Finally Friday

It's been a long week from where I'm standing. Big projects every day, and today was the biggest project of all this week - getting ready for the recital.

I was frosting bows onto the ballet slipper cookies starting around 5:50 a.m. By 7:30, we'd run to QFC to buy a few pints of berries, which got the dipped in melted candy or chocolate treatment before being dusted with colored sugar crystals or chocolate sprinkles. I also made a couple of plates full of strawberry faces, like I made for the kids' dinner a couple of nights ago. I knew there would be lots of young kids at the recital tonight and I thought they'd get a kick out of them.

We also made a batch of gluten-free brownies (which were SHOCKINGLY moist and tasty, BTW) from a Bob's Red Mill mix. I topped them with Hershey's Kisses. The kids' job was to unwrap the Kisses. We made a timed contest out of it.

Poor CeeJ, Annabelle absolutely smoked him!

GOING FISHING: Midday we had some errands to run, including picking up a tube of pink lipstick at Fred Meyer for Annabelle. That's right. Annabelle's lipstick. We've been told (repeatedly, mind you) that the girls are to wear a little lipstick and blush tonight at their ballet recital. (Shudder shudder and insert visions of Jon Benet Ramsey and "Toddlers in Tiaras" here).

"How do I look?" Annabelle asked after applying the new pink lipstick we'd just picked up. She was quite pleased with the purchase and was clearly looking for compliments. "Well how do I look, CJ?" She pressed.
"You look great!" he said, sounding genuine.

But that wasn't enough for Bee's ego/ears. "On a scale of 1 to 10," she pressed, "how good do I look?"

I held my breath and waited for CJ's answer ...

"Thirteen!" he declared with enthusiasm.

Aw, what a nice brother.

"Thirteen?" Annabelle scoffed. "I said on a scale of one to TEN."

At that point I, of course, told Annabelle to knock it off and tell CJ thank you.

READY IN THE WINGS: This afternoon we built a Bun of Steel out of Bee's hair. I'm pretty sure it was bulletproof by the time we were done.We headed to Magnolia Village about 4:30. There she got into costume, and every time I turned around she was trying to put on more lipstick and more blush. I finally had to cut her off.

Annabelle had a bag o' supplies with her backstage. I'd packed a brush, some bobby pins, ponytail holders, some gel, the dreaded makeup and Kleenex in it. Nothing that out of the ordinary, unless, of course, you're Mean Girl.

She was there, of course, and I heard her pestering Annabelle, asking in a snotty (rather than say, curious) way, "Why do you have so much stuff in your bag?" Annabelle told her so that she'd be ready for the show, and in case other people needed something. And sure 'nuff, her hairspray, bobby pins and gel were all borrowed by other people(s) at some point. I'm guessing that's probably what made Mean Girl mad. Whatever.

The recital ran like a well oiled machine - major kudos to Bee's ballet teacher. Rick and Ken came to the show and we all enjoyed the groups' performances. It was pretty dark in the 'auditorium' (school cafeteria with a stage), so my digital camera was struggling. I only got a couple of mostly crappy shots. As you can see here, Annabelle takes her ballet seriously. ;)If you want to see Bee in action, check out these YouTube links. Bee's pretty easy to pick out - she's the smallest one. (She was 'called up' about 2 months ago from the minors to participate in this group of older girls.)

Intro - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=299akfzMj_0
Second (Bee's at the end of the line) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fho6cPiwZYI
Third - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVn-3J5pLd4
Finale - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x5h8rNJHxw

Play Dough

I SEE YOU: Last night Christian left his magnifying goggles laying on a table in the house. (He'd brought them up the night before, when he was trying to help Annabelle extract a sliver.)

This morning CJ tried the goggles on for size. "Your head's big!" he said immediately, looking my direction. He spent the next few minutes exploring familiar digs through new googly eyes.

SHOE IN: Seems like a lot of today revolved around shoes. We spent most of the morning making some cookies for Annabelle's recital tomorrow night. We found a cute ballet shoe cookie template on line, so we printed it out and cut it out and then had the pleasure of cutting every cookie out without a true cookie cutter. That took awhile. ... This evening, we began decorating them, outlining and then "flooding" them with pink royal icing. Tomorrow they get candy ribbons and satin bows.

SHOES, PART TWO: This afternoon the kids' best yoga buddy came over for a couple hours of fun. She and Annabelle spent most of the time playing dress up.
Kirby even got in on the action. I do believe it's the first time Annabelle has dressed up the dog. You'd think Kirby would have put up a big fight, but she was just so happy to be included that she rolled with it.We also went up to the park. I was spinning the girls on the twirly-thingee when I heard CJ chastising someone across the park. "You could have hurt him TERRIBLY!" he practically yelled. I go over there to find a 9-ish year old girl who had just given a toddler a ride down the slide on her lap and CJ was giving her holy hell. :0

For, you see, a few weeks ago, our family saw a news report featuring that very park and that very slide and it told the story of a Dad who gave his toddler a ride down and ended up snapping the kid's leg in the process. Apparently the dad hadn't gotten the memo that you aren't supposed to go down kids' slides with kids on your lap.

I de-escalated the situation and then CJ and I had a good talk about ways to disseminate information without sounding too harsh.

Sticky Situation

SHORT STUFF: This is going to be short. I have spent most of the day elbow deep alternately in creamed butter and sugar or flour, water and glue. In other words, big baking and pinata projects going on.

CJ and Annabelle helped, of course. The first half of the day was doing the dreaded hunting and gathering. The second half was mixing and baking and mixing and layering (newspaper strips on exoskeletons).

In between, we did things like eat. I was feeling guilty that dinner for the kids was just rice, fruit and cheese, so I tried to jazz things up, hence the berries with faces above. I also made them some cheddar cheese men. The kids were pretty tickled. Right off, Annabelle decided to have a staring contest with her strawberry. The berry won, but Annabelle had the last laugh, as she ate it. :) Annabelle also had her second-to-last dress rehearsal for her (First Ever!) ballet recital today. It went OK. Mostly. :)

The End Zone

END ZONE: We were almost like normal people today - heading out the door to school at 8:30 in the a.m.

Today was cleanup the campus at the kids' Shoreline school (which we've been at a LOT lately, it seems like). I've always been a big believer of the "you mess it up, you clean it up" philosophy and Lord knows between the popcorn eating, pizza days and science experiments, my kids have made plenty of messes there this year. The least we could do was help clean a little.

I didn't know what duties we'd have, but as luck would have it, the very first (and only) person we saw upon walking in the building was the kids' science teacher. I said, "Reporting for cleaning duty!" and she asked if we had an assignment yet. I told her we didn't and she said she was going to claim us. :)

So we spent a couple of busy hours in the science room. First, CJ and Annabelle checked out the pencils, colored pencils and tested pens. Annabelle sharpened pencils and put new eraser tops on the ones that needed them. She also sharpened and sorted colored pencils.

Meanwhile, CJ's job was to test the colored markers and toss ones that weren't working so well any more. He took his job very seriously, carefully assessing each pen's worth. At one point he said, "I bet this is what Dad does at his work."

I laughed and told him I'd be pretty surprised if that was the case. :)

The kids and I spent nearly an hour servicing mechanical pencils (replacing erasers, filling them with lead, etc.).Meanwhile all around us, people were taking inventory in the classroom and cleaning up.

Not surprisingly, we also made time for the kids to get some popcorn and they watched part of a movie ("A Bug's Life") with some schoolmates. CeeJ and Bee were disappointed when we had to leave before it ended and surprised when I told them they own a copy at home.

And so, we bid adieu to the Shoreline school until next September.

GOOD BOY: On way home from Shoreline, CJ did his best black Lab impression - sticking his head out the car window and getting a face full of fast moving air. He does that from time to time. It always cracks me up and makes me think of big dogs riding in cars.

FINITO: This afternoon marked the kids' last Musikgarten class. They were each presented a Young Musicians II completion certificate and since the German unit was over, there were some allegedly German snacks provided by the music teacher.

Why the allegedly? Well, one snack was bratwurst, and that is German, indeed, but the other was Nutella. That made the moms in the crowd go, "Huh what?" The music teacher said it was a staple in Germany and its labels all used to say "Made in Germany," but now it's made in Canada. Oh, well that explains it. ;)

One mom said she believed it to be of Italian origin. (The 'ella' would seem to suggest that, and it's certainly not very German sounding!). Sure 'nuff, according to the folks at Nutella, who presumably know of what they speak, Nutella is an Italian breakfast item produced by the Ferrero Company in 1963.

Frankly, the kids couldn't care less where it came from. They both tried it and loved it. (It was their first taste of Nutella ever.)

REASONABLE: After dinner, CJ had a hankering to play his Nintendo Wii. Problem was, we were watching the Mariners game on the big screen (to which the Wii is hooked). We pointed that out to CJ and he got quiet - for about 30 seconds - before coming back with, "Well which is more important, the Mariners game or you child learning something?"

Naturally, we wanted to know what it was he'd be learning from the Wii. "Numbers. Big numbers," he assured.

We let him play - just as well. The Mariners were stinking it up.

BALLOON MAN: One of Annabelle's many creations today. She loves to make balloon people. This one reminds me of a South Park character. Its accessories include a Mariners hat (her sundae cup from last night's game), which has its own face (two beer bottlecaps as eyes, and an orange hat made from Sculpey).

Field Day

GLOWING: Here's Annabelle this a.m., after a shower in which she attempted to get knots out of her hair. This (de-knotting) would become important later. ...

PARTY TIME: Today was the official end of school year shindig at the kids' Shoreline school. We went at noon to throw some hotdogs on the barbecue and the kids enjoyed playing out in the field with some of their school friends.

It was super windy, so the bubble station was doing a brisk business. Bubbles were flying everywhere. The kids both had fun chasing them. CASHING IN: Part of today's festivities involved the kids' cashing in the points they'd earned in the Accelerated Reader program by reading books and taking comprehension quizzes after. They pooled their accumulated points to buy a Pokemon statue (Snivy, in case you're wondering) and carrying case. CJ models it here ... ;)
TIGHT BUNS: This afternoon was Annabelle's Very First Ever dress rehearsal for ballet. She (and a whole bunch of other ballerinas) have a recital on Friday night.

Part of the dress rehearsal meant taming her long, wild, knot-prone hair into a nice, tight bun. My oh my, did she put up a fight. You would have thought I was trying to scalp her, seriously. (I reminded her that NONE of the little girls in the YouTube bun-making videos we watched were screaming bloody murder.)

After a few shrieks and many a bad word muttered under both of our breaths, we finally got a semi-passable 'do.I am happy to report it held up to the rigorous rehearsal. :)

I was rather surprised to see that only HALF of Annabelle's class bothered to show up for the dress rehearsal. Srsly? Seems pretty lame to me. I know this isn't the Bolshoi Ballet, but before we even signed up for the class the teacher made people commit to a June 17 performance. This has been on the books for weeks and weeks.

Despite the small numbers, Annabelle did have the pleasure of comments from a couple of (mean) girls being (mean) girls. Bee was wearing SUPER COOL pseudo Crocs that are shaped like Lightning McQueen from the really entertaining movie "Cars." So one (mean) girl says to her, "Why are you wearing your brother's shoes?"

Annabelle just looked at her and said, "They're Lightning McQueen," like that should be answer enough. ;)

Of course the girl persisted, saying, "But they're BOY'S shoes." And then the (mean) girl turns to ME and says, "Why's she wearing her brother's shoes?"

I didn't say what I would have liked to say, but I did tell the girl that I liked the movie "Cars" and so did countless other girls - cars aren't just for boys.

Annabelle added, "Well, he outgrew them, so now I wear them." Clearly she doesn't understand that likely wouldn't help her in the "I'm cool" column. ;) I don't know about you, but I thought the shoes looked cute on Bee.

WEEKEND REWIND: We have been out and about both days the two weekends preceding, but this weekend we stayed home and worked worked worked around the house. It wasn't out and out sunny this weekend, but it didn't rain, so I suppose we can't complain. Annabelle, for one, was ready to get her summer party started and wanted to get the kiddie pool out. She found a way to enjoy herself despite the cramped quarters.CJ opted to pass on that action.

The small pool "wet" Annabelle's appetite for something more, so Christian was a good sport and took both the kids to Pop Mounger Pool in Magnolia. There too, it wasn't warm, but it wasn't f-f-f-freezing, so they splashed around for a good hour plus. During that time CJ had a major breakthrough - he (willingly, purposely) put his whole head under water, a first for him. Yea for CJ!!

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME: Tonight we took advantage of some of our free tickets from the Starbucks promotion and went to the Mariners game. Because the crowd was so sparse, we were able to upgrade our seats to the Hit it Here Cafe. The Mariners lost, of course. They do 9 times out of 10 that we go. But we still had fun.

Tardy

photo credit - NASA/Bill Ingalls

LATE: This didn't get published last night per usual, as Blogger wouldn't let me save or publish anything then. Fortunately, they got the bug(s) worked out overnight.

AGE OF AQUARIUS: There's nothing like a rocket launch for breakfast! This morning NASA launched a Delta II rocket with the Aquarius/SAC-D spacecraft payload from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. A joint mission with Argentina, the rocket carried a satellite which will map the salinity at the ocean surface. The info gleaned will be used to improving understanding of two major components of Earth's climate system: the water cycle and ocean circulation.

Naturally, I had to play The Fifth Dimension's "Age of Aquarius" for the kids while we were looking at photos of Aquarius and watching launch footage. They boogied down. CJ was impressed with the video's special effects (The Fifth Dimension floating in space on an upside down pie tin) given the video's age (1969).

NASA has a wonderful Web section dedicated to Aquarius. It even has a "What's Your Salt IQ" quiz that's very educational. Turns out my saltwater IQ isn't that great ... though it is a bit better after taking the quiz.

GREEN, GREEN GRASS OF HOME: We spent about 2 hours outside today, trying to tame the lawn. For such a small lot it's a lot of trouble (get it, get it? a LOT of trouble!) because it's a steep hillside and there are so many mature trees - not to mention weeds and fast-growing invasives like blackberries and ivy. While I whacked and hacked, the kids mostly played. Not sure what the game was here, but looks like CJ caught a live one.
Our lettuce is doing so well, I think we might have to thin it again. That, or CJ and Annabelle can just eat some more of the young plants.HIT THE BARS: While Annabelle was in ballet today, CJ was working on the monkey bars. He still hasn't made it all the way across, but he's more than halfway there. Here, he shows me his blisters. ...
No, I couldn't see them either. ;)

Expo a Go-Go

COOKIES AND CREAM: While countless Americans were sitting in morning rush hour traffic, we were slathering sugar on cupcakes with our own deadline to meet. This evening there was an "Expo" at the kids' school and they declared yesterday around 2-ish that they wanted to go. Super!

The Expo is bring food, make a display out of a project you've been working on and watch some presentations/performances. Sounds simple enough, and it is, if you're willing to buy a bag of Doritos and store bought brownies as a snack, but we had other ideas.

Annabelle really wanted to make some "Hello, Cupcake!" inspired flower cupcakes. She wanted two different kinds - some sunflowereque ones with Oreo centers and some more daisy like ones with Nilla Wafers in the middle. OK ...
Annabelle was in charge of putting the cookies in the middle of the cupcakes/flowers.
CJ and Annabelle both helped mix the coloring into the frosting.

And CJ had his first go-round with filling a pastry/icing bag. He also did some piping. He was nervous at first, telling me he was afraid of making a mistake. I told him the nice thing about mistakes involving frosting is that he could eat them. He felt better. :)
And here are the white ones Bee requested. ...

ON DISPLAY: We also had to put together displays for each of the kids. Fortunately, we didn't have to make projects - they both had more than a couple of options.

Annabelle decided to share her (now petrified) Sesame Peeps. We had to get the Peeps out of storage and check them out. She had to make a new Sesame Peeps sign for her streetlight. She pained a bit over cutting it out.

And she had to a little touch up gluing. She attached the newspaper story announcing her big contest win to a presentation board and Boom! - instant display. CJ's took a little more work. He wanted to display his Lolly book. That meant mounting 11 photos, making a title, adding page numbers and an explanation. He really enjoyed the power of the paper cutter! CJ was very proud of his display. At the event, he rounded up and welcomed people to his station to share his story. :) You can barely see CJ in this pic (the khaki colored legs next to Annabelle). He's pointing out the finer points of his project to three young ladies. :)