Cherry Blossoms in DC

Whew! What a trip we just had! It was spring break week and we took the bull by the horns for our first big-time road trip. We did lots of planning for the trip and knew that there was more to see than the time we had, so we prioritized our list of must-sees, saving the rest for "next time." In the car on the drive home, R said that I should put a warning at the beginning of this blog, saying that it would be a long one, because we did so much. Consider yourself warned.

Here's we go:

Saturday

Drove ten hours to Baltimore. The boys watched DVDs (Transformers and School House Rock) and played Nintendo DS (Pokemon and Zelda) in the car on the way. We arrived at the hotel at bedtime.

Sunday

Baltimore aquarium, B&O Railroad, and Fort Mc Henry.

Weather: Cloudy and about 50 degrees

• The Baltimore aquarium was really nice. It was set up so that you meandered your way up and up, seeing different parts of the sea on each level. They also had a dolphin show and IMAX theater. R bought a bookmark and T bought a thimble as souvineers. (They both had twenty bucks to spend for the whole trip. They managed their cash very carefully.)


• Baltimore is home to the first railroad in the country (the B&O of Monopoly fame). The museaum had some amazing old locomotives -- it was one of the best collectections we've seen (and you know we've seen a lot!)

We only planned on doing two things today, but M and I really wanted to see Fort McHenry also. It was here in 1814 that Francis Scott Key saw "the bombs bursting in air" and inspired him to write the Star Spangled Banner. We got there with 45 minutes to run around the fort and check it out -- we're very glad that we did.

Dinner at a cute little spot just off the Inner Harbor -- We had appetizers of veggies and three dips -- hummus, red peppe puree, and yogurt and cucumber dip. We were off to a good start! For dinner, I had crab cakes (when in Rome!) and the boys had cream of crab soup (again, when in Rome!), M had some kind of fish too. Yummo!

This is a cute picture of T (with his two missing bottom front teeth) showing the pear that he chose for his snack that day. He wanted me to blog it so that AJ would see it because "she really likes pears."

Monday

Washington DC - trolley tour, Jefferson Memorial, FDR Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Arlington Cemetary, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, WWII Memorial.

Weather: 44 degrees and drizzly, or as I like to say, "slightly miserable"

• We decided to take a trolley tour of the city which allows you to get on and off as you'd like. Thank goodness we did, because we did enough walking to walk our feet off, even with the trolley. We had a really nice guide, "Grumpy", who put R and T up next to him in the front. He'd ask them questions, and of course, R would answer while T would look down at the floor of the trolley. Grumpy loved R and first called him the "Jr Tour Guide," but upgraded him to the "Co-Tour Guide" by the end of the tour because R knew so much!
• We got off at the Jefferson Memorial and walked to the FDR and Lincoln Memorials. I had never been to the FDR one before and it was pretty cool. The boys had a good time checking everything out.
• It was Cherry Blossom time too -- and they were gorgeous.


• Then we took the trolly to Arlingon Cemetary. It made me cry to see the rows upon rows of thousands upon thousands military buried there. We also saw the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unkowns -- something I remember doing with my grandparents when I was 12. R really appreciated it and T thought it was boring.
• Back in DC, we walked from the Koren War memorial (where we thought of Uncle Harold) to the Vietnam Memorial (where we thought of Uncle Paul's daddy) to the WWII Memorial (where we thought of Great Grandpa Smith).
• Finally, we walked by the Washington Monument and caught our trolley back to Union Station, where we took the return train back to Baltimore.


• Note: We pushed it to far. Everything was great until the last hour, when T just broke down -- crying, tired, headache, stomach ache. Was he dehydrated? Hungry? Sick? We weren't sure. He was a miserable wreck, sobbing and sobbing -- and there was nothing we could do that would help him. I knew if we could just get him on the train and leave him alone, he'd be okay. Luckily, I was right. About twenty minutes into the 35 minute train ride, he was feeling better and back to his happy self. We learned our lesson and scaled back the days to come.
• On the shuttle to the hotel, there was another family with two boys. Our boys hit it off and had a great conversation comparing DC stories.

The boys wanted to climb the trees, but was a mean mon and told them they couldn't. Here they are hanging a bit from the tree, which I didn't say they couldn't do.

T and R liked the statue of FDRs dog. You can see that it's a favorite picture among kids -- see the shiny tips of the ears and nose where people have rubbed off the patina over the years?
Eating lunch by the Korean War Memorial. We packed our lunches and snacks everyday and stayed at a hotel with free breakfast, so that we'd only have to eat dinner out. Every little bit to save money helps!


M and the boys in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

We took a bus into Arlington Cemetary in Arlington Virginia (just a few miles from DC). The boys were curious about touring a cemetary. We saw JFKs eternal flame, as well as Bobby Kennedy's simple white cross.

Watching the guard slowly march back and forth in front of the Tomb of the Unkowns (it used to be called Tomb of the Unkown Soldiers, but has been changed to the Unkowns since they might be airmen or Marines or something else.) This guard was amazing to watch; he was so precise with his walk and how he turned around in three moves, with a clack of his heal each turn.)

This is the official changing of the guards, which happens every 30 minutes. It was such a sight to see! So serious, respectful, and somber. I'm so glad that I got to see this again and to share it with M and the boys.

At the Vietnam War Memorial, we looked up Varner Party of Five's dad. I didn't find the exact name that I was looking for, but I found this name that I think is right. We all rubbed our fingers on it and thought about the grandpa that our cousins never met.

Tuesday

Swimming at the hotel, Naval Acadamy at Annapolis Maryland, more swimming at the hotel

Weather: 55 degrees, cloudy
Based upon T's breakdown, we made Tuesday our easy day -- I knew we'd need one, I just didn't know we'd need it so soon!

• We slept in, ate breakfast, and went swimming at the hotel.


• We left to go to Annapolis in time to get to the Naval Acadamy by noon, when all of the midshipmen would be out in formation for uniform inspection before lunch.
• We made it just in time, but darn it, they didn't have the inspection outside because there was a chance of rain. They still had the formation, but it was inside where the public was not allowed to go.
• We had a tour of the Acadamy and it was really neat. We got to see a typical Midshipmen's room (all the students are called Midshipmen). We saw their amazing pool and wrestling gyms. We saw the beautiful chapel and the nice houses that the naval professors live in.
• We found a nice little restaurant on the harbor and had Crab Bisque for lunch with tasty bread.


• Back to the hotel for more swimming.

Wednesday

The White House! Mount Vernon, and Alexandria

Weather: Sunny! and 60 degrees (now that's more like it!)

• In order to get a tour of the White House, you have to write your Congressman usually 6 months in advance, then submit your social security number for a secret service security check. We did that and had a reservation for a 9:30 am tour.
• We decided to drive into DC for this and then we'd head to without traffic, it would be only a forty minute drive, but we heard that it could take up to two hours. So, we left early, hoping to get there in plenty of time for breakfast, but knowing we'd have to skip breakfast if the traffic was terrible. The boys each had two NutriGrain bars on the way, so they were covered.
• We arrived in DC at 7:30, with moderate traffic. We ate breakfast in a little diner and headed to the White House -- only to learn that "the President and Mrs Bush are using the White House this morning, so please come back any time between 10:30 and 12:30 for your tour. Bummer! So, we headed over to the White House Visitor's Center and did everything possible there to bide the time. At 10:00, we went back to the White House only to see a line of at least 600 people waiting to get in! There was no order to the line, so we had people with 11:00 reservations in front of us. Hmmmm..


• Well, we waited and waited, and waited. The boys entertained themselves by creating an army of animals (I don't know either, but it kept them occupied for the TWO HOURS that we waited in line.)


• Finally, at 12:30, we made it to the front of the line -- only to find out that we weren't on the list! A Secret Serviceman took our names and social security numbers and told us that they would confirm that we had an appointment and then run our security check. Hopefully, he'd be able to get us in within an hour.
• By now, T was fading, so M ran (literally) to a little kiosk about two blocks away and came back with four Snickers bars. Both boys were smiling ear to ear when they learned that we were going to give them a whole candy bar and they could eat the whole thing before lunch!
• At about 1:30, we were in the White House! It was a self-guided tour of the East end of the first floor. It is sure pretty in there with tons of antiques -- a silver urn from John Adams, a portrait of George Washington that Dolly Madison saved when the White House was burned down in the war of 1812...it just goes on and on. What a great experience.
• Note, there are no cameras allowed in the White House, so you'll see no pictures here. As a matter of fact there are a lot of things you can't have, including purses, phones with cameras, remotes for cars. All that you can have is a wallet with ID, one key, and an umbrella. (Frankly, I think that the umbrella is a funny one -- seems like you can make your umbrella into something bad like a bomb or weapon or something. But, with all the Secret Service folks around, I guess they'd grab you before you did anything with your James-Bond-like umbrella!
• By the way, Pres Bush took off in Marine One while we were in line -- we saw the Secret Service guys move around on the roof of the White House and then heard the helecopter take off. Cool.
• After the White House, we ate our lunch and drove to Mount Vernon. It was sunny and beautiful, we spent the whole time there on the grounds. They had a great activity pack for kids, full of questions to answer. R really got into it and T had a blast holding the map out in front of him, since he dubbed himself the navigator. We walked all over the place, but didn't go in the house itself. There was a really long line to get in and the boys had just seen the White House which was enough for them. We really had a nice time.


• On to Alexandria. This is a beautiful, ritzy, old town that was founded during George Washington's time. General Lee was from Alexandria. We went there not for the history, but for the Torpedo Artist Warehouse that I had read about -- it was T's #1 thing that he was looking forward to on the trip. It was an old Torpedo warehouse that is now home to hundreds of artists who use it as their studio and shops. The artist live across the street. T loves art -- he loves to make art, loves to look at art, and loves to collect art, especailly pottery.


• He had twenty bucks burning a whole in his pocket and wanted to spend it. I warned him that there might not be one thing in his price range in the whole place, but he wanted to go and check it out. We went to every artist studio in the place and narrowed down his choice to three things: two mugs and one little fish with a marble eye. He got the fish. He was such a happy boy, walking as fast as he could from one studio to another, stopping to appreciate a huge painting, then moving on. He saw things for hundreds and even thousands of dollars that he wished he could have, but he was in good spirits and happy with his fish
• Back to the hotel for more swimming and dinner.

This is George Washington's old tomb (he's been moved to a place on the property that won't slide into the Potomac River). This is a typical sight on our trip - R reading the blurb with the rest of us listening.

T and R posed in front of Mt Vernon -- the same place that I posed for my grandfather thirty years ago.

Thursday

Back to DC for the Air and Space Museum

Weather: Sunny and 60's (of course, when we'll be inside all day!)

• Before I did research for this trip, I thought that the Smithsonian was one museaum, rather than the eight or so museaums that it really is. The one must-see museaum that everybody agreed upon was the Air and Space Museaum.



• Boy, did the boys have fun! From Amelia Earhart's plane to Apollo 11's landing module, to the Spirit of St Louis -- you name a plane or space craft, and they had it there.

This is something I saw a lot of at the museum -- M pointing at something and explaining it's history or how it works to the boys. He's pretty darn knowledgeable about this stuff and the boys were pretty darn interested.

Excited to see the Spirit of St Louis, the boys patiently pose for me.

Friday and Saturday -- divided the drive home in two days, with swimming at the hotel in between.

T's favorite things that we did:

1. Mt Vernon
2. Air and Space Museum
3. Torpedo Art place

R's favorites:

1. White House
2. Air and Space Museum
3. Mt Vernon

T added: Oh, and all the monuments and stuff. Oh, and the Aquarium and the RR museum. Is that okay, that I have more than three favorites?

You bet it's okay :>

When They Grow Up

The other night I asked the boys what they wanted to be when they grew up. Here's what they said:

R said:
"Remember when I was going to be a fighter pilot? Well, I don't want to do that anymore for three reasons: 1)I don't want to eat carrots for every meal (like his great grandfather did in the War), 2)I decided it would be too much of a risk for my life, and 3) I might get dizzy from all of the buttons and switches, even with the 'heads-up' display. So, now I want to be either an author because I like to write. Or I'll be a scientist and find a cure for Diabetes....or I want to be a historian to find out about history and someday teach it to kids, maybe."

T said:
"I'm gonna be a pilot, dog breeder, artist, or a scuba diver."

R joined in: "Oh yeah, I might be a scuba diver too."

There ya go.

Spring, Easter, Winter

Thursday was beautiful. It was 48 degrees (downright balmy after the winter we had) and the snow had finally all melted. I mean all melted....even those stuburn piles of snow at the end of everybody's driveways (from being snow blowed higher and higher.) We could see grass (albeit brown grass) for the first time since December. After all, we got 99 inches of snow over the winter. Only four times in the past one hundred years had we gotten more than that. We are talking about a record breaking winter.

But it was over. The snow was gone. It was sunny. I was ecstatic. Then Friday came. And it brought a "winter storm." That meant 11 inches of show. No, I'm not kidding. Good Friday was a snowy day. And it was the day that the Smiths drove to have Easter with us. What was usually a four hour drive took them seven and a half hours. What a bummer!
Here is a picture that I took on Easter Sunday -- showing the snow and icicles on a bush.






The great part is that they made it and we had a nice weekend.

We had a tasty fish taco dinner on Friday night (thanks, AJ, for the great recipe!) We slept in, had a good breakfast (eggs, sausage, toast, berries, kringle) and then dyed Easter eggs on Saturday.


Saturday night was our Easter dinner -- M was in charge of grilling (on a spit) the leg of lamb, which had been marinating in olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, and rosemary for 24 hours. I made smashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, and heated up some tasty, flaky rolls. I also put out a bowl full of berries -- strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries. I think we've had this same meal for three years now and I love the simplicity and deliciousness of it. It was also a hit with the family. Of course, we used our china, crystal, and silver.



The next morning was Easter and the boys got on their Easter clothes. Both were proud of their duds. T was happy with his, but he wished that he had a tie. I told him that next year he can have a tie. (He loves getting dressed up. For the Christmas program at school, the teacher told them to wear their best clothes to the concert. T wanted to get a tuxedo because that's "the best." He was actually quite disappointed that I said 'no.' He said that we got him one for Uncle D's wedding, and this was just as fancy. Alas, he wore a Christmas sweater and slacks, much to his disappointment!) Anyway, don't they look so grown up?!


Here is T showing off his argyle socks that the Easter bunny game him. He loves a complete outfit.
After church on Easter morning, we headed off to the beautiful manor on the lake and had a wonderful Brunch. It was a great time in a lovely house. They offered us a tour of the house, but we declined since we had taken the tour on the two previous Easters. But what a lovely place! And what a lovely brunch!



Grandma and grampa were proud of their grandsons. We had a great Easter!

Pinewood Derby

Last weekend was a very busy one. I'm going to take it in parts -- this episode will be about the Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby, which both boys were able to compete this year (T's first year and R's second year.) The boys (including M) have been planning their cars since January. First, they spent time drawing and redrawing their car designs on graph paper, starting over when they decided they didn't like their design or when M decided that their idea was too tricky to make.

Then, they got their kits and bought wood.

R wanted a "plain wood car that was really shiny." So he got some fancy-smanchy hard wood called "cocoballa" or something like that. (Yeah, I know it's called "pine"wood derby. I asked M about five times if it was legal to buy a different kind of wood besides pine. He reassured me over and over that it was legal and finally he printed off the rules so I could see it with my own eyes. It's all good - you don't have to use pine in a pinewood derby. Crazy!)

Here is Riley posing with his car before the race. (Notice the very lovely patriotic background that M set up for me. Actually, I took photos of all the boys -- as I did last year -- which everybody enjoyed.)
T wanted an "old fashioned racing car" and the color he wanted to paint it was "British Racing Green." Very specific, that boy is! He first designed an extremely difficult car that M really wanted to help T build, but just couldn't figure out how to build it and make it even sort of fast. T repeatedly said that he didn't care if it was fast. Finally, I asked T "T, if your car looks really cool, but it's always the last place in all of your races, would you still be proud of it because it looks cool?" He teared up a bit and said, "no, I guess I want it to be a little bit fast too." Relieved, M helped T design this really cool racing car. It's a bit hard to see, but believe me, it looked really cool with it's racing stripes and fake engine on top. (M tried to convince T to put a little Lego hat on top so it looked like there was a driver down in the car, but T wouldn't go for it. He likes his things to be authentic and cars don't have little hats on top. M even showed him pictures of race cars on the Internet and you can see the helmets and only the helmets sticking up, but T wouldn't budge.)

Here's a close up shot of it. M takes these "beauty shots" of the cars each year. It's an awfully cool car. As a matter of fact, I thought it might win the Best in Show prize. Alas, a Sponge Bob inspired car won that award that is voted on by the scouts themselves.

The race was a blast to watch. T and R raced in two different heats. Both boys did well. T got a few firsts, a few seconds and some thirds (he raced 10 races in his heat.) R did really well, getting mainly firsts and some seconds in his heat. He did so well that he qualified for the final heat...and won second place! (I had this huge fear that T would do better than R and R's been doing this for two years already. Luckily, both boys were extremely happy.

One of my favorite moments was when T leaned over and said to me, "I'm so happy for R! aren't you?!"
"Yes, I told him. I'm happy for R too. but you know what? I'm very proud of you too, T."
Yeah, me too, he replied.

The award ceremony was fun, because M was the MC since he's the Cub Master and because R got a second place medal. All of the kids got a trophy. Fun times!

Valentine's Day

Finally, we have our firewall up and three spyware programs installed and I'm back online. Thank goodness! I don't have a lot of time to blog, but I want to catch you up on what's been going on around here.

Last week was Valentine's Day; M and I decided we'd keep it low key. So, he got me the new James Taylor CD (it's a live album of the concert that we saw last year -- cool.) and I gave him a big candy heart box filled with beef jerkey (I took the candy out, threw it away, and replaced it with five bags of beef jerkey. We exchanged these gifts in the morning and I figured that was it for the day. After work, I met him at T's gymnastics class and he looked terrible. He told me that he wasn't feeling good and needed to head home. So I stayed for T's class and took T home. When I walked in the door, T tore off in the house and ran upstairs, then I saw R walk into the room with a toothless grin, and said "happy Valentine's day, mom."

Then I took it all in.

I heard James Taylor singing softly in the background. R was all dressed up in khakis, a dress shirt, and a belt. M was looking nice in a dress shirt too. The dining room table was set with our china, crystal, and silver. The red cloth tablecloth was ironed and on the table with a couple of candles.

R said with pride, "I made the salad all by myself -- I even cut the vegetables. Then I placed the croutons on top of each salad so they'd look nice." How cute is that? He "placed" the croutons on!

By now, T came running down the stairs, all changed out of his gymnastics gear and all dressed up in khakis, dress shirt, vest (always a vest when he's dressing up) and a belt.

M was busy cooking in the kichen..he smiled at me and said, "see what I have here?" He had huge sea scallops. Yummm. He was also making pasta carbonara, a dish that he made "all" his girlfriends before me, but never made for me. (He used to give me some lame explanation about this, like, but honey, I didn't Marry them.)

It was such a delicious dinner. Not only was the food delicious, but just looking around the table at my handsome family brought tears to my eyes.

It's so nice to be loved so much.

Trojan Spy Returns!

Remember how excited I was about five weeks ago that we got rid of that Trojan Spy that hacked into our computer? Well, I was a bit premature on that excitement. We have that darn spy out of our computer, after four weeks in repair, with a new hard drive, and new spyware and firewall that won't load on. I'm really not supposed to be online right now, because another darn hacker would be able to get into our computer because we can't load on the spyware. M has spent hours upon hours with the tech support (in India, like all the rest of them these days) and has not been able to get it done. So, I have to be fast today.

I have tons to catch up on and I won't even try now. I'l just tell you about today (sans pictures, because we're keeping our pc "clean" until we're all set up properly.) Today is a holiday for MLK, which as R describes, "was a great leader who helped civil rights. That means that all people are treated the same, no matter what.)

It will be about 10 degrees for the high today, and colder than that for the low.

R got a Star Wars cook book from his Aunt J (my sistah) for Christmas and he wanted to use it today. And used it we have! For breakfast R and I cooked Forceful Frittata and Handmaiden Hash Browns. He read the directions, got the ingredients out, mixed it up, and put it in the oven...basically, everthing except take it out of the oven. That meant peeling potatos, grating potatos, cracking eggs, measuring milk, and so on. He did a good job. I made bacon to go with it.

T was in charge of lunch. He got out his own kids cook book, looked through it, then pulled out R's Star Wars cook. He ended up making Darth Double Dogs and Sith Slush -- can you tell which book he ended up using?

As you Star Wars fans know, Darth Vader has a double light saber -- it's two sided. So, the Darth Double dogs meant that we had to take a wooden skewer, break it in half, and put a hot dog on each side of it -- double dog! Then you were supposed to take refridgerater cresent roll dough and cover the middle part to make the handle -- voila! We didn't have the cresent roll dough, but we did have refridgerator pizza dough and it worked like a charm.

THe Sith Slush ingredients included 7-Up, fruit juice, and pureed blueberries and/or blackberries. The boys loved them and said it made them feel like it was a hot day outside -- gotta love those imaginations when it was 5 degrees at the time!

That's the day so far...I'm sure Martin Luther King would be proud...we treat all Star Wars characters equally :>

Thanksgiving

Forgive me, but our computer was attacked by a Trojan spy...or something like that....and I haven't had web access for a couple of weeks. We're back up now, after many, many, computer scans and upgrading of our Norton Utilities and Spy Sweeper, and two other programs that I can't think of their names.

So, Thanksgiving, remember that holiday? Now that it's the middle of December, it seems like a long time ago. We went to M's folks house and had a lovely Thanksgiving with his family. U.D.#2 was there for Thanksgiving and U.D. #1 and J came over on Friday and spent the weekend. There was lots of good food, lots of Pegs and Jokers games and lots of fun. Here's the weekend in pictures...

R was getting pretty hungry on T-Day, but he patiently waited at the table, hoping someone would take pity on him and serve him some food. (You'd think he hadn't had breakfast, lunch, and snacks during the day!) Notice the "nice shirt" that he packed for the occasion. I told the boys to go upstairs and get a "nice shirt - one with buttons and a collar." He came downstairs with two -- one that he knew I'd approve of and his Cub Scout shirt. I surprised the beegeesess out of him when I gave the Cub Scout shirt a thumbs up. (If I had that many patches on my shirt, I'd want to show it off too -- patches can be seen better in picture below.)

The boys always have fun playing with U.D#2 whenever we see him. He's a very fun uncle for two rough-housing boys. He also teaches them things about Star Wars, architecture, history, science, and the meaning of life.

We spent some time at the park on Friday with Gram. She had a lot of fun with the boys. Here, she's playing with T on the teeter-totter, trying to make T go up really high.

Just for being so patient waiting for my next blog posting, here's a little treat for you. It's a Christmas card photo that landed on the cutting room floor, but is darn cute if I must say. (I told the boys to put on a sweater, any sweater they wanted to put on. They both came down with the home-made Irish fisherman's sweater that Great Gramma Pete made for them -- the same ones they wore in last year's Christmas card picture. I figured, what the heck? They love the sweaters and the sweaters have a lot of meaning, so they're back for an encore!)

Singing in the Car

On the way home from gymnastics today, T sang me the song that he learned in school. It's an old standard, but he was very proud of knowing the words (at least he thought he did.)

The song is "Silent Night." Now, before reading his lyrics, picture this beautiful boy, with beautiful eyes, a bright smile, and a beautiful, clear, almost-soprano voice:

Holy night, silent night
All is calm all is bright.
Around the vertigo, mother and child.
Holy infant so tender and wild.
Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.

Isn't that great? I think it's priceless. He asked me to sing with him and corrected the order of the first line, but held on to the "around the vertigo" and the "wild." I sure love that boy!

Fall to Winter

Our weather has been getting colder these days....definitely a sign of the winter to come. According to Farmers Almanac, this will be the coldest winter here than we've had in ten years. It's been in the low 30's when I leave for work in the morning and in the mid-to-high 30's when I head home into the evenings. Hold onto your hats!

Two weeks ago, however, it was a balmy 52 degrees and the boys did some raking to get the backyard ready for winter. Pay no attention to the big shadow of myself (or that "big fuzzy thing" as T called it). I like this picture 'cause it shows how excited R is for hiding his bro in the leaves.

T had a lot of fun too, as you can see by his smile. By the way, do you see those red adirondack chairs in the background? Boy, I love those chairs!


This picture is for AJ, who always wants to see pictures of Macky. Here she is trying to dig T out of the pile.

Finally, a picture of proud R, looking oh-so-serious and tough. I guess that his rake is his weapon or something...

Dinner Conversation Tonight

T said to me: Mom, Antonia has a crush on me.

Me: Oh, you think she has a crush on you?

T: I KNOW she does. She told me.

Me: What did she say to you?

T: T, I have a crush on you.

Me: I guess she does. What did you say to her?

T: I said, Okay. Just okay. That's okay, right?

Me: Yeah, that was okay to say.

R (the older, wiser brother): Yeah, you don't want her to think you have a crush on her and you don't want to hurt her feelings, so 'okay' is good. She should be fine with that.

T: Good. 'Cause she's a nice girl

Pack Meeting at the Park

M is Den Master for the boys' pack, which means that he's in charge of the pack meetings. The pack consists of all of the dens from 1st through 5th grades -- about 25 boys or so. M took a lot of time in planning this meeting. Here is is with a den leader, going over the last minute details for a successful meeting.

After the flag ceremony, awards and songs (led by me), the boys were divided into two teams. Each team had to come up with a team name and make a flag. R's team was the "Multitaskers" and T's team was the "Porcipines." Here is T's team making their flag. Evidently T couldn't see, so he jumped on the table.

After the flags were designed and constructed, the teams were off to four different posts in this park. Two of the posts were over half a mile away, so they had to follow a map. (I only have pictures of the nearby tasks, I didn't hike two miles that day chasing after the kids.)

One of the posts had the tasks of finding big puzzle pieces and putting the puzzle together. As you can see, it has the boy scout motto on it, "Do your best."


Another task that they had to do was tie themselves into a "human knot" and then get out of it, all holding hands facing each other. The teams had a hard time with this and get frustrated. When this happened, M would get all of the adults there to get into a knot and lead us out of the knot. That was enough for the boys to get a second wind and figure it out.
When each task was complete, the team could get a bandana and put it on their flag. It was quite a badge of pride to see those different colored bandanas flying high. R is admiring the bandanas that represent his hard work while he takes a water break.

It was a great meeting and M got compliments from all the parents, even the been-there-done-that parent that is never happy!

This is my artsy-fartsy picture of the snack for the day, Boy Scout Trail Mix.

King Tut and Ben Kanobi

We have survived another Halloween and the kids had a great time. T was King Tut and R was Ben Kanobi(the young Obi Wan Kanobi from Star Wars). M and I made their costumes last weekend and they turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. M found a patter for R's costume online, but it was for an adult. M figured that R was about two-thirds the size of an adult, so he cut all of the measurements by one-third and used a T-square to draw it out on the brown fleece that we bought. It wasn't so hard to sew, but was just a bit tricky to gather the fleece in the back of the hood. (R doesn't have the hood up in the pictures.) I designed T's costume using a glue gun and sewing a bit for the head dress. M and I tag-teamed on T's staff. M cut down a piece of pvc pipe he had. T and I spray painted it gold; M screwed in the ornament on top; and I wrapped and glued the ribbon around it. I had fun with T as he helped with all of the decorations of his costume -- lots of gold and jewels :>

I was able to scoot out of work early to help out in T's classroom for his Halloween party. Here he is sitting with his buddy, Black Spiderman

Here is R as Ben Kanobi in his school parade. Can you tell that he feels pretty good about his costume?
For the third in a row (I'd call it a tradition) we had our friends, the H's, over for dinner and trick or treating. As you remember, they live in the country on 40 acres and don't have a neighborhood to trick or treat in. Their son dressed up as a knight. Notice the very solomn poses all the boys took in this picture. I tried to get them to smile, but they were in character, so to speak.

And here are the boys checking out R's loot at the end of a profitable trick or treating night.

Autumn has Arrived

I do love the changing of the seasons. It's a nice way to mark time. We didn't really have that in southern California, where I grew up. The fall colors are beginning to show and it's just gorgeous. Here are the colors that I see every evening when I drive home on my street:

It was cool last weekend, so we had a lovely fire in the fireplace. M read to R and T (and Mackinaw) by the fire -- what a nice, warm sight to see:

My sistah gave me a nice birthday present, full of Fall baking supplies (apple cookie cutter, tiny pie cut outs of an acorn, leaf, and apple; and a leaf and apple pancake forms. This morning we tried out the pancake forms. We finally got the hang of it after a couple of tries. R was the official pancake maker. He was very serious about his job!

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What Would You Do?

While I was at that business meeting two weeks ago, I ran into a sticky situation -- one in which I had to think fast. Here it goes:

I was in the bathroom, getting up from the toilet and the toilet was about to flush (it's one of those automatic flushing ones.) I looked down in the toilet for some reason (I don't know why; I don't usually check out my pee!) and what did I see in the toilet? A pair of glasses! They were beginning to swirl around and around as the toilet was flushing.

What would you do?
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In a split second I had these thoughts: "Are those my glasses?" "Somebody's going to miss those glasses." "Those are going to clog the toilet." "It's only pee." I also remembered that girl on the Oprah show who compared the germs in toilets to the germs in ice machines and learned that public toilets are much cleaner and safer than ice machines.

So, you guessed it.... I reached in and grabbed them. I pulled them up, dripping with water and soggy toilet paper. I took them to the sink and washed my arm up really good -- hot, hot water and lots of soap. After my arm and hand were cleaned up, I proceeded to rinse off the glasses as best I could. I decided to leave them on the counter in case the owner came in, remembering that she was in the bathroom when she lost them.

As I was doing this, some women came in the bathroom. I asked them if they recognized the glasses and nobody did. So I went back to my meeting. As I entered the room, I saw one of my colleagues (who had glasses on earlier that day) and asked her if she knew where her glasses were.

"I know right where they are," she said, "they're in the toilet in the bathroom."
I smiled and said "I'm your hero!"
She said, "Oh, I'm never wearing those again. I won't touch them. I'm a huge germophobe. I called the janitor and he's coming to fish them out."

Can you believe it? She didn't go get them. Instead, she went blind for two days, flew home and ordered another pair. I still can't believe it -- it was just pee!

Fall Harvest

We just harvested the last of our vegetable garden. T took this picture for my blog:

Catchin' Up and Regatta Remembering

Lots of things goin' on around here. The biggest thing is that M was in charge of a huge regatta at our club. He was the Race Director, which meant that he was in charge of all five races for four different fleets, with over forty boats. He did a great job! He was a bit nervous that he'd mess things up or something, but there was only one start that wasn't quite right and he did a general recall and everything was fine again. He was in charge of keeping score and awarding the prizes on the last day. I sat on the shore, talking to folks, playing with the kids, and reading a book. It was beautiful weather, making for a glorious day. Here are some pictures:

Some of the boats getting ready to leave the dock:

Some boats flying their "kites" -- what a beautiful site!


Uncle D and Cousin A drove over to race our boat. They have raced lots of boats in their lives, but never a Rebel, which is what our boat is. They didn't win or anything, but were smiling the whole time. The had a great time and want to come back next year.



Here are some other things to catch you up:

* I had a business trip to San Diego last week and I was lucky enough that my sis drove down 3 hours to see me! We went shopping, went out to dinner, and talked and talked until the wee hours of the night. I had such a great time -- I love her so much!

* R has started his fourth season of hockey and is on a new team and loves it. He has practices and/or games on Saturdays and Sundays -- nothing on weekdays, which is nice!

* T's sport is gymnastics and he loves it. After his first lesson (in a class with 9 other boys his age) he said, "I bet R is going to be jealous that he didn't pick this sport!" He works hard and has a grin from ear to ear after his hour long class is over.