Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Upcoming Trip

We'll leaving for Florida in a few hours.
According to Amelia:
The best part of going to Disney World is going on rides and pulling your suitcase.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Our Harry Potter Party

We have really enjoyed the Harry Potter book series and eagerly awaited the mail delivery Saturday, for the new book. To celebrate, we threw our own little Harry Potter party. Each family member invented a magic trick to perform and made witch hat cookies.
Gary went first. His trick was to pick up a piece of ice with a piece of "string" using salt. It was very scientific. Unfortunately, all we had was yarn. This trick works well with string, but not yarn. He came up with an alternate and performed again at the end.
I went next. I made a top hat out of construction paper and pulled a scarf from the empty hat.
Jimmy did a trick with his pocket. First he had Amelia check his pocket. There was nothing in there. Then we all closed our eyes and counted to 3. When we opened our eyes, she checked again and there was a K'Nex block there!
Amelia brought lots of parts to the magic show- the directions for her Doodle Bear, a barrette, sunglasses, and a small crab towel. Then she said "Mom how do I do the trick?" I had no idea what she was talking about, but quickly came up with the "magic disappearing towel trick." We spread out the items and put the towel over them. Then we said a magic word. Then I lifted off the towel, carefully holding one of the items underneath to make it disappear. She was amazed! She tried to do the trick herself. She was pretty frustrated until I showed her how.
Gary helped Jonathan do a trick. Everyone closed their eyes and counted to 3. When we opened our eyes, Jonathan was gone and Gary shirt had suddenly become very large and lumpy! We all got a big laugh out of that one.
Gary finished it up with a truly amazing card trick. It fooled us all.
We got out the witch hat treats and turned on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the kids and the grown ups read the newest book together.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Jimmy's First Guess...

...at why we don't go to the "Owl Restaurant" (Hooters.)
I quote:
I was driving by and I saw someone coming out of the Owl Restaurant* and they had a drink called "Caffeine Drinkers" and they had TWO Caffeine Drinkers. Caffeine Drinkers comes in three flavors; chocolate, banana, and organic.

*We used to drive by Hooters (and their billboards) often when we lived in State College

Amelia's First Phone Call

911. Need I say more?

Jonny's first prayer

It's probably been two weeks now since Jonathan said his first prayer. It was a dinner prayer and he said it all by himself. He said:
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you food. Please help Power Rangers. Jesus Christ Amen.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Jimmy's bike riding skills

Jimmy is finally mastering his bike, without training wheels! He "only rides it downhill, on the grass so it doesn't hurt when I fall."
When he does rides on the pavement, he coasts, putting his feet down when he feels tippy. I don't think it'll be long before he gains confidence on the pavement as well. I am proud of him for being brave enough to take on the bike!
*You may ask Why not training wheels? They encouraged him to ride crooked and tip over more. That is why he called his bike "the un-tip-able Titanic." He always felt a sense of DOOM when attempting a ride.

Amelia's Rock Band

Just so you know, Amelia is starting a rock band. It will have 7 girls in it. "Daddy will be the band leader (but only for practices.")
Amelia will play the guitar and little cousin Sara (as opposed to big Cousin Sarah, who is my age) will play the harp. I hope she has a harp!

Jonathan's Happy Dance

So I tried to call my mom to wish her a happy birthday while I was cooking dinner. I absent mindedly left the ingredient cabinet open while I did worked on my pancakes. Jonathan came along and rummaged through and selected a full box of cocoa powder. I don't know what I was thinking, but I let him walk out of the kitchen with it.
As I came out of the kitchen, I saw Jonathan dump the entire box of cocoa powder on the dining room floor (carpet.) He did a happy dance on top of the powder. He looked just like Harpo Marx dancing in the lemonade. He was so full of joy at that moment!
Now our carpet looks about 30 years old. Whoever heard of carpeting a dining area ?! I'll have to haul out the carpet cleaner sooner than I anticipated!

Cool Link

Here is a link to a site that I frequent when looking for activities for the kids. I really like their print out work sheets- mazes, word searches, etc. They also have fun custom chore charts.
http://www.dltk-kids.com/