Birthday festivities

I had hoped to have a real backyard birthday party this year, but that idea got dropped when the remodel wasn't anywhere near finished. But we ended up with several fun days of celebrating six years with my girls anyway!

Starting with the ever-popular rainbow cupcakes with buttercream frosting (48 of them took me all afternoon to make). I think I need to find information somewhere on "How to Frost Cupcakes".

I brought them to school on Monday to help fuel the kids for their outdoor "Field Day" which is lots of fun.

We had our own outing at our private beach cove on Saturday which was great! Too bad the jellyfish will arrive soon.

Zoo day

Today I took a break from the house and training and had a fun day with the kindergarteners and pre-K kids at the zoo. We all had a great time! They took much more interest in the various animals than they did on our field trip there last year.

The cutest part was when we came up to the American Bison on display and Catherine exclaimed, "MOM! It has an EGG!"

The Star-Mangled Banner

While the girls were taking a bath tonight Catherine was trying to recall "a new song about a flag" that she had learned at school and sing it for me. Somehow I managed to decipher what she was trying to sing from: "O'er the rainbows we watched were so gallantly streaming!"

I was drying her off after the bath and trying to explain: "That's a very important song, Catherine! And it was written by someone called Francis Scott Key, when he was on a boat not very far from here. . . ."

"Mom, do I look like Cleopatra with the towel wrapped around me?"

(Sigh.) "Yes, dear. Just like Cleopatra."

Eastertime

That's Catherine buried in the Bunny's tummy below:

Coloring eggs at home (the first time I dared to have those open dishes of dye around the girls!):

First day of soccer

The girls had a blast at their first soccer practice today. Mostly running around the gym (it was threatening rain outside) and attempting to kick the ball and getting some exercise while they were having great fun. Perfect!

It's a coed team. The girls thought it would be appropriate to pull up their shirts to show all their teammates during circle time. I can see in a few years from now they're destined to be the most popular female soccer players in their high school.

They decided to name themselves The Cheetahs. Only Catherine wanted them to be named Flamingos, so she has started calling herself a Flamingo-Cheetah.

Catherine's shaggy dog story

This is a story Catherine told us over dinner about the dog she hopes to have one day:

"My dog is a superhero dog and she's a Collie and her name is Cathy Energy Girl and she's brown and white with blue eyes. And she has a laserbeam gun in her paw and she finds all the bad dogs in the world and SHOOTS them right through the heart and they go straight to the cemetery and there's no more bad dogs in the whole world. The end."

Vacation pics

It took me a while to put up some photos from vacation because I bought a new mini-camera just before departure, but here you go finally! I know you've been waiting for them!

First movie

We took the girls today to see their first film ever in a theater: Wall-E. Catherine liked it (and kept up a fairly loud series of questions and hilarious commentary), Elisabeth was disinterested.

That's the first film I've seen in a theater since . . . oh, either Titanic or one of the Lord of the Rings films.

Wall-E was fun, very different for Disney/Pixar (I don't see any cuddly toys coming out of this) but visually impressive, the plot kept moving briskly, and it's ultimately a positive ending. Probably better on the big screen than on DVD, but it depends on how much your local cinema charges ($22 admission for 2 adults and 2 kids today).

Doesn't really take the cheap shots at fat people that I expected, either, although they feature in the plot.

The new wheel cover

First of all, am I raising these kids right OR WHAT!? Here's my barely 5-year-old Catherine doing her chores, pumping up Mommy's tire to the proper pressure. She gets a time-out if the pressure is off by 5 p.s.i.

Next, here is the new wheel cover, painstakingly installed. What a pain in the butt! I sure hope it makes me fast! If so, it's worth the whole $65 and more! It dings up pretty easily too, I've already noted.


I'll ride with it and report back in the next few days.

The problem with mermaids

Catherine said yesterday: "Mom, I want to talk underwater."

I began an explanation about how that didn't work very well because air is necessary to transmit the sound when she interrupted me:

"But what about Ariel?"

Um, yeah, Ariel can talk underwater in the movie just fine. You do have a point there.

Can those pesky Santa sleigh logistics questions be far behind?

Driving in the car with Catherine

After many discussions about how she wants to be Ariel the Mermaid next Halloween, as Catherine was looking out the car window today she came up with this thought:

"The birds want to be airplanes for Halloween."

Maybe they do. Just maybe they do.

Catherine adores Ariel

"Catherine, wouldn't you like to go see the Lion King?" (which conveniently happens to be playing nearby at Kennedy Center this summer).

"No, that's too roar-y."

"But Ariel could never be too mermaid-y, right?"

"RIGHT!!!"

So it seems that later this summer Catherine may have a big wish come true that she didn't even know she could wish for: to see the Real True Ariel on Broadway. 200 miles away. And tickets run - sheesh! $85 - $120. (Fortunately Grandpa, who grew up in New York City and enjoys the theater, has offered to get the tickets).

She'll probably have to wear her Ariel t-shirt and take her Ariel backpack. We'll leave the Ariel pillow and Ariel Barbie at home. And no, I most definitely will not let her dye her hair red, although she has already asked. That's why she refuses to get it cut, so it will be "long like Ariel's".

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Unfortunately I had to cancel my registration for Iron Girl triathlon in August for this, since that's probably the weekend we're going to New York City, and I needed to cancel by June 1st to get a partial refund. Hmm, that was my only sprint distance of the year - I might have to find another later in October.

Field Day

Today the school had a field day which meant going to a nearby park and playing lots of fun games. Fortunately my husband and I were both able to attend and enjoy the fun!




Here's a fun sack race (exposure keeps varying, but hang in there) that only lasts 47 seconds. Catherine and Elisabeth end up being the very last on the field.



Here's a rousing round of Rabbits and Hounds. You'll see that Elisabeth was a bad rabbit who just ran around in the center which was designated The Swamp. Catherine runs past just at the end with her friend Cindy. (24 seconds).

The girls also rode the school bus there for the very first time, which was quite a big day for Elisabeth! Parents weren't allowed on the bus so we walked back from the park to the school to pick them up. Unfortunately while riding the bus Catherine's sharp eyes spotted Mommy and Daddy stopping in the town ice cream shop!

The Spring Concert

Tonight was the elementary school spring concert in the school gymnasium. It had a patriotic theme. Of course I videotaped. The 2nd-graders, the 1st-graders, the kindergarteners, and then Catherine and Elisabeth's pre-K class marched in the gym singing "You're a Grand Old Flag" by George M. Cohan. Except I'm not sure they did much singing, since they were a bit paralyzed by the large mass of spectator parents in the room.

Then we all stood and they sang the Star Spangled Banner and they all THRUST their little flags in the air at the part about "our flag was still there".

Then they sang This is My Flag by Dan Fee, and then Lady Liberty by Gail Keene while an older girl wearing a tinfoil crown and carrying a tinfoil torch and wearing a black garbage bag walked back and forth. Then the PreK and K marched off the risers and were seated at the side of the room to listen to the rest of the 1st-grade and 2nd-graders in concert (American, Yankee Doodle Boy, and I Love My Country - for which they signed half the song in ASL very nicely).

Then there was an intermission before the 3rd through 6th-graders performed. We went home. We'll have to save that for another day. Next year we'll be in the new auditorium. I can hardly wait.

Girls QOTD

Catherine: "The earth is a big circle. And you can be upside-down or upside-up. And I want to go to space in Europe."


Elisabeth: "Lawnmower. Helicopter."

Opus Four

Catherine transcribed this composition from the small slate at the lower left today. I didn't even know she knew what notes were supposed to look like. Perhaps one of my readers who can actually sight-read music can tell us if she's a 4-year-old child musical prodigy or not.

PT

My personal trainer workout for the Biggest Loser thing was this morning at our little local town branch YMCA. The trainer did a great job and gave me a great workout which hit a lot of muscles that haven't been used in about 47 years.

I'm going to be sore tomorrow. And the next day.

And the day after that I have to run the National Half Marathon (uh, yes, I dropped down from the full marathon that I originally entered, why do you ask?). But I'll draft off Jeanne, so it will be easier than the last time.

Ahem.

The biggest hit of the day was the child watch playroom at the Y. My girls LOVED it there and played nicely and even helped clean up toys and didn't want to leave. Go figure. I guess that eliminates one of my last excuses for not getting back to doing some weight training and core work, which I have been successfully avoiding for years and years.

No more monkeys jumping on the bed

Elisabeth gave herself a gash above one eyebrow last night from crashing into the headboard face first when the girls were supposed to be going to sleep.

It's only about 3/4 of an inch long, but it started bleeding again this morning when I checked it, so we had to cancel her speech appointment and make one at the pediatrician to have it checked and dressed properly.

It's always something.

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We had hoped Elisabeth might learn a lesson from this experience, but alas - after seeing the pediatrician we ended up going to the emergency room at the local hospital - where Elisabeth tried to jump up and down on the gurney in the emergency examination room. Sigh. It was a few hours too late for stitches by then so they super-glued her forehead cut together and she will be sporting a bandage for a few days. She'll have a small scar, but nothing that her curly hair can't hide if she wants.

When I grow up....

Catherine has decided exactly what she wants to be when she grows up. She's absolutely positive.

She wants to be a mermaid.

She wants it in the worst way. When she saw a contrail lit by the setting sun the other day she thought it was a shooting star and made a fervent wish on it. "I wish, I wish, with all my heart, to be a mermaid."

We've told her that it will involve being cold and living in the ocean all the time and eating fish. We've told her that Ariel didn't want to be a mermaid, she wanted to be human. She will not be dissuaded. She practices every time she's in the bathtub or in the swimming pool.

A mermaid she will be.

And probably they won't even let her compete in the 2020 Olympics because she will have an unfair advantage with that tail.

Catherine's first race

One mile in 20:22 for a distance and time PR, including jogging, running, skipping, walking, walking backwards, and a short rest stop sitting on the curb. We weren't last. Most importantly, we had great fun!

It was the First Annual St. Patrick's Day 5K & One Mile Walk, by Caroline Human Service Council, Inc., in Denton, Maryland. Lots of great schwag too, including ringpops and fistfuls of chocolate coins!