A Star Wars (and other movies) Concert at GRS

The Grand Rapids Symphony had a very cool concert today:  Music by John Williams!!  We heard excerpts from Jaws, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, E.T., Harry Potter, the Olympics music, NBC Nightly News theme, and others.  Before and after the concert, and at intermission, they had extremely convincing costumed Star Wars characters (and one very good Indiana Jones) roaming the lobby of DeVos Hall, more than willing to have pictures taken with excited little concert-goers.  Additionally, they had a green-screen set-up that allowed the kids to pick a background picture that they wanted to be put into, then get photographed with their choice of the costumed characters.  So first photos are Lily and Gregory in front of the Millenium Falcon with General Grievous and Darth Vader (and that D.V. is one TALL dude.  Gregory is on a step-stool just in order to be in the same photo frame as that crazy-tall guy!!)

This is a great shot because you can see a clone trooper, storm trooper and X-wing fighter pilot!!

Posing with the X-wing fighter pilot.

This General Grievous was sssssuuuuuuper-friendly, I imagine because he must have scared too many kids on Day 1 and Day 2 of the concert series.  He spoke in such a kind, Mr. Rogers-ey voice and gently approached kids who seemed interested.  It was kind of funny, considering what a nice guy Grievous ISN'T in the stories. You can see that the Mears kids were really excited to pose with him (he was saying "Smile and say eeeeee-vil")

I got Cool Mommy points from this actor because I knew that he was Qui-Gon Jinn.  He said everyone thinks he's Obi-Wan Kenobi.  But come on, people.  The long hair, right??

Oh - was there a concert too?  Yeah, there was.  It ran kind of looooooong for some of the people in my party.  But overall it was still a good experience :-)

Sick Boys. Oh, how we "love" the winter game of "pass-the-illness"

Gregory started out with a big, messy pile of clean clothes, and folded them into neat piles of folded clothes!  Then he put them all away in the right drawers.  What a fanastic helper!  He was home sick that day, but he still found a way to help out.

Pooooooor little Henry is not feeling well.  He has a sick tummy :-(  He is comforted by a snuggle with Daddy, and by a very devoted Nurse Rudy, who has posted himself at the foot of Henry's cot.



Loungy Afternoon

A couple of little boys enjoying some books.  Gregory's home from school today with ... something.  A cold or tummy bug or some combination thereof.  He's not so terribly ill, but defintely not quite right either.

And here's Rudy's contribution to the afternoon's activity level.  He's doing his famous floormat impression.

It's CRAZY HAIR DAY!!

It's Crazy Hair Day at school today, and Henry couldn't be left out of the action just over the teeny-tiny fact that he doesn't GO to school yet.  So here's some big, tall, floofy, fluffy, spikey, pokey, FUN hair for everyone!

Chef Gregory to the Rescue!

 Gregory made the family's dinner tonight.  The menu was Chicken Egelston over rice.  He started a big pot of rice first.  Then he opened some canned chicken breast, some home-canned tomatoes, and some frozen, diced bell peppers from last summer's garden.  He dumped those things into a big pot along with some Good Seasons Italian Dressing Mix, and stirred.  Mommy turned on the stove, but otherwise Gregory handled things!  Thanks for a nice meal, Gregory!!!

Three Kids, Three Pictures (Blogger is so hard to use that I'm scaling back!)

Here's Gregory scooting around in the fluffy, new snow.  It's not as deep as it looks - he's scooting on his knees to make a wider path.

Henry got a little 24-piece jigsaw puzzle for Christmas this year, and a new favorite pastime was born.  Imagine his excitement when Lily and I brought home this 4-foot-tall body puzzle!  It's two-sided, showing the skeleton on one side and the organs and circulatory system on the other side. 

Lily and Mommy on the carousel at the GR Public Museum.  We sat together on the little sleigh seat instead of riding horses.  It was really a lovely, relaxed outing and we saw some of our favorite permanent exhibits as well as the somewhat-disturbing Bodies Revealed temporary exhibit.