Bald Head Thursday

Oh, Mary...it's been a long time, hasn't it???  I miss a good ol' BHT!

How about this variation on the theme?

Yes, I stitched their names on the backs of their hats.  I cannot help the coach with practice because most of the kids on the team throw better than I do (mine included)... but I can personalize their uniforms!

A Poem in Your Pocket Day

Today is National Poem in Your Pocket Day.  I heard about it on NPR yesterday.  That's the link you see in the first sentence.  And, I agree with some of the comments... I'd be disappointed to not get my cookie, too.  Hopefully, they gave them both.  (What is she talking about???  Guess you have to read the article. tee hee)

Gretchen was very excited about the whole thing.  Carl, well, he wanted to get home for a snack.

So, this morning, they headed off to school with poems in their pockets.  Gretchen wanted the lyrics to "Goin' To The Zoo" because today they have a field trip to the zoo.  We printed out the Peter, Paul and Mary version (which did not match with what she learned in school.  This lead to a quick lesson about the wonder of folk music and songs being passed from person to person, often with changes occurring.)   Carl wanted a photo copy of a page from a book of childhood poetry that we have.  I don't think it is the copy from Mom's house - I seem to remember an alligator on the cover of our copy.  I think this one came from a used book sale.  Anyway, it has a 1954 copyright in it.  the pages are cracking from age and use.  And, it happens to contain one of my most favorite poems as well as Lew's favorite childhood poem.  So, whose did he choose?   Mommy's!  He is carrying Animal Crackers by Christopher Morley.  Remember this tea party?  Awww!

What did I choose?  I was going to go with my favorite Ogden Nash poem

The Lord in His wisdom made the fly

and then forgot to tell us why.

but, I decided to go with one of my mother's favorites, an AA Milne poem, Halfway Down.  I also printed the Animal Crackers one out to carry.  Lew didn't go to work with one, but we'll give him his favorite, Eletelephony by Laura E. Richards when we see him after work.  

If you are reading this in time, print or write out your favorite poem and tuck it in your pocket.  Or, pick one for a friend and deliver it to their pocket!

Goin' to the Zoo - Tom Paxton

Daddy's takin' us to the zoo tomorrow, 
Zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow
Daddy's takin' us to the zoo tomorrow 
And we can stay all day! 

Chorus:
We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo
How about you, you, you?
You can come too, too, too
We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo. 

See the elephant with the long trunk swingin'
Great big ears and a long trunk swingin'
Snuffin' up peanuts with a long trunk swingin'
And we can stay all day! 

(Chorus) 

See all the monkeys they're scritch-scritch scratchin'
Jumpin' around and scritch-scritch scratchin'
Hangin' by the long-tail (huff huff huff)
And we can stay all day! 

(Chorus) 

There's a big black bear he's a huff-puff-a-puffin'
His coat's too heavy he's a huff-puff-a-puffin'
Don't get too near the huff-puff-a-puffin'
Or you won't stay all day! 

(Chorus) 

Well the seals in the pool all honk-honk-honkin'
Catchin' the fish and honk-honk-honkin'
Little tiny seals all honk-honk-honkin'
And we can stay all day! 

(Chorus) 

Well we stayed all day and I'm gettin' sleepy
Sittin' in the car gettin' sleep sleep sleepy
Home already gettin' sleep sleep sleepy
'Cause we have stayed all day. 

We been to the zoo zoo zoo
So have you you you
You came too too too
We been to the zoo zoo zoo 

MOMMY'S TAKIN' US TO THE ZOO TOMORROW!
Zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow!
Mommy's takin' us to the zoo tomorrow
And we can stay all day! 

Animal Crackers 
By: Christopher Morley

Animal crackers and cocoa to drink, 
That is the finest of suppers, I think; 
When I'm grown up and can have what I please 
I think I shall always insist upon these.

What do you choose when you're offered a treat? 
When Mother says, "What would you like best to eat?" 
Is it waffles and syrup, or cinnamon toast? 
It's cocoa and animals that I love the most!

The kitchen's the coziest place that I know: 
The kettle is singing, the stove is aglow, 
And there in the twilight, how jolly to see 
The cocoa and animals waiting for me. 

Daddy and Mother dine later in state, 
With Mary to cook for them, Susan to wait; 
But they don't have nearly as much fun as I 
Who eat in the kitchen with Nurse standing by; 
And Daddy once said he would like to be me 
Having cocoa and animals once more for tea! 

Halfway Down by A.A. Milne

Halfway down the stairs
is a stair
where i sit.
there isn't any
other stair
quite like
it.
i'm not at the bottom,
i'm not at the top;
so this is the stair
where
I always
stop.

Halfway up the stairs
Isn't up
And it isn't down.
It isn't in the nursery,
It isn't in town.
And all sorts of funny thoughts
Run round my head.
It isn't really
Anywhere!
It's somewhere else
Instead!

Eletelephony ~Laura Richards Once there was an elephant, Who tried to use the telephant- No! No! I mean an elephone Who tried to use the telephone- (Dear me! I am not certain quite That even now I've got it right.) Howe'er it was, he got his trunk Entangled in the telephunk; The more he tried to get it free, The louder buzzed the telephee- (I fear I'd better drop the song Of elephop and telephong!)

6 years ago

April 20th, 2006.  5 months old.  I was cruising through old folders and found this shot of me feeding both kids at once.  (I can do three at once, too, you know.  Someday, I am going back to work and I'll get to do it again.)

photo Friday

t-ball

Last week the kids had Opening Ceremonies for their t-ball league.  The night before (at 5pm) I got the email saying, "Opening Ceremonies is tomorrow.  Don't forget the grey pants."  Huh???  What grey pants?  And where is that park?  A quick email to the coach and I learned I needed to buy them grey baseball pants.  (They are the only kids on the team in sneakers, I think.  All the other kids are wearing cleats.  T-ball is serious in the fashion department, I guess. I am not buying cleats for something that ends in early June.  I spent $140 just signing them up for this.  Everyday sneakers will be fine.)

So, we ran out that night and found 2 pairs of grey baseball pants at Play It Again Sports.  $3 a pair.  No biggie.  The brand new ones were $10 so I was happy the used ones fit.   I was even more happy about that when they handed me 2 pairs of grey baseball pants the next night at the opening ceremonies when they gave us jerseys, socks, hats and batting gloves.  I was really glad I didn't spend $20 on pants less than 24 hours earlier.

The ceremonies were cute.  All the teams (t-ball, baseball and softball) came out, one coach sang the national anthem - and did a beautiful job - he actually sang the song as it was written unlike celebrities who like to show off how they can make their voices go up and down like idiots.  Sing the anthem as intended.  I think there should be a fine for embellishing the national anthem, but tonight's coach would have escaped that.  Then, he threw out the first pitch and the evening was over.

This is not my kid.

 I took the logos off all the shirts for photos for privacy.

Then we had our first official game on Monday evening.   We now have games 2 nights per week, practice one evening during the week and on Saturday afternoons.  This coming Sunday, we have a team photo.

For a game, each child bats twice.  They do Home Team full roster, Away Team full roster.  Then Home Team 1st 1/2 roster, Away Team 1st 1/2 roster, Home team 2nd 1/2 roster, Away Team 2nd 1/2 roster.  But, we ran out of time and the Away Team did not get their last-ups the other night.  I felt bad for the kids who didn't get to bat twice.  They were trying to get kids out, but even if you did get tagged out - you did not leave the base.  Every child ran all the bases.  Some one at a time, others managed to get doubles.  The last batter of each "inning" got to run a home run!

Since they went alphabetically, Carl was first.  Gretchen was second.  Before the game, Carl went to the coach and politely asked, "Can I bat first?'  so he probably thinks he went first because he asked.  Both times that Carl got to home plate, he stood there and waited for Gretchen to run to home, too, before heading back to the dugout.

The first time our team took the field, Carl got to play catcher!  It was perfect for him!  He got to get lots of balls and he did not have to throw any!  When they headed out for the second time, I heard him ask the coach, "Can I get the mask?"  but another little boy got to be catcher.  I will have to bring my camera to every game now just in case Gretchen (or Carl again) gets to be catcher, too.

Gretchen did a great job out in the field.  One ball came right to her.  She grabbed it without letting it get past her and threw it back to home plate... to her brother, the catcher.

No outs counted, no scores kept.  But, the teams did high-five each other after the game as a show of good sportsmanship.  One parent told Lew last year 2 dads at a t-ball game got into a fight and the cops had to be called.  Wow.

They had practice last night and a game tomorrow.  They are looking forward to another game!

Happy Friday the 13th

Watch out... he might get up and decide to cross your path....

Is your path lined with fleece?  No?  Well then, in that case....  you might be safe.

lounge pants, part 2

It was 35* outside this morning.  And only going to 60 during the school day.  So, no shorts.  Carl had his heart set on wearing his new Angry Birds shirt.  But, since it was going to be chilly, he paired that with his flannel train pants.  And of course, his signature yellow Crocs.  (Crocs are soooooo ugly.  But he loves those damn yellow shoes so much, I gave in.  Thank goodness Gretchen doesn't like them.)  She is wearing a turtleneck and sweater in NC in April.  Crazy, eh?

Off to school this morning....

It bugs me that the pictures look fuzzy.  If you click on them and they get bigger, they look crisp like they should.

unique, yet the same

A couple weeks ago we had a particularly chilly day.  Carl was so happy to get to wear pants instead of shorts.  He had been waiting to wear his new flannel license plate pants to school.  Sure, they look like pajamas, but I have been assured by Mary that in collegiate circles these are called "lounge pants" and all the guys are wearing them!  Carl is just advanced for his age.

Gretchen decided to grab her new pair, too.  I have several patterns for dresses and jumpers and skirts that I can make for her, but the pants are the one "boy" pattern I have.  So, Carl has more pants made by me than she does, but I couldn't pass up this Tinkerbell flannel.  She told me later that her teacher loved the purple and lime green together.  "She said she would not have picked it herself, but when she saw it, she loved  it!"


No one questioned them during the day, but I think at Parent Pick-Up, one of the 1st grade teachers asked if their class had Pajama Day.  Nope.  Just my two kids being the same, yet different.  And not embarrassed to be unique!

Happy Easter

Thanks to the Easter Bunny, we had an outdoor egg hunt this morning here at home....

with some backyard playtime after...

Lew cooked lunch...

The Bunny left them baskets inside, too.  Each received a Webkinz stuffed rabbit.  When Grammie was here, she introduced them to Webkinz online.  They have a couple of the stuffed animals, but never knew there were games to play on the computer, too.  They are hooked. Carl quickly learned you can buy a cheeseburger to feed your pet.  Now, he wants to feed Rod The Giraffe a cheeseburger all the time.  Gretchen registered her yellow dog that Aunt Lila gave her - that she had named Ali back when she got the stuffed dog.  At that time, Aunt Lila gave Carl a giraffe... so when you register your pets (because although I did not let them play sooner, I kept the tags with the special code - and since I am organized - I knew where they were) you have to name them.  Well, we decided to name Carl's giraffe "Rod".  These kids are logical.  Creativity plays second fiddle to logic.

Anyway, they also got a ton of candy... Peeps for Carl as well as Swedish Fish Eggs (the box says "candivar"  on it) and Gretchen got some jelly beans and kit-kats.  They both got egg shaped sidewalk chalk, too.  Simple, but all stuff they loved!

Tonight, for dinner we had cheeseburgers.  This is important because it means that on every single day of his spring break Carl had at least one cheeseburger!  Yes, some days, he had one for lunch and for dinner!   And, he knows it - he is planning on telling that tomorrow when they do their "Weekend Share" time in the morning meeting.  They got to bed a little early tonight, too, so they'll be ready for school in the morning. All vacation, they continued to wake up at 6:30.  Carl says, "I automatically wake up at 6:30."  So, at least I won't have a fight on my hands with kids who got used to sleeping in all week.   Oh - and - both are buying lunch tomorrow!  I haven't made a lunch in about 2 weeks!  Yay for me!!

So, I have just a few other pictures to share from the Easter season...

The kids decorated these shirts themselves... and I made Gretchen's skirt.  Click on the picture to make it a little bigger so you can see the cute chicks they drew.  Carl made his a nest and Gretchen's has just cracked out of an egg and he is saying "Cerp" (chirp) which I stitched in her handwriting because our fabric markers wouldn't have been fine enough to write letters with.  The picture was taken at the egg hunt and party they had at school before vacation.  Parents sent in candy-filled plastic eggs and the teacher made sure every child had 16 eggs to find. Each child was assigned a word off their Core Word List.  The teachers had written those words on the eggs so each child was searching for their own 16 eggs - it was not just one big free-for-all as most egg hunts are.  It was a lot of fun as the kids first searched for themselves and then teamed up to help each other find their words.

They played some games and had a pizza party lunch after the egg hunt.  It was an early dismissal day, so I had dropped them off at 7:30 but returned at 9:00 to hide the class' eggs and then just stayed on until noon when the day ended.

Did you see them with Peter Rabbit?

We actually saw the real Easter Bunny only once this season - and that was last night as we headed into the grocery store.  We could see a couple other kids pointing at an approaching car.  As the car got closer, we saw that the Easter Bunny himself was driving!  So, we now know that the Bunny drives a very old, beat up Toyota Corolla.  Honestly, we could have spent hours playing with him in some other setting and it would not have been as perfect as getting to see a large white rabbit drive by in a white Toyota Corolla.  Carl will talk about this for months!  Maybe years!

Happy Easter!  The kids are back to school tomorrow and really excited to be going back!

it feels like Sunday

Lew had yesterday off and now I am all confused.  Yesterday felt like Saturday - especially filled with so many activities.  Now, today is definitely feeling like Sunday.

This morning, we went over to Rebecca's church to join her, her little brother and her mom in their Easter Egg hunt.  It was a lot of fun getting to visit and the kids had a ball.    And, like the Children's Museum yesterday... the church asked that you recycle the plastic eggs after you emptied any candy or goodies out of them.  Yay!  We probably have 3 million plastic eggs in this house.  It was nice to not bring more home this past weekend!

I'll share one shot of the kiddos with you...

Then, we headed to lunch with Mom before she had to be to the airport.  Yum!  Oh - where did I put those leftover chicken fingers?

Then, a couple shots at the airport.

We had such a fun, fast week with Grammie here!  I can't find Gretchen's list right now (and she and Carl are off with Lew washing his car) or I'd share it with you.  She planned the whole week out ahead of time.  We got to everything on her list, too!  (And we could have added "picking strawberries" if we had known the picking season would start 3 weeks early this year.  Oh well.)   She had both garden trips on there, a couple restaurants, the children's museum, the toy store bunny event, going to Rebecca's "terch" (church) for the egg hunt and even playing games.  The best was "cxrap booking" (scrap booking)!   We even got to do the bowling that was not on the list.  (guess I pretty much shared the cute parts) I think it was a pretty full spring break.  They should be ready to get back to school and back to learning on Monday.


Thanks for coming down, Mom!  We miss you already!  You should retire and do this more often!

....... and I am not just saying that because now I will have to do dishes again.

Good Friday... Busy Friday

We got up and headed right to the Children's Museum for their Spring Event.  They had egg hunts, flower planting, and egg decorating.  It was pretty crowded, but they had fun.  The kids could paint eggs with glue and then roll them in glitter.  They had ziplock baggies for us to take them home in.  Good thing... that is one messy way to decorate eggs.

Daddy doesn't get to the museum with us often.  He got a chance to ride Carl's bus.  Carl will ask anyone who gets on the bus, "What's your destination?"

In the Teddy Bear Hospital, this is Carl's favorite patient, Lion.

Gretchen had a patient to work up, too.

We didn't get any pictures of Grammie at the Children's Museum... but she was there.

Then, we came home for lunch.  Being Good Friday, we suffered through a meatless lunch with some homemade chowder from a favorite local restaurant.  Mmmm... clam chowder and hush puppies.  It was hot enough that even Nanny would have approved.

The kids took a short nap and we still had about an hour before our late afternoon appointment to hold the baby bunnies at the favorite local toy store.  So, we dyed our eggs then!

Look who is photo-bombing this picture!

Then it was time to head over to hold some bunnies!  Last year, there were more born (and they were born a week or two earlier) when we went to hold them.  Because there were not as many this year, they had people make reservations for a time spot.  It was much less crowded and much less stressful on the bunnies, too.

Carl kept whispering, "I love you, Bunny" to the little grey one.   These bunnies are only 2 weeks old!!  They can't even hop yet!!

I wanted to hold them all day.

We came home - enjoyed a homemade mac and cheese (more meatless sacrificing) and then headed over to that yogurt bar we went to earlier in the week for make your own sundaes for dessert.  We got to see the moon rising, too. It was beautiful.  Wish we had known it was going to rise then.  It was a full moon - and it would have been beautiful to see it rise up out of the ocean.  Still, we enjoyed seeing it climbing over the trees.

Of course - we played games before bedtime!  Actually, Hi Ho Cherry-O and then some computer time signing up Webkinz for the first time with Grammie's help!!

Tomorrow is already Grammie's last day here.  We're going to an Egg Hunt at a school friend's church in the morning.

PS - Yes, it was cold here yesterday.  You know "cold"... a high of only 58*.  Turtlenecks and sweaters for my little grits!