Friday, September 28, 2007

The Kid Likes His Juice

M was the first and only boy up for a long time this morning. I was working in the school room and he was down the hall in the play room. He came galloping in holding a sword he'd made out of k'nex, and thrust his juice cup at me. I bent down to give him a kiss. He accidentally poked me in the head with his sword.

Mommy: "You stabbed me!"
M (laughing): "Oops. You're dead."
Mommy: "Well, then how am I going to get you apple juice?"
M (pausing for a second): "Quickly?"

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The Manners of a Three Year Old

M: I want juice.
Mommy: Okay. How do we need to ask?
M (thrusting his cup towards me): I want juice.
Mommy: How do we need to ask?
M: Nicely?
Mommy: Right. You need to ask nicely.
M (smiling): Can you get me some juice?
Mommy: You're forgetting a word. How do we need to ask?
M (frowning and puzzled): Loudly??!?

Friday, September 21, 2007

Girly Nouns

In Latin this week we're covering feminine nouns. The example our text uses is table. I explained to the boys about masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns in English. Then, I told the boys that in Latin, all tables are girls.

Z found this to be hysterically funny. He laughed and laughed, and even after he finally got his giggles under control, any time I mentioned the word table and he'd start up again.

However, L had a deeper thought. "Mom, are tables girls in Latin because that's who usually serves them?"

sigh

Friday, September 14, 2007

Z's Seventh Birthday

Z had been planning his birthday for months. Originally he wanted a dragon cake like J's, then he wanted a pirate ship cake, and he finally settled on the castle cake. He wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch and have Cheeseburger Soup for dinner.

We celebrated on Sunday so we could celebrate with Grandma & Grandpa L and Aunt Sh (Sunday was the last day of their visit). I baked the cake Saturday morning and then stayed home from church Sunday morning to decorate it. It was a cool, rainy day and I added to much milk to the icing, and it was thinner and heavier than I had planned (normally I make cakes on dry days, since most days, especially mornings, are dry). My first plan to quickly decorate the cake with "stars" didn't work--the stars were droopy and so heavy the turrets started sinking into the cake and tipping. So I went with plan B, and spread the icing on (I'm really bad at spreading icing on, but thankfully I was able to leave it rough looking, since it was supposed to be castle walls) and used a toothpick to make mortar lines. Z was thrilled when he returned home from church.

We headed to Chuck E Cheese with the hope that we'd be able to get home in time to see some of the Packers. If you guys are forced to go this establishment, I recommend taking 1 adult per child. It goes a lot more quickly when all children are able to play their tokens simultaneously. We were in and out of there in under 2 hours, and were able to make it home to see the 2nd half of the Packers game. Z, being the good son that he is, has developed into a loyal Packers fan. He says when he sees them he just gets this feeling he can't describe (and no, all you doubters out there, I don't think it's the feeling that he's about to vomit). L, on the other hand, has decided he likes the Broncos. Of all the teams he could pick, he had to pick the team that beat us in the SuperBowl? Hopefully it's just some sort of rebellious phase. Anyway, the point of this is that we watched the last half of the Packers game (and they won), and it wasn't complete parental neglect of the birthday boy because he's a fan, too.

After the game Z opened presents. He was thrilled. He received a Lego kit, Imaginext dinosaur, Power Ranger sword, and a green scooter. He also received a green football that L picked out for him. And a green bike. Does anyone care to guess what Z's favorite color is?

After some time out front we had dinner. It was "Scrumptious" and "Delicious" according to Z. Then we ate the castle cake.

All in all it was a great day. Z was happy, but claims he feels the same as when he was 6.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

The Cake


We celebrated Z's 7th birthday a few days early while we still had family in town. Z requested a castle cake, so that's what he got. I'll have to come back at another time and fill in the details, but I've had requests to see the cake so I thought I'd post it quick.