Little Boxes...

A (running outside, sees a stack of office chair boxes on the patio):  "Whoa!  What are all those 'Fragile' Boxes?"

J:  "I got those for you.  I figured you could make a labyrinth or a skyscraper out of them."

A:  (running to pile):  "I'm going to use those for target practice!"

J (putting hand to forehead):  "I was sort of hoping you might use them for Halloween props."

A (smacking one into wind chimes):  "I'm just going to use one..."

J:  "Oh-kay...."  (Thinks, "This is just like Minecraft, the creative game where they build....")

A:  "Whhaaaa!  DIE!"  (Runs and gets discarded salad spoon/hole digger.)  "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!

Christmas Train

Every  year, Grandpa H puts up a Christmas holiday train.  This year he got a new passenger car.  I believe the interior lights up and it has passenger seating and everything.




 A and Grandpa unpacked the rest of the train.  It's a Bachman, G scale.






 There are various figures who come with the train.  There's an engineer, a Santa, and three Elves. 







 The Engineer shoves coal into the engine.  He had a little mis-hap the trial run and fell out of the coal tender.








 The train has a gondola car--filled with giant gifts--and a caboose.
 The caboose has a tendency to become uncoupled with the rest of the train.  I think the couplings have to do a kind of back-and-forth engagement before the caboose will stay attached.






















Once the train and track are set up, Grandpa will put in a smallish tree, a mirror (for the frozen pond) and various English Village buildings he modeled after a real English Village that is the Ancestral Origin of the Family (and which they visited about twenty years ago).

Last Days of Summer

The mid-September life guard knew all about this one...








"What?"

Meanwhile...

... back at Emperor Ming's Palace...

August Camping Trip

We went to the Redwoods.








The trees were huge.







  There were many photo opportunities.








We're not sure, but we think the thing A liked most about the Oregon Caves was the Chateau.

The Medium Who Could

Scene:  Saturday morning.  The kitchen nook.  A is listening to an audio-recording of "The Little Engine That Could."

Book: "...Our engine has broken down and we're loaded with toys for children on the other side."

A: "The children are dead?"

J:  (Suffering from dead pirate fatigue):  "Augh.  The children are not dead."

A:  "The other side?"

J:  "It's not that Other Side."  (Thinking this is probably his fault for exposing The Child to the Fantasy Genre.)

Book:  "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..."

Opera Birthday

This year was the "Night at the Opera" Birthday.















 

The Duke Manchua greated visitors with song.

The cake.

Turned into a Victrola cake.

 There were many props.  The boat sailed between two banks of waves.

 Grandpa (and Grandma) came dressed as the audience.

 

 Meet me by the Ducal Palace of Manchua.

Science!

A's class participated in a science fair.  His exhibit was about making records harder to scratch.  He wanted to see how chocolate would protect records, but got talked into using aluminum foil and plastic wrap instead.  

He was a little shy for a video, but stood still long enough for this photo.

His old phonograph (shown here playing Enrico Caruso) was a hit.  Kids also got to scratch a sample record on purpose.  

We Went to Seattle in November...

... to see King Tutankhamen, 

and got wet.

If you look closely, the small figure under a jet of water in red is A.  The figure to the left is M taking a video (we'll have to see if we can find that...), and the figure standing close, but-not-too-close, is J.

Many Faces in Seattle

I was going through some old unpublished posts and re-discovered these photos from November 2012, taken in Seattle, when we went to see the King Tut Exhibit.

Life is hard on the frontier.

Quick May Update 2013

Whew.  Things have been busy, and there haven't been a lot of posts.  Here's some highlights.

A is really into opera, specifically Enrico Caruso.  He was working on a opera involving a princess who had been switched at birth by her evil uncle and was working on a farm; she goes to the farmer's market, and meets the prince, who is slumming it in the village as a jester.  Love at first site, secret wedding plans, and a sword fight at the end.  There was a lot of focus on the sword fight at the end.  A lot.  And not too many songs... so I'm not entirely sure, but I think the cast staged a revolt and now A is working on a new opera.

A's science project this year is "How do you make records hard to scratch?"  He wanted to see if records dipped in chocolate would be harder to scratch, but his teacher guided him away from that, so he used aluminum foil and plastic wrap instead.

Birthday Eight is coming up soon.  The list of loot has already been created, and seems to include a lot of --ahem-- vintage materials.  A probably would like the electrical arc cigar lighter from a local DIY-Steampunk-Vintage-Antique store...

Oh. Right, and there was an art class over Spring Break.  

Snow Sharks

Someone was being extra mean to his shark. In the snow.

Christmas Is Going To Keep Right on Going...

Scene: the living room.  J is showing A various holiday cards he's designed.

J: "... so do you like this one (moves to next sample)... or this one ?"
A: "I like them all!"
J:  "But which one is your favorite?  Oh, I like this one.  (mutters under his breath)  Have yourself an Illuminati Christmas..."
A:  "J! J!  Why don't you add red dots to that one and make that lady."
J:  "What?"  (Thinking that it would make one of the shadows look like a cow skull).
A:  "You know, that lady who made the child."
J:  "?  The Virgin Mary?"
A:  "Yeah!  (holds out arms monster-style) You could make make her a zombie!"
J:  "A, we can't make a Virgin Mary Zombie Holiday Card (suppresses laughter) It would be disrespectful."
A:  "Why?"
J:  (Trying not to giggle) "Oh, ask M when he gets home."
A:  "Oh! You could dress her up like the Grim Reaper with a scythe and chase everybody."
J:  "A, that would really upset LGL; it's sacrilegious.---"
A:  "J! J! And then -- (Further description of sacrilegious carnage deleted to shorten time in Purgatory....)

NOVA Pays Off..

Scene:  Post-NOVA watching, pre-teeth-brushing snack time.  The anthropologist has annoyed the United States mason by making the mason and a gang of Egyptian stone masons construct a small pyramid using only mud ramps and stick levers.

A (finishing his snack): What are you going to read to me tonight?

J (walking near the bookshelf): I don't know... (various inappropriate titles flash through his mind) maybe...

A:  "Butt-cracks of the Ancient Past!"

J: (turning and failing to keep a straight face) Um...

A:  (laughing too hard to use a serious-dramatic documentary voice) "Butt-cracks of the Ancient Past!"

J: (like a laughing Centurion from Life of Brian):  N-no.

Photo Dump

There haven't been updates lately, but here are some photos.

First Fireworks

Someone's been saving his money. So M decided that it was time to teach him how to light fuses.

Blowing Up a Balloon

A got to help blow up a balloon. He was only slight disappointed when no explosives were involved.

Meanwhile....

Grandma M rests with some friends.  In the distance, performers are singing, "Clang! Clang! Clang! Went the trolley.  Ding! Ding! Ding! Went the bell..."

C3P0 Would Be Pleased

Scene:  Hollywood Park, Disney World.  Everyone has just exited the Star Tours ride.  Some of the adults are holding their stomachs after the 3D ride.

A (looking up at J with the most sincere face ever):  "J, thank you for taking me on that ride."
J (somewhere between surprised and about ready to fall over from the excessive cuteness):  "You're welcome."
A moves over to the next adult to thank them....

Disney World

 We're back from visiting Disney World with Grandma M, Aunt M, Aunt M and Cousin K, V, and everyone.  The first day we went to the Animal Kingdom.






The second day we went to the Magic Kingdom.  The gravestones outside the Haunted House are musical.






It was fun dressing up as President McKinley when we went to the Hollywood Park.








We returned to the Animal Kingdom on our last day...








... and met a lot of characters.