Movin' on Up

POP TART PIONEERS: Yesterday a small miracle arrived in our mailbox. ...

What was it, you wonder? Why, it was a special delivery of a brand new flavor of Pop Tarts - one that hasn't even hit store shelves yet!

That's right people, we are Pop Tarts INSIDERS!

What with phrases like "Worldwide Premiere!" and "Certified First Taste" splashed all over the box, it was no wonder CJ was up at 6 this morning, itching to get at the mystery Pop Tarts inside the box. I made him wait for Annabelle, who was on the scene a couple of hours later.

We popped open the box and then the package and let me tell you, the pair of pastries frosted in bright purple with day-glo green racing stripes were a feast for the kids' eyes. : )

CJ made his disappear quickly. I was surprised, as I honestly thought he wouldn't even really like it. He never chooses the fruit flavored Pop Tarts at the store, instead going for anything with chocolate (think Cookies & Cream, S'mores, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough).

Afterward, he was eager to report his findings (as a package insert had requested) to the Pop Tarts people. "I'm the first one to taste it and love it!" he declared. He logged into the site all by himself and proceeded to read the questions (which were intended for an adult). Soon he was asking me things like, "What's 'purchase'?" and "What's 'satisfied'?" and "What's 'relevant'?" (Yay! - an impromptu vocabulary lesson!)

I thought it was interesting that one of the Pop Tarts' question was, "Will you blog or post an entry about this package on a blog, Web site or social media site?" Why yes, in fact, we will. Thanks for asking ...

WEATHER WATCHERS: Another thing we did this morning was check the weather using our handy dandy new weather station (thanks G&G!). Each morning this week we've noted the temperature. I want the kids to track it for a whole month, and then we can graph it and talk about trends. For the past two days it's been just over 47 degrees at 8 a.m. ish. Today, it was sunnier, but it was colder (44.9 F). Hmm. Why would it be colder if the sun is out, Annabelle wondered. These are some of the weather mysteries we'll be exploring together at MPA. :)

CARRY THE ONE: For morning math, I got the kids each going on a computer, on the FunBrain Web site, where lots of great math games live. I selected a baseball themed one. Each time a player answers a math problem correctly, they get a hit. Harder problems = extra bases. While painting the ceiling, I was listening to the kids do grade 1 math with no trouble, and while I certainly want them to have that nice feeling one gets by mastering something, clearly it was time for a challenge. So I upped the difficulty to "medium" (instead of "easy") and immediately they were up against math we hadn't tackled yet - adding double digit numbers with other double digit numbers. I told them it was simple - stuff they could totally do, and showed them the columnar format that makes it a snap. I told them that it really isn't any harder, it's just like you're doing two easy math problems. You add the right column numbers first, then the left column numbers, and we went over the whole "carry the one" thing. They caught on really quickly and were soon back to hitting triples, doubles and home runs in their game!

TAKE A HIKE: As noontime was approaching, it was turning out to be a really nice day. No rainclouds looming overhead and the sun looked to be making an effort to make an appearance. When I told the kids we'd take Kirby for a walk to the park, CJ said that today he wanted to go to his favorite park, which we call "Hilltop Play Park" for a very good reason. It's only 7-ish blocks away, 5.5 of which are all uphill. A STEEP hill. I told the kids if they were game to give it a go, we'd walk there. They jumped on that and so we struck out.

They both did better than I expected. The complaining didn't start until about 4 blocks into the journey :). "My muscles are tired. I need to take a nap," CJ moaned. Fortunately, the worst of the walk was behind us and he somehow managed to soldier through.

It was worth the work! Once up top, we had the entire 2+ acre park to ourselves. CJ and Annabelle sat down and dug into the pretzels I'd packed along. As they snacked, they were treated to a fantastic view of Seattle and Puget Sound. It was downright delightful. I let the kids play for almost an hour while I walked and walked and walked the dog in circles 'round the park.

IT'S A KICK: Tonight was Christian and CJ's second Tae Kwon Do session. Christian says he thinks CJ has already realized that martial arts is about hard work and repetitive practice, and that it's a far cry from the flashy fight scenes he's seen in movies and cartoons. Once he gets over his disappointment, hopefully CJ will see that there are still plenty of good reasons to participate and that he'll want to stick with it. Time will tell. ...

Once again, while the guys were doing their thing, Bee and I did some cardio kick boxing and Pilates. We've got to keep up with the boys, after all!