April Fool's Day

SILLY TIME: Here's a photo of the completion of our cupcake project we started yesterday. We gave Rick and Ken each a "TV dinner" tray this a.m. Rick took his to work and said he didn't even get to eat one - they were snatched up in the teacher's lounge.

The idea is straight out of "Hello, Cupcake!" In case you're curious, the 'chicken' is a cupcake topped by a donut hole, covered in frosting and then rolled in crushed cornflakes. The 'bone' is marshmallow fondant. The 'potatoes' are just frosted cupcakes with a Starburst candy as the pat of butter and caramel syrup for gravy. The peas and carrots are green runts and orange Starburst cut up.

CHEAP DATE: This morning we went on a field trip to the Pacific Science Center. A cuple of days ago I got an email from Pacific Science Center announcing a sneak preview of a 3D Imax movie called SeaRex. (Which has a very cool Web site, BTW.) In the email it was billed as a movie about "dinosaurs under water." They offered free tickets, and I had a previous email offering members free popcorn. We're all about free stuff, so you know we went. Though it was pouring rain, we parked a ways away in keeping with our free theme. : )

As we approached the Seattle Center campus, we noticed the Space Needle's top was shrouded in clouds.

We got there a few minutes early, so we checked out the exhibits in the foyer of the Boeing Imax theater. The kids played with the Theramin ... and a percussion instrument made out of tubes ... They also sat at a table that made them feel like little kids (or should I say littler kids?). And they played with funhouse mirrors. After awhile we headed down to the theater and got some good seats in the center.

The movie started v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y and I wasn't sure where it was going. I was expecting prehistoric sea monsters right out of the gate. Instead, it was a bunch of actors playing French guys from the 1700s, and then some woman named Julie at a modern day aquarium with some really tall guy in funny clothes lecturing her/narrating. Curious. (At the end of the film, we learned this narrator was Georges Couvier, the father of vertebrate paleontology.)

Eventually, the film got going, there were SeaRex aplenty and the 3D effects were really great. I can say in all certainty creationists would NOT like this film whatsoever, as it give a pretty complete history of the earth from genesis (in the non biblical sense) to present day.

My biggest beef with the film came when there was long shot of a coastline supposedly during the Jurassic period. Problem was, I noticed a tiny movement on the cliffs. Turns out it was a human walking along with a golden retriever. Hmpf. Not too authentic, eh?

SPECIAL DELIVERY: The mailman came bearing gifts today. CJ tore into it and when he got the brown paper wrapping off he said, "Rice in a bag?"

He probably wasn't too disappointed since he likes rice so much, but I told him that I was pretty sure there was something other than what the box said inside. Sure enough, he opened it and found a couple of books, courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa, with a bunch of game codes and cheats. Score!

WE'RE NUMBER ONE: While yesterday was the first day of Major League Baseball, today was the first game on the Mariners 2011 schedule. You know that was cause for celebration in our house. We worked on baseball themed food (Venezuelan hot dogs, garlic fries, and some peanuts and Cracker Jack topped cupcakes). We even made grand salami on rye bread with mustard sandwiches as a nod to Dave Niehaus, the hall of fame broadcaster who was the voice of the Mariners for 34 seasons, until his death last November.