The Limelight Theatre Company summer season has included one exciting show after another! We kicked it all off with a group of loveable logophiles in 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, examined the educational institution in AYP, and discovered what truly lies within in Beauty and the Beast. All that, and Limelight still isn’t done! The summer season will wrap up with the classic musical Oliver!, brought with a Limelight twist. The show will be held at 7 p.m. today through Saturday, at West Aurora High School, 1201 West New York St., Aurora. Tickets are $9 for adults and $7 for students/…

In about two months, we will find ourselves again on the festival grounds for PrairieFest.  For the past 7 years I have had the honor of coordinating the festival volunteers.  The first couple years this felt like a daunting task.  I should have had more faith.  Each year hundreds sign up to help.  We have never had to settle for less of an event because we didn’t have volunteers show up. That is just how it is in this community.  Our neighborhoods of Oswego, Montgomery, Plainfield and Aurora galvanize when needed.  I have seen it happen time and time again for all sorts of reasons.  For …

Just when you think you have uncovered all this area has to offer, we’ve got a whole new adventure for you!  This winter the Oswegoland Park District invites you to explore a new frontier  in outdoor activities.  Our geocaching event encourages residents of the Oswego, Montgomery and Plainfield area to bundle up and seek secret booty.  Geocaching is an orienteering activity where people use compasses, hand held GPS devices or smart phones to locate treasures hidden all over the world.  Currently there are over 1000 caches hidden in the Oswego area alone.  These treasures are hidden by other …

PrairieFest has spent the last 22 years breaking records for crowds, runners, parade entries, even temperatures.  This year the festival takes aim at some official Guinness World Records with PrairieFest’s Rocking the Records.  On Saturday, June 16 at the Oswegoland Park District’s PrairieFest this community will take two attempts to prove once and for all, there is no place like home for those in the Oswego/Montgomery/Plainfield area.  Before the Saturday night bands perform at the festival, cheer on local Colin Sullivan as he sets the Guinness World Record for the Longest Duration Balancing…

Looking for something to fill these winter weekends?  Take up geocaching in Oswegoland parks this January and February!  Geocaching is an outdoor sporting activity where people seek small containers or ‘caches’. Hand held GPS, smartphones, or old fashioned orienteering skills are used to located to each cache.  In the first months of 2012, the Oswegoland Park District has hidden 10 caches in our parks.  We invite everyone to bundle up and wander outside for this fun hide and seek game! This fairly new sport is a great way to explore our area.  Whether you are out on your own, with friends or …

At 9 a.m. on Saturday, we sent 300 people on the first Mashed Potato Mile course around Fox Chase School and Wormley Heritage Park.  It was a beautiful morning and watching the runners long strides across the field was breathtaking. Mitch Blocker, 13 of Oswego finished first for the boys and Alexis Henz, 12 also of Oswego finished first for the girls.  They were quickly followed by boys, girls, men, women, and babies all enjoying the day.After our one-milers finished, we waited for the first sign of our Gobbler Hobbler 10K runners.  This was a new course, and I was nervous.  We had worked on …

The Oswegoland Park District had a lovely afternoon for little ladies this past Saturday at the Pearce’s Pavilion at Fox Bend Golf Course.  Lauren McCombe, 13 entertained everyone playing the harp throughout the event.  The Prom Shoppe outfitted our princesses who enchanted all the guests. For a little bit longer we wore lily white gloves instead of the woolen mittens which are coming out way too soon. The girls, their mothers, and grandmothers enjoyed a high tea offering of scones, cucumber sandwiches and more.  Watching little girls work on their twirls was a sweet, charming way to spend a …

For 29 years this community has celebrated Halloween with the Monster Mash Bash.  We had over 1,300 folks come together this past Saturday for more of a treat than a trick.  The Oswego High School fieldhouse was filled with giggles and shrieks.  It was so fun to watch the little Raggedy Anns and baby cows running from game to game.  At one point a parent stopped me to comment on one of our teen volunteers.  It seems a Traughber Junior High sixth-grader made a point of enthusiastically involving this woman’s daughter who was participating in a wheelchair.  The woman was touched and so was I.  …

For the past 28 years, Halloween in the Montgomery/Oswego area means Monster Mash Bash at the Oswego High School Fieldhouse.  Celebrate all things silly and spooky at the Bash from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29. This year the Oswegoland Park District promises even more fun with Limelight Theatre face painting, characters from your favorite movies and storybooks, four moon jumps, over 30 games, Team Oswego gymnasts obstacle courses and more.  Kids of all ages can enjoy the spooky spirit for $4 at the door.  Treat bags are provided, just don’t forget your costume or your camera.  Parents are …

It’s tough to balance a full- or part-time job and parenthood. It’s especially difficult when you have a little one not quite old enough for kindergarten but ready enough to want to know where firefighters sleep, what butterflies do in the winter and what happens when you mix green and yellow in paint instead of crayon on your bedroom wall. It’s the age of discovery and it’s fascinating!  All parents, working outside the home or not, want to be sure that their little tike experiences a world beyond their own playroom that sparks their curiosity, helps them develop social skills, and prepares …

In these hot days of summer, sometimes the only breeze is found on an evening walk down by the Fox.   I walked there with my son this past week.  Two sawed off stumps showed the damage the park suffered from last Monday's quick storm.  It came fast, but it packed a punch.  Like so many neighbors, we lost two great old trees in the center of Hudson Crossing Park. My son commented that the trees that fell were big and gave the center of the park a lot of shade.  I agreed, adding that it takes a long time for a tree to grow big enough to give that kind of cover.  My 11-year-old thought about …

I am not so old that I have forgotten how leaves taste.  Mixed in a potion made by 9 year old chefs, made in the shady kitchen of hollowed out evergreen shrubs, we believed tasting it made us friends forever. We spent our day kicking the sky on the swings, coming up with even teams for baseball, climbing trees that overhang the schoolyard and playing games with elaborate, yet fluid rules.   Summer lasted forever.  In those years, I don’t remember parents, special day trips anywhere or even a television.  That era of my life is filled with bare  feet and lightning bugs.    I want to grab hold …

Gold banners are waving, brochure pages turning, and phones ringing as the community prepares for this weekend’s annual PrairieFest. A year of planning comes down to a four day festival that this town has embraced for the past 23 years.  As PrairieFest Coordinator, I am often asked what sets this festival apart from other local and regional events, the answer can be easily summed up in one word … community. It is difficult to think of one community group that doesn’t participate in the Fest in some way. From service organizations to Scout groups, representatives of all ages are out on the …

One of my best memories of summer is picking strawberries with my Grandma. The berries were sweet, juicy, red all the way through, and somewhat fragile. That meant that we ate them up the day we picked them! Strawberries were never meant to be stored away for a week or more, so we would have a supper of warm biscuits piled high with those best-of-summer berries! The time to enjoy the best foods of summer starts now! The Oswego Country Market, hosted by the Oswegoland Park District opens Sunday morning, June 5, at 9 a.m. to offer you food that’s “ just-picked” fresh. Produce vendors returning …

When you are little, your neighborhood is your whole world.  The first 10 years last a whole lifetime.  I remember leaving saucer cups magnolia flowers on Mrs. Kaiser’s doorstep on May Day and trying so hard to make sure my ball never landed on the well manicured lawn of Mr. Deyruter.  A great Saturday night was when my parents hired Sara Sanni, the best babysitter on the block.  My memories of a summer afternoon where my parents took our whole block to see Jaws still leave me uncomfortable in the water.  I have always had an idea of the town I would make my own when the choice was finally …

In a few weeks Alice Cooper’s lyrics and melody school’s out for summer will be pounding through the heads and hearts of students as they skip out the door on the last day of the school year. Parents hear and feel the pounding much earlier, like now, as they are contemplating how the kids’ summer vacation and their full-time job can coexist and yet create the summer memories of their youth. One of the best things about summer vacation as a kid is that there’s time to do what you want to do! And what kids want to do is be outside, in the sun, in the water, and with friends too! Friends make …

Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents, it is loaned to you by your children. That ancient Indian proverb becomes more relevant every day. I grew up on the prairie in rural South Dakota where the buffalo roamed, literally. People’s livelihood depended on the richness of the soil, the warmth of the sun, and wash of the rains. It still does.Our very existence depends on this home that is our Earth and listening to the nightly news reinforces that it’s time for some do-it-yourself repairs. Just this past year, we were sickened by the scars left by the BP oil spill and the …

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “The earth laughs in flowers." My family is joyously, if not a little impatiently waiting for a little giggle.  Early Spring in the Midwest is a time when we throw down the mittens and throw off the heavy winter coat.  This is partnered with knowing a coldness that goes bone deep because it is just not warm enough for that yet.  Somehow 50 degrees in March should feel a bit warmer than 50 degrees in November.  If you are willing to dress for the cold April days, the Oswegoland Park District has many places to watch the season come to life.  Last week my family …

A garden is a friend you can visit anytime.   For those who love to dig, plant, water, weed, and sojourn with the sunshine but lack the yard space, the Oswegoland Park District has a little plot. It’s literally a little plot, yours for the renting, in the Community Gardens behind South Point.  The Community Gardens were created last spring in response to residents' requests. The first year was met with tremendous enthusiasm but trying soil conditions and poor drainage led to some abandoned tomatoes and cranky cucumbers. The Park District has turned those challenges into opportunities this …

It is my position to play. It is my job to push the boundaries of fun and find amusement in places where no one remembers to look – the mud, a remote park, time with a grandparent, or the start line of a new sport. There are people who are fortunate enough to become Special Events Coordinators. But to have this goofy, wonderful position for the people of my own community makes me lucky beyond measure. Oswegoland Park District Special Events are experiences in recreation hosted by the marketing department. If the mission of the park district is creating opportunities for a healthy community, …