Moe Mows

Two weeks ago when the lawn mower battery finally died, Ted debated whether to replace the battery on the 5 year old mower or upgrade to a new generation of battery powered mower.  Ultimately he decided to upgrade, and he is very happy he did.  The new mower is more the weight and noise of a vacuum cleaner and has better power than the old one. Ted has been happily mowing the past two weeks, but his mowing bliss may be coming to an end because today Joe discovered the wonders of mowing.  He can't get it started on his own due to how the buttons are located, but once started he can do it all by himself.  You can see he doesn't have great leverage or line of sight, so his rows are a little uneven - but not bad for a 6-yr old (almost 7!) rookie.  Now the trick is to keep him enthralled for the next 11 years!

A Horse of a Different Color

Fans, we have been remiss in not telling you about the springtime performance staged by Clara and her fellow pre-Kers.  It was a barnyard tale in which Clara and her classmates basically ran about to a narrated tale in which rascaly barnyard animals ordered pizza and lit a birthday cake on fire. (The fire was not real.)

Clara was a horse. We became aware of this circumstance when Clara's teachers sent an e-mail reminding parents to help their children make their costumes. . .according to the design that been sent home. Julie checked with Ted who mostly--rightly--fulminated about the apparent necessity of making a horse costume, but didn't know what this "design" was. So Julie check with Mr. Mark who said that a design had been done and gone home with Clara. Huh.

As this design was nowhere to be found, Julie asked Clara to describe her vision. Clara said she wanted green dots, surround by a field of blue, with an aqua tail, with flowers in it. And white legs. With flowers on them. Huh.

Julie learned at Grandma Connie's knee, so she knows: a lot can be made from an obliging pillowcase. She took herself off to Target where she found a white pillowcase with green triangles, white socks, and fabric flowers in the new tricked out kids' crafting aisle. But when she showed Clara the pillowcase, her enthusiasm as matched in equal measure by Clara's despondency. Green triangles in a field of white are not even close to green dots in a field of blue. Duh.

Conveniently, Grandma Connie and Grandpa Charles were in town for Clara's fifth birthday*. So Julie roped Grandma Connie into this project. Much hilarity was had in the aisles of Michael's after a blue pillow case was procured at Bed, Bath & Beyond. The green dots were painted on to it--with "cutie marks" like the tricked out My Little Ponies of today, thank you very much. The tails were masterpieces. And oh, you read that right because Julie was also right: Joe was going to want one of these get-ups, too.

A few days ago--roughly a month following this performance, mind you, Clara said to Julie--as though they were mid-conversation, "But Mommy, I wanted blue dots surrounded by green" (emphasis added here for dramatic effect). Huh.

Julie said that she was so sorry to hear that since that (horse) race had been run. And anyway, she was pretty sure Clara had said she wanted green dots surrounded by blue, which is just what she got. (And what the hell ever happened to a nice brown bay horse? A classic! Never out of fashion.)

And then just a day or two after that, Julie pulled down all the artwork hanging from the artwork clothes lines in the kitchen. And she found the design. The design! And, well Fans, you can see it as plain as she did: blue dots. Blue dots.  Surrounded by green.

A horse of a different color. Literally.

And is that a coral tail???

*Another thing on which we've yet to report, it's true. Hang in there, Joans.

Jellyfish Stew

Today Joe and his classmates presented Poetry and Play in which each member of the class recited a poem from memory. Our Hero can be seen here reciting his selection, Jellyfish Stew, by Jack Pretlutsky. And it was his selection. When this event came up, Joe announced he wanted to read Jellyfish Stew and paged through Julie's childhood Shel Silverstein collections and the copy of Pretlutsky's The New Kid on the Block She had gotten a while back having also loved it as a child. Joe was one of the louder of the group. Charmingly, if one was speaking softly, or uncertain, by prior agreement, the whole class would join in. Oh Fans. Isn't that the best?!

Of course they all flew through their poems at warp speed so that portion of the festivities was wrapped up in about 15 minutes. What followed was a presentation of a book of suggestions to ensure a wonderful summer. Our Hero's tip was to visit the Roller Garden for some roller skating.

After that, it was outside for mingling on the playground with other parents. The kids had been told they could introduce friends to their parents. Fans, it was a July-like 80-plus degree day here and recess time had been doubled. You can imagine how many introductions were being made. Ted and Julie left Joe climbing a rope ladder and headed home for lunch (not jellyfish stew).

Bird's Brain

Earlier this week, Clara went to Susan Lindgren for her kindergarten assessment. This is the assessment done by the school less for readiness as the state does, and more for room placement and balancing. Our Birdie is tall for her age, as long-time Fans know, and as it happened, she was a head or so taller than the other kindergarteners-to-be being assessed in her time slot gathered around the desk placed at the entrance to the media center. We won't bury the lead much more: she can still head to kindergarten in the fall. The teacher who assessed her showed us all of Clara's work, including a self-portrait. The picture included a darkened-in oval in the middle of the forehead. It looked ambit like a band-aide maybe. The teacher had asked Clara what it was.

Have you guessed, Fans?

Her brain.

I Spy More Memorial Day Memories

Memorial Day weekend is the wettest of the three summer holiday weekends according to the Minnesota weather people, who are minor celebrities in the North Star State. This Memorial Day weekend proved them right. There was upwards of a 40 "per chance"--as Joe says, with much authority--of rain all weekend long. But we had enough of a sunshine chaser Monday evening to eat al fresco on the deck. We played I Spy while we ate. Joe had us all stumped with something white that you sometimes see and sometimes don't. It was all very existential in the backyard of Casa Blanca. Peals of laughter ensued when he revealed the item: his underwear.  Kind of a potty word! At the dinner table! Parents laughing anyway! Oh the delight.

In this picture, you can see where Clara Scissorhands cut her hair nearly to the hairline, right in the middle of her forehead.

Memorial Day

Joe and Ted got to head to the ballpark on Memorial Day to see the Twins play the Red Sox. We got there just in time for some touching tributes to our veterans and the National Anthem which is a must see activity for Joe due to the fireworks during the song.  We were also treated to fireworks after a Twins home run during the game they ended up winning 7-2. We had ice cream, as always, and caught the mascot race in the 4th. We finished the day with our trip to visit Sue where Joe got to stand at her organ while she played Take Me Out to the Ballgame. On the way home, Joe asked if we could go to the cemetery.  On any other day the request would have seemed odd, but it made sense today because on the way to the game we were stuck in traffic near Lakewood Cemetery where Joe saw a horse drawn carriage and lots of American flags.  So Ted wasn't too surprised the scene had stuck in the little man's brain. So we parked and walked around the cemetery which is very impressive. We went inside a large mausoleum building, walked to the GAR statue and grave site, and took a drive around the seemingly never-ending roads. A chance to explain to Joe more about veterans and a good end to our Memorial Day.

Big Kid Beds

Berenice's new favorite napping spot now that she can no longer get on the big bed by herself.

The other weekend ago, Julie spied a lovely twin bed for sale on Nextdoor, a social networking site for neighborhoods (that is both often useful and often highly entertaining). The bed had a canopy of sorts--every little girl's dream--the price was right, and it was still available when we contacted the seller. A few hours later, Birdie had a brand new bed.

We had, actually, been wanting to get a new and bigger bed for Joe. The Nextdoor score prompted us to head to IKEA as we'd planned for some time, to find something for Joe, Nextdoor having proved a much richer source for elementary school girls' bedroom furniture than the same for elementary school boys. We did indeed find a bed at IKEA, and some malaria prevention grade netting which was as close to a canopy as Joe could get. Turns out a canopy is the dream of many (every?) kid, no matter his or her gender.

All that was left was a mattress which Ted and Joe picked up a day later. You can see a short video here of Joe testing out the wares. (It is short, by amazing.) Clearly the two guys minding the store that day were willing to allow a lot to make a sale.

The bambini are both asleep in their new beds tonight, wreathed in gossamer trappings of some stripe. Sweet dreams are made of this.

Writer

At Clara's preschool, each child is given a job for the week. For example, the Electrician is in charge of turning off the lights when the class leaves the room to go outside; the Nurse carries the backpack with medical kit outside; the Zookeeper feeds the fish; and the Gardener waters the plant. This week, Clara was the Writer whose job is to fill out the daily report. Here is Friday's report. Hopefully you can tell which words she wrote.

My Two Front Teeth

At last, Joe's wobbly front tooth fell out.  It had been hanging on by a thread for a while, kind of creeping Julie and Ted out every time they saw it wiggle when he ate. Joe doesn't have a great track record keeping the teeth after they fall out. This time, the story goes, Joe realized it fell out while eating lunch and was able to retrieve it from his mouth. He got to go to the nurse who gave him a little plastic treasure box in which to keep it. At pick up Ted grabbed Joe's backpack which was open and stuffed with all his possessions and the little container dropped on the floor.  Ted almost left it behind thinking it was a toy piece belonging to Kids Place or had dropped out of a neighboring bag, but he held on to it and caught up to Joe to ask him about it.  And so Joe was able to leave something for the tooth fairy to claim his prize.

Go Fish

Yesterday at Wolfe Park, Joe, Clara and Ted visited the fishing dock where a man was fishing and actually catching fish. This of course sparked Joe to request a fishing trip.  So today we found the poles and Joe practiced casting in the front yard (the table as dock was his unsafe idea). We also collected worms while planting in the gardens, so by 3pm we were ready for our adventure!  Clara stayed home so it was just the boys, but we walked to the dock and tried our luck with the worms. No luck. We think the tiny fish nibbled the skinny worms off the big hook. We tried some lures-still no luck. A girl about 10 managed to catch two bass while we fumbled around, so it wasn't the fishes' fault. We finally gave up, then Joe climbed on the rocks until he stuck his foot in the water and got upset.  All that was our fishing trip where all we caught was frustration.

Hair, Paper, Scissors

Sort of punk.

Fans, we have a rule at Casa Blanca: scissors and markers are used with and on paper only.

You all know where this is heading already, don't you?

We recently moved all scissors to a high kitchen cupboard such that the bambini must ask for help if they would like to use a pair. When this rule was announced, Joe protested: "Why?????"  Julie replied that she wasn't convinced everyone understood that scissors were only to be used to cut paper and paper derivatives. He protested, again: "I do!!!!!" Julie hissed, "Not. You." He got it. Finally.

Clara last had a hair cut two months ago. (Julie was wondering if she could skip a month between trips to the salon.) About two weeks ago, she thought to herself that she really couldn't. Birdie's hair was looking jagged and laying funny, and then Julie shrugged it all off. Not long after, she was helping Birdie pick up her room when she discovered a nest of blond wisps in Birdie's Frozen lunch box. And it all came together, Fans. It all came together. Julie's suspicions were confirmed when she curled Birdie's hair for spring picture day and thus had to deal with all kinds of oddly placed layers, clearly the work of an amateur.

Birdie denied any involvement of course, laying blame at the feet of an anonymous boy in her class. Naturally. Julie took her queue from the ladies on the front of the lunchbox and let it go. But she rounded up the scissors and exiled them to a kitchen cupboard.

The markers are destined to go the way of the scissors as just this morning, Clara colored the inseam of on leg of her leggings with yellow highlighter. Julie spied the evidence as the Birds were walking, as fate would have it, to get Clara's haircut. Clara was lagging behind Julue on the sidewalk. Every time Julie would stop and turn to urge Ckara on, Birdie would stop, too, and clamp her legs together. Well. Julie saw the flash of yellow and the jig was up.

The Yellow Highlighter Incident followed a kerfuffle earlier this morning when Julie demurred in the face of Clara's request for a permanent marker with which to enscribe "Squirrel" on the squirrel house Birdie was making out of an old shoe box. Julie took all the Sharpies out to the garden with her after denying Clara's request, not trusting Birdie not to take matters into her own hands.

So it was that on the sidewalk Julie silently congratulated herself for this forforethought  because it was clear that after having her request for a permanent marker denied, Clara had abandoned her squirrel real estate designs to color her leggings--and the bottom of her feet.

We've got a live one, Fans. Katy, bar the door. And the scissors and the markers.

Post-clean-up.

Weather

If there is one thing Minnesota leads in it is analyzing/planning/discussing the weather. And so it was that all the forecasts for Sunday were for extreme weather - tornado watch, hail storms, and heavy rain. Having had our garden shredded by hail about five years ago this same weekend, and having just planted dozens of new plants in our new garden bed, this family was preparing for the worst.  Julie woke up early and decided to move all potted plants and window boxes into the garage, then used empty containers to cover the new plants like little hail bunkers. We then planned for a day inside, cleaning out the old toys for the upcoming garage sale, craft projects and some tv shows.  So naturally, nothing ever came of this storm except for some light rain at about 4pm. 

The upside is our plants got to wear hats all day, and Ted could walk the kids to the park for the city wide ice cream social. The organizers also saw the forecasts so had moved the festivities inside, but we still got our free ice cream cone and an assortment of giveaways. The highlight was getting to go in the police car and fire truck afterwards. And then playing at the park and going to the fishing pier, where the kids talked up a guy catching a fish on literally every cast (a well stocked lake!). Joe even got to hold a fish which quickly flopped on to the pier. Stay tuned for an upcoming fishing trip if Joe stays interested.  

Turned out to be a beautiful day!  

Imagination

Last week was our second go at the annual Imagination and Inventors Fair.  If you recall, last year Joe made a bird hotel made of milk cartons.  This year Joe was apparently of the mind that a milk carton should be used for his project, but he had a spark when he saw his apple sauce pouch top which is in the shape of a helicopter spinner.  So Ted had Joe sketch out his idea and create a materials list.  He also suggested making a diorama from a shoebox, which is something Joe does on his own occasionally. 

On assembly day, the boys had to change up the design a bit, incorporating a clothespin for the landing gear and to hold the rear spinner, and some balsa wood for the main spinner.  Joe colored it based on a picture found on Google. And the diorama was a city scene with a helipad.  

At the fair Joe got interviewed and was able to describe the project well. Meanwhile Julie was off interviewing other kids having been roped in to volunteer again.  Clara did her best not to get overwhelmed, but she will have her own project next year!

Joe with helicopter and missing front tooth lost that very day.