Letterboxing At Boxacon 2009

The Dramagoons have discovered a new hobby that has become a fun activity for our entire family. Back in August we started Letterboxing. What is Letterboxing, you ask? I could try to explain it in my own words but here is the definition that is posted on Letterboxing.Info.

Letterboxing is growing hobby that combines elements of hiking, treasure hunting and creative expression into an activity that the whole family can enjoy. Participants seek out hidden letterboxes by following clues that are posted on the Internet, and then record their discovery in their personal journal with the help of a rubber stamp that’s part of the letterbox. In addition, letterboxers have their own personal stamps which they use to stamp into the letterbox’s log book.

Since mid-August, we have gone out and found boxes on six separate occasions. This is a really fun way to get out and enjoy the outdoors and get some exercise without feeling like you are just going on a boring hike. A.J. and Erin really enjoy tramping through the woods and hunting for the boxes. We actually have to make them take turns looking for the boxes.

Normally, letterboxing is a fairly solitary hobby. The person that creates a letterbox doesn’t meet the people that search for their box. Their interaction takes place via stamps and trail names in each other’s log books. Occasionally, however, letterboxers will get together to meet, exchange stories, and do a little letterboxing together. On Saturday, we attended our first letterboxing gathering, Boxacon 2009.

The event was held at Minooka Park in Waukesha. The event organizer, with the help of several others, placed dozens letterboxes all over the park. Upon arrival, we were given a packet of clues to follow. Most of the boxes followed a SciFi theme, thus the name Boxacon. Unfortunately Kristi had to work and couldn’t join us but the three of us had a really great time. The kids enjoyed meeting, talking, and exchanging stamps with the people that had created some of the boxes that we had found in the past. Plus, we got to go out and find more boxes. We ended up spending almost five hours at the park.

If you are interested in checking out letterboxing as a hobby, visit these two websites: Letterboxing North America and Atlas Quest.

Dramagoons Brass Ensemble

Erin is now taking band lessons in school. And like her brother, the trumpet player, she has decided to play a brass instrument as well. Erin is now the one and only baritone player in her grade school band. I have to give her a lot of credit for deciding to play an instrument that is half as big as she is. Luckily, Kristi has agreed to drive her to school on band days. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have to wrestle her instrument case on and off the bus.

She has only been practicing a week and she is doing a great job already. We are extremely proud of her. We have quite a musically talented family. Kristi and I may have to start learning to play the trombone and French horn so we can start a family brass quartet. We could be called the “Brass Knuckles”… or maybe the “Brass Monkeys”!

Great America

Lately, I have been swamped with so many things going on that I haven’t been able to take the time to update the blogosphere. Therefore, I will endeavor to catch up with a few delayed entries.

A couple of weeks ago (two days after the A.C.T. Summer Showcase), I took Monday off and we went down to Six Flags Great America. We are not a “coaster” family but Erin and Kristi don’t mind the tame ones and A.J. and I enjoy all but the most extreme ones.

The whole family rode the Whizzer (roller coaster), the Columbia Carousel, the Sky Trek Tower, and the bumper cars as well as caught the Bloopers show in the Pictorium. A.J. and I also spent time on three more roller coasters: the Demon, the Viper, and the American Eagle. The crowds were minimal because it was a Monday and we had a really good time.

As we were driving home, I realized that the last time I was at Great America was when I was in high school in 1983. I remember that on that trip, I rode the Whizzer, the Demon, the American Eagle, and the Sky Trek Tower and I took in a show at the Pictorium. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

A.C.T. Summer Showcase 2009

On Saturday, Erin took part in the A.C.T. Summer Showcase at Waukesha Civic Theatre. It was her third Showcase in three years. This event is the result of two weeks of theatre arts classes presented by the theatre. This year, Erin only took the acting class and, therefore, participated in just one piece on-stage. She and some of the fellow member of her class enacted a short sketch called Sibling Rivalry; a humorous game-show style comedy about pitting brothers and sisters against each other to score points. Erin played the angelic side of the brother’s conscience. It was very funny. I was extremely proud of her. She spoke loud enough for all to hear without shouting. She spoke clearly and with emotion. And she even held for laughs when they came (which is very hard to do sometimes).

Congratulations to Doug Jarecki and the rest of the instructors for a great job again this year. The show was very well done. All of the kids involved should be very proud of the effort they put forth.

More Food On A Stick

On Saturday, we made our annual family pilgrimage to the Wisconsin State Fair. We enjoyed all of our favorite destinations while there. Our first stop is always the animal barns. Every year, we visit a different set of animals. This year, we focused our attention on the horses and the cows. We even stopped in to see the Clydesdales and their world famous beer wagon provided by Anheuser Busch.

After the animals, we made our way to our favorite stops; cream puffs, mini-Journal Sentinel newspapers, Wisconsin Products building, and DNR area. We made a departure from our usual rounds this year. We stopped off to see those fabulous racing pigs. That is not an event that we need to see every year but it is entertaining every once in a while. Along the way, we continued a tradition that we started last year.

Our new tradition is that everyone in the family has to eat something on a stick, it has to be different than what anyone else has, and, if possible, it has to be different than what that person had the year before. Erin kicked off the tradition by having a chocolate dipped frozen banana on stick, otherwise known as a Monkey Tail. She really enjoyed it. A.J. quickly followed her by eating two slices of chocolate covered bacon on a stick. This was heaven for him as it combined two of his favorite foods. Kristi had a deep fried Reuben on a stick that she said wasn’t the greatest but the cheese was okay. I finished us off with two different items on a stick. I started out with pork on a stick; which was good but not very unique. As we were preparing to leave, I found chocolate dipped cookie dough on a stick. Wow, that was sweet.

We finished our trip with a trip across the park on the SkyGlider, a glass of Herb Kohl’s 25 cent milk, and one game each at the Midway. The kids came to the conclusion that the Midway is a rip-off and we have removed it as a traditional stop. All-in-all it was a successful trip to state fair again this year.

Bristol Renaissance Faire

On Sunday last, the clan Magoon traveled to yon village of Bristol to attend the faire in honor of Her Majesty, the Queen. This was our fifth visit to Bristol Renaissance Faire, our fourth consecutive year, and our third year wearing costumes. This time, we saw a few of our favorite acts from faires past as well as couple of new acts. We plan on going at least once more this year to see only performances of troupes we have not yet seen.

Our fabulous faire experience started out at the front gate. As the gates swung opens and the patrons started to stream in, we were met by a raucous “Well Met, Magoon Family” from everyone’s favorite Elizabethan fool, Jane the Phoole. What a way to boost your ego on bright, sunny Sunday morning. Alas, that would be the last time saw Jane all day as we must have been traveling the grounds in opposing orbits with her the rest of the day. The first event of day was our spontaneous attendance at “Breakfast with the Brass.” We were early for the Moonie show and were treated to a wonderful concert by the Queen’s brass quartet. After that we attended shows by two of our favorite performers. Moonie was first followed by Doktor Kaboom. Both performances were very similar to what we have seen in years past but their interactions with the crowd are so wonderful that you don’t mind seeing it again.

In the middle of the day, we roamed the grounds, did some shopping, and interacted with the Fantastikals. They really do a great job of providing entertainment and interaction with the young kids. They are also wonderful to photograph. We brought along a peach and an orange and Erin presented them to two different faeries throughout the day. Our next attraction was the Barely Balanced acrobatic show. This was a new show for us and we were impressed by the skill and physical prowess of these three individuals. Our last show of the day was Dirk and Guido, The Swordsmen. We have seen their show every year and can probably quote most of it from memory by now. But you can’t go to BRF without seeing them at least once a year.

Normally, we stay until the gates close but everyone was tired as this was the last day of a long week of vacation and traveling. We left the faire around 5pm knowing that we would be back later in the month.

2009 Dance Tracks Dance Recital

The 2009 dance recital for Dance Tracks of Waukesha was held at the Hamilton Fine Arts Center last Friday and Saturday evenings. As always, the students and faculty put together an absolutely wonderful show. This is the seventh year that Erin has been dancing at Dance Tracks and every year I am impressed with the talent of the dancers and the time that goes in to putting on a show like this. The theme of the recital this year was On The Cover! and every dance was associated with a specific magazine for which it could have been the cover shot.

This is the first year that Erin took two dance classes and was in two separate numbers during the show. That required a fairly quick costume change as there were only 3 dances between them. For her Intermediate Jazz class, they danced to Do Your Thing which was supposed to be a representation of the cover of “Self Magazine.” The top picture is Erin in the costume for that piece. For her Jazz Funk class, they danced to Hero which represented the cover shot for “Marvel Adventures/Super Heroes.” This second picture is the costume for that number. On an interesting side note, her dance instructor for Jazz Funk made all of the costumes for her students. I think they look really good. Congratulations Erin, on another fabulous year of dance. We are so proud of your talent.

How Can I Keep From Singing!

I know I should have posted this sooner but better late than never. On Sunday, May 31st, the Milwaukee Children’s Choir celebrated their 15th anniversary with a fantastic concert, entitled How Can I Keep From Singing!, in Uihlein Hall at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. It was an amazing event. The music was absolutely wonderful. Mrs. Crocker and Mrs. Granatella are to be commended for putting together such a fabulous program 15 years ago. When they started they had 35 students in the choir. If I counted correctly, the 5 choirs on stage were comprised of about 350 talented, young singers.

This is Erin’s second year with the Milwaukee Children’s Choir. She is in the Concert Choir and they were the first group to take the stage. I had the privilege of taking Erin to choir practice a several times in the last couple of months and got to see how much effort is put into a performance like this. I have to say that the effort paid off because they sounded awesome.

MCC is in for a rough time this next year with Mrs. Crocker stepping down as Artistic Director and they will be losing two of the other choir directors as well. That being said, I am looking forward to going to more of Erin’s performances next year because I really enjoyed all of concerts that I went to this year and I can’t wait to hear more wonderful music.

Father Daughter Date Night

When Erin decided not to continue in Girl Scouting last year, she had indicated that she was going miss a couple of the activities, one of which was the annual Father Daughter dance. At that time, we made a pact that we would go out to dinner or do some other activity several times a year to make up for not being able to go the dance. The annual Girl Scout event happened just over a week ago and we hadn’t gone out once. I felt really bad for not scheduling something for us to do all year.

To get ourselves back on track, we decided to have a Father Daughter Date Night last Friday night. We started the evening by going to Tazinos in Menomonee Falls. They describe themselves as a self-serve bistro featuring pizza, pasta, and salad. As Erin is a lover of pizza and pasta, we decided this was a perfect place for us to eat out. Tazinos is a “pay as you enter” establishment, similar to Ponderosa or Golden Corral but with an Italian theme. The buffet is heavy on the pizza and salad offerings. Erin and I enjoyed our meals. Erin experimented with different types of pasta and had her favorite type of pizza (cheese only). I took advantage of the variety of pizzas. I tried the Chicken Bacon Ranch, the Tailgater (with bratwurst topping), the Santa Fe, and the Buffalo Chicken. It is not a fancy restaurant, but a good place to go with a family.

After dinner, we drove over to Praireville Park Mini Golf in Brookfield. It was slightly chilly on Friday night, so there weren’t that many people on the course. We enjoyed a pleasant and relaxing round of mini golf. Erin ended up winning by a score 67 to 71. After we turned in our golf clubs, we decided to cap off the night with some ice cream. The “gift shop” had a nice selection of Chocolate Shoppe ice cream. Erin got the Vanilla Bean and I had the Zanibar Chocolate. We sat outside and shared a little ice cream and conversation.

All in all, it was a pretty good first attempt at a father daughter date night. We are definitely going to have to continue this on a more frequent basis. The cool thing is that we are making good memories.

We Did It

Erin and I made it an entire week without watching TV… or DVDs, YouTube, etc. As I suspected, the weekdays were not that difficult. The weekend, however, proved a little more challenging. Luckily, with Kristi’s and A.J.’s help, we found lots of other activities to keep us occupied. The weekend started out on Friday night, with a father/daughter date night (which I will explain in detail in another post). On Saturday, I helped Erin create a MakeIt & BakeIt bowl and then the entire family spent the evening at the Waukesha Art Crawl. We also attend Don’t Drink the Water at Sussex Hamilton High School on Sunday afternoon.

I am very proud of Erin for her determination on this project. From what I understand, many of her classmates didn’t make through the week. I have to admit that I enjoyed watching the news again while I worked out this morning. But I also learned that you don’t necessarily need to snap on the TV every time you have a spare moment.