Firsts and Lasts

FINITO ... FOR NOW: Today marked the end of the kids' first year of music education. They have completed Musikgarten's Young Musician Year One program and will have a couple of months off before starting year two in September.

For today's grand finale, their group played a song about a seashore in two part harmony. It was really neat - and very pretty.

Even though the formal class is over for the time being, I think it would be a great idea to keep every Friday morning from 9:15 to 10:15 set aside for formal music education. We do a lot of casual listening and singing all week long, but it would be good to continue the conversation regarding rhythm, pitch, tempo, and so on.

As a parting gift we gave teacher Nancy a cute little multi media (ceramic, paint, bead, metal) sign/wall hanging that says "You are a fabulous teacher" and next to the words there is a little mirror. A daily affirmation of sorts! ;) She seemed to be genuinely surprised and appreciative.

THEY SAY IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY: From a BrainPOP Facebook post, I learned it is Sir Paul McCartney's 68th birthday. To help celebrate the occasion, today BrainPOP's free featured movie is about The Beatles.

I asked the kids if they knew who The Beatles were. Annabelle said, "A music group." But that was the extent of it. They both know "Yellow Submarine," but I'm pretty sure that's it for their Beatles repertoire (a wrong I should right). The BrainPOP Beatles video was well done, giving a nice history of the group and their impact on modern day music.

Once on the BrainPOP site, the kids were eager to explore some other topics. They watched a short video about martians and then I suggested that since we were going to see Toy Story 3 this afternoon, they check out one about digital animation

TS3: CJ has been counting down the days until the premiere of Toy Story 3. Every day for the past two weeks the first words out of his mouth have been, "Toy Story 3 premieres in X# days." This morning, at 6 a.m. he declared, "Toy Story 3 premieres today!!!" It was rather like Christmas morning. ;)

I'd ordered tickets online last week for a 2:30 afternoon matinee - or so I thought. At about 1:35, I thought to print out the confirmation and take it with us to Pacific Science Center's IMAX just in case. Yeah, well it's a good thing I did. Our showtime was 2:05. Less than a half hour away!!!!!! OMG! OMG! OMG! Scramble - stat!!!

We were out the door within 30 seconds. Good thing the venue is only about 7-8 minutes away. But I took the first available parking spot I found (about 8 blocks away from the ticket counter) because I knew there was a big event at the Seattle Center today - a funeral for four children and one woman killed in an apartment last Saturday.

Honestly, I felt more than a little foolish/awful running like a mad woman past the funeral site - past a half a hundred uniformed officers and mourners starting to straggle out of the service at Key Arena. Like missing a movie is a Big Deal in the overall scheme of things.

Panting, we get to the will call kiosk at 1:56 - we still have 9 whole minutes to try to get seats. I swipe my credit card and ... no tickets. I try again. And again. And again. And again. The kiosks aren't working for anyone else either. Awesome! not. So we get to go stand in the long a*% line. I finally have tickets in hand at 2:01. Run, run, run some more - probably two more blocks. Then I HAD to get popcorn because that was part of CJ's Perfect Premiere Fantasy. At 2:05 we sat down. Just 30 seconds later, we were (happily) joined by big bro Rick (he'd been at the nearby memorial service - he knew one of the victims as he works where she went to school). It was nice that Rick could join us and he was probably very ready for some levity.

The movie was terrific. Great writing, lots of action, and it was very touching. (I saw Annabelle wiping away tears at least three times.) At one point near the end, the 60-something gentleman sitting to my left was, well, sobbing. Tears were streaming down his cheeks from behind his 3D glasses and he was huffing and puffing and sniffling.

If you're looking for a witty, touching, entertaining summer movie, you should see Toy Story 3.

BRIGHT LIGHT: See this (above)? It's shadow puppets. What do you need to produce shadow puppets? A wall, hands and light. These here shadow puppets are on an EXTERIOR wall, which can only mean one thing. Are you sitting down? That's right, there was SUNSHINE IN SEATTLE today for the first time in weeks!!! (And the crowd goes wild!!!)

The sun finally broke through the clouds sometime this afternoon when we were in the theater. So, when we came home we played baseball outside (Annabelle's batting is coming right along thanks to the baseball tee). And then we had a super cheap happy hour dinner on the Fremont McMenamin's back deck. A nice way to end the week.

RIDE, SALLY RIDE: On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride took her seat aboard the space shuttle and launched into history. The physicist from California became the first American woman in space as a mission specialist on STS-7.
A magnificent milestone to celebrate, but I can't help but wonder, "What the hell took so long for a woman to be onboard a manned U.S. mission?" ...

WORTH WAITING FOR: Eric Duquette of Rhode Island didn't speak until age 5. When Eric was diagnosed as autistic, his parents were told by "experts" that he would likely be institutionalized as an adult. Recently, Eric served as salutatorian for his high school graduation class. And Eric has proven the experts right. In a couple of months, he's going to be institutionalized. Duquette was accepted to every institute of higher learning to which he applied. Here's a short, heart warming excerpt of his graduation speech.

Great Lake

HARVEST TIME!: This morning it was clear we couldn't wait any longer. We had to harvest our first portabella mushroom before it entirely overtook the master bathroom, where we have our fungus project underway.

The mushroom was MONSTROUS. Just look at CJ's hand compared to it!

Tonight I made a 2 die 4 mushroom and kalamata olive topped pizza with white pesto- sauce. OMG. Did I mention it was delicious? Even though I was generous with the mushroom topping, we have seriously like a pound of portabella left over. Looks like we'll be forced to have mushroom omelets, steak and mushrooms, and other mushroom infused foods this weekend. Darn it. ;)

HE'S BA-ACK: We had a nice surprise in Annabelle's summer session of ballet this morning. There was a boy in her summer session last year whom she was tight with (translation: he stuck to her like glue). Today, he popped up again, and he picked up right where he left off. :)

After class Annabelle reported, "He followed me around during free dance. All The Time." He asked Annabelle to come to the park to play with him after class, but, alas, we had to give brother Kennedy a ride to work. Maybe next week, ballet boy. ...

TOY MAKER: For the past seven days running, CJ has started every single day by announcing how many days are left until the Toy Story 3 premiere. This morning he was grinning ear to ear at 6:30 as he notified me there is just ONE day left.

In preparation for the Big Event, we visited the Toy Story Web site today. No surprise - it's very snazzy.

CJ enjoyed playing Space Pong (just like the 70's classic "Pong" but with LGM hitting the 'ball' back and forth). Annabelle explored the site's creative features, including "Comic Creator" and "Toy Creator."

Here's a photo of the toy she created, flanked by a couple of his Pixar pals. ...
MOUTHS TO FEED: This afternoon we had to go to Petco to get the dog and our fish some food. As always, we wound through other store aisles, checking out the live critters in tanks and cages. Today, we lingered over four ferrets for a bit. They were - dare I say - cute, and curious about us. Before too long, Mr. Sensory asks, "What's that smell?"

That, CJ, would be ferret funk. That was the end of hanging out by the ferrets. "That smell is AWFUL!" he said, wrinkling his nose and heading for the relatively odor free parakeets.

BUGGING ME: This afternoon CJ called out from his room, "There's a bug in here." I went in to investigate, and CJ pointed me in the direction of Wario (one of Mario's nemeses). It was a small, green insect, rather resembling a leaf. CJ wanted to know what kind of a bug it was and I didn't have an answer for him. He said, "Well you can find out on the Internet."

Normally, he'd be right. Several times a day we pop online to answer questions. But how in the world could I find out the bug's name by using search terms like "small green insect"? I hated having to tell CJ I didn't know the answer, and I really didn't know how to get it. (CJ did give whatever it was a ride outside on Wario.)

Tonight when Christian came home he said, "We used to call them stink bugs." So we Googled that and BOOM, there it is. We found photos labeled 'green stink bug' that looked just like our specimen. Mystery solved!

ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BOAT: A few weeks ago I purchased a steeply discounted family membership to the Center for Wooden Boats, a hands-on history museum. The place is just six minutes from our house, at the south end of Lake Union.

Part of our membership included a 'free' one hour row on Lake Union. Cool! Since it was gray (our new normal, BTW), the lake was a pretty lonely place today. We had our pick of any of the CWB's fleet. We chose a Whitehall 15, billed as 'a fast rowing water taxi' thought to be of New York City harbor origin, its design circa 1840.
Christian carefully navigated us away from the boathouse, but once we were on the open water, the kids each got a chance to row.

Most of the ride, the kids sat at the bow so they had a great view of where we were going.

The scenery from the boat was enthralling. It would have been STUNNING if it weren't so damn gray out. Sigh. Though other boaters were few and far between, we did see several seaplanes. It was cool to get to see them take off and land at such close proximity. (Though I'll admit, when you see them zeroing in on the part of the lake you're bobbing in, you sure hope they can see your lil' ol' wood boat.)
"It was really fun on that row boat. We weren't polluting," Annabelle pointed out.

North of the Border

ROAD TRIP!: The first bell rang early at MPA today - at least for Annabelle. Though CJ is almost always up and raring to go by 6:30, Annabelle is another story. I had to darn near drag Sleeping Beauty out of her bed at 6:45 today. The early upping was necessary because we had places to go, people to see. Specifically, we were heading to Burnaby, BC, Canada, to see CeeJ and Bee's Aunt Renee's master's program graduation!

We pulled away from the curb at 7:30, just as I'd hoped. We made a couple of stops before the border - one for gas and one at a store for a couple of snacks. We had zero wait at the border, which was great. Mercifully, my Mapquest directions were right and we drove 543 north to Route 1, to the proper exit. Along the way we crossed an impressive bridge spanning the Fraser River.

Without a single wrong turn (hooray!) were on the Burnaby campus of Simon Fraser by 11:30 a.m. We were there waaay early for a 2:30 graduation ceremony, but that was by design. As much time as we'd be spending sitting in the car to and from, I wanted to have plenty of time to roam the campus. I figured (correctly, fortunately!) there would be plenty of artwork and interesting architecture to check out while we passed some time.

We found a number of appealing water features (that would be even more appealing had the day not been so very very gray).

There was also lots of intriguing sculpture around the campus. Both of the kids were enthralled by an egg-like statue in a grassy courtyard.
We also had a chance to grab a bit of lunch. That was the lowlight of the day. We went to a place on campus called Pizza Pipeline or Pitstop or something and ordered a slice apiece. It was The Worst Pizza ever. Seriously. Ever. Anywhere. When I tell you it tasted like cardboard, I'm not just making a quick/easy/age-old analogy. I am speaking the truth. It didn't just have no taste, it had taste - and it tasted like cardboard. Annabelle's face says it all. ...

Before long, we were back to wandering. In search of a bathroom, we happily happened upon an art gallery. The current exhibition - a five-person show - is called "The Things We Do." The kids and I just LOVED the work of Marcia Pitch. The 60-something artist had taken mostly toy/doll parts and reassembled them in zany ways. Cool and sometimes creepy - it made me want to run to Goodwill, grab a bunch of toys and tchotchkes, rip 'em apart and reassemble them. In fact, we will without a doubt make that a future MPA art project.

Before long, it was nearly ceremony time. We connected with Renee via cell phone and found her in the courtyard.
Soon, it was time for Renee to line up with her classmates for the processional - which was led by some great sounding bagpipe players!

Rather than sit in folding chairs with the rest of the crowd, we (politely and surreptitiously) roamed the perimeter of the graduation, continuing our exploration of the campus. There were so many tucked away patios, plazas and rooftop gardens. During our travels, we came across a sign, which the kids found HYSTERICAL.
In case you're wondering, it was supposed to say "Keep Off Glass."
After the ceremony, we reconnected with Renee and family for a few minutes ...

(Don't you just love Annabelle's Magnadoodle motarboard?

We had an uneventful trip home, which included a stop at the Golden Arches at Exit 230 (don't even know what town it was in) ...

Upon Closer Examination

RAPUNZEL REVISITED: Today we took advantage of the lesson plan resource I found last night regarding Paul O. Zelinsky's version of "Rapunzel." It was a wonderfully enriching component as compared to just reading the book on its own.

For instance, two of the study questions were, "What is the main idea of the first paragraph where the husband is placing his hand on his wife's abdomen? What does it mean that her dress is growing tight around her waist?" The second question is labeled "grades 4-6" but CJ and Annabelle both chimed right in that the woman was going to have a baby.

Two more questions about the first illustration (of a couple) were "Where is the light source?" and "Where is the center of the painting?" It was neat to watch the kids identify the light source (a window in the painting) and then we talked about how the light from that window was affecting the objects/people in the picture (for instance, the back of the man's neck, which was toward the window, was illuminated, as was, to a lesser degree, the woman's face, since she was facing the window).

The study guide suggested we compare the couple's facial expressions. The kids both observed that the couple appeared happy, and surmised that it was because they were going to become parents.

We continued the close study of illustrations and key phrases in the text and the kids discovered all sorts of things they hadn't on the first read through of the book.

I'm hoping that in the future we can find similar enrichment exercises. At the bottom of the Rapunzel one, it said it was from the Penguin Young Readers Group. Naturally, I hopped to their Web site and it looks like a treasure trove for future studies!

O CANADA! Tomorrow MPA is going international. We're heading to Canada for a graduation (congrats Renee!). I thought it would be appropriate to learn a little bit about the country we'll be visiting. So, we checked out the Time For Kids feature on Canada, and gleaned some BC Facts from the government of British Columbia.

Most importantly, from Canadian Geographic, we learned that Canadians consume more macaroni and cheese than any other nation on earth. :) There were other fun and important facts on the site, too.

Given that we'll be driving about 4 hours there, spend about 4 hours in Canada and drive 4 hours back all in one day tomorrow, please excuse us in advance if the entry for Wednesday, June 16 is tardy.

TRAGIC REMINDER: This past Saturday morning, tragedy struck a family in Fremont, a neighborhood just across the bridge from us. Five people - four children and their aunt - died in an apartment fire. The mother of the four who died managed to escape the flames, and carried her niece to safety.

Though we've talked about fire safety in the past, it's been a few months and Saturday's devastation was a grim reminder that we should revisit the topic. Today, I concentrated on the kids' bedroom. We checked their smoke alarm to make sure it was working (it was) and then talked about what they'd do if they heard it go off at night.

I had them practice opening their bedroom windows. They both are able to manage the big casement window on the north, but we learned today that neither one of them can open the big slider on the west side. It's just too big and heavy for them to unlatch and slide at the same time with their little hands and arms. Discovering that, I told them that if they had to exit through a window and they couldn't get it open, they would need to break that window by throwing something heavy at it really really hard and that they would then need to watch out for the broken glass.

After the fire escape drill in their room, we moved to the bathroom. I told them that in the Fremont fire, it's reported that all five who perished were found holed up in a second story bathroom. We talked about the pros and cons of being in a bathroom in a fire. On the upside, you'd probably have access to a towel to put on the floor at the door threshold (to help keep smoke out). And you could stand in the shower and turn the water on in hopes of knocking back flame - but I reminded the kids that in most cases that really wasn't going to do you much good because what typically kills people in a residential fire is the smoke, not the flame. What you really need to be able to do is get the hell out of a burning structure. Which brings us to the major downside of holing up on a bathroom - there's usually not a window in a bathroom that's large enough for egress. Such is the case in our downstairs bathroom, and so I told the kids that is nowhere you'd want to be or stay in a fire. (Chances are, you'd be better off soaking towels, wrapping them around you and crawling through a wall of flames to try to get out than you would be staying put.)

Truth be told, Annabelle got a little bit panicky/upset during our fire drill. While I felt bad that she was upset, as I told her, it's much better to experience the uneasiness while practicing than to not be prepared in the event of a real fire.

IT'S SICK'S: Tuesday = yoga day, so we spent some time in Columbia City this afternoon. Before going to yoga, we stopped by the nearby Lowe's on Rainier Avenue to buy some more sedum for our green roof. As we pulled into the lot, I told the kids that believe it or not, on that very plot of ground, long before Seattle had a Safeco Field and even before the now long gone Kingdome, this plot of ground - home to Sick's Stadium - was where you went to play baseball.

The stadium was named after Emil Sick, owner of Rainier Brewing Company, and the baseball club that played there was, of course, the Rainiers. And baseball wasn't the only thing that went down at Sick's - Elvis even staged a concert at the stadium on Labor Day weekend, 1957! Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin had gigs there, too.

Let me tell you, the kids looked at the Rainier Valley Lowe's in a whole new light today. :) And when we got home from yoga, they began playing baseball straightaway.
PARTING (MOON) SHOT: Today's email from NASA included a retro image from 1967 of the S-II stage of the Saturn V rocket being hoisted onto the A-2 test stand at the Mississippi Test Facility (now the Stennis Space Center). The S-II was the second stage of the 364-foot tall moon rocket, which was powered by five J-2 engines.

We saw this rocket up close and personal in the rocket garden during our trip to the Kennedy Space Center. So cool!

Image Credit: NASA

Back at It

TABLE TIME: We started this morning with some worksheets on telling time, graphing and good ol' addition. The basics. The kids knocked it out no sweat.

SCRAPPY: We're still plugging away on the Florida scrapbook. Today, I asked the kids to write about two of their favorite attractions in the Magic Kingdom.

CJ chose to write about Space Ranger Spin (the Toy Story 2/Buzz Lightyear themed ride, which he went on three times) and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (a rollicking roller coaster through a "mine"). Bee wrote about Splash Mountain (a classic!) and the Barnstormer - a small-but-frantic roller coaster in the Toontown section of the Magic Kingdom.

This scrapbook project is taking a l-o-n-g time. Lots longer than our vacation was!

SCHOOL YARD: The kids spent a good two hours or so playing outside. This is a Very Good Thing, as they spent too much time indoors with electronics this weekend while the adult types were busting butt on campus improvements (mostly a whole bunch of moulding - the entire downstairs got new baseboard moulding, for example).

At one point, Annabelle presented me with a dandelion bouquet (a common occurrence around here). While thanking her and sizing it up, I noticed that one of the dandelions had a curly part on its green stem. And then thought, "Wait, that's no stem!" Instead, it was a real live green caterpillar who just happened to be on the dandelion she plucked.

Naturally, the kids were both very interested in the caterpillar, and wondered what kind of butterfly it would turn into.

LET DOWN YOUR HAIR: Today's literature lesson was the fairy tale Rapunzel. We had a beautiful picture book from the library - a version adapted and beautifully illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky.

Before we started the book (which came with a narrative CD), I asked the kids what they knew about Rapunzel, if anything. Both of them were familiar with the "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair" refrain, but could provide no other details of the story.

As is often the case with fairy tales, Rapunzel certainly has its dark moments (a wicked sorceress who tears apart Rapunzel's family and sends her poor prince - father of her two children - wandering around in the woods blind for over a year). However, as is often the case with fairy tales, there was a happy ending. :)

Tonight, while looking around Zelinsky's Web site I found a link to a NY teacher's lesson plan to go along with the book. We'll be utilizing that tomorrow!

FIDDLERS ON THE ROOF: A good chunk of today (especially MY day) was spent toiling on the roof. Or should I say 'soiling' on the roof? ... Christian had finished framing the structure and this weekend he put about half the drainage rock on. This a.m. I went and bought the rest of the rock we needed (300 pounds), as well as 12 cubic feet of potting soil (another 240 pounds). Then came the really fun part - hauling it up from the alley to the yard, and then hauling it up onto the roof. I plugged away at it and eventually it got done. Then came the fun part - planting!

Christian had done research and found that sedum is the best bet to plant on a green roof. This weekend at Lowe's we found nice flats of mixed sedum. We bought five, thinking it was soooo many at the time. Yeah, well, we need 10 more flats. Yike$. So back to Lowe's I go tomorrow. ... Hopefully we can get the rest of it planted tomorrow evening.

The kids were up on the roof with me for awhile to 'help' out. (I think they just like the view up there.) Tonight, we watered our roof for the first time.