Sam Party 2010

Last weekend I hosted Sam's annual birthday party. This is a pretty extreme affair since there are multitudes of kids involved who sleep over on top of it. My first party a few years back I believe 15 came over and proceeded to scare my sister to death. It was a pretty wild time, but I enjoyed it. This year I took my time planning it since a) I'm dealing with migraines and b) Sam's friends aren't getting any smaller. That last point is made more extreme since my house isn't getting any larger either!

Still, Sam really wanted the party, and to combine it with the start of the World Cup...so I obliged and planned a combo-party. We prepared by printing out the flags of all the countries participating in the event, and the usual decorations. I ordered a special cake that blew me away...I couldn't believe how well done it was! Tasted just as good as it looked too. In all about 11 kids showed up - about 8 slept over. Not sure of the number...you lose count easily. Thankfully my sister came over with her beau and helped with the dinner. After she left the fun really began for the kids who kept themselves busy with video games, floor hockey, indoor basketball, or crept downstairs to play air hockey or skee ball.

Unfortunately the basketball hoop became a casualty. It had survived all the other parties, but just couldn't deal with adolescents constantly dunking on it. Totally bent the plastic pole supporting the hoop. Anyways they frolicked well past midnight...I had them sit down for bingo about 1am. Around 3:30am I had enough and told them to go to sleep. Apparently most didn't (shock), but as least I got a few hours of z's. The next morning they were up and eventually we caught the USA v. England game, where afterwards the last of the kids were rustled up, and I was off to a wedding...barely awake.

Biking in South Bend

Yesterday boy and I went to church, and came home with little idea on what to do with a very nice day ahead of us. A bit hot perhaps (upper 80's), but I'm not one to let a good weather day go to waste. I first asked about riding bikes in Chicago, which he wasn't too keen on. Looking back, probably a wise decision since the Lakefront Trail is simply packed with folks and quite dangerous too. After a bit of thought Sam wanted to bike ride in South Bend. For some reason he likes this town...really likes this town. Maybe because it's small enough for his young mind to figure out. He also has an old friend (Griffin) who lives near there and maybe that's the attraction.

With the idea of visiting South Bend in our minds, I began the task of trying to fit our bikes into my car...which wasn't as smooth as I thought it'd be. Had to remove the front wheels off of both bikes...mine is easy...with his I needed tools. Anyway that was figured out and we hit the road about 2:30pm. Being late May we knew we had plenty of daylight left, and I wasn't too sure on how extensive the trail system is in South Bend. Although I am the "Trail Czar" of NW Indiana, I'm not all that familiar with systems outside my region...need to study up.

We arrived in SB about 5pm EST, and located the north end of what they call the East Bank Trail. I glanced at an online map before I left and knew this route followed the east bank of the St. Joseph River for quite a few miles, so off we went. It turned out to be a great ride that took us downtown, although the path narrowed quite a bit (might as well be a sidewalk) towards downtown, and the lack of signage was annoying. Very unclear how to make out where to go when you got downtown, and the only reason I knew where to go was my familiarity with the city. We stopped downtown for an ice cream at the SB Chocolate Factory (yum), and toured some other sites that interested Sam. We did make it as far south as the IU-SB campus where we crossed a huge bike-ped bridge to some student apartments on the other side of the river.

On our way back we made another visit to downtown via another bike-ped bridge (impressive!), and then began to lose energy. We visited Covelski Field, where the minor leauge Silverhawks play baseball, and then wound up back on the trail to our car. Sam was getting quite worn out, and so was I. We got back and I read 12.9 on my bike odometer. On telling Sam that, he wanted to ride around the big parking lot until we hit 13...so we did :) Sam commented quite a bit on how much he liked the day, and I was very happy to finally take a bike trip with boy...something I have yet to do. After folding the bikes up for the ride home, I resolved to buy a real bike rack...and soon!

Before we left SB, we made a quick trip back downtown to kick a soccer ball around the College Football Hall of Fame. That was very enjoyable, and strangely enough we found a diploma left by a student who graduated a local high school that day. We took our time coming back home, and stopped in Valpo to catch a movie - Shrek 3-D. That was a very nice end to another great day with boy!

Wonderful day with boy!

I thought this would be a good time to write my first post. I created this blog site a few years ago, but in my typical ADHD fashion, haven't got around to posting anything. I've done a few posts in my written journal, but I actually type a lot faster than I write...so here it goes.

I am always fretting about engaging in my son's life. Today I finally stepped forward and enjoyed as complete a day as I've ever had with him. His name is Sam, and he's my 12-year old blessing. Being a divorced dad has but some pressure on me to be as a good a companion as possible. Maybe too much pressure, and I do need to relax more about that. However today just worked on many levels.

It started well enough by going to church together, then home where we had lunch, and then set out on a long bike trek. My neighbor Elmer was out vacuuming his new fishing boat, and when he's out you have to spend a few minutes to chat. When Sam and I finally did set out, we rode all the way to the high school and back...probably 10 miles in all...quite the hike. The day was clear and sunny...but with a bit of a chill and a strong north wind. We had to deal with that wind on the way back, but all went well. Sam was complaining at first on how tiring the ride was, but as we moved on, he became more "energetic" - probably excited that he could ride that far!

When we returned Elmer was still out in his boat, and I finally succumbed to Sam's insistence that we use the canoe (on load from a work buddy) in our garage and head for the pond behind our house. This pond has a tiny island in the middle, and Sam was enthralled with the idea that we could paddle there. I said why not and we both lifted the heavy aluminum sucker out of the garage, and only about 50 feet down the driveway before Sam gave out. We tried some more, but it was not looking good. Finally, with some energy based on raw interest, I lifted the front and hauled it by myself down to the pond's edge. I had Sam sit in front, and I got in back and then pushed away from the shoreline. We started floating out, but the wind was blowing us back to shore. We did make it past that, and eventually landed on that tiny island. We both got out, and lo and behold I found an old soccer ball in between some small pine trees. We put that in the canoe, and headed back. We wanted to go around one more time, but the wind was too much, and we took out. I dragged that thing back into my garage, with Elmer amused by it all.

After that we finally had a soccer ball...which was really cool since Sam was asking for one earlier and ended up kicking around some small plush ball. We used our swing set as a goal and took five shots each, over and over. That was pretty exhausting, but even so I was determined to get the most out of this day and so we walked to what I told Sam was a "magical place". The walk was long, and of course Sam kept asking about this "place". Finally we arrived at an old railroad bridge over a creek, and Sam was genuinely interested...although he called it "scary". He did have fun looking down at the creek below, and asked a lot of questions about the railroad, and of course, if the bridge might give way. We ended up walking back home, but not before Sam got himself some Arby's curly fries :)

Dinner was next to refuel, and we just enjoyed a lazy night at home. We wrestled a bit with a little football thrown in, and then ended the night with floor hockey. This was a really great day, and thankfully I was well enough to enjoy it. God is definitely GOOD!