Post 2011 Birthday Report

We made a giant Seal of the President of the United States so we could play Pin the Eagle on the Seal.

The guests colored their own eagles. There were lots of variations; the most memorable eagle was bright green and the most memorable shield had a pirate skull and crossbones on it.


We made a poster of Mount Rushmore. Originally, it was going to be mounted onto a cardboard box so kids could stick their heads through and have photo opportunities. It sort of didn't happen that way.

 President Lincoln didn't come out well, and we were at the eleventh hour on this project.

And then there was the cake.  The 2007 cake was a train.  The 2008 cake was a pirate ship.  The 2009 cake was chocolate cupcakes and a chocolate anvil cake as the Sword in the Stone.  Last year's Monopoly Extravaganza featured a catered ice-cream cake.


 

J had told A that he would make a White House cake.  This required carefully measuring out the ratios in the actual building and taking a tape measure to the store to get the right marshmallows.  And trimming out round parts with saucepans. 


 

The pillars were marshmallows on toothpicks. The collumns were the most coveted part of the cake during the party.... because... well, J got a little carried away with late-night baking and there was probably a timer-set problem and not all of the cake went in at the same time and... so... some of the cake was a little over-done.


The pound cake held together fairly well.   Thank goodness for toothpicks.

And then there was the icing.  It was an orange sugar-icing.  It should have been a butter icing.  It made the cake resemble the Casa Rosada more than the White House.   No pictures to protect the guilty.


Grandpa was a Very Good Sport, rented a costume, and came as George Washington.

Grandma came as herself.

J dressed as a Secret Service Man and "scanned" the guests as they arrived with his camera.

The guests came as presidents, with two pirate exceptions.





M shaved his moustache, kept his beard, and was the best dressed Abraham Lincoln there (and there was some pretty fierce competition).

In addition to pin the Eagle on the Seal, we played Pirates and Presidents (a variation of Cranes and Crows), and Elections (they had to pop balloons for the electoral votes inside).  The games went fast, so we added on a few rounds of Dragon's Tail (form a conga line, the front has to grab a hanky out of the tail's back pocket).




"Uh, what did that recipe say again?"

Field Day at School

Guess who was waiting at school after today's field day?

Words of Dread

Scene: The house. J is running around doing pre-dinner house cleaning. A is doing the post-Library hand washing.

A (from the bathroom): "J! J! Come look! I made a fountain!"

J (rushing toward bathroom): "A, 'I made a fountain' are four words a child can utter that will fill a parent's heart with dread."

The Sword in the Azalea

"A story is sung, when azaleas were young / and knights were brave and bold ... "

Now It's a Gun Range / But Not for Lola

Scene: Early morning. J is taking his ablutions ...

J (from behind shower curtain):  "... but Rico went a bit too far / Tony sailed across the bar / and then the punches flew / and chairs were smashed in two / there was blood and a single gunshot / but just --"

A (from another room, and whose face has probably lit up):  "J! There were gunshots?!  Did they have crossbows?"

Mother's Day Weekend Discussion

Scene: The Dinner Nook, Between-Cartoon Honey-Tea Time (to soothe sore throat).  We join A's anticipation of J's post-mortem estate (with M's pre-post-mortem medical expenses debunking) in progress ...

J:  "... oh no.  When I die, they'll put me in a glass coffin and --"

M: "Not 'they', A, you."

J: "Oh, right; You'll put my body on display in a glass coffin and then you'll attach the corners to a dirigible and parade it around through the streets.  And then a big wind will come up ... (J raises his head, hands and voice) and carry my body...  into... the sky..."

M:  "Until it lands in someone's back yard the next day."

A: "No. J! J!  When you die, first I'll take your body and I'll dip it in tar..."

J:  !!!

A: "... and I'll tie it up with ropes to keep it from falling apart, and I'll hang it by the river..."

M (not-so-secretly laughing behind The Child's back)

A:  "and then afterwards, I'll put it into a small coffin --"

M:  "A small coffin."

A:  "... and I'll throw it into the ocean.  And I'll let the fish come and take little nibbles from it.  And they'll live in your mouth."

J (leaning in over the table and speaking in a low, intent voice):  "Full fathom five thy father lies / of his bones are corals made / (increasing the volume) those are pearls, that were his eyes. /  Nothing of him doth remain / but that suffers a sea change / into something rich and strange!"

A (by this time retreating and putting his hands over his ears):  "Why are you being weird?"

J:  "You just told me you were going to put my body into a small coffin and let fish nibble my body and live in my mouth -- "

A:  "And your eyes (sticks fingers into his nose).  And your -- "

J:  "Of course I'm going to quote Shakespeare at you!"

A:  "J! J!  And your nose!"

M (from another room):  "Wile E Coyote Time!"

Sight Words

A's kindergarten teachers send home lists of "sight words" for the children to learn. I blame the French for sight words, since they usually have "gh" or "au" or "kn" in them. Since A already knew the words

• who
• what
• where
• why
• how

we made up the following list:

• sweet
• loving
• kind
• respectful
• peaceful
• calm
• healing
• what
• obedient
• flypaper

But he could read all of those, too.

So the next night, M made a harder list. A only got the following words:

• compost
• sneeze
• cough
• forgotten
• supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

We think he would have gotten "tombstone," but he was tired.

[Update: this morning, A re-discovered the Gettysburg Address. Which he read to me. Then he asked for some paper. "I'm going to copy it down and read it to my class!" So far "that from these honored" is as far as he's gotten....]