Jack’s Preschool Lentils

This is copied out of the school newsletter.  - There were more photos of the class, but I just picked the ones with the cute kid…(Petit Loups=Little Wolves)

“In the petits loups class, we made "lentil kings!"
We planted lentils in egg cartons to make some hair to
put on the head of our little kings.
We started by putting soil in our little jars, and then we
added the lentils and finally we covered with more soil. We
made sure to water them! After one week, we noticed
that some pots were swelled up a little. We could see small
white roots poking out of the lentils. The next day we
already saw the first green shoots appear.
We continue to water our lenses because the soil was
getting dry, and we had to give more water to let them
grow some more. When they are high enough, we will place
them on the heads of our kings.
After 10 days the lentils have grown a lot, they have long
green stems with a little flower at the end. We are so
excited to finally give the kings some hair!”

“Dans la classe des petits loups nous avons fabriqué des “rois
lentilles”! Nous avons planté des lentilles dans des boîtes à oeufs afin d’en faire des cheveux posés sur la tête de nos petits rois.
Nous avons commencé par mettre de la terre dans nos
petits pots, puis nous avons ajouté les lentilles et enfin nous
les avons recouverts de terre. On a pensé à bien les arroser!
Au bout d’une semaine, on a observé que quelques pots
avaient gonflé. On commençait à voir des petites racines blanches
sortir des lentilles. Le lendemain on voyait déjà apparaître les
premières pousses vertes. On a continue à arroser nos
lentilles car la terre devenait sèche, il fallait leur donner plus
d’eau pour qu’elles poussent encore. Quand on les trouvera
suffisamment hautes on les posera sur la tête des rois.
Après 10 jours les lentilles ont beaucoup poussé, elles ont de
longues tiges toutes vertes avec une petite fleur au bout. Nous
sommes heureux de pouvoir enfin coiffer les rois!”

Winter Park

After a few weeks of snow and rain, there came a day of sunshine last week.  I took Jack and his friend Margo to a park near our house.  We drove up to a giant puddle!  After a quick diversion to go home and get some boots, Jack and Margo explored the wonderland.

A park-pool is pretty cool when you are five.  But the discovery of ice on top is like, well –icing on the cake!

Snowy Activities

all of us reading (biographies for Owen, history for Mama, Scooby doo for Jack)

all of us playing with some weird goo that Owen got from one of his friends for Christmas

Jack at his Batcave

Mama finished the final details of the two reversible batman/superman capes that I made for someone at the boys’ school

Owen back at the pile of books

 

Mama fixed the drawers from under the boys’ play table that have broken several times (this “fix” is much uglier- the silver brackets in plain view-  but much sturdier and I hope this will be the last fixt!) I was really happy about getting that project done – and it spurred me to help(force) the boys do the final organization of their rooms – they did not appreciate this particular snowy day activity, until is was done, and they had loads of space to play!

 

Two straight hours in the snow for the monkeys.  The kids were bundled in their Smartwool socks and hats, their pajamas, snow pants, down coats, and gloves – the were toasty warm!

Mama working on a poster for the book fair at the school – the kind of project that you think is going to be straight forward, but ends up taking far far more time than you anticipate! (And have mercy gravity! When I went to take a photo of this poster, I forgot that I hadn’t finished gluing everything down. I guess it is going to take a little longer now, oh well…)

hot chocolate after playing in the snow!  We made the special kind that Grandma Mary made for Christmas which made it extra special.

Mama cleaned all of the laundry! (now I just have to fold it and put it away…)

And that is only PART of the whole day – there was still dishes, and cooking, and more art projects, and rediscovery of old toys, and a complete take-over of the upstairs for the important set-up of a “pet store” of stuffed animals! And if you know anything about the amount of stuffed animals that grace our presence, you know that I am not exaggerating when I used the term “complete takeover of the upstairs”…

It was a satisfying day.   I got more done than I normally do, and the boys were busy, and happy all day.

Late Snow

The monkeys spent several hours in the snow today in one long go.  I kept waiting for them to get cold or bored, but they just kept going and going.  I finally convinced them to take a break when their entire faces were pink (instead of just noses and cheeks) and their snow pants and coats and gloves were to the point of being soaked through!

I tossed the clothes in the dryer and served an early dinner (as hot chocolate was lunch…) We were barely done eating when Nana and Dock and Tyler showed up.  Back went on the snow clothes!

Again, they lasted and lasted!

Dock pulled all of the boys around the yard on a sled for a super human amount of time.

I think that Owen actually moved on to snowball fights before Dock gave in and said he was tired!

The monkeys thought they were pretty clever ganging up on Dock…

until Dock revealed that he had his own secret snow weapons behind his back!

Tyler preferred to sit out on the snowball fights, but he loved loved loved the snow.   I don’t think I have seen a kid his age be so happy and interested in snow.  He love the sled, and was happy walking around (and falling down) in the snow for quite a bit of time)   It was so sweet to see him so happy. 

The monkeys convinced Nana to pull them on the sleds.

And then their Mama.

And while I did not have the stamina that Dock had, I did help them get the most air!

Waiting For Snow

Maumau came over on Saturday, hoping for a promised snowstorm. But no snow was forthcoming despite the fact that she brought snow clothes and even stayed the night. (Or maybe no snow was forthcoming because she brought snow clothes and was prepared to spend the night…hmmm)

Owen loved that he and she both have fur on their coats, and made me take a photo, which cracks me up.

We hung out on Saturday evening, and finally took the boys to the open gymnastics session at the gym when we realized the snow was obviously going to stay away.  

Still no snow overnight!  We bided our time hanging out, making a special breakfast including making great-grandma’s homemade applesauce, Dutch Babies, and lattes. (I was impressed with Jack, who peeled a whole apple by himself - He has so much more patience when he is cooking)

The boys were pining for snow, and the forecast promised several days of it, but since Maumau wasn’t already stuck, it made more sense for her to try to make it to work on Monday from her own house rather than from our house on a high hill…too bad.

We consoled ourselves (that she was about to leave) by drinking Maumau’s special hot chocolate, and playing yahtzee and bingo.

After Maumau left, the monkeys and I headed down to the library.  Apparently the snow got the message that someone was supposed to get stuck, but it got confused on the ‘who’ part…

An hour at the library brought several inches of snow to the community.  The clear roads and lawn were now covered with several inches of snow!  Luckily we made it back up the hill and into the safety of the garage.  Then the boys played for almost two hours building and destroying snow forts.

Drive Through

Tonight I made a simple bean soup and knew that we would have enough to share.  So I sent a text to Nana to pick some up on the way home from work.

I told the monkeys that they could “deliver” the soup to Nana through her car window when she came, and they got very excited about the idea that we had become a drive-thru restaurant. 

Owen had the idea of making a menu, which turned into a receipt-or-sorts that he stapled to the outside of the bag.

• Bean Soup
• cheese
• onion (red)
• truffles
• lots of love

Jack wanted to be able to deliver his own bag through the car window, so I grabbed another small paper bag for baby Tyler.  We put some food for him in the bag, and then noticed that our bin of baby toys will still sitting out.  Jack picked carefully through the toys to find the perfect Happy Meal toys.  Tyler’s list included:

• carrots
• parsnips
• Fuzzy car
• ambulance

“You say, ‘Thanks for your order!’ and you say ‘Please come again!’” I whispered to the monkeys as they walked out the door.  As Nana pulled away, Owen yelled, “”Enjoy!'” which cracked me up.  Owen was tickled by his unscripted creative moment.  “Did you hear me mom?!” he squealed once he came inside.  “Did you hear me?  I yelled, ‘enjoy!’ at the end.  I thought of that all by myself!”

PS- According to our most recent review, we have “a very satisfied customer!!!!”

Creepy

This afternoon the boys and I went to visit Aunt Mimi and Lauren for a little while.  Lauren wanted to go to a store that was about 45 minutes away in the opposite direction of our house.  The monkeys were game for the long drive for two reasons.  First, there are 4 live ferrets at the store and second, I promided we would stop at McDonalds playland on the way home.

Lauren shopped at the store to her heart’s content, Owen did his homework next to the ferrets – writing all his spelling words in sentences that also contained the word ferret…  Jack gaped at the ferrets and chattered to the store owner, then me, then the ferrets for the entire hour.

But having ferrets in a store is not the creepy part.  McDonalds is.

We ate at McDonalds and the boys played at the giant playspace while Lauren and I chatted.   About 5 minutes before we were were going to leave, I went out to the car to get pajamas for the boys to change into.  As I walked out I noticed a man  leaning against a wall near the door talking on the phone.  He wasn’t eating, just chatting .  I think he may have been the only other customer in the restaurant despite the fact that it was a large McDonalds.  As I walked out, another man was just outside the door, smoking a cigarette and also talking on the phone.  My car was parked directly in front of the double doors of the restaurant.

I opened the back door of my SUV which has one large door that swings to the right.  I glanced at the man on the phone.  He was still to the left of my car up well up on the sidewalk.  I had to dig through the bag that I had for a minute or two, but only found one pair of pajamas.  I suddenly noticed a movement in my periphery and glanced to the right.  The man who had been smoking was now standing next to me –  looking over the hinges on the other side of the door.  When he saw me notice him, he immediately turned around and walked back toward his original position by the door of the restaurant.  I was very unnerved that he had walked so close  to me, though I thought maybe he wasn’t paying attention since he was on the phone.  Then he to the sidewalk, turn around and started coming back toward me, saw me watching him, and turned around again to walk away.  I shut and locked the car, and went back into McDonalds with just just the one pair of pajamas that had been in my hand. 

As I walked back in, I noticed the other man still talking on his cellphone and heard the word, “parking lot” before he made eye contact with me and turned his body away.    I walked into the play area,called the boys to put their shoes on, and sat down to catch my breath.  The “inside” man followed me into the play area (which had no other kids in it apart from Owen and Jack) and pretended to look around the tubes before sitting at a distance from where Lauren and I were.  Lauren has started saying something to me, but turned as the man walked in; her sentence trailed off and she  furrowed her eyebrows at me. 

At that point my heart was really beating.  I knew it was possible that I was making something out of nothing.  Even if there was something amiss, I figured that most likely the man inside – if he was anything dangerous at all - was probably just a lookout for the man outside who wanted the bike that was in the back of my car.  Still, I felt very uneasy and have learned to trust my instincts, and  definitely wanted to get out of there. 

I grabbed my purse and the boys’ shoes, and told the boys that I couldn’t find their pajamas.  Lauren sensed something was up, and eased out with us, asking no questions despite the fact that I had just shoved the “unfound” pajamas in my purse.  “We don’t have shoes on,” the boys worried when we got to the front door, but I assured them that their socks were already dirty and they would be much more comfy in the car with no shoes.   That satisfied them, and we all climbed into the car. 

I pulled quickly out of the spot as both men watched.

Creepy.