The Colorado Adventure

Today we went to a friend’s house for a play date and then to the library with them for a Mardi Gras celebration. We got to talk about king cake, Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, why it’s called a king cake, what is Mardi Gras and so on.

When we got there the kids got labeled with colored crowns. They had three things going on, eating king cake, playing a king cake game and making masks.

We came with masks already in hand, but still made some.

Hannah really wanted to eat cake (ok, really she just wanted the icing) and her color was up at the tables eating cake, lucky for her. Grace wanted to play the game, but her color was making masks, so when they switched stations Hannah and Grace switched colors. Guess what? It was time for purple to be at the cake table and eat cake, so Hannah sat down and ate another piece of cake. Grace won 2nd place in the king’s game. You had to roll the dice and then walk the number of squares you rolled. Hannah wanted to play next, she got a crown too (because she whined, not because she won.)

Everyone got beads, dubloons and cake.

Mardi Gras actually means ‘Fat Tuesday’, another word that sounds nicer than fat is shrove. This is the last day to eat gluttonous food before Ash Wednesday and Lent. Since you’re supposed to give up something for Lent I suppose some people eat that on Tuesday. If I were giving up Reese’s (which I am not) I’d eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner on that Tuesday. This year Fat Tuesday is the 16th. Shrove is just the English word for shrive which means to obtain absolution for one’s sins. Fat Tuesday is also known as pancake day, maybe that’s why IHOP has all you can eat pancakes in Feb. ($4.99 till Feb. 21st) and why on Feb. 23rd you can get a free short stack of pancakes (donations accepted for Children’s miracle network.) Nowadays there is a whole season of carnival and Mardi Gras, not just the one day.

The whole season is really a celebration, but I think people forget where it came from and just want to get drunk and collect beads. The season starts with Epiphany which is the celebration of when the Magi came to visit Jesus. Then you have a celebration of Mardi Gras to eat some rich foods (and probably get sick) which reminds us of the sin of gluttony and how too much of something can be bad. Next comes Ash Wednesday when the palms from last year’s Palm Sunday are burned. Then in repentance people come forward to receive ashes in the sign of the cross on their heads. Not only to remind us of the work Jesus did on the cross, but to remind us of our mortality – to dust we shall return. Then we look forward in reflection and repentance to Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into town with cheers from the people, to Good Friday when He was taken down from the cross His work done and finally to Easter Sunday, when He went back to the Father. Yes, once again the church grabbed hold of a pagan holiday (both the Mardi Gras and Easter) to bring some pagans into the Christian celebration. I think that to see Jesus in the celebration is not a bad thing, it just is what it is. And since we believe in Jesus, we’re going to see that part of the celebration.

ont une heureuse Mardi Gras et rappelez-vous Jésus vous aime!

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Last night we went to the library to watch a sing-a-long Annie.

We got treat bags with props in them, camera, flowers, kissy lips, kazoos and money (and lyrics.)

We met a friend there and sang along to the movie as it played. This was my girls first time seeing the movie. Not that it’s a bad movie, but one summer when I was a kid my sister watched this movie every day all summer long; I guess subconsciously it was irritating. Grace has a good memory so she will be singing these new songs for days (irritating Joel.) Every time there was a scene that involved bubbles a lady walked around the room with a bubble machine, very interactive theater!

There were signs on the walls with some phrases from the movie.

There was even a table of kids with signs ready to pop up and prompt us to say ‘Boo’, ‘Yay’ or ‘Uh-oh’. This is as close to a 1930’s looking orphan we got.

A cute movie with great songs, we suggested the next time the library does this that they do Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, we know all the words to those songs!

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Today after our library volunteer/story time/reading extravaganza we headed to another library to set up for my Beethoven’s wig co-op. If you haven’t heard the songs, you need to go grab a volume. They are funny and I promise after you hear the lyrics you will never listen to that piece of music the same way again. You can listen to the songs here. At the co-op I planned to read a bio or story of the composer, then listen to the original score twice and then hear the lyric version twice. While we listened we were supposed to draw what we thought the music was saying. Apparently most of the music made Hannah feel like a round person under a rainbow.

We folded our paper in halves so we could see the difference between the regular music and the funny version and it was different. Almost everyone drew fireworks for both versions of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture (except for 1 person who drew a bull and bull fighter.) Other than that one, the kids’ drawings of what they heard were as varied as the instruments that played what we heard.

First up, Beethoven. We heard the 5th symphony and Fur Elise. Beethoven went deaf after creating a few symphonies and some sonatas. By the time he wrote his 5th symphony he was almost entirely deaf. (5th symphony picture before lyrics)

(After lyrics, Beethoven’s big wig, with its own address.)

He became frustrated and began composing this symphony while staying in the countryside and walking in thunderstorms. Listen close and you can hear the thunder crashing around, life’s storms advancing and him standing firm in the face of challenges.

For awhile he became depressed and quite caring about his appearance, letting his hair grow wild and not changing his clothes. He thought about giving up and then took the words of a poem that his friend Friedrich Schiller wrote (Ode to Joy) and painstakingly wrote out his 9th symphony (the chorus has Schiller’s poem in it.) Out of tremendous loss Beethoven gave us beautiful music to reflect on.

I didn’t have much information on Franz Liszt or Delibes so we had to go to Wikipedia for them. Franz Liszt from 1859 to 1865 was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher.

He was also the father-in-law of Richard Wagner. Liszt became renowned throughout Europe during the 19th century for his great skill as a performer. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age and perhaps the greatest pianist of all time. He was also an important and influential composer, a notable piano teacher, a conductor who contributed significantly to the modern development of the art, and a benefactor to other composers and performers.

Léo Delibes was born in Saint-Germain-du-Val, France, in 1836. His father was a mailman, but his mother was a talented amateur musician and his grandfather was an opera singer. He was raised mainly by his mother and uncle following his father’s early death. Starting in 1847, Delibes studied composition at the Paris Conservatoire as a student of Adolphe Adam. A year later, he also began taking voice lessons, though he would end up a much better organ player than singer.

Delibes’ work is known to have been a great influence on composers such as Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns and Debussy. His ballet Sylvia was of special interest to Tchaikovsky. Here is a picture of the lyrical version of the song (where water is dripping everywhere, Sylvia!)

Sebastian Bach was born into a musical family. For 4 generations before and 2 after him music was at the heart of family. He was introduced at a young age to the violin and clavichord. At age 15 he walked 200 miles to his boarding school where he learned to play the organ. He walked to towns far away to listen to pieces played on church organs and then one day it was his own music that he played in church. He heard melodies in his head and wrote them down, 1 for the violin, 1 for the trumpet, 1 for the flute until all of the instrument voices sounded as if good friends were talking. Once he was thrown in jail for a month (because he tried to change jobs), he spent the time well though, coming out with 46 more pieces of music! He got married and had 20 children, taught music and Latin to schoolboys and composed music for the 5 hour church service every Sunday. He composed music until the day that he died and ended up with over 1,000 works of music that he had written.

Franz Joseph Haydn was the father of the symphony. He wrote more than 100 of these long musical pieces (compared to Beethoven who wrote only 9 symphonies.) When he was young he often pretended to play the violin by holding a stick to his chin and rubbing it with another one. He sang in the Vienna boys choir for 9 years. He landed a sweet job as the music director at Eisenstadt castle playing for a prince. Later he went to London and played in a friendly musical competition where composers took turns writing symphonies trying to compose one better than the other guy. Haydn wrote his Symphony No. 94 in G major (Surprise symphony) and won.

It definitely kept people from falling asleep!

Robert Schumann was the first composer to write music specifically for children. He had 8 children of his own and they were probably the inspiration for that. Robert had music that filled his head, but he couldn’t get it out into notes. When he tried to bang them out on the piano, they just didn’t sound right. His mother worried that if he became a musician he’d be poor and hungry, but his father said that being a musician would make young Robert happy and that’s all that mattered. Robert began taking organ lessons and debuted on stage. Everyone loved him and he started writing pieces for a small orchestra. Eventually he hurt his hand and could no longer play the piano but he married a famous lady pianist and she would play his musical creations while their 8 children danced around the room.

Peter Tchaikovsky was born in Russia to a pianist mother and engineer father. He learned to play the piano at a young age, but when he got older he went into law to please his father. Fortunately for us, music had a hold on him and he returned to his first love. He loved to go to the ballet and whenever he composed music for a ballet (think Swan Lake) he thought of girls twirling around the stage. He taught at a school where he could keep studying, reading and writing music. He traveled to America and played at the newly opened Carnegie hall in New York City.

In 1892, one year before his death, he completed the Nutcracker symphony; music which we have come to revel in at Christmas.

Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart was only 3 when he started playing the piano. At age 6 he was composing symphonies! After a whirlwind young life of playing before kings and queens, traveling around to famous places and being the center of attention Mozart suddenly was displaced. Maybe because he was 17, too old to be a child prodigy, too young to be a person of importance. (Picture of Eine Kleine Nacht Musik)

So, he ended up in Salzburg working for the prince-arch bishop (which sounds like a great job, but the prince treated all his musicians as servants.) Then a reprieve, he was asked to write an opera for the Munich theater – a tremendous honor. Later he went to live in Vienna and worked at composing and giving performances. Most people didn’t want old music, so he had to write a new performance for each patron. He married and 2 of his 6 children survived. He started working with an Italian librettist on 3 operas: The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte. Right before his death he worked on Requiem and when he died at age 35 he left behind over 600 musical works.

Well, that was our tour today, check out Classics for kids for more composer bios and go grab a copy of Beethoven’s wig (vol. 1,2,3 or 4) and sing along.

Some books I used:

Mozart the wonder child by Diane Stanley
Schumann by Ann Rachlin
Haydn by Eric Summerer
Sebastian a book about Bach by Jeanette Winter
Tchaikovsky by Greta Cencetti
Beethoven great composer by Anna Miller

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We went to the library where Hannah enjoyed storytime, Grace enjoyed an armload of books and rifled through the whale book collection,

and Bethany groomed the shelves.

See her name tag?

She was so excited to get that. I dusted the high shelves while Bethany faced the books and found dirty ones to clean. There were lots of dirty book on the shelves, but now they’re clean. We stayed longer today due to Presentation club being cancelled.

After lunch we went to the Ken Caryl sledding hill, now that’s a hill!

Look at this cool panorama.

And look at this neat ‘I forgot the camera was in panorama mode’ shot(s).

Here is Bethany trying out Joel’s snowboard,

she didn’t mind wiping out too much.

Some friends joined us and we raced down the hill.

Grace says it’s hard to drag Hannah up the hill when she keeps leaning over and eating snow.

Here is Hannah and her snow angel.

We need to get some skis for this slope, it’s bunny sized.

We only stayed 2 hours and then headed back to the house to get some stuff for Bethany’s sleepover at a friend’s house. Ahh, ’tis a privilege to live in Colorado. Maybe by the time the snow is gone it will snow again!

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Hannah was so excited because we made it to story time today.

It’s been awhile. I can’t extol the praises of library story time enough. All of my kids started in baby story time and went up to preschool story time. Hannah hasn’t been in about a year, yikes! But, we are putting it on the schedule for Fridays. Bethany and Grace had some reading time. Bethany wants to volunteer while Hannah is in her class, they don’t think they will have anything for her, but I bet they can find something for her to do for 30 minutes. After lunch we went to the high line canal trail near us to take fall pics. The dry part of the canal.

Joel playing around.

Grace checking out the canal.

Fall Grace.

Fall Joel.

Fall Bethany.

Fall Hannah.

In between shots the kids raced and twirled Hannah around.

Here are some black and white shots, even though I was taking them for the fall colors.

Here is Hannah being goofy.

Yes, it’s hard getting a good pic of all 4 of them, I think they did pretty good today.

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After school, the girls and I went to the SAME café for lunch. The surprise today was that they didn’t have a pizza choice, instead they had 2 kinds of wraps. I had asparagus soup, arugula salad with spinach and lemon vinaigrette dressing. The girls had a ham and swiss wrap and some really good looking cupcakes. After lunch we headed over to the library for the henna program.

The lady, a henna artist, told us about henna. It’s a plant that grows in extreme heat, places where it reaches 130 or more (Grace said, ‘Like Texas!’ not quite.) It is harvested and then the leaves are ground into a green powder, she passed around a plate of it; it smelled like mown grass.

Then we looked at pictures of various styles of henna art, from India to Africa. We noted the differing styles, some were very lacy and flowery, some were very geometric and block shaped.

She told us about brides who get their hands painted with henna and then they don’t have to do housework for a month so the stain will stay – hmmm….no housework for a month. We talked about how people decorate themselves from Native Americans with war paint, to a girl painting fingernails. We talked about face painting and using paint as art.

Finally, we cleaned the area we wanted to paint and got a tube of henna mud. It came out like cake icing and we made designs.

Grace wanted a dolphin, so the lady drew her one while I helped Bethany with a cross and Hannah with a flower.

Hannah also wanted to do some on her own (of course.)

I did my hand and arm.

We had glitter on the mud and it was sealed with a lemon sugar spray.

She said when it caked off we could just wash it and put a bit of oil on it. I think the designs looked better with darker mud and glitter, now it’s kind of orangey.

But, it was fun. It should wear off in a week or two, faster if we swim in the pool and do dishes!

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Before we went to the Ann Lincoln magic show today we stopped by the SAME cafe to eat lunch. it’s here at: 2023 E. Colfax Avenue, Denver, CO. The cafe is called So All May Eat and it’s a wonderful concept. They have a new menu everyday using fresh foods from locals and organic food too. They usually have a soup, salad and pizza choice and it’s pay what you want. Yeah, you heard me, pay what you want or can. If you can’t pay at all, you can work in the kitchen for an hour to pay for your meal. If you can pay a dollar, then that’s what you pay for some awesome food and if you can pay more then you help out those that can’t pay much. We had tomato soup, puttanesca pizza, spinach pizza and watermelon salad (I would have never thought to combine watermelon, onion, carrots, olives and feta cheese, it was delicious!) We also had cupcakes and Oogave organic sodas (try the ginger ale, yum.) If I could have the pizza I’d eat there every day, they are open Tues-Sat (not the 4th of July though) from 11-2. I hope everyone goes and pays more than they can for their food, it is truly an amazing concept.

Next stop the central library. We saw Ann Lincoln do her circus magic show. She has trained a little puppy to do tricks (isn’t he cute?)

We got to pet him and the bunny at the end of the show. She is the one who got Joel interested in juggling and he read books and practiced and the next year he showed off what he had learned. We see her every year so she remembered us and asked how Joel was doing (he wasn’t there.) Still juggling and doing pretty well at it too. His flight instructor told him that juggling was good for his hand/eye coordination in flying – that was all the reason he needed to continue!

Now we’re back at home and we’re taking off in a bit to drop Joel at his gun safety class (turns out it was in the evening, not in the morning.)

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We saw magician Mark Striving at the library this morning. Grace forgave him for not picking her to help out and took a pic with him. He was pretty funny, I’d say he’s more a comedian than a magician, he had the kids laughing for an hour with his antics. After that we went to City park and played on the playground and ate lunch.

This playground looks almost like the one in Houston that we’d play at sometimes. Then we cooled off in the Thatcher fountain.

Yes, you can get in the fountain (by which I mean there are no signs posted that you can’t) besides we weren’t the only ones there.

On a really hot day that thing is packed. We drove home just in time to go through a loud hailstorm in the car and then we picked up Joel. We went by the Wildlife experience to talk to Kaplan Academy, I think they are going to be a good fit for him. He will have access to his entire courses on-line and can move ahead at his own pace. He’s just exited that he gets a lap-top. After talking with the rep we wandered around the new Globeology exhibit, very cool.

We listened to talking Masai from Africa, an Arctic explorer, walked through fake falling snow, saw a snapping crocodile and played games. Upstairs we trekked through the biomes of the world, Grace liked the ocean one the best.

There was also a nice hammock to lie in near the rain forest biome and snowshoes to try on in the Arctic.

Cool. One of these days I’m going to pay to go there (we were guests of Kaplan today.)

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We got to the park earlier than usual and everyone else was later than usual.

We let our ladybugs go that we caught at the creek.

Then we set up under the trees and pulled out lunch. All of a sudden a fierce squirrel hopped over and demanded food!

Once we gave him our bread crusts and pretzels he looked like this.

Whew!

Hannah got soaking wet in the sprinklers that the park service forgot to turn off (‘use what you need’ – hah!) Then she sat in the sand; it’s a good thing she packed pants and brought them in the car, I wonder if she knew she’d get dirty at park day? Finally our friends showed up and we got to talk and play. A red-tailed hawk came to take a bath in the sprinkler and I followed him over to the tree to take a picture.

Soon it was time to go, not that I don’t like to stay and talk, but we had an art program at the library.

The kids all got shark templates to trace and then outline with dots. We were doing the same kind of art that we had earlier this year at a co-op: aboriginal art. I drew a flower and painted my dots around it.

Here are the finished products.

They even had snacks there for the kids, I love the library!

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I had to take the car in again today, it was still leaking something. I found that if I bring 3 kids anywhere, things happen faster. We patiently sat in the lobby with a bag of 30 books and they kept coming in and saying, ‘just a minute and you’ll be ready.’ ‘I’m fine’, I said. I had library reading stuff to fill out, I helped Joel with his math over the phone and Grace read to Hannah. Oh yeah, Grace is reading and not phonics books with sentences like, ‘Can you come and see the dog?’ Books like 45 page ‘Harry and the lady next door’ with words like ‘neighbor’ in it. How did she progress to this awesome state? Magic……a balanced diet of candy……no just time not reading. Yep, you read right, NOT reading. After her last hospital stint we just didn’t read. I read to her, but I didn’t let her read anything. When her oxygen gets low it’s just too frustrating for her to read, so I just waited and then one day she picked up a book in the car and I heard word after word spilling forth. It was awesome. I think her brain just needed time to rest. So, Grace read to Hannah which made Hannah happy and Bethany was finishing up a book before we returned it to the library. They got done with the car so fast I almost wasn’t ready to leave.

We headed over to the library to drop off books and get some more. Hannah kept asking if we could buy the books, she’s not too fond of the borrowing concept (especially after she found the Tinkerbell books.) After lunch we went to a Nature preserve we found on the way to the library, it’s surrounded by warehouses and industrial sounds.

We saw pelicans and a blue heron, butterflies and purple thistles about to bloom. It’s nice that they put this here, it would have been nicer if you weren’t able to hear the loud commerce sounds. Next stop was another library where, after finding more books, we watched Ms. Connie’s birdie and bunny magic show. See here for a short video.

She was pretty silly, but her bunnies were cute.

Next stop, another library (it was prize day for us.) Yes, I make my kids read to get the prizes. So far we’ve gotten kids eat free at Cici’s, roadhouse, and souper salad. Free Elitch tickets, 5 ride coupons for Heritage square, 2 free bowling games per day, trinkets, a Rockies bag, I think that’s it. If it weren’t for the library my kids wouldn’t go to Elitch, Lakeside, ice skating and things like that – it’s just too expensive. The free dinners are a nice bonus too. Next stop was Wal-mart (bet you thought I was going to say another library, that’s next.) I love Wal-mart (especially when I have James’ credit card!)

Last stop was our library. I told the kids they couldn’t get any books, so I got some for me. I have separate bins for the different county/city libraries. In the summer we usually have books from 4-5 different libraries. And although you can drop off books at any library and they’ll transport them to the right place, they don’t always get them there on time. When you have 50 books out it’s important to get them to the right library in time so you can get more. I need 2 more big baskets and I’ll be happy. Right now there are books in 2 baskets, on the front table, on the coffee table, on the side table and on the wall divider to the den. I love books, but this is crazy!

We got home just in time to take Joel to CAP, then pick up James and then take crazy Maisy to the dog park. She wallowed in the ditch on the way home, so she’s outside for the night – filthy dog, ugh!

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Here are some pics we took as went to the library, downtown for an Irish dance show and wandering around in general.

At the show; my girl’s dresses were made by a HS’ing friend of ours.

The view from the Greek Theater towards the library and museums.

The Byers-Evans house.

Cake at Chuck E Cheese’s.

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We went to our first (of many) library shows today. It was Doc Murdoch the magician. The kids thought he was funny, even Joel!

He did some sight gags, like this mouse trap on nose and long nose.

He did card tricks, magic batons, the dice trick, told a story with a magic book and had a hand pop out of his bag, see video.

The girls kept talking about it ALL day long. I’d say it was a hit.

Joel had early CAP for rocketry and he’s getting that promotion tonight.

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The girls and I headed off to Golden yesterday morning to do the Valentine printmaking at the Foothills center. The center is hosting a print art show right now, it’s titled Print and Politics and some of it was a little much for the girls (like George Washington with just a skull.) Upstairs we grabbed a paper and started working (yes, I did one too, it’s great having kids – otherwise I’d never get to do fun stuff like this!)

First you write whatever you want on the inside of the card.

Hannah had a really long list inside (I think it was a birthday list, again.)

Then you go over to a paint station and get whatever you want to be on the front and roll the paint on it. You stick it on the card and then take it to the presser.

This nice lady turned the wheel and your card was pressed in the machine. When it came out you had a nice image of a dollie or stamp. We finished the cards with some hand stamps and then headed over to Aurora.

I wanted to sneak into the Rosa Parks story time and we did. This is Mrs. Cassandra Sewell and she became Rosa Parks for us. We listened as she told us about growing up and going to school for the first time. About going to the colored school in Alabama but having to return home when her mom got sick. About how she walked 4 miles to work at a clothing store, worked all day and then walked 4 miles back home. She said she hated riding those buses because there was this law that said black people had to ride in the back behind the line and if all the white seats were full and a white person got on the bus, a black person would have to give up their seat. Sometimes, she said, when you put your fare in the box in the front of the bus and then got off (black people had to put the fare in and then get out the front door and go in the back door to the black section) the bus driver would drive off when you were headed to the back door. But, one day she was so tired from work and the bus wasn’t that full, so she got on and sat down in her seat. After a few more stops the white seats got full and finally she was asked to move. She said ‘No’! The bus driver said, well you sit right there and I’m going to get the police, so he did and she was in jail for 2 days, found guilty and fined about $50. But this one act started the bus boycotts and after 360 days of people not riding the bus, the court decided Rosa was right. If you pay the same fare as everyone else, you should be able to sit wherever you want.

During the Q and A session Grace asked her what it felt like to be told to move. She said, ‘Do you have a favorite place to sit on the bus?’ Grace said yes, by the window (people were whispering, she doesn’t ride the bus I bet, boy are they wrong!) So Mrs. Sewell said, ‘How would you like it if someone came up and said move you can’t sit there.’ Grace said, ‘Well, that’s not fair!’ ‘That’s right,’ she said, ‘I felt like it wasn’t fair.’ Mrs. Sewell has an amazing personal story too. In one generation her family went from Grandparents with a 2nd grade education and being sharecroppers to her dad and his children having nothing less than masters degrees. She also does 11 other personalities and then I realized we had seen her before as Sojourner Truth. I can’t remember where (probably the library.) Grace isn’t in the pic because she was helping the librarian put away the chairs. We use the library so much as a HS group (and have to put away the chairs) I guess it’s ingrained in us to do it even when we aren’t the ones using the room!

So, now we’ve seen and heard from President Lincoln, Presidents Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt, Mark Twain, Sojourner Truth and Rosa Parks. pretty cool!

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Tonight we went to our library for a weather program.

The speaker was Dave Aguilera from channel 4 news. He showed a video about the behind the scene stuff a meteorologist has to do and then started showing equipment. Here is a weather balloon and he had the radio scanner that goes up in it to show us.

He said the balloon disintegrates and if you ever find the radio box to drop it in the mail so it gets back to the weather agency. I think it would be cool to find the box in my yard one day. Next he showed an anemometer which measures wind speed, then he read a book about tornadoes. I hate to correct, but he said the book was full of rhyme – he meant alliteration, at least I hope he meant alliteration. He asked for volunteers to help with the vortex tube. Hannah was persistent and raised her hand every time he asked a question and it finally paid off. After the tornado was going he asked for a volunteer to come up and stick their hand in the box, Hannah’s hand was up before he finished the question. So, he asked for another girl to come up and Hannah. She said her name was ‘Hanny Carberry’ and then he told her to stick her hand in the smoke tube, she did and said it felt like smoke.

Hannah was so happy to finally be picked. When they started the program he asked the kids what grade they were in, Hannah raised her hand for pre-school to 6th! The last thing was to make snow. He used the same polymer that we have to make snow, it’s just the stuff inside a diaper (which of course made all the kids say, ‘gross!’) He added a little water and poof, instant snow. Except you can’t eat it, it’s not cold and it doesn’t come from a cloud.

When Mr. Aguilera asked the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up there were a whole bunch of meteorologists! I wish he would have asked Hannah, I’m sure she would have said something silly like – an otter or a seal. Gotta go and make plans for spending all day in the Springs tomorrow, fun!

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Yesterday we went to the library for a video game making class. I knew it would end up being a simple game because they had to make it in an hour; I think it turned out cute. Here is a little video of Bethany’s project about halfway through. Here is Joel’s when he was done (he turned the sound off because it was annoying.) Everybody made the same game just to figure out how to use the gaming software. It was tedious going back and forth to the tutorial and then doing what it said to do. At least there were lots of buttons so you didn’t have to type in codes for the programming.

There weren’t enough computers to go around, so Grace just read and colored. She said she’s making a ’save the whale game’. I told her you could make one out of paper, with a game board, so she’s thinking about it. I said my game would be a mini-van driving down the street with 4 kids in the back. The Mom driver has a fly-swatter. So when the kids get rowdy she takes the fly-swatter and slaps it around in the back. She gets extra points for avoiding prairie dogs sitting on the road. Hannah wanted a seal and Mr. Otter game.

Joel said he’s taking his new found knowledge and using it to create a military game with snipers and jets.

I’m not sure the software will let him be that detailed, but maybe he can make a skater in camo jumping over jets. Bethany was a little disappointed about how long it took to make her version. I think it would have gone a little faster if they had mice to use instead of that little mouse pad on the keyboard. Why doesn’t this type of stuff come to our library?

Last night was also Baskin-Robins family night, so after dinner we went over to get some ice cream. I don’t know if it’s every Baskin-Robbins or just ours, but Tuesday is family night and kids scoops are $1. By the time we got there they were out of chocolate fudge, praline and a few other flavors. I’d hate to come at 9:45, you’d probably end up with banana strawberry or something else that tastes gross.

Today it’s off to the Fox theater for a Wild west show and then to our library tonight for a weather program starring the weatherman from channel 4 (he’s just as bad about predicting the weather as the channel 7 guy.) I saw snow in the forecast for Sat./Sun. but I’ll believe it when I see it. James on the other hand is in Chicago and he said it’s very wintry there, their snow has been around for awhile.

****Here is a link to the gaming software*****

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