Topic Box

Tonight we started a new activity at dinner - read questions from The Topic Box, and we all take turns answering. Aelyn made the box for us today, and supplied the first set of questions... here they are - quite a variety !
1. What is the deadline for me to have dessert ?
2. How many stars do you think are in the sky ?
3. What would happen if everyone became an astronomist ?
4. What is dad so silly ?
5. When will I be old enough to go to college ?
6. What you are mostly likely to break if you fall off the roof ?
7. Has it eve snowed in summer ?
8. What time do me and Aelyn go to sleep ? (note the sneaky way she made it look like Ian asked!)
9. Will mom ever eat chocolate cookies ?
10. can we get another dog ?
11. What types of things do beetles like to eat ?
12. How many months til my birthday ? (aelyn)
13. how do you prevent pulling a muscle ?

Aelyn'isms - Free WiFi

Aelyn and I stopped into Panera (a bakery like place) for some lunch today. Seeing the signs for free-wifi as well as another patron using her laptop, Aelyn tells me I should pull out my blackberry to use the free wifi.

"What's free wifi", I ask?
"It's when you can use your laptop or blackeberry however you want with no rules. That's why it says free. On an airplane you can only use your blackberry in airplane mode, but this is free, any way you want."

"But I can use my blackberry in Safeway." "They have free wifi too" (which is also true).

The Difference between Kids and Adults

(While we were at the store picking up Kim's Birthday Cake)

Aelyn: Wouldn't it be cool to be able to have your very own cake, every day? And then when you finish it up, you can get another one?

Flint: You know what the difference is between Kids and Adults?

Aelyn: What?

Flint: That. Kids always think about cake and ice cream and doughnuts...

Aelyn: ... and marshmallows, and chocolate chips, and candy, and oreos, and ...

Aelyn's Parent Teacher Conference

So at Aelyn's conference, Rosamond was telling Kim how Aelyn is strong in her opinions, and her writing can be a struggle when she is not excited about the topic.  So one day Aelyn "had a hissy fit" because "she couldn't possibly write about the weekend on Tuesday!"   

iSushi

While Kim is off with her Sisters in New Orleans, I took the kids over to iSushi as an adventure.

What I figured they'd like the most was the fact that this is one of those joints where the Sushi rides a conveyor belt around and you pluck off what you want. You know the cost of the dish by the color of the plate.

The kids had a great time and thought that was a pretty cool idea. There was enough 'starter' sushi, with egg and tuna / crab salad that they didn't have to go to far out on a limb for eating choices.

Ian's Birthday Party

Here's some video from Ian's Birthday Party @ the Little Gym.

Ian working at "the Shed"

At supper tonight Ian mentioned how he and another kid got to work in the "Shed" when the two scheduled kid workers didn't show up.

The "Shed" is where all of the outdoor recess equipment is stored like soccer balls and hula hoops and the like.

Ian worked in the back and the other kid worked in the front. Kids would come up and make requests of the kid at the front who would call out the order to Ian who would find the object and toss it forward to the kid up front. When equipment was returned it was deposited with the kid up front who tossed it back to Ian to stow.

Ian really liked this arrangement. I suspect in the process he's telling us something about his personality. I'm curious to see how this changes over time.

Aelyn'isms

"Pogovaulting is when you run with a big long stick, jam it in the ground, and the go flying high up into the air"

Camping at Wenberg

This weekend we went camping up at Wenberg State Park which is on Lake Goodwin which is all about 20 miles north of Everett, WA. It is a great park with some nice public areas including a great beach area, playground, and grass and picnic setting.

The park also hosts tent camping and RV camping. We were tenting it with our Campfire USA group.

Aelyn Fishes

Aelyn fishes

Easter 2008

Egg hunting this year was decidedly more adversarial than last year.

Last year the two childrens basically hunted eggs together making sure to share their finds so that everyone got an equal share... without any prompting from us parents.

This year there was quite a bit of racing and bumping and pushing and shoving . You'd think it was a Nascar event -- on the track or in the beer line.

The dumptster

We're finally pretty much done with the dumpster. This was the second fill up. The first one went pretty quick. The second one fillup took a couple weeks. We demolished the old-doghouse that was here when we moved in as well as a lot of the fencing over in that area.

The dumpster company's rule of thumb is 1 cubic yard per year in your house so the first 20 yard dumpster should have been plenty. Apparently we are over achievers. We could probably scrape up enough junk for a 3rd one but that will take even longer and we've much such a large impact that we'll call it done for now.

Aelyn'isms

"My friend saw a crab with tweezers this big."

Aelyn'isms

"When I grow up I'm going to let my kids have rooms as messy as they like!"
-- Aelyn during the hissy fit she threw when we made her clean up her room.