. We cannot WAIT to go back again. We honestly could have spent our whole time at the museum there.
My budding animator!
Daytonians, you have got to go see for yourselves! It’s such a blast and you won’t be disappointed. But you have to get there before it closes – the last day for Animation is August 25th! Do you have any questions about our Animation experience? Leave them in the comments!
