Fry Day

OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING - NOT: First thing this morning (around 5:21 ish), I bent over, turned on the powerstrip, flipped on the backup power source and then pushed the 'on' button on my hard drive.

Right then and there, my day took a turn for the worse. For you see, Windows would not load; my computer is fried. Ah yes, happy birthday to me.

So this is being posted from an unfamiliar to me PC and keyboard, and my camera interface and graphics software is different. So that's my excuse for today's post being sub par. But we battle on.

Annabelle's artwork above was drawn a few days ago, when she wasn't able to get to a Web site she was seeking. She's the one saying "UG." CJ's on the right of the picture, working happily on the computer in his room, watching YouTube. Annabelle says I'm on the left. You can see that even Kirby's confused by the computer trouble.

As of this writing, poor Christian is moving heaven and earth trying to get my PC up and running.

NOT SO GREAT: While working on her "Haunted Mansion" story, Annabelle was trying to write the word 'great.' She had the G and the R and was proud of herself for remembering that 'when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.'

Problem is, that's not always true. ... For example, in 'great,' the second vowel does the talking. Craziness, our language.

"I guess 'great' isn't so great," summed up CJ.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER PARK: In our never ending quest to break the 'homeschoolers lack social interactions' stereotype, today brought another park day with some more friends (the ones Annabelle introduced herself to at Discovery Park awhile back).

It was a gorgeous day. The kids had fun and the skies over downtown were as clear as I've seen them since we moved here some 4+ years ago.CJ got adventurous today, improvising an obstacle course for himself and eventually he mustered up the courage to complete it. The hardest part was doing a crabwalk over 6 or so foot high ladder/monkey bars to that he could touch the final flag. He was pretty proud when he got to it.STICKER SITUATION: We stopped at Whole Foods today to get some special Free Trade organic cocoa for Annabelle's bday cake. As we checked out, she asked the cashier for a sticker. The cashier gave her a whole sheet of them, which was nice.

In the car, Annabelle asked CJ if he'd like a sticker. He said 'no thank you.' That didn't set well with Annabelle, who thinks EVERYONE should have stickers. She rebuked CJ saying, "All you want is water and cookies. You can't just live on water and cookies!"

I'm guessing CJ begs to differ. And, frankly, he could live a lot longer on water and cookies than Annabelle could live on stickers.

DESIGN TEAM: Annabelle's birthday is bearing down on us (Monday) and that means there has to be a ridiculous cake. She has decided she would like her Pillow Pet atop a flower. Can do.

With her guidance and feedback, I made a conceptual drawing today. I had her choose the flower's colors, and we talked about where to use what kind of frosting, and how we were going to make the wings and the antennae. Tonight I'll bake the cake and tomorrow we'll start making some of the elements (sculpting the bee, making it's cookie wings, etc.).

BOOTIFUL: Our quick craft of the day involved taking some fiberfill, tracing around the kids' hands, cutting it out, affixing some googly eyes and sticking on a construction paper mouth. Instant super not spooky ghost. :)