The Runaround

A TISKET, A TASKET: So, I found out yesterday (thanks Mom!) that Easter is this Sunday. Um, yikes! How did that sneak up on me? Is it early this year? (CJ was born on Easter, and that year it was April 20.)

I decided that we had to do something kinda Easter-y, and thought starting the day off with a craft project would be nice. I looked at several ideas online but was uninspired, so I just went to our craft supplies and started pulling things out. I decided the kids would make an Easter basket. We've never done any basketweaving with construction paper before, so I decided that today would be the day.

First I had the kids color a sheet of paper sky blue using the side of a crayon and a couple different shades of blue. Next, they cut their grass (which reminds me, I need to mow the lawn).

Then it was time for the tricky stuff - weaving strips of paper for their baskets. First I taught them how to do a 'fan fold' and them had them cut along the folds to create the strips. Then we laid out the horizontal strips, and I showed them how to weave the vertical strips (under over, under over).

CJ caught on really quickly. "This is easy for me!" he said. Annabelle wasn't too far behind him, but it wasn't going as smoothly as she would have liked.

"How long is it going to take to do this?" she bemoaned at one point.

Once the baskets were crafted, they attached pipe cleaner handles. Then the icing on the cake was pastel pom poms for Easter 'eggs.' They were pretty pleased with the finished product.

BOOK TALK: Our first stop this morning was the Magnolia library, where I picked up a title "You are a Social Detective - Explaining Social Thinking to Kids" by the amazing Michelle Garcia Winner (and Pamela Crooke). It's a colorful, cartoon-y approach to helping kids learn the social graces (because as it turns out, the social graces don't just come naturally to everyone - go figure). I can't wait to explore it with the kids.

The kids, of course, scored a stack of DVDs. The good news is, once we got home from the library, I asked CJ to pick a library book from the collecting-dust stack we have at home. He surveyed the pile and plucked out 'The Case of the Gasping Garbage" by Michele Torrey.

A chapter book with four mysteries, it introduces the characters Drake Doyle and Nell Fossey, fifth graders and science detectives. It was perfect, considering last night at dinner, CJ was telling us how he wants to be a scientist with a laboratory, and that's exactly what Drake and Nell do. In their first case, they had to figure out why a classmate's garbage can seemed to come to life. To find the answer, they formulated hypothesis, made observations, ran tests, used controls - all using good scientific procedures and practices.

As it turned out, the garbage can 'monster' was the result of ingredients (including yeast) the classmate's father, a baker, had thrown away in the can, which had been placed by a warm furnace.

The kids were rapt during the entire mystery and afterward wanted to know more about yeast. So I had them pour some into warm water and feed it with sugar and they watched it 'bloom'.

ARCHIE: With April Fool's Day looming large, CJ requested a trip to Archie McPhee for some supplies. I heart Archie's too, so off we went. Greeting us in the parking lot, on the storefront's awning, is one of my favorite sayings: "Less talk, more monkey." Words to live by, say I.SPLASH DOWN: From Archie's it was over to Ballard for CJ's last swimming lesson (a thought that thrills him). He did seem to enjoy one part of it, though - where they got to use a big flotation device to kick themselves around the pool.

Meanwhile, Annabelle and I played chess poolside. It's been waaaaay too long since we've broken out the chess board, so it was almost like the first time. I had to reacquaint her with the pieces, their names, how they move, and so on. Likewise, later in the day when Annabelle had her lesson, CJ and I kinda-sorta played chess.

They were both totally paying attention and were actively interested in learning the pieces and how they move, so that's a big plus. Must. Play. More. Chess.

IT'S A BIRD, IT'S A PLANE: Meanwhile, between swimming lessons, we got a text message from a preschool friend (well, his mother) asking if we could play up at Ella Bailey Park this afternoon. It was a beautiful, sunny day and so we were happy to oblige. :)

While we were there, I heard a loud, low rumbling in the distance, to the northwest. It was a sound I'd heard once before - last weekend. The first time, I happened to be outside (putting glue on the backside of a hardwood floor plank) when I heard it. Today, I knew what was coming and grabbed my camera. 'It' was Boeing's new 787 'Dreamliner.' Still in the early test flight phase, we are some of the first in the world to get to see it airborne. (It cracks me up that a good number of people in Magnolia complain about airplane noise. I get a thrill out of looking up and seeing these big jets thundering overhead.)