Blanket

END OF THE ROAD: This morning I threw a piece of history (and myself?) into the garbage. This piece of history is know as "The City Blanket."

It is/was a quilt (in the loosest sense of the word) I made for Rick and Kennedy when they were babies (in the mid to late 80s, OMG). I saw the roads and community panel at a fabric store and thought, "Oh wow, my boys might like driving their toy cars on this."

But a funny thing happened (or, rather, didn't happen). Rick and Kennedy never were into Hot Wheels type cars, so they never used the blanket as a plaything, though it might have kept them warm once in awhile. And I saved the blanket (for R&K's kids -ha ha) but it ended up being for their sibs. Go figure. And while CeeJ and Bee play with cars more than R&K ever did (thanks to the "Cars" movie franchise), they never played *with* the blanket. However, they did use the blanket nightly and, finally, after 20 years, its bottomside has shredded in several parts, revealing holes.

And so, this morning, 'round 6:10 a.m., when Annabelle complained of her foot getting caught in one of the blanket's (many) holes for not the first time, I figured enough is enough. While I'm sentimental and all, I'm also a pragmatist. This blanket had run its course. So, right now it's in our stinky garbage can. End of story.

SHUTTLE BY THE SYLLABLE: We did some math this morning (adding dollars and cents), and afterward I wanted to work a little writing and free thinking into our day. So, I asked the kids to write a haiku (5-7-5) about the space shuttle program.

Annabelle took about two minutes to come up with this -
Shuttle launch to space
Bird soaring with rocket fire
Coming back to home

CJ took about 15 minutes to come up with this -

I saw Atlantis
Shuttle had our Face in Space
It is over now

I have to tell you, his haiku bummed me out. Poor boy thinks the closest he'll ever get to space was uploading a digital mug shot. :( I reminded him that when we saw Buzz Aldrin, the astronaut predicted the 'barnstorming' days of spaceflight are just around the corner. Here's hoping that Aldrin is right.

Of course, I figured if my kids can write shuttle haiku, I should give it a go, too. Love it how their 6- and 8-year-old brains can spit one out in minutes. It took me about 5 hrs to come up with ...

More than cargo ships
Shuttles carried hopes and dreams
To the starry skies

LEGOMANIACS: As you have read here, CeeJ and Bee like their LEGOS. So it's no wonder that they have been pretty keen on the art car building that's going on to our south. Our neighbor's son is heading to Burning Man and he and a bunch of friends have pooled their resources to create this ...
The picture above is of the vehicle not 100 percent done, but as you can tell, it's a whole lot of fun looking. I told them I thought it would be fun to make a LEGO man pinata to go with their party on wheels. Stay tuned for further developments.