City Scenes

MIX IT UP: I'd have to say "creamy" is the best adjective to describe our math lesson for this morning.

An impulse purchase, I picked up some Oreo Cookies & Cream Jell-O pudding mix yesterday at Albertsons. I thought the kids would enjoy making and eating it. I was right on one count ... I decided that this was a recipe they could tackle in its entirety on their own. It had two ingredients (the Jell-o mix and 2 cups of milk), and instructions to stir it for two minutes.

CJ did a yeoman's job of getting the milk and measuring cup out and carefully pouring the milk. "Perfect!" he declared with a measure of pride. Annabelle poured the milk in the bowl and the mystery mix in and then they took turns stirring it briskly with a whisk. The instructions said to stir it for 2 minutes. I told them to take 30 second turns, so they had to figure out how many turns each of them got to meet the 2 minute mark.

After that it was into the fridge for a few minutes. I was certain they'd love it - they both dig Oreos and regularly eat yogurt, I figured Oreo pudding HAD to be a home run. Yeah, well, not so much. The both eagerly dug into their servings but two spoonfuls was enough before they were politely but definitely pushing it aside. Go figure.

CITY SLICKERS: We spent another couple of hours on construction and beautification today. We had several buildings to transform from raw scrap lumber into eye catching buildings befitting C & A City.

One of the buildings CJ was most interested in was CJ Donald's, his fast food joint. He put his "brand" on it and then studied it and declared that if people were willing to take a "risk walk" along a narrow ledge between its stories, they should earn a special meal. He directed me to write as much on each the side of his building.

In other city news, I instructed the kids to find their pinwheels because we needed them for the city. Annabelle caught on almost immediately. She said, "We're going to make a wind farm!" (Kudos to Nonnie for the inspiration!)

We spent the balance of our city time today looking for appropriate vehicles and coloring buildings. The kids even let me color a couple. :)

RECESS: Our lawn (small clover patch, and cliffside, really) needed mowin' BADLY and today was the day. This, of course, meant that CJ and Annabelle got to spend 90 minutes outside playing while I treacherously wrestled the mower and weed eater around our steeply sloped lot.

Toward the end of my laboring, I suggested the kids use the hose to water our peas, apple trees and green roof since we've been a couple of days without significant rain. They did that and, as you might imagine, it degenerated into hosing one another down, which was fine by me.

TOURISTS: Tonight, an old Army buddy of Christian's came to town along with his wife, and we got a chance to play tour guides for a couple of hours. We suggested they meet us for dinner at the Crab Pot, on Pier 57. It's not the best food (or the best value!) in Seattle, but its waterfront location is excellent and the seafeast (complete with bibs and mallets) is a novelty.


The Crab Pot is, however, apparently not the place to order a cheeseburger. CJ was less than halfway in to his when he asked, "Is a fungus a plant? Is it alive?" I told him a fungus isn't a plant, but it is alive. He said something about his cheeseburger being dry (it was - and it was - and it was also pink in the middle, which was not a good thing for a kids' meal especially) and he asked me if it would turn into a fungus. I told him if we let it sit long enough, mold would grow on the bread and mold is a fungus. He then declared his dinner a scientific experiment. Let the record reflect, CJ has NEVER not finished a cheeseburger (yes, I know, a double negative, sorry). Unfortunately, his cheeseburger was just that bad.


Annabelle is a bit more adventurous in ordering and asked for "cob & chips" (that's cod & chips to the rest of you). : ) She ate a few bites of "cob" and half her chips.

From the kids' standpoint, the evening improved after dinner, when we ventured to the back of Pier 57, where a merry go round awaits.

Then, we ventured out to the waterfront.

Though we've been on Pier 57 several (dozens?) of times, tonight was the first time I spied a statue just to the north.

From a distance, I thought it to be Joan of Arc. Upon closer examination, I learned it's supposed to represent Christopher Columbus. Um, OK. It looked part Egyptian, semi-tribal,part pilgrim ... it was just, well, odd ...

OH YEAH: The kids had yoga class today. When we were leaving, CJ looked down the stairwell through the glass panel door at the bottom and declared, "There's a kid doing something risky!"

Boy was he right. A yoga classmate was scaling, perching on and sliding down the A-frame yoga studio sign on the sidewalk. Definitely NOT safe. Fortunately, it didn't end in disaster for the kid - this time.