Random Thoughts on Super Bowl Sunday

1. I know I'm a successful parent because...after church today Lucy asked if we were going to 'poat-lay' (meaning one of my favorite restaurants...Chipotle). She was disappointed when I said no. Must be doing something right.

2. True NFL fan...in a discussion with a buddy the other day I told him, "Yeah I want to see the Colts win. I'm an AFC guy." (You know the Titans are AFC). Kristi later on quizzed me about who I would root for if the Patriots were in the game. I had to respond with yeah I guess you are right - that whole AFC thing breaks down at that point. Smelly Pats.

3. Apparently I only exercise on major holidays. I followed up the Turkey Trot Fun K run on Thanksgiving with a Super Bowl Shuffle today. My buddy said I could not come over for the Big Game party unless we went on a 3 mile run to burn off the calories we plan to ingest. Temp was well below 32. What was I thinking - I'm from Arkansas!

Wearing Titans gear of course. But also have a Camp Bucca T-shirt on underneath to remember those who have to miss this glorious holiday defending our nation (like I did in JAN 08 - at least I was able to miss a Pat's Superbowl).

Go Colts.

What's the Point?

One of my favorite magazines arrived in the mail a few weeks ago. It's the same magazine that I have to hide from Riley the day it comes in the mail, lest she read about my fun plans before I can execute them. I flipped through the pages and came across some great ideas for art activities for the kids. These activities imitate famous artists and their styles. Our first project was based on Seurat's pointillism technique. I quickly latched on to this one in particular, having once been completely enthralled by his painting at The Art Institute of Chicago many, many years ago. This painting is HUGE--considering it's all painted with dots! So, let's do it kids.

First, they each picked a design or scene to paint, and we penciled the design lightly onto the canvases.

Then we used the erasers of unused pencils to paint hundreds of dots onto the canvases.

While our paintings weren't as big as Seurat's, Cory was a little overwhelmed by the 16 x 20 canvas, so I helped him out.

Can't leave Lucy out, she will have none of that! She is busy painting one of the idea sheets. She also painted a canvas with her bingo daubers.

Our finished projects look really great. I need to find an empty wall now to display them. If the kids will let me have them...

Moments in Time...

Riley does a little work in the kitchen...

Lucy tries on some great boots...

Cory has the camera and takes a slightly blurry picture (he took a lot more pictures blurrier than this one, and other pictures of very random things)...

Cory gets ready to shoot a basket at his "game." We're usually at the basketball courts for a couple of hours on Saturday mornings for games...

When Mary's not playing basketball, apparently she's meditating...

Two handsome guys...

And this, my friends, is why they wear hats...

Rubber Ducky You're the One

It's that time of year again--time to dress up small rubber ducks as storybook characters. Our library organizes this yearly contest, and surprisingly, Riley was anticipating it--reminding me, before I even saw any announcements, that it would be time to get our ducks soon. Why she can't remember to put her dirty laundry away, but she can remember when the Library's Duck Days are, is beyond me. But that's beside the point. Here are our entries for this year (the links will take you to an Amazon page that will show you the book if you are not familiar with these classic storybook characters):

The Magic School Bus in the Solar System:

Riley made the Magic School Bus

Katy and the Big Snow:

Mary made Katy the Snow Plow

Three Cheers for Tacky:

Cory made Tacky the penguin

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Lucy and Momma made the Coconut tree, filled with letters

This is really a cute concept. And I, being a lover of all things children's books, find this activity to be a ton of fun--even if it does take me two days to clean up all the crafting mess when we're finished.

Of course, this IS a contest, and so there will be winners, but more importantly, there will be losers, and therefore tears. In spite of our long discussion prior to making our ducks, that being able to decorate a duck is the real prize, when it comes down to not winning the prize, there is some disappointment to process. A good life lesson, but 6 year olds don't appreciate that very much!!

Family "FUN"

Not unlike a lot of families, we often play a game or two with the kids on weekend nights. Some of our favorites are dominoes and Monopoly, Jr. We've also had a good time more recently with Bananagrams and an I Spy game. Sometimes it's difficult, though, because the games that interest Riley and Mary are too complicated for Cory and Lucy (case in point, Life), and Riley and Mary get a tad bored with games like Candyland and Hi Ho Cherry-O. But things usually get figured out. Currently Mexican train dominoes is a favorite for everyone--Lucy is even able to kind of sort of play that game.

Why, pray tell, do the kids feel this is a good time to roll around and do various gymnastics moves? One or more of them is posing like this at any given point during the game...

drives me crazy!

One of our kids' favorite games is Family Fun. Maybe you've played this Cranium game with your family. Every once in a while we oblige their wishes and play it with them.

But I'm not sure why, because it usually ends up in an argument, at which point Ted and I like to call it the Family Fight game. And then, despite all the ruckus, we remind every one that we're supposed to be having "fun."

Even if Lucy's doing this in the middle of the game. Right?

We Can't Thank Sarah Enough

Several years ago, Sarah was kind enough to give her Bitty Baby doll to Mary Beth shortly before we all met in Chicago to have a girls' weekend and a big trip to the American Girl store. A few years later Mary got her own American Girl doll and passed the Bitty Baby she called Lauren on to Lucy. Lucy can't say Lauren--she calls the baby "Waywar." It's an understatement to say she likes the doll. She absolutely loves her Waywar. This is how I found the two of them a few nights ago...

Aren't they just precious?

Thank you, Sarah. She is well loved.

Tea Time

In school right now we're doing a unit study centered around the American Girl doll Felicity. Felicity is a fictitional girl living in Williamsburg, Virginia, just before the start of the American Revolution. Luckily for us, the stories start just before the colonists begin to throw tea over the sides of boats, and Felicity was learning the proper way to take tea from Miss Manderly. So, of course, we needed to have a tea party.

Just like Felicity, we had Queen Cakes. We also served scones, cookies and tea sandwiches. And of course, TEA! Riley made the Queen Cakes--and she did quite well. Hopefully, we'll have more to share as the unit progresses, and particularly later in March if we are able to make a stop in Williamsburg on our way to or from Florida. For now, we're having fun reading about Felicity and what life was like for her, and we're learning about real people like Betsy Ross, George Washington, William Penn, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

Here's a parting shot of all the girls we had over with their dolls...look at those smiles!