Earth Hour Eve

ALLEY CATS: This morning we walked down to our alley to make the one block trek to music. As soon as we got to our herb planter box, Annabelle exclaimed, "I see a snail!"

"Really?" I asked (a bit skeptical). I've seen around a gazillion slugs in the PacNW in my lifetime, but never a garden snail. But sure 'nuff, Bee was right. How she spotted it is a mystery to me. It was significantly smaller than a penny and its shell the color of the dirt it was sitting in.

After appreciating the snail for a whole 30 seconds, we continued northbound, toward the music studio. But we didn't get more than 20 feet further before encountering another oddity. This time it's a dead, half eaten fish lying in the alley. What mades this even oddity-er is that a week ago (on music day) we say another dead fish, same size, same species (about 4 to 5 inches long, very flat and silver), in damn near the exact same place we saw a fish the week before.

All I can figure is that some sea bird dropped it/them. (We live right between Puget Sound less than a mile south and the Ballard Locks less than a mile north. Hundreds of fish-eating birds fly overhead daily.)

LITTLE STARS: Marvelous Musikgarten ended with a fun activity today. Teacher Nancy had a big (6-foot diameter) circle of elastic with a total of 10 safety pins attached, the pins alternating gold and silver in color. The kids and parents were instructed to hold onto a pin and take turns walking into and out of the middle of the circle. So, for instance, on the line "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" the silver would go in and the gold would stay out and the result was the elastic formed a big star. On "How I wonder what you are," the gold would head in and the silver would back out, and another star would form. Pretty cool choreography! : )

IT'S A JUNGLE IN HERE: OK you gardeners out there. Give some neophytes a (green?) hand. Our peas and beans are growing like CrAzY. You can barely see the poor Elvii amongst the jungle. (Can you find 'em all? There are three - Young Elvis, '68 Comeback Special Elvis and Aloha from Hawaii Elvis.)

So can I/dare I move these things outside now? I'm thinking it's still early, but what do I know?

HOUR OF NO POWER: Tomorrow, March 27, it's time for international Earth Hour. As explained on the Earth Hour's kids' Web site, it's an event where millions of people from around our globe "will come together to take a stand to protect our planet against a problem called climate change. They will do something quite simple - turn off their lights for just one hour and show that one person can make a difference and millions of people working together can change the world."

I started our lesson off by showing the kids this absolutely magical video made to promote Earth Hour. (Make sure you click on/flip the switch in the lower lefthand corner while the video's playing!)


The kids were all in for Earth Hour after watching the video. :)

The event's kids' site is really wonderful. First, we watched an animated slideshow 'hosted' by a World Wildlife Federation climate change expert. Next, we utilized one of the comprehensive lesson plans (K-2 in our case) offered to learn about Earth Hour. In a kid-friendly format it presented information about energy consumption and its effect on climate change, including a really clear, age appropriate explanation of the greenhouse effect. There was also a maze and a bingo-type game to help raise awareness about energy used by household items and transportation modes. The kids had lots of fun with that, and they learned a thing or two, too!
Another activity asked them to list five ways to make Earth Hour "a night to remember." Of course, their ideas had to be things that wouldn't require electricity or gasoline. Together they came up with: 1) Play with Toys; 2) Play outside; 3) Use candles; 4) Use campfires; 5) Trun (sic) lights off.

We talked about these ideas and more, and our tentative plan is to walk up to Ella Baily Park (atop Magnolia) just before 8:30. The park affords a stunning view of downtown Seattle. We know the Space Needle and Pike Place Market are on board for Earth Hour. Hopefully there will be enough others to make it dramatic come 8:30. And unless it's pouring rain, we're going to stay at the park for awhile and use one of the barbecues there to roast marshmallows and make s'mores!

SWEET, SWEET VICTORY: Today will go down in the annals of MPA history as a great accomplishment for CJ.

After two or so weeks of practicing, playing, planning and plotting, it's the day he beat Kirby Superstar Ultra.

Really, the tenacity with which he has approached this goal has been pretty impressive. He's been patient, disciplined (he gets a half hour a day, tops to play), and logical. He's studied written and video analysis, applied what he's read and seen (and based on what I've read and seen along with him, beating the 'True Arena' in the game is a damn hard thing to do).

I assure you, I don't think beating a video game is remotely the be all/end all, but I think that the types of learning and tactics he used to do so = good stuff that could positively be applied to other areas of his life. So CJ, I salute you! :)

RUNAWAY: Though most of the day had been gray and dreary by the time Christian got home 'round 5 p.m., it was sunny out and was good jogging weather. Before we even walked out the front door, Annabelle was insisting she wanted to run along with us rather than sit in the jogging stroller. Naturally, we said that was fine - in fact it's great - but I pushed her empty stroller along, certain she'd poop out on us within a couple of blocks.

But run she did. She ran and ran and ran, darn near all the way from our house to Lawton Elementary, about a mile and a third. Granted, it's not the NYC marathon, but I think that's pretty good for a 5 year old. She only took one break, for one block.

I had to laugh at one point, because as Annabelle was huffing and puffing to keep up with us and Kirby, CJ was sitting in a stroller, enjoying the scenery. At one point he even started muttering something about wanting some Reeses Peanut Butter pie. There's so much, so wrong with that ...

When we got to Lawton, Christian and the kids played basketball while Kirby and I walked some more. At one point, we had a cool bird's eye view of our trio.

FYI, Annabelle also ran all the way home. As much as she and I love pretty shoes, if she's going to keep this up, we need to get that girl some running kicks! ;)

TODAY'S "SAY WHAT?!?!" This morning, as Mr. Smarty Pants was cutting out pictures of energy-sucking icons on an Earth Hour activity worksheet I'd printed out, he protested, "Homework kills trees, and we need trees to live!"

Nice try, CJ.

Actually, his first 'funny' of the day was pre-dawn, as he was watching a Pokemon cartoon. In it, the human hero is named Brock and he's a bit, well, sappy, when it comes to the ladies. Brock was mooning over some girl and CJ bemoaned, "Brock, this is no time for marriage!" Then he turned to me and said with disdain, "Every time he sees a woman he falls in love with it." :0

I agreed with CJ, but did, of course, inform CJ that the proper pronoun would have been her.