Fair to Middlin'

GONZO: This morning after Annabelle finished a nectarine for breakfast, she said she thought her really loose tooth was even looser. I asked if I could take a look and it was hanging in there by one or part of one root, max, and I could already see the new tooth coming in behind it.

"We're getting that out here and now," I told her. And so, we did.

This made Annabelle very happy because weeks ago, she had sent the Tooth Fairy an email requesting a busy bee Pillow Pet upon losing her next tooth. Let's just hope the Tooth Fairy delivers.

MAIL MERGE: I believe I mentioned before that I'm (barely) a member of Seattle Homeschool Group. We've gone to one SHG park play day in the last year (we always have a schedule conflict preventing us from going back), and we took those six great science classes that another SHG organized last spring. But other than that, I read their Yahoo! email list (and get lots of good ideas there), and receive the monthly newsletter.

Anyway, a couple of months ago, there was an email asking if anyone was willing to be in charge of procuring the group tickets to the Puyallup Fair in September through the Fair's educational ticket program. I read the program guidelines, and thought, "Well that's a way I can help with little trauma and drama" and volunteered.

And then the trauma and drama started. AFTER getting orders for nearly 70 tickets and submitting them to the Fair per their guidelines/deadline, I learned from the Fair that they may not offer the tickets to the SHG after all, as they were thinking about revamping the program.

And so I had to call the Fair, and email the Fair and worry. And call. And email. And worry. Finally, yesterday, by some miracle, the tickets I'd ordered arrived in our mailbox.

So, this morning, the kids and I went about fulfilling orders. I stuffed the self addressed stamped envelopes ticket requesters had sent, and then it was the kids' job to make sure each envelope had a "to" address, a stamp, a return address, and the envelope had to be sealed. They did a good job on their task - they stayed focused, were thorough and paid attention to detail.

There were a few bleeechs when it came to licking envelopes (frankly, I was surprised CJ did it at all). Annabelle reports one of the envelopes tasted like a fortune cookie.
After we processed the 60 some orders, we took some time to look at the different stamps on the envelopes. I suggested we sort the envelopes by stamps. The categories we came up with were bells, flags, military, people, holidays, Simpsons, pets and art.

We counted envelopes in each category and developed a bar chart (or bar cahrt, as Annabelle spelled it) to illustrate our data. (Clearly, the boring old bell stamp was the favorite.)

Man, I was so happy to get those tickets in the SASEs and in the mail.

The Fair starts Sept. 10 and runs through. We're really looking forward to going and I really feel like we earned it!

SUN RUN:

Midday we set out for Magnolia Village for a run-ride. It was surprisingly hot out!

But before we could go anywhere, we had to inflate the bikes' tires. They were pretty flat (no doubt, in part, due to all the curb hopping we have to do). Annabelle was eager to get a chance to help with the inflating. Afterward, the kids played at the park next to the community center.

At one point, CJ was pretending he was creating "blooper reels." In this photo, he was sitting on the track of the little trolley, asking Christian to make it run into him. What Fun! ;)

FAIR FRIENDS: This afternoon, the kids decided to check in on Club Penguin and imagine their glee when they discovered that it's fair time in Club Penguin land, too.

They had fun playing games of skill and chance, winning tickets and using the tickets to redeem virtual prizes, including ridiculous getups. CJ was a clown earlier today, but it appears he went for a more sophisticated look later in the day. ;)

This afternoon, the kids also played a "Magic School Bus Inside the Earth" game. Annabelle says from it she learned that "sometimes you can actually clean minerals to know what they are."

TONIGHT: After dinner, it felt like the kids had spent too much time inside on such a nice day, so I suggested we walk up to Bayview Park (the one right by our house). It looked like we weren't the only ones with that idea - there were at least a dozen other kids there (which is a rarity for that place).

The kids clambered around on the play equipment and then ran around on the soccer fields. Before we returned home, I snapped this photo of them. This park has a Little League field with a heckuva view. The white arches over Annabelle's left shoulder are at Qwest stadium. A bit off CJ's right shoulder, you can see a white light that's the top part of the Space Needle peeking over Queen Anne hill.

Rings and Things

IN THE ROUND:This afternoon, CJ announced that there was a rainbow on our ceiling. Sure enough!

Sun streaming in through a south facing window was reflecting off an upside down CD that was on our desk. It was really pretty.

A bit later, on our run, I noticed an arching, multi colored ring in the sky. At first I thought it was a rainbow, but the colors weren't really right (they were more reds and oranges), and it seemed like it was a circle around the sun, not an arch or rainbow shape.

Through the magic of the Internet (and thanks to a page on the Universe Today site), we learned that These rings are caused by ice crystals within thin cirrus clouds, and there several different kinds of sun rings you can see depending on the weather conditions.

One of the most common rings (and the one I believe we saw today) is called a 22° halo, so named because the ring is located 22 degrees away from the Sun itself. The ring is formed at exactly 22° because of the hexagonal shape of the ice crystals in the cirrus clouds which act as prisms for the Sun's light. According to Universe Today, "As light passes through the two sides of the prism, it's deviated by exactly 22°. Since the ice crystals are jumbled up randomly in the sky, most of the light is deflected away. But from every position you're always able to see the deflected light from some of the crystals in the sky. And this is why you see the bright ring around the Sun."

There's also a really great story about the phenomenon in NASA's Science News Web site - which was a wonderful discovery in and of itself. I've spent countless hours on their Web site and never seen the Science News portion before. It's awesome!

BIG FAT ZERO: I went through our workbooks today in search of some math problems that would make the kids think a bit. I decided to give them worksheets that reinforced the concept that different number combinations could be used to get the same answer. (For instance, 2+4 and 5+1 both equal 6.)

CJ had no trouble with the concept, until he was faced with this: 8+1 = 9+?

He pondered it for a minute or two and then declared, "This is impossible! Eight plus one is nine. If it's nine already, how can I add anything to it?"

Thankfully, he realized the answer when he asked his question aloud. Sometimes "nothing," or zero, is the answer.

On his next exercise, CJ had to solve some number wheels. Picture a dart board. There's a number in the center, and in the ring around the center, there are several other numbers. He had to add the center number to the numbers surrounding it and write the answer in an outer ring. After doing one, he realized there was a pattern and he breezed right through it. "Addition wheels are so easy," he said smugly.

Annabelle had a meltdown doing her second worksheet. She was supposed to solve addition equations and then color a picture using a color code provided (5 = yellow, 6 = red, that sort of thing). Unfortunately, what she did was bust out the crayons and immediately start coloring the picture to her liking, completely ignoring the math. When I called her on it, she told me she knew the answers, so she didn't see the need to actually do the math.

I told her that even though she knows the answers, one of the reasons I even bother with worksheets is I want to make sure they are reading something carefully and following the directions they're given. That's a really important life skill.

EXPRESS YOURSELF: CJ has been in a bit of a fog the past couple of days. By that, I mean not cueing in to the people and activity around him in favor of living in his own head.

Given that, I thought we'd work on some social skills today. So, I returned to the Birmingham Grid for Learning that we discovered last week. There, I found an activity called "Busy Pages."

According to the instructions along with it, "This activity helps children to develop their expressive language skills. They will have the opportunity to put their thoughts into words and gain confidence expressing themselves verbally with other children and adults."

It was suggested teachers have "children observe, identify, predict and discuss a picture of a familiar activity." We did that. I also asked the kids to think about the people in the pictures. Who were they? What was their "story"? What could you tell or suppose about them just by looking at them?

PURPLE PLAY PARK: When Christian came home from work, we went for a run/ride. We decided to head to the "Purple Play Park" as the kids call it, so named for its bright purple posts on the play equipment. It's actually the playground at Lawton Elementary School.

Along the way we saw the Farmers zeppelin "Eureka" that we've been seeing around town for the past few days. In fact, we even saw it on the ground, at the Boeing plant/Paine Field up in Everett last Sunday, when we went to the circus. For just $375 (yikes!) you can even take a ride in it.

When we reached Lawton CJ played for awhile, while Annabelle had to walk the perimeter of the park with me. (She'd been really nasty on the way over and as she learned, when you're rude and or mean, there are repercussions.)

For all the times I've mentioned the playground here, I don't think I've ever posted a photo of it in its entirety - until now.

As you can see, it has a nice view over to Ballard/Crown Hill and Phinney Ridge.

IT'S EVOLUTIONARY!: To be honest, I'm not even sure how I found this gem today (I must have been searching for something else, saw a link or two and followed them), but what a score. "It" is "Evolution Readiness."

As they describe on their "about" page, "Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Evolution Readiness project is working with school districts in Massachusetts, Missouri, and Texas to introduce fourth graders to the concept of evolution by natural selection. We provide students with a virtual environment they can populate with plants ... . When the plants drop seeds, the new plants sometimes differ slightly from the "parent" plant, and are adapted to a slightly different environment. Students conduct virtual experiments to determine which variety of plant lives best in which environment. Later, they can alter the environment and observe the effect."

I had to download a couple of really big files to gain access to their learning units, but it was well worth the time and effort. I haven't shared it with the kids yet - I wanted to check it out for myself first.

If you're wondering "Why teach evolution to elementary aged kids," check out this Newsweek article, "Nature’s Little Scientists: On the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species, an argument for teaching evolution to younger children."

TEMPLE TALK: If you watched the Emmy awards last weekend, you heard the name "Temple Grandin" over and over and over. The HBO biopic about her life won FIVE Emmy awards.
Thanks to a Facebook link by the folks at Social Thinking, I found a nearly one hour interview with her, "Conversations from Penn State." I didn't get to listen to it all today, but what I did hear was compelling. She is doing so much to forward the notion that different thinking, looking and acting people have much to contribute to our society if society would just be more understanding, accepting and encouraging.

Salmon Bay Way

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER PARK: This morning, we had an appointment to meet up with one of Annabelle's former preschool classmates. We hadn't seen him in well over a year, so Bee was really looking forward to it.

When we were planning the pow wow via Facebook messaging, I asked the child's mom if there were any good parks in her neighborhood (Ballard), since we're always looking to give new parks a go. She suggested Salmon Bay Park, at 70th Street and 19th Avenue W. As often as we're in Ballard, it's hard to believe we'd never been there before, but somehow it had managed to elude us, until today.

I checked it out in advance online. I read that as the 20th century dawned, Shilshoe Indians lived in the area, and that the park was named after a former tidal flat, which is now part of the Washington Ship Canal. I also learned the park was deeded to Seattle in 1890, and annexed into the city (along with Ballard) in 1907. first park annexed into Seattle and that once upon a time there was even a dance pavilion there. I found some great, century-old photos of Salmon Bay Park on the Seattle Municipal Archives site.



These days, Salmon Bay Park is a busy, busy place. Granted, today there were around 30 kids with some daycare at the park, but even set that group aside and the joint was jumping.

The park is a find in that the play equipment is old enough that it's not like recently renovated parks; but it's it's not so old that it's decrepit. And in addition to the climbing structures, there is a zipline!!!!

Structurally, it's very much like the one we discovered at Discovery Park a few days ago. However, it's lower slung (the kids can drag their feet for part of it) and the kickback isn't as great (I think because its tire bumper has lost its bump, so to speak).

Speaking of ziplines, guess what we did tonight after dinner at the Magnolia Village Pub with Renee and Jim. That's right - though it was damn near dark, we went to the zip line in Discovery Park and had some fun!!!!



DANCING IN SEPTEMBER: We have some additions and changes to our schedule this month, so I thought we'd do something we haven't done in awhile - I had the kids make up a calendar for the month.
But before we got down to business, I had them do a September dance with Earth, Wind & Fire providing the soundtrack




After they got done getting their groove on, it was down to business. I told them the good news is September is spelled just like it sounds. Despite that, CJ initially forgot the M and Bee forgot the E before the R at the end. They figured it out, though.

The dates on the calendars populated quickly. We wrote Musikgarten and yoga on Tuesdays, Annabelle jotted down ballet on Mondays. We also wrote down special events (like Labor Day on the 6th, the Puyallup Fair, the first day of fall, a Mariners' game on the 15th, Grandma's birthday on the 29th).

Our weeks are front-end heavy. I'm hoping to find something (that doesn't cost a fortune, or that's preferably free) to do the latter part of the week. Pacific Science Center and the Children's Center come to mind as potential possibilities ...

Once the dates were done, I asked the kids to draw a picture atop their calendars that symbolizes the month. After much consternation, CJ decided upon a leaf. Annabelle opted for drawing Grandma, whose birthday falls in Sept.


BACK TO SCHOOL: This time of year it's inescapable. Seemingly every other ad on TV and signs all over stores are talking about back to school. Not a day goes by without someone asking either me or the kids (or both) if we're ready for back to school. I usually mutter something like, "We never left school," and the kids' response is a blank stare.

I think I need to better prepare the kids for questions about their schooling. To that end, we watched a BrainPop Jr movie about schools. It did a nice job of talking about the traditional roles of people in the schools (teachers, principals, parents, etc.)

I asked the kids what some good reasons for going to school are. CJ said, "So you do things with friends, not just yourself."

Annabelle chimed in, "So you're not dumb!" :)

Adios August

MORNING POUR: Just in case there was any doubt summer is winding down, today dawned with pouring rain. I remember reading a forecast a couple of days ago that Tuesday was supposed to mean up to an inch of rain for parts of Western Washington. Forecasters got it right this time.

I sure hope this weather doesn't doom our tomatoes. We planted the seeds in late March, I believe, and had to wait until AUGUST for a few little tomatoes to appear on the plants. They're still very small, and now the days are getting much shorter and the rains are here. Sigh.

'SHOPPING: Last night walking out of Safeco Field, CJ and I were talking about the Photoshopping he'd experimented with on Monday. We came up with the idea of mixing/merging Princess Peach of Mario fame with Ichiro of Mariners fame.

This morning, we combed the Internet in search of images that work. We settled on one each of Peach and Ichiro (Peachiro?), and then we 'Shopped and swapped heads on them.The kids got to use Photoshop's magic lasso, move tool, free transform, clone stamp, paintbrush, color sampler and Annabelle even helped on a swap color function (we turned a mushroom from red to pink). They got to see the concept of layers in action, and learned that control-alt-z (going backward a step) can be a lifesaver. CJ had the good idea of using the color sample tool to capture Ichiro's skin tone and use it to color over Princess Peach's upper arms. It was a good catch on his part. I hadn't even noticed her skintone there, it was such a small detail.
Between finding the perfect photos to manipulate and then making our modifications, we spent a full hour-plus Photoshopping. (Part of the lesson was that while swapping heads alone would have been funny, adding little touches like the bat, ball and mushroom make a big difference.)

Overall, I would say it was an hour very well spent. It's great for the kids to learn some graphic design chops, and it's not something they'd get in a standard kindergarten or first grade classroom.

It's moments like these that make me feel good about our approach to education.

WADDLE THIS WAY: This morning the kids connected with their friend Pingazane in San Diego via Club Penguin.

The three are getting better at keeping track of one another and finding additional ways to interact via the platform. And even though it's a virtual playdate, it's interesting how many of the same real world rules apply. For instance, from time to time CJ would start to wander off in Penguinland, doing his own thing (a not uncommon predilection for him). When he did so, I would gently remind him that for this half hour, it wasn't just about what he wanted to do, he was supposed to be interacting with Annabelle and Pingazane, and that when you're playing with friends, it could be considered rude to wander off or withdraw and just do your own thing.

AFTERNOON DELIGHT: We finally went to yoga today after a 4 week layoff I think. There was a substitute for teacher Nicole. CJ said the sub was "different, but that's OK."

Rather than drive all the way from Columbia City back home to Magnolia and turn around and head to Sodo for our evening's festivities, we decided to hang down south. Where better to hang than Full Tilt, and old school arcade and ice cream parlor!

Before we left home for yoga, I had CJ round up all the quarters he could find (and highly motivated as he was, that was a lot). There were enough quarters to keep the kids busy from 4:45 to 6:15 - a full hour and a half of arcade and ice cream bliss. (Did I mention they serve beer, too?) The kids had a great time. Annabelle fancies herself a pinball wizard and CJ had the high score on 2 or 3 games in the shop by the time we left (I think they reset the high scores daily).

From there, it was back to "the Safe" ...

DOUBLE HEADER: Normally we wouldn't go to a baseball game two nights in a row, but special circumstances prompted an exception. We'd bought tickets to Monday night's game months ago, when we thought a Ms v. Angels matchup in late August might mean something (as in have an effect on post season play). Boy were we wrong. ...

Then a few weeks ago, we scored Starbucks coupons for free tickets, and the last day to use those was today, August 31. So back at Safeco we go!

Honestly, Monday night's game left such a bad taste in our mouths, it was probably good to get back on the horse (so to speak) and cleanse the palate (so to speak).

Monday night's seats were only 6 rows up from the field, along the third base line. Tuesday night, we were more like 300 rows up from the field, over right field. In fact, the kids asked if we could sit at the very tip top of the field and so we did. We basically had the whole section to ourselves, which was nice, cause the kids could get up and stretch their legs, spazz out, you name it.

Happily, the Mariners managed to win tonight (despite their continued HORRIBLE INEXCUSEABLE AWFUL base running and lack of clutch hitting for most of the game).

Can We Do It

CAN-TASTIC: First thing after breakfast this morning, the kids and Christian opened up the cool Tin Can Robot kit that Aunt Renee & Uncle Jim brought last week.

The first thing they did was take inventory, making sure they had all the pieces, and familiarizing themselves with the components.

Then they read the directions step-by-step. They each did some work with the screwdriver (which wasn't easy, the screws were so tiny).

They had to make the framework that would hold the can, and attach the electric motor, the battery housing, and the wheel assembly.

















CJ says "lots of them were hard parts" when it came to assembling the robot. He says the easiest part was "putting the can in the robot."

We used an orange soda can, which Annabelle happily drained a few days prior.

One of the most fun parts of building the robot was attaching the eyes. The kids each got to do one.

One of the last steps was putting in the AA battery. Imagine the excitement when it was time to flip the switch on. ... And imagine the disappointment when nothing happened. :o

I suggested to Christian that maybe the electric motor was stuck. That happened to us when we were using an electricity experiment kit about a month ago. So, they had to disassemble a few components to get at the motor. Christian pinched its shaft and gave it a twist and then put it back in its housing, reassembled the robot and ... HOORAY! It worked!

The kids enjoyed watching Canbot roll around the house. Kirby wasn't quite as enthused.

Overall, it was a fun project and the final product was a bit hit.ZIP-A-DEE-DO-DAH: The kids have been itching to get back to the zipline we discovered at Discovery Park last Friday, so for today's P.E. we went and parked the VW bus a ways away from the park and rode/ran there.

The kids were even more adventurous today with the zipline, including playing some games of 'chicken' with the line.
On the way back to the van, we stopped to read a sign at a green belt we passed. Turns out it's the Kiwanis Ravine, which hosts the largest Great Blue Heron colonial nesting site in Seattle. Interesting.

We didn't see any herons today, but we'll definitely be keeping our eye on the spot in the future, especially during hatching season.

GRAPHIC ARTIST: This afternoon, out of nowhere, CJ asked me if he could do some Photoshopping. Apparently he's been seeing some of the creations of other Photoshop artists in the YouTube videos he watches, and he wanted to try his hand and some image manipulation.

I had him pick an image of Mario of game fame, and the first thing I did was show him how to use the "liquefy" function in Photoshop, which is a fun and easy way to morph images.

He wound up with the cool mix on the left using the original image on the right.

We've already talked about tomorrow's Photoshop projects. :)

MISERABLE MARINERS: Tonight we went to Safeco Field to watch the Seattle Mariners put on a display of some truly awful baseball.

I won't go into the gory details, but suffice it to say, on our way out of the stadium, CJ told me he wanted to whisper something in my ear. I leaned down and he said, "The Mariners played like hell!"

That just about sums it up.

WONDERFUL WEEKEND: It likely won't surprise you to learn that even though this tired mom takes Saturday and Sunday off from blogging, things don't grind to a halt here at MPA. We had a busy weekend. On Saturday, after spending the day working around the house, we headed across the Ballard Bridge and northwestward to Golden Gardens park. It has a long swath of sandy beach, where the kids built sand castles and jumped very small waves.
There are lots more pictures for our beach trip here.

And then on Sunday, in part to prove that I Am Bigger than my Huge Fear of Clowns, we went to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

What a spectacle that was! Before the show they let the public get to see the animals up close, and then go down onto the three-ringed circus floor and mix and mingle with the talent.

The show was wildly entertaining. I took lots of photos, which can be seen here.

Day of Discoveries

SLIME TIME: Right after breakfast this morning, the kids were all over the slime that Annabelle brought home from a friend's house yesterday.

Actually, it was more stretchy than slimy today, which made it better to play with, really.

I got some mats out and gave them each a pizza cutter and they had fun pulling and cutting it.NO REPLY: This morning an ad for a Dora doll came on TV. That sent CJ into a bit of an anti-Dora rant. He doesn't like how Dora the Explorer will ask a question and then stare out into TV Land, waiting for viewers to answer her.

"It's stupid. They can't hear you," CJ he said. "It would be smarter (to talk to them) if they could hear you," he pointed out.

I must say, the boy has a point.

OUR COUNTRY 'TIS OF THEE: For some literature and history learnin' we turned to the (library) book "America The Beautiful" which came with an audio CD - which ended up being a bad thing.

The book's words are the poem by Katharine Lee Bates which was eventually paired with a tune called "Materna" by Samuel A. Ward, producing the familiar patriotic tune still sung today.

The paintings in the book, by artist Wendell Minor, are gorgeous. But the s-l-o-w narration of the book was, well, off-putting. Obviously the slow meter of reading was to allow the kids to enjoy the scenery in the illustrations, but it just came off as awkward. It probably didn't help that the language is super stilted compared to today's standard. (Example: "God mend thine every flaw, Confirm they soul in self control Thy liberty in law!" isn't the stuff most kids' books are made of.)

But it wasn't just the meter that was odd. It was the manner. For instance, at one point facing pages read "America!" and "America!" However, they were read as nearly a whisper, and not imploringly or all that urgently, in our humble opinions.

"It doesn't sound like they're using the exclamation points," CJ astutely observed.

Clearly, the book was a bit of a bust with us - all because of the distracting audio accompaniment. I think I'll read it with the kids in a few days and just talk about the message of the words and what's in Minor's pictures (there's a neat guide at the end of the book that has info about each scene).

Next up was the very entertaining "The Scrambled States of America" a book turned into an animated short by Scholastic. In the story (by Laurie Keller) all 50 states go to a party, and there, they decide to switch places so they can each see a new part of America. It didn't turn out too well. ...

With all the switcheroos, "They won't fit together, and, well, the United States wouldn't look good," said Annabelle.

And in their new places, "They ended up having stuff they did NOT want," CJ said of the states.

Also on the DVD was "This Land is Your Land." Written by Woody Guthrie and sung by his son Arlo, it was a fun tour of the county "from California, to the New York Islands." I was able to cajole the kids into singing along.

Third up was "The Star Spangled Banner," illustrated by Peter Spier and sung by the amazing Aretha Franklin. How could you not like that?

There were also a couple of bonus features on the DVD - two tall tales the kids are quite familiar with. Samuel L. Jackson narrated Julius Lester's version of John Henry (illustrations by Jerry Pinkney). And last but not least was Reeve Lindbergh's telling of "Johnny Appleseed" (illustrations by Kathy Jakobsen).

LOVELY LUNCHEON: Just after noon, we headed to one of our favorite outdoor spots - the Olympic Sculpture Park - to meet a friend passing through Seattle for lunch. We love going there - every time there's something new and interesting.

While we were waiting at the rendezvous spot, a couple of freight trains went by on the very nearby railroad tracks. The train was less than a stone's throw away, so we could really see the wheels in motion and feel its power.

Soon, our friend came and we headed up a couple of blocks to the building on site housing a small cafe, restrooms and a rotating art exhibit. We stood and pondered the current installation. On the wall was a very pop art (to my eye) piece. On the floor (you have to look closely in the photo) there were clear acrylic containers in which you were supposed to deposit any plastic caps you might have on you. Interesting.We wandered outside and showed our visitor some of the sculptures and crossed over to the portion of the park that has lots of chairs and a fan-freaking-tastic view of Puget Sound. There, we sat on the grass in the shade of a tree and used a chair as our table for lunch. Big People enjoyed sushi while the kids savored Mighty-O donuts scored in the cafe.

Afterward, we strolled around the sculpture park, and found one path down along the waterfront we'd never even explored before.

Soon, it was time to walk our friend to her car - several blocks to the south on Alaskan. On our way back to our car, instead of staying on the streetside sidewalks, we ventured out around the backsides of a couple of buildings, including Anthony's (restaurant) at Pier 66.

I really wanted to take the kids to get good look at the HUGE cruise ship docked out back. Man oh man, what a big boat!!!! It was like a small city back there, bustling with activity. We watched cranes load and unload cargo for awhile.
Right there on Pier 66 we also discovered a sweet little wading pond in the shape of a fish. The kids puddled about in it for awhile, and also played in a Saturn-esque, low-slung fountain right next to it.

We headed home and took Kirby for a walk, much to her relief (ha ha).

ANOTHER DISCOVERY:
Though we'd walked many blocks today already, when Christian got home, I was raring to go for a run. I was also itching for more adventure. For years now, I've known that somewhere in 330-some acre Discovery Park there's a children's playground, but in all our trips out there (it's less than 2 miles from our house), we'd yet to find it. I decided today was the day to right that wrong. After about 15 minutes of Internet research, I was able to find a map online that showed where the park was (on the park's east side, near 36th street, and behind the Visitor's Center). We loaded the kids and dog into the VW bus.

We parked in the Visitor's Center lot and followed the trail to the southeast of it. Truth be told, I was expecting some crappy, land-that-time forgot playground with a tire swing or two, but I figured we HAD to check it out. Almost immediately we passed a pair of tennis courts that looked brand spankin' new. Hmm. ... That was promising. ... And then we came upon the play area.

There were lots of swings of various sizes and styles, a nice sized play structure with a couple of slides, a suspended bridge and some swinging/hanging apparatus and wait, what's this, off to the side?

Christian saw it first.

"A zipline!" he announced. Woooooohoooo!

Oh, we had so much fun! The zipline was about 50 feet long, and just enough of a decline to it to give you a good rush. The kids probably went on it 20-plus times apiece, and yes, Christian and I both gave it a go, too. What a wonderful discovery and so close to home. We've been here a couple of YEARS now. I could just kick myself that we haven't been to this play area sooner. Not only are the zipline and play structure great, there's a great canopy of evergreens over it, making it wonderful for a sunny day, or a slightly drizzly day - I think the trees would keep you mostly dry.

Also, there's a natural amphitheater right next to the park, and some great grassy hills for rolling down. And those tennis courts, they were, in fact, brand spanking new. A sign on them said they'd just been resurfaced and are set to open tomorrow. There was also a full basketball court and a volleyball court right there.

Did I mention that on a sunny afternoon in August, we had the whole place to ourselves?

By the time it was time to leave, daredevils CJ and Annabelle were both doing the zip line standing up.

It was a good day. :)

Droopy Boy

SHAPE UP: A few days ago I discovered a Web site that offers a nice explanation of shapes (one-, two- and three-dimensional). So today, Annabelle and I explored it, with CJ listening from the couch (more on that later).

It was great - the site even had patterns to download so we could make some three-dimensional shapes (which strikes me as a MUCH better way to learn about them, instead of just looking at a 2-D drawing of them!). Annabelle crafted a cylinder, a cube and a tetrahedron.By poking around, I learned the shapes lesson was a page on Birmingham Grid for Learning (BGfL) site. In their "About Us" section, BGfL claims to be "arguably the most comprehensive learning resource of its kind to be found anywhere in the UK."

Further, they say they provide "a wealth of information and activities that are not only educationally sound, engaging and fun, but are also highly focused on appropriate interfaces for each key stage and for teachers." Quite an ambitious undertaking by the folks in Birmingham, England, wouldn't you say?

There's so much on the site, it's overwhelming (as in overwhelmingly awesome). I think a good jump off place for us on future visits to BGfL is on their Primary site (for 5 to 11 year olds).

STRUCK DOWN: Out of nowhere, this morning CJ was suddenly stuck with a mystery affliction. At first he complained that he slept too long last night (he was up before 6!) and that made his heart hurt. Odd.

He continued to complain of midsection discomfort. "I feel like an old man, but I don't need a stick (cane)," he described.

Soon, his bottom lip and chin were quivering with chills. I sent him to the couch and got him a blanket. As he lay there trembling he asked, "Is God real?"

I asked him where that came from and he said, "I don't know. I just thought of it."

Soon after he said, "Great, now my brain hurts. The chills are getting around." CJ was convinced this new affliction was "because I'm tilted" (laying down).

Annabelle was pestering CJ. She just didn't know what to do without her partner in crime. It was a good thing she had a playdate this afternoon. ...

PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES: This morning I heard Annabelle singing, "Pack up your troubles in your old kid (sic) bag and smile, smile, smile." It surprised me. I didn't know that she knew that song.

I asked her how she knew it and she said "from commercials." Of course. Through the magic of the Internet, I was able to quickly find the ad she knows it from - it's for a Dell laptop.

Through YouTube, I was able to find a version of the song that's by a gentleman playing guitar. It's captioned, and it's fascinating to read the words (before today, I had never known any of the song other than the one line from the chorus!).

As it turns out, the song is a WWI era composition, first published in 1915. According to Wikipedia, its lyrics were written by George Henry Powell under the pseudonym of "George Asaf" and it was scored by his brother Felix Powell. It won a wartime competition for a marching song.

Naturally, we had to listen to a couple of different versions of it, including a really old one and one that appears to be from a movie (but unfortunately he poster didn't say which movie - but I have reason to believe it might be from "Oh! What A Lovely War"). And later, I found a 1917 recording of the song on Wikipedia.

Through further reading, tonight I learned that composer Felix was a staff sergeant in the British Army. However, lyricist George was a pacifist and a conscientious objector when conscription was imposed in England 1916. In a way, this made sense to me, really, because my take on the song is that it's rather sarcastic or ironic. Telling someone to "smile, smile, smile" while the Kaiser's army is raining down bullets on you seems rather silly, doesn't it?


PLAYTIME: This afternoon, Annabelle and I went to the home of a new friend she made while we were playing in the sand at Discovery Park last Friday. By the time I'd even made it over to say 'hi,' Miss Talkative had already told the child and her mother her name, my name, where we live, and that she's homeschooled. (Note to self - give the kids a refresher course in 'stranger danger'.)


Rick came and stayed with CJ while Bee and I went for the visit. The girls had a good ol' time. They spent a lot of the 90 minutes doing artsy craftsy things, including making some tissue paper flowers and enjoying a fresh made batch of homemade slime.
RALLYING: By about 7:30 tonight, CJ was starting to feel like himself. (He'd been down and out on the couch since shortly after sunrise.) He said he felt like playing a hack (a fan/programmer altered Mario-related game). First he played his own hack-in-progress and then Christian helped him download a couple of other people's hacks.

BEE TO THE RESCUE: Just before bedtime tonight, Annabelle came to the computer to fetch me. She informed me she'd set up an animal adoption center and wanted me to adopt a pet.

I ended up adopting a snail, a hedgehog and an echidna (a spiny anteater).