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.