Map and Mats

THEY DID THE MAP (THEY DID THE MONSTER MAP): It's been awhile since we've done a straight-up geography lesson, so I thought this morning would be a good time to break out the map-of-the-50 states jigsaw puzzle.

It's actually not the easiest puzzle to put together as the individual states' pieces don't have any tabs on 'em, they're just state shaped and slide all over the place. That being the case, I told the kids the HAD to do the border first, and once they'd done that, then work on finding the states that are on the Canadian and Mexican borders, and then fill in the middle.

Once they had our entire nation assembled, I suggested we play a game. We'd take turns choosing a state and then we'd give one clue about that state. For instance, I picked Florida and I said, "Oranges grow there," and the kids each took a guess. If there was no correct answer after the first round another clue was given until the correct state was guessed. This activity was made possible in large part by the fact that the map had icons on on them representing things each state was famous for (apples and salmon on Washington, for instance).

After the structured fun, CJ and Annabelle morphed into map-eating monsters and they set about deconstructing the nation one state at a time. It was a pretty protracted, involved game, and their reasons for eliminating states was interesting. (Texas was the first to go, in case you're wondering.)

EGBDF: When I went to the tail end of Musikgarten for parent participation time, I was happy to see that the kids were working with the musical staff. Teacher Nancy had a big one on poster board on the wall, and told us that earlier she'd had an even bigger one on the floor, made out of black straps and the kids got to be the "notes" hopping around from line to line.

She then brought out yet another version - this time a felt rectangle the size of a placemat with five horizontal black lines on it (of course). The kids were given felt circles and then their task was to match the pattern of dots (notes) she put on the big board. CJ and Annabelle handled the exercise with precision and confidence. They're getting such a good foundation in music through Musikgarten.

Later today, while waiting in an entirely too long and slow line at Safeway, the kids started singing and doing rhythmic hand clapping to a song they learned at lessons. I love it when they spontaneously do things like that.

Oh, and it should be noted, that while we did NOT see a dead fish in the alley as we have the last 3 or so Fridays, this afternoon, when we went on a ride/run to Lawton, CJ did spy one - a lunker this time. A couple of birds were enjoying the find (a mostly intact fish, the same type of fish, but 3-4x bigger than ones we'd seen in the alley on Fridays before). I honestly don't know what to make of the Friday-fish phenomenon.

THE ROOT OF THE MATTER: This afternoon we were back out in the yard, fighting the good fight. Yesterday the kids spent about an hour out there while I mowed the weeds and mud. Today, weeding and pruning were on the 'menu.' In what I consider to be a stroke of GENIUS on my part, I reminded the kids that when we were studying dandelions, we learned they sometimes have massive taproots. And wouldn't it be interesting to see if they could find some really big dandelion roots of their own?

And that was all it took. For the next 45 minutes or so they were weed pulling madmen - even fighting over use the one weed-digger-outer we had handy. They saved a few of their specimens and we compared and contrasted them (root size, shape and structure - that sort of thing).
Do you suppose I'll be able to get them to fall for that more than once?

STEEL TRAP: One of CJ's first requests this morning was to go to "iTunes-dot-com-slash-adventure-time" on the Internet. I was impressed that he remembered the entire URL which he heard, no doubt, when watching the new "Adventure Time" show last night.

TO THE MAT: Tonight at dinnertime, I FINALLY remembered to break out the wonderfully nerdy placemats I scored during our April Fool's Day trip to Archie McPhee. I placed the Periodic Table of Elements under Annabelle's dinner. CJ got an anatomy mat.

Annabelle was absolutely entranced by her mat. "Look, here's nitrogen! And here's aluminum!" she exclaimed. Soon, she was noting the elements' weights and other info. In fact, within a couple of minutes, she'd shoved her dinner and water all the way off the mat, so as not to obscure it in any way.

CJ wasn't as gun-ho about his. When Annabelle tried to coaxed him to move his plate off his mat, he said in a serious tone, "Not while I'm eating!" (Let this be a lesson - nothing comes between CJ and his bacon.) He did, however, eventually at least shove his plate to one side, so he could see most of his mat.

Rewind

BITE SIZED: We started this morning with some language arts, British style. We used the K-1 level "Bitesize" educational activities on the BBC's vast educational Web site. Such fun (and so much learning!) to be had there. The kids had a smorgasbord of tasty choices - everything from enticing "Kung-Fu Sentences" to intriguing "Alien Punctuation."

It's kind of fun using UK-based literacy exercises, as we learn terms they use. Yesterday it was the fact that a period (.) here is called a "full stop" there. Today, Annabelle was 'playing' "River Rhyming" and asked me what a "pram" is. :)

BACK TO BALLET: After a week's layoff, Bee was back to ballet this morning. There were quite a few new faces in her class, so hopefully she was a good role model to the newcomers. ;) While she was doing the tutu, CJ and I went for a stroll, and hit the hardware store. Normally that wouldn't pique my kids' interests, but this hardware store has pretty pet parakeets and free popcorn, so it's actually a treat to go there. This hardware store (Magnolia Ace) also has the odd distinction of having a whole aisle of fancy cupcake foils/fun cookie cutters and fancy sprinkles. Go figure. We bought some cupcake wrappers (naturally) and pads for the feet of our furniture (gotta protect those new wood floors at MPA!).

KIRBY TROT: We took Kirby for a stroll around noon and enjoyed the bounty of beautiful tulips that are popping up all around our neighborhood right now.

HAIL-OH: This afternoon we headed out to one of my favorite places: Swanson's Nursery, just west of Ballard/Crown Hill. It's a sprawling urban nursery, with excellent plant stock and really cool gardening-related supplies accessories. In one of its buildings there's even a ritzy little garden cafe and a good sized koi pond.

Of course, the koi are a a big draw for the kids. These fish are incredible - bigger than our dog, I swear and SO colorful. And I take it they're hungry, because any time a human approaches the pond, they practically crawl out of it, looking for a handout. (Unfortunately, this photo doesn't give you any sense of scale at all. Other than the fish scales of course, haha. Sorry. Couldn't help myself!)

While at Swanson's, we had to look at every cactus we came across (cacti being one of CJ's "things"). A bit later, while we were admiring $500 palm trees, a hailstorm started. Not sure why, but it was kind of fun to be standing amidst all the beautiful flora and fauna with pea sized ice pellets storming down. The kids took refuge in a funky little playhouse on site and enjoyed the weather show.

TESTING 1-2-3: This afternoon, I wanted to paint an upstairs bathroom, so I brought the kids and some worksheets upstairs so I could semi supervise them while I work. The worksheets were from the back of a second grade math book and I liked them because it wasn't just straight up computation. In fact, most pages were just ONE problem to solve, but a whole lot of words proceeding it, detailing what the student had to do to arrive at the correct answer. I'm happy to report, the kids both aced their tests - even though the one involving adding up the value of coins pictured. Initially, it gave CJ fits because, "They're all gray!!!" he wailed at the black-and-white worksheet. ;) I reminded him that he could figure it out if he noted the coins' size and graphics, and that's just what he did.

MEMORY LANE: While the kids were working on an unfamiliar desk upstairs, they spied small photo albums from their baby years. They started thumbing through them and reminiscing. I was in the adjacent room, listening, and it was so entertaining.

Realizing most of the photos in the two books found upstairs were of CJ's baby years, Annabelle demanded to know where her "memory books" were. I told her where she could find them downstairs and she would up making 6 trips up and down the spiral staircase, toting the photos up. Once they had all the books together, they spread them out on the floor and started poring over them. "Here's my first birthday cake. It's Tinky Winky, a Teletubby," CJ noted (rather than recalled.)

"Here's me getting a bath in the sink!" said Annabelle.

"Here's me with Rick!" said CJ.

"Here's me with Ken!" exclaimed Annabelle.

They spent a good 30 minutes just paging through the albums, remarking upon what they saw. At one point, I heard CJ say softly, "Ah, good times. Good times." How cute is that? :)

Eventually the reminiscing morphed into a game, where they were hosting a program and narrating the stories that were represented by the photos in the books. It was fascinating to listen to. I leave you with a few of their favorites ...

Twinkle Toes

PRETTY THINGS: Today I was cleaning out a bench where we store the kids' shoes. During the process, Annabelle rediscovered her collection of dress up mules. She slipped on some pink ones (of course), and tried to convince CJ to try some on, too. He would have none of it. "But CJ, don't you like my shoes?" she implored.

"Yeah," he begrudgingly said, "but they're princess-y. Too girlish."

At that, I told the kids that it's OK for boys to wear "pretty" things, too, if that's what they want to do.

Annabelle thought that over for a minute and then replied, "Oh, so some boys love girls, but maybe some boys just like girls, because of what they wear. ..."

And while he didn't don the shoes, Annabelle did manage to talk CJ into dancing with her. :)

BOOK 'EM: Today we read "Safari Park," another title in the MathStart series by Stuart J. Murphy. This story followed five children to an amusement park. Their grandpa had given them each 20 tickets to spend, and they each had to figure out how to best use them by considering combinations of rides, games and food. It was easy to follow, and the concept held my kids' interests. This book got 6 (out of 6) thumbs up.

AFTERNOON SOCIAL: This afternoon we also read "You are a Social Detective!" Actually, I almost hesitate to just use the word 'read' because it was more than that. The book sparked many conversations, analogies, realizations, inspirations and more.

Subtitled "Explaining Social Thinking to Kids," it's written by speech/language pathologists Michelle Garcia Winner and Pamela Crook. The illustrations by Kelly Knopp are fun, colorful and Simpson-esque (to my eye). As it's described on the book's promotional Web page, "We are good Social Detectives when we use our eyes, ears, and brains to figure out what others are planning to do next or are presently doing and what they mean by their words and deeds." The book also talks about expected behaviors (which make people feel comfortable) and unexpected behaviors (which can make people uncomfortable). CJ started gasping-for-air hysterically laughing at one point when, for no good reason, one boy blurted to another, "You have six cats." The other boy became uncomfortable, thought the blurter odd, and said bewilderedly, "Huh? I don't have any cats."

This book is a great teaching tool. I think we need to buy a copy (ours was a library check out). There's lots more information about the book on Garcia Winner's Social Thinking Web site.

PIER PEER: Tonight we all went on a field trip. The location wasn't all that exotic - Elliott Bay Marina, which is right next to Smith Cove Park and Terminal 91 - destinations we ride/run to often. However, this trip was different. We were there at night, to see things we don't see on our daytime trips down there.

Hosted by People for Puget Sound, Pier Peer event is billed as "Family-friendly night explorations: marine naturalists drop a light off a dock. We'll see what arises out of the deep dark and talk about the critters." Who wouldn't want to be a part of that!? (Yes, even on a night when it's about 44 degrees?) It was cool - we saw some crabs, colorful tube worms, a sea cucumber, urchins, a couple of fish, lots of plankton, and the biggest starfish any of us had ever seen. (It was the size of a dinner plate, at least.)

The photo above is from P4PS. I took some pix tonight and if there are any good ones, I'll share 'em tomorrow. If you want to see a short (90 second) video about a Pier Peer event produced by P4PS, click here.

BY POPULAR DEMAND: Per Nonnie's request, here is CJ's swollen-stickman-superhero

Reflections along Lake Washington

LAZY MORNING: This morning got off to a slow start. The kids had their agenda (doing no "school" work) and I had mine - sanding drywall in the upstairs bathroom. We all accomplished our missions. ;) In the photo above, they are bonding over a Nintendo DS game. Before that, they were actually reading a magazine together. OK, OK, so it was a magazine about the history of Mario in Nintendo games, but hey, they were reading! (I recall hearing more than one 'expert' say as long as kids are reading something it's a good thing.)

DONNING THE CAPE: Since they'd spent much of the morning battling foes, I decided that for some writing practice I'd have them complete the following sentence: "If I were a superhero, I would ..."

I asked them to write three sentences apiece, paying attention to capitalization and punctuation. At one point I ventured upstairs to check on something. As I descended the stairs, I heard one of them hiss at the other, "Hurry, get in our seats!" (Not sure whom it was - their voices are remarkably similar when in a panic.)

Without much haranguing, Annabelle wrote, "If I were a superhero I would look like a cheetah and I can run really fast! And I have super powers. I could run so fast I could pick up something when I was running." She drew a figure wearing a mask, a spotted body suit and with pointy ears.

In fits and starts, CJ wrote, 'If I were a super hero, I would look like a tiger. My spelxl (special) powers ware running. This is what my super hero would look like." And he drew a picture of what appears to be a stick man suffering from an allergic reaction, causing his limbs to swell. ... :)

THE SCENIC ROUTE: Tuesday is yoga day and I decided that we'd leave early. Like TWO HOURS early. Instead of heading through Sodo and along Beacon Hill, I wanted to take a very scenic route. We headed as far south as the stadiums, but then we cut a couple blocks back northward before heading eastward on Jackson. While in the heart of old town, I pointed out the huge clock tower on the King Street (Amtrak) station. I asked both kids if they knew the name of the building and without missing a beat they chimed in stereo, "Big Ben!!!" Um, not quite. I also pointed out the Smith Tower, which was the tallest skyscraper in Seattle for many a year.

We drove eastbound and before too long found ourselves closing in on enormous Lake Washington and the Leschi neighborhood. We quickly spied Leschi Park, named after Chief Leschi of the Nisqually tribe. There was no playground, but the kids enjoyed playing beneath a gigantic Sequoia tree - a tree with a history. It was planted by Seattle's Johnny Appleseed of sequoias, Jacob Umlauff. The German born Umlauff was originally hired by the Seattle Railway Company as the neighborhood's chief gardener. His specialty was planting sequoia trees in the park and around the surrounding hillsides. Umlauff eventually became Seattle Parks Superintendent.

It took the kids 34-steps to make their way around the trunk of the tree!

We headed north along the lake for a couple of miles, noticing that much of the lake shore was public land/parks. Eventually we ran into a neighborhood of stately homes. There, we found
Viretta Park, a 1.8-acre parcel in the Denny-Blaine neighborhood. It's named after the wife of Charles Denny (yes, the Denny of Denny Way fame). With just two park benches and no view to speak of, it's unremarkable as some parks go but it draws people from around the world. Why? Because it's adjacent to the house where Kurt Cobain lived - and died, 16 years ago this week. So Nirvana fans flock to the park and cover its benches with messages. I suppose this would be considered graffiti in any other Seattle park, but here, it's tolerated. In fact, each bench had a brand new Magic Marker sitting on it, begging you to pick it up and use it. (And yes, I did.)

After looking at "Kurt's" park and house, we headed southbound, along the lake, toward yoga and Columbia City. I have to admit, I was astounded all along the way. We traveled several miles and it sure seemed like the vast majority of the lakefront was a public park, pathway or docks. What a debt we owe to the city forefathers who had the foresight to keep these properties open for all to enjoy. Way too often in communities, the waterfront is for the few, the privileged. In Seattle, so much of it has been preserved for all to enjoy.
YOGA INVASION: Today there were lots of unfamiliar faces at yoga. It's a drop in class so you're never quite sure who will be there. It was a different group of parents than usual, for sure, the usual being more "earthy" types. Today, there was a glut of parents with 3-year-olds in French immersion preschool. I could relay sooo much more, but I'm just going to leave it at that.

A**HOLE OVERHEARD: We went to McMenamin's in Fremont tonight for a cheap (happy hour) dinner. Dining nearby was a large group - about 12 to 14 in total. Toward the end of our dinner, one of the group said very loudly, "I'm a teacher. I know who knows how to learn and who doesn't."

Christian and I immediately looked at each other and checked to see if we'd each heard the same thing. Yup. And we both immediately jumped to the same conclusion. That being, "What a friggin JERK!" And to that I'd like to add, he's a baaaad teacher. I won't dispute the fact that maybe the students in his class can't all learn from him, but I'd like to suggest that it's because he only knows - or cares - how to teach one type of learner. I wonder how many students he's victimized so far over his career ... how many kids he's made feel like they're stupid or can't measure up.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

OPEN SESAME: It's no ordinary Monday around MPA. Quite the opposite, in fact. Today, marks the full blown Opening Day of the 2010 Major League Baseball season. (Truth be told, the very first game of 2010 was last night, Yanks v. Red Sox, which we watched during Easter dinner, of course.)

So today, baseball factored largely into our life lesson plan! Fortunately, the folks at BrainPop took note of today's extra-special-ness and their free featured movie of the week is about baseball.

We watched the entertaining video that covers some of the history and rules of the game. I had the kids take the online quiz one at a time so neither one of them (namely, Annabelle) had the chance to dominate that discussion. They both scored a 90 percent. Then it was onto the written work, where they had to fill out a 'map' of the players' positions, complete a baseball by the numbers activity (1 pitcher at a time, 2 teams, 3 strikes your out, 4 balls for a walk - that kind of thing). And lastly, they had to define in their own words several baseball terms - everything from "run" as a noun to the infield fly rule. (Just kidding on that last part. We'll save that for second grade.)

Naturally, we can't just TALK about baseball. Even though the sky was threatening and it was around 50 degrees and windy, we headed to Bayview Park's baseball diamond for some live action.

I must say, both of their batting skills have picked up since last season. Just look at Annabelle keeping her eye on the ball!

And CJ took some good cuts at the ball, too. We're going to have to work on leveling out his swing, but that's nothing some quality time with a batting tee can't solve.

And then there's the matter of base running. While their written work demonstrates that they understand you run from home to first to second to third to home, in the heat of the moment, things can get a little crazy. Case in point, CJ was up to bat and Bee was standing on first. CJ hit the ball and Bee took off for second. Seeing his sister closing in on second, baseball rules went out the window. All CJ could think about was beating her to that base so he made a beeline from the batter's box straight to second. Oops. ...

And we're going to have to work on the cardinal rule of running home: Make sure you touch the plate!

There's more where this came from on my YouTube channel.
UP & AWAY: This morning while we slept, eyes were on the skies in Florida where Space Shuttle Discovery launched on schedule without a hitch. We track all of the launches, but have been keeping an especially close eye on this one as if it were delayed, I figure the odds are it could affect the next launch - the one in May, which we're flying to Florida in hopes of seeing!
Today's launch has a local tie - a former high school science teacher from our old stomping grounds - Clark County, WA - was on board. How cool is that?!

RESOURCEFUL: This weekend I found about The Idea Book for Educators, a biannual teacher's magazine created by the Education Department at A&E Television Networks. According to its promo, "The Idea Book includes Teacher's Guides for programs featured in Classroom and a printed version of the A&E Classroom Calendar, which features air dates, program descriptions, and copyright information." Sounds good, right? But the news gets better. The book is free! Get your copy here.

PROPER ENGLISH: For some interactive language arts education today, we turned to our friends across the pond: the BBC. We could spend all day, every day on their educational Web pages and not run out of things to do. Today, we stuck to their Magic Key themed activities. (Apparently Magic Key is a series of books with a collection of adventurous characters.) The games involved capitalization, punctuation, word order and pattern recognition. They probably spent an hour playing and learning on the site.

To go along with the online games, there's also a long list of teacher and parent resources featuring online and offline lesson plans, printable worksheets and info about curriculum relevance. Good stuff!

Peeps Show

MARSHMALLOW MADNESS: By now, I'd guess most of America has heard of Peeps - a gooey confection often in chick and bunny shapes, especially popular around Easter. I'd also surmise that Peeps' fame is not due to their marshmallow-covered-in-gritty-artificially-colored-sugar taste.

Today, Peeps are famous for the semi-sadistic things that people love to do to them. Like microwaving them ...

Knowing that CJ would find the idea of microwaving and mutating Peeps hysterical, I searched YouTube for videos and I found the Most Awesomest Peeps video ever. CJ must have watched it 20 times yesterday:

Naturally, we had to microwave some Peeps of our own to see what would happen.

As I put the first one on a plate, CJ said, "Wait a minute! Let me get my shoes on first so I can run away if I have to!"

And so I waited. When he was ready to sprint, I had him hit the start button and we watched the Peep whirl and swell for 30 seconds. Mercifully, it didn't turn into a Godzilla sized monster.

We did some compare and contrast of the before and after microwaved Peeps. A bonus by-product of the big melt: Day-glo colored s'mores!

Yesterday, I promised the kids we could do some artsy-craftsy Peeps experiments. Specifically, that we'd be cobbling together FrankenPeeps or Peepensteins. In preparation, last night Christian went to the grocery store and bought an embarrassing array of the gawdawful things.

They were so excited about the marshmallow monsters, today they busted out of bed like it was Christmas morning. "It's time to make FrankenPeeps!" CJ trumpeted before sunrise.

We spread out the body parts in our 'laboratory' and I armed them both with toothpicks and knives. "Prepare to meet your doom, Peep!" Annabelle said as she sliced the first one's head off. Two hours later she was still going at it. (CJ had called it good after about one hour.)
APRIL SHOWERS: "Today it's rainy," said CJ, who's not typically one to remark about the weather. He was right. It was a downright deluge from about 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Christian sent me a link to a really cool, animated weather map (once you're on the site, make sure you click on the 8 image animation option on the lefthand side of the screen to make the map come to life). The kids and I spent a few minutes exploring the site and the different views/options.
BRAIN CANDY: While I'm sure no one would dispute the educational value of spending HOURS experimenting with Peeps, rest assured we did do some legit schoolwork today.

As a language arts exercise, I wrote several words on the white board (April wind later because rainy today weather) and told them they had to use those words in a sentence or sentences. Annabelle finished quickly, but her 'sentences' were riddled with mistakes she doesn't usually make (punctuation, spelling, capitalization, etc.). Of course, I made her do it over. And over. And over until she did the type of work I know she's capable of. CJ took quite a while from the get-go, but he was nearly error free when it came time for me to proofread it.

We also went on a virtual field trip today - to the Peeps factory, of course. The treat is made by the 87-year old Just Born Corporation in Pennsylvania.

(April) Foolin' Around

LO AND BEHOLD: We had no ballet today so we were free as birds, schedule wise. I've been wanting to visit the central/downtown branch of Seattle's Public Library system for oh, two years now. Guess what? TODAY was the day.

A major impetus finally getting us to the Really Big Library was the fact that at 1:30 today there was going to be a free play about "Johnny Appleseed." We'd studied John Chapman last fall and still talk about him from time to time. How could we pass up a free performance by the Book-It Repertory Theatre?

We got to the library a good hour ahead of the play time. Our early arrival was on purpose - to give us time to explore the amazing edifice.

Ahead of time at home, I'd printed out a self tour guide and map of the library, so I knew the highlights we wanted to hit. We came in on the ground floor, where the children's library and auditorium are located. We'd visit those spots later - we had other things to see. To the dayglo lemonlime escalators it was!

Our first stop: The third floor, where a small cafe and gift shop are located. We perused the offerings (so many items the kids and I wanted to buy!) and then wandered the floor. I swear, it was the United Nations - so many people of so many different cultures/ethnicities. Very cool. We hit the escalator again to make our way to a balcony overlooking the third floor. What an amazing view.
We continued riding the escalator up, encountering more amazing views along the way.In case you're wondering, the central library was built using 18,400 cubic yards of concrete, 2,050 tons of rebar and 4,644 tons of steel.

Of course, the most amazing element is the glass. It's overhead, alongside and often even seemingly underfoot. There is 126,767 square feet of exterior glass on the 11-story structure and about half of the building's panes are triple-layered glass with an expanded metal mesh between the two outer layers.
PLAY TIME: We returned to the main floor a few minutes before 1:30 p.m. (playtime). In the children's area, we had a typical library experience (the kids used the computers and found DVDs to check out).
Soon, we migrated to the line by the door and by standing there for 5 minutes or so, we were able to score front-row seats. Cool!

The play was GREAT. Fast paced, with lots of belly laughs and fun songs. My kids LOVED it (but please don't get me started about other people's kids, who were allowed to scream, kick, cry, run around, etc. Grrrrr!) WE COUNT: Today is national census day. As regular readers know, we are SO far ahead of the curve, having filled our form out day before yesterday. ;)

However, to help reinforce things we learned while talking about the census, we used a BrainPop lesson about population growth. It was geared for kids quite a bit older than CeeJ and Bee, but they comprehended the concepts and got 80 percent on the quiz following.

YOU MUST BE JOKING: Long before the sun was up, April Fool's Day plots were being hatched. The first of the day - under orders from CJ and Annabelle, I was to put raisins in Christian's lunch, but amongst the raisins, I was to include a couple of Craisins (dried cranberries). Oh, the hilarity! So this all went down as I was making Christian's lunch around 5:31 a.m. Such fun !

Then tonight, when Christian came home, the kids were both waiting for him, eager to give him welcome home handshakes. Like that's not out of the ordinary. ... Good sport that he is, Christian greeted them with a handshake and was victim of a couple of palm buzzers for it. Then, as Christian went upstairs to change his clothes, CJ subtly suggested to him, "Go sit on the toilet, but don't look!" That sort of suggestion wouldn't make you think twice, now, would it?

You've probably already figured out that we'd scored (for the bargain price of $1.25) from Archie McPhee, a really rude little seat squirting unit. Nice guy that he is, Christian played along and made all sorts of noises about getting soaked in the privacy of the privy.

HISTORIC FLEET: I found a super short-but-sweet video about the few (less than 10) remaining schooners in what once was a large fleet of halibut fisherman on the Seattle Times' Web site this morning and showed it to the kids. We're down at the Ballard Locks (where the vid was filmed) a lot, and we've seen some of these boats before. It's nice to know a bit about them.