DI Tournament Results

This weekend was our region's DI tournament for 2008. It was a very eye-opening experience for me. Both boys participated in the tournament, but only Firstborn was actually competing. Lastborn performed at the Rising Stars level (grades PreK through 2). His team was all 2nd graders since the school they attend starts at 2nd grade.

First I'll go over Firstborn's challenge. His team manager chose the technical challenge for them. They were required to create a vehicle that could take them through a number of obstacles. They were provided with a list of about 20 obstacle descriptions and specifications. They had to choose at least three of these obstacles and create them to the specifications. For example, they could create a tunnel that was at least 24 inches long, a bridge, pylons, a gap or fulcrum. Firstborn and the neighbor across the street concentrated on creating the vehicle and they really took a great approach to it. Their first idea was to make some sort of wheeled vehicle with a "sail" that they could blow around the track. However, they had a problem finding axles that allowed them to turn the vehicle. They could have used a stick to change the direction of the car, but they would possibly loose control of the car in the 24 inch-long tunnel.

They next tried a remote-control, wireless car. We found kits for the remote control, the dual motor (to allow for steering), a tank chassis (climbs hills and maybe even walls), and a base plate to mount everything on. Now, what they don't tell you is that these directions are primarily in Japanese. They are cryptically translated to English. You have to spend time in the store figuring out which kits you need and then hours figuring out how to build the thing.

Firstborn took days to build it. He never noticed (or knew anything about) the possible gear ratios and ended up building it with the lowest gear ratio. At the time, I figured that was fine and really couldn't tell him to do it higher if I wanted to (that would be interference. He's supposed to do this all himself.)

Then one of the team managers started to hyperventilate because she worried that the car was not creative enough. So we bought one of those helium tanks with Mylar balloons and the boys tried to build a helium balloon that could fit into a 5X8X12 inch form factor. Then we remembered that the power source also has to fit into that form factor along with the vehicle. So much for blowing the car/balloon around the course. Not only would they hyperventilate but they wouldn't fit into a 5X8X12 box along with the balloon. Maybe we could find a small fan. So that means the balloon would have to be even smaller How do you create a smaller balloon? The boys decided to tape the balloon with duct tape to restrict how much it would inflate. They had a problem with the balloons leaking (poor quality) and with getting a small enough amount of duct tape that the amount of helium in the balloon would actually lift the balloon.

In looking over the rules again, I realized that the vehicle creativity was only worth 25 points and getting through the obstacle course was worth up to 120. Well, that's easy. Just reading that to Firstborn helped him decide that the vehicle didn't really need to be creative. So he continued with the remote control car.

This was a really good decision. All of the competitors had remote control cars this weekend. No one got more creative than that. However, of the 14 competitors, only 3 made their cars. The rest went out and bought wireless remote control cars.

Unfortunately, we misread the rules enough to not know that we needed to go through the obstacle course a few times to get as many points as possible. This was a big mistake.

On top of that, the team did not do very well on their instant challenge. The instant challenge is a quick challenge that the kids don't get to see until they walk into the room. Then they have 8 minutes to solve the problem. Usually it includes building a structure or object using paper cups, straws and stickers. Then they have to put on a presentation using the object. This requires really good teamwork and Firstborn's team really didn't gel as a team this year.

Here are the pictures from his central challenge presentation:
Talking to the Judges before they go on. They are with their props getting things measured and talking about how they created them. The adults in red are the appriasers (judges).

Here the kids are doing their performance. One child is driving the car over and around the obstacles. They chose to present an American Idol competition. Two girls are singing for their try-outs. First born, boy across the street and the small blond girl are acting as Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randal ? I'm not a big Idol fan. The entire presentation was supposed to be without words.
Simon, Paula and Randy give their feedback to the two singers.

A closeup of Firstborn's car going over a fulcrum style obstacle. As the car reached the top of the ramp, the ramp would lower, allowing the car to drive off. It was hard for the kids to figure out how to build one, but they finally figured out that cardboard over an oatmeal can would work fine. It turned out to be one of the easiest obstacles to overcome.

Unfortunately, they found out that speaking as the three judges would lose points as well even though they tried to be creative and use the speaking parts as a special part of the presentation. Who thought a bunch of kids could be quiet for 8 minutes!

Then it was time for Lastborn's presentation. I'll continue that in the next post, complete with pictures.

Sledding, Ohio Style

South of Dayton is somewhat hilly. In fact, they refer to our neck of the woods as Far Hills. I can imagine that with the flatness of the overall landscape, that these hills (short as they might be) could have been seen from miles around before buildings were erected to block the view and before the factories came in and fogged up the air. Other than the far hills though, it's pretty flat; except for the occasional Indian mound.

Ancient native peoples that we have very little information about built these mounds all over the midwest. For years, we thought they were all burial mounds. Some were, but excavation has proven that others were not used for burials at all. Some were built to look like animals, like the Serpent Mound and the Eagle Mound. Some were ploughed over by farmers, ignorant of their significance. The ones that are not burials, are considered by the experts to be of some religious significance. Serpent mound for example orients towards significant astrological and solar locations.

Just a few blocks from our house, we have one such mound. It's not much. DH often refers to it as the pile of dirt. I can't get over the age of this pile of dirt though. To me, it is pretty impressive that a people who had to struggle through most of the year just to stay alive hunting and gathering and maybe farming in the good months, would have the ability to plan and build such a structure as even a pile of dirt. What we see of it now is probably lower than the original. The base would have been covered over the years with inches of organic matter, collected in the crevasse formed by it's base. The top, maybe worn a bit by the winds over the flat lands. The top may have been less rounded originally. We'll never know.

but now, it stands as the neighborhood sledding sight. Any kids who walks to this park has to climb the mound and look out from it, summer or winter. Heck, even we adults will often climb up there just for the experience. Somehow, coming back down always seems a bit scarier.

But just to give you easterners an experience of the mound, I thought I would share some pictures from our mid-February snow storm where my friend Sandra and her daughter F came to visit. F got to sled on the mound, but I didn't have my camera then. Later, I brought the littler boys from the neighborhood with Lastborn to have their own turn. We generally don't let them walk to the mound alone. I snapped the pictures to let everyone see the mound.

This one gives you an idea of how flat the neighborhood is.

And here are the kids climbing up to the top. Then, finally, they made it!

Being an avid reader of beancounters, I ended up being tagged for the 1-2-3 meme today. Yes, I take things way toooo literally. Maybe some anonymous reader of my blog will continue the meme.

Here are the meme rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people & post a comment here once you post it to your blog, so I can come see.

"Observe the pattern--the lines of type, the margins, and most particularly the blocks of white space where paragraphs begin or leave off.

You can tell without even reading if the book you've chosen is apt to be easy or hard, right? Easy books contains lots of short paragraphs--including dialogue and lots of white space. "

This was from Stephen King's On Writing. Interesting enough, the passage was about opening up any book on your bookshelf to any page. :-) Ironic.

Your turn, Remcat, Pristol (gotta write something on that blog of yours), Ben (you too!), Charmaine, JJones. Not sure how regularly anyone reads my blog. So I wonder how many of these people will actually continue the meme. So any anonymous readers that I don't know about, feel free to continue the meme and leave a comment to let me know.

Noreaster

Firstborn finally saw the snowfalls he had been waiting all winter for. We've listened all winter to him whining about how he wishes he lived in New England still where they get enough snow.


Don't know quite what he is whining about since he has used up all 5 of the allotted snow days and he has gotten to go sledding more here than we ever went back home. Being in a nice development means that I don't mind a whole gaggle of kids walking 3 blocks to the neighborhood lump-in-the-dirt to go sledding. So as soon as we get the slightest amount of snow, he is over at the mound for a sledding adventure. I never had the opportunity to let him walk on his own to a park for sledding in the northeast.


This weekend's storm was every sledder's dream come true though. It started Friday morning with fairly heavy, wet snow and continued through all day Saturday. Our Destination Imagination dress rehearsal was cancelled on Sunday, our CCD was cancelled on Sunday and pretty much everything was put on hold. The funny part was that the storm was over by Sunday morning and there was no reason to cancel anything.



On top of the lack of responsibility, was the wonderful temperature in the high 30s and the bright twinkling sun.

So I decided that we needed to try out a new sledding location. Something about sledding down (and consequently tearing apart) and ancient sacred site just puts me off a bit and, while I tell the kids that if they are going to desecrate an ancient religious spot, they should at least stop and take a moment to pray before they hurl their bodies down the side of the ancient mound, I still don't feel good about it.

So off to a park further north we went.

We almost missed it. Up the road a bit, there are some signs on the side of the road marking the entrance to a woodsy park with lots of trails and a meandering brook. The sledding hill, to the best of my knowledge is the area from the road, leading down to the brook at the bottom of the hill.

It is a nice steep hill, but it is surrounded on both sides by short, scruffy, put-your-eye-out trees and it ends in a 6-inch deep brook. If this were a fast snow, I would never have let the kids sled here. Not like they would drown in that brook, but they could get very wet and cold.

On the other side of the road, there is another entrance to the park. Again, it is a steep hill leading down to a longer flat distance before running into the brook. But on this side, there are park signs and trail signs right in the middle of the sledding area. Who thought of that one.

Of course, Firstborn decided that whichever side I picked was going to be the more boring. And Lastborn was too busy eating the snow. Luckily, the third sledder, a neighbor boy, was enjoying the actual sledding.

The snow was very slow at first. Great packing snow, it was great for snowballs, forts and snowmen, but not great for sledding unless you can start a path. Once smoothed, it could be fast if you know how to ride it. We only have saucers this year, so I did a trial run to try to teach the kids that if you keep your weight back on the saucer, it really goes well because the edges don't get stuck in the snow. They didn't listen, but I did have a good run and I packed down a starter path for the others to use.

15 inches of snow makes for nice sledding on just about any hill. And the fact that it was good-packing snow mean that there would be a base all day.

That will probably be our last sledding snow of the season. With Easter next weekend, I hope it's our last snow altogether, but I know better. We had such warm weather last week before the big storm came in that it was somewhat shocking to see so much snow. Even the kids were a bit impatient with it and they did not take nearly as much advantage of it as I had hoped they would. Firstborn is hankering to get back out to the woods to see how his forts are doing. Lastborn just wants to play his DS.

When the guy from the local tree service...

Knocks on your door and tells you it looks like your oak tree sustained some winter weather damage and he would be happy to help you out with that...

But you know that said "oak tree" is really a black walnut...

How do you kindly ask him to please get the heck off your porch?

Give him a phone and...

Yesterday, Firstborn asked to go to the park with a friend, but it was fairly close to dinner. Knowing how long these kids go to the park and not wanting to have to walk the 1 block to go get them, I had one of those moments of genius and remembered the walkie talkies that DH had purchased for just such an event.

First there were the comical few minutes while Firstborn and I figured out how to get them to work, set the volume and tested the devices. The whole time, neighbor Tommy was trying to tell us how to work them. He's seen walkie talkies you know. :-)

So off Firstborn went to the park and DH and I sat down for a moment to watch the upcoming storm coverage on the TV while dinner cooked away in the kitchen.

The walkie talkie rang (they do that now. They all sound like a nextel phone).
We picked it up and listened. Nothing.
It rang again.
Nothing.
It rang again and finally we knew what was happening. He was pressing the call button to talk. So we pressed the talk button and told him to "press the other button!" After about 3 tries telling him to press the other button, he finally got through.

Ken: You dogs!
Mom: Yes?
Ken: Why don't you have dinner ready for me when I get home so that I can go back out to play after?
Dad grabs the walkie talkie out of my hand and says: You'll get dinner when it is ready!
Silence.

Have dinner ready...
What was he thinking?

Eclipse

We watched the eclipse more than a week ago with Sandra from MA. We should've done that timed photo thing remcat did.

Just where did he come from?

Last night I waited outside the room in which Lastborn was participating in a Destination Imagination meeting. I overheard this conversation.

Ringleader: We need to makeup an alien language!
Lastborn: Oh! I know how to speak Alien!

It's all becoming clear now...

My husband's idea of a great valentine's gift

I especially like Grow a soul and Do my dishes.

What color are you?

You Are A Green Girl

You feel most at home in a world of ideas. You're curious and logical - and enjoy a good intellectual challenge. You're super cool, calm, and collected. Very little tries your patience. Your only fear? People not realizing how smart and able you are!

What Color Girl Are You?

With thanks to mental meanderings

The Future Andrew Zimmern

Lastborn has discovered food!

Not that he really needs it, but his dad got him to try a couple of types of seafood and now he has discovered that there is a world beyond chicken nuggets and mac-n-cheese. His favorite is seafood of any kind. If we say it comes from the ocean, he will try it; Even if his grand-dad does advise that some things are better left in the ocean.

Along with discovering new and different foods, he also discovered that some people are somewhat queasy about watching others eat some foods. This only helps to sell him on a new food. Take frog legs for instance. He actually at them. And he actually said they taste like chicken. Those were his words.

On the one hand, I am proud. But I could do without seeing him dance the frog legs across his plate. That's just too much.

Because of this intereste in bizarre foods, DH introduced him to a TV show called Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel. Lastborn now wants to grow up to be Andrew Zimmern. Although this is better than some of his other career choices, I'm not sure I want to watch his rise to stardom in this field.

February

The boys got excited about the Superbowl this year. Coming from NE and having the Pats in the game and all. They felt a connection. So we watched the first two quarters last night. It meant a later bedtime, but allowed them to have something to talk with their friends about in this sports-centered part of the world.

They were very dissapointed this morning when they learned that the Pats lost. But Firstborn, as usual, cut right to the chase. "I bet a lot of people lost a lot of money on this one!"

It's always about the money. :-)

Georgia and the Mouse

She's a fearsome kitty. But it makes it awfully hard to get my work done.

Of kids and cats

I promise Grandma, this won't become a cats blog.

First the kids:

We brought Lastborn to his first CCD class of the year. They started the class off with a prayer service. Lastborn was not happy, but he cooperated and even participated! That night I was bragging to DH about how Lastborn was singing and even blessing his teachers along with the other kids.

Lastborn gets this big smile on his face. The one that means that either he is about to confess to something he did that will certainly embarrass me or he is about to say something that will embarrass me. Either way, I know it means trouble.

"And I blessed you, too!" he giggled.

"I know, you helped them bless the parents too," I replied, wondering when the bomb would drop.

"Like this!" and he made the devil-horns sign with his fingers held in a V shape. While everyone else was praying with hands outstretched, Lastborn was making rabbit ears like his big brother insists on doing in every picture.

Of course! Why not? We couldn't expect him to actually do what he was asked to do, could we? No, Lastborn had to put his own spin on things.

I'm recovering. After all, the devil horns during a blessing are a whole lot better than "pull my finger" during the kiss of peace.

Grandma, I'm very sorry that you already bought your tickets to fly out here for his first communion. If he makes it through the program, it will be a miracle. I will do my best and I think we all need to pray for the next 3 months. :-)

At the bus stop today, it was pretty cold. The moms and one dad were concentrating on not freezing while keeping an eye out for any stray kids. When all of a sudden I heard a familiar little voice shout out "I'm freezing my wiener off." Of course, statements like this can't be made in a quiet voice. We're still new here but I think the neighborhood parents have already figured out that we are the bad parents on the block. But further reinforcements of that theory are not real welcome. Thanks, Lastborn. I appreciate it.

I shot him a glance and mouthed to quiet down.

There goes that smile again. The I'm-about-to-embarrass-you-smile.

"Whaaaat!" He says. "I'm just saying. I might turn into a girl!"

There is not enough coffee in the world to make me ready for a morning like this.

Now the Cats:

The cats are getting very calm. They are out most of the day, no longer cowering under beds and hiding in closets. They spend most of the sleep hours under the couch where they can watch us all. They play for hours with the boys and they spend lots of time on their cat tree. Thanks Cheryl for recommending them. Not only was http://www.armarkat.com/ very reasonably priced but it only took three days for the tree to arrive. Amazing. And they love it. They spend lots of time on it. Nadia did try to climb into the hammock as soon as she saw it. But the hammock moved! So she is afraid of it for now.

Georgia has discovered the cursor on my computer screen. While this is very cute, it is also very disturbing when I'm trying to work. We will definitely have to get a picture of it before we break this habit though.

Welcome, our new babies

Announcing the arrival of Nadia Comenici and Georgia Peach.

This is Nadia.

And this is Peach.

They were found in a home in Cincinnati along with about 59 other cats who were either stuck inside the house with no one to care for them or were living around the house. Cat rescuers from all over the area worked together to find foster placement for all of the cats who survived and for the last 6 months these girls have been staying in a wonderful foster home outside of Cincinnati. The woman who took them in has cared for them and nursed them back to health. They were just little girls when they were found and had horrible respiratory viruses.

They are still pretty skittish though Georgia seems to be a thrill seeker. She darts around the house exploring everything even though you can tell that the slightest movement will send her back to her safety room. She seems to love the thrill of the exploration.

Nadia, on the other hand is very shy. She spent most of the day here:

Under my bed. You can almost see how sleek and silver she is. If you look past the eerie glowing eyes.

At about 2:00 she came out and frolicked with Georgia until the kids came home.

Mr Professor

I'm trying to encourage the kids to use the phone. I apologise to those neighbors who unwittingly answer a call from my offspring. But the only way they will learn how to use this tool is by actually using it. I hope you have a sense of humor.

Especially in this cold snap we are experiencing, it's nice for my kids to call their neighbors to see if they can play instead of walking down the street in the cold only to find that neighbor boy can't play because he didn't clean his room this morning.

So the other day, I overheard this conversation between firstborn and a neighbor:

Firstborn: I possess a strategy for which I need the consent of the convention of the directors before I proceed to execute the strategy.
Silence.
Firstborn: OK. I have a plan. But I need to run it by you guys before I do it; just to get your approval.

Pretty bad when an 11 year old has to translate back into simple terms.

You see, in 3rd grade they started learning to increase their writing skills by substituting "baby" words for "grown-up" words. This is a skill Firstborn relishes. He loves big words. So he practices in regular speech. He must have composed this speech all morning while "waiting until a more reasonable hour to call his friends." Not everyone gets up at 6am.

Even Grandma got to see Mr. Professor in action. The first day of her Thanksgiving visit, we waited for the boys at the bus stop. When the 12 kids that get off at this street disembarked, the same neighbor boy from the telephone conversation yelled out to Firstborn, "When can you play?" To which Firstborn responded, "Not for an indeterminate amount of time!"

I saw Grandma's eyebrows raise. Yep. That's Firstborn.

The neighbors all seem to have a sense of humor. One boy was home schooled until this year and he is familiar with the idea of using big words. He does a pretty good job of participating with Firstborn. The other boy prefers to communicate in grunts and single syllable words, which he tends to mumble at super-sonic speed. He's hard to understand but very funny if you catch a word he's saying. They are all smart kids, and very fun to be around.

Happy New Year

... to all my friends and family who read this.

I have been a sorry poster for a while and promise to try to do better in 2008.

But to catch everyone up with family info . . .

The kids got out of school on December 20th. We spent a few days at home enjoying some relaxed vacation time and catching up with all of our wrapping, packing and last minute shopping. Then, on Friday, we headed eastward towards MA. The boys were very happy that MA had 2 feet of snow on the ground!!! What a wonderful Christmas present that was. Firstborn got to go sledding with his older cousins at the park down the street. It had a really great steep hill and because the snow was melty, the run was very fast and slick. Firstborn slept well that night, but panicked when he returned home because he left his gameboy in his pocket while sledding and now it was gone. A quick return to the slope down the road found the charcoal black electronic device sitting at the bottom of the still-white snowy hill. Glad we bought black. :-) It was getting dark out, so I was very worried that we either wouldn't find it or someone else would have spotted and pocketed the device before we got there. Lucky, lucky.

Firstborn slept very well that night.

In previous years, we housed one sister and family for the holidays at our house while my other sister housed the rest of the family. This always made Christmas special because I was able to spend so much time with my oldest sister and we were able to spend lots of time in my other sister's house as well. This year we were in a hotel, having no house in MA any more. It was much more tiring coming home to a hotel instead of a house and we spent much less time with the family having to pack family visits on both sides into 1 week.

I also hoped to contact some of my friends, but time ran out. Firstborn was lucky to see one of his best friends for about 3 hours on the day after Christmas. Lastborn, unfortunately did not get that chance. We only had one car and DH had to work the day after Christmas. I had to work on the 27th. So the remaining parent was stuck at the hotel or at my sister's house.

So while the week was long and tiring, it still wasn't long enough. To all my friends that I did not get to see, I miss you and hope to see you this summer. Keep in touch and have a wonderful new year.

Literally

Lastborn lost a tooth last night. The biggest fear among all children of tooth-loosing age is that the tooth will get lost and the tooth fairy will not be able to swap for the desired money. He constantly worries when a tooth gets to a certain level of wobbliness that he will swallow it or drop it down the sink.

Well of course, while Dad was brushing his teeth last night, the latter happened. Like a scene in slow motion, the tooth tinkled around and around in a circle around the sink drain and then, without warning, changed direction and disappeared down the drain, never to be seen again.

Thinking quickly, Daddy informed Lastborn that he could just write a note for the tooth fairy and she would still deliver the loot. So, with great industry and the kind of focus that is never shown to schoolwork, Lastborn sat down and penned the following:

Dear Tooth Fairy,

I lost my tooth, literally.

Love, Eddie

ap-cray

That's pig Latin for crap. That was my day yesterday.

It started with a Team Manager for DI calling to quit. And I couldn't even get angry at her because she's really sick. She's doing the right thing, but for a while, I thought I would need to be the team manager for her group.

Then, in checking on what I had ordered for Christmas for my sister, I discovered that all of my Amazon orders had been sent to Tewksbury. Oh Man!!!

I, of course, discover this 3 minutes before I had to be outside to meet the kids bus. So I couldn't begin the phone tag required to re-route the packages somewhere more useful.

So out I headed to the bus at 2:35 only to step into a giant pile of doggy doo as I was crossing my yard. And I mean giant! I've never seen such a giant pile of ap-cray! Right in the middle of my yard. I'm sorry dog owner, but there is no way you could have missed your dog producing such a giant pile. Could you not have just picked it up? Please, let me know where you live and I will send my children over to your yard to squat down and dump a load.

So, I survived. I was able to call the Tewksbury postmaster who calmed and soothed me, and told me that she would contact the route driver and see if they could find the packages. I was able to get most of the poo off my shoe in time to attend a wonderful little neighborhood party around the corner, where we exchanged ornaments and cookies and had wonderful conversation, and fortuitously, the regional director of DI was there and told me she had a couple who still wanted to be team managers. The glass of Sirah at the party was helpful as well.

Today will be a better day.

What's that I smell?

Oh yes. It must be the testosterone.

Living in a household full of menfolk certainly does bring it's share of manliness. This usually comes in the form of constant obsession with weapons and weaponry.

You've heard that team "A man's home is his castle?" Well we take that too far here. Instead of a nice umbrella stand in our front entry, we have a nice weapon stand.

Where there aren't weapons, there are tiny green and tan commandos hiding in my plants and Christmas tree. Just the other day, I saw the Bionicles leading an attack in the family room with a division of characters from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in formation backing them up. Who knew that Rudolph and his gang were such warriors.

And one of these days, I have to snap a picture of Firstborn heading out to protect his woods. With his wooden hand and a half sword down the back of his shirt, his bow strung across one shoulder and quiver across the other, and a plastic dagger down his pants. Oh - and a 5 foot long stick.

We feel safe.

Scarlet O'Harra Would be Proud

The past few weeks have been filled with purchasing details for the new house. Among the important details, curtains ranked high on the list. You may have seen the HGTV commercial on house buying tips. "Tip #x: When purchasing a home, leave enough money for window treatments."

After a few days of changing in our walk-in closet, we decided to get curtains for the bedroom. Good idea. Then we put up some curtains from our old bedroom in the living room. The Family room and kitchen already had curtains. The boys rooms came quickly after and finally, I found the perfect set of curtains for my office. They are a green velvet with a vine pattern impressed on it, the whole thing trimmed with a green brocade.

I know that my sister will have a comment for them. Something along the lines of "they look like something Scarlet O'Harra would have made a dress out of." I'm sure my family know exactly which sister I'm speaking of.

I just thought I would use this post to head her off at the pass.

Spookey

Now that the world has moved on to Christmas, I thought I would share our Halloween experience.

First, there were the jack-o-lanterns.

Firstborn chose, outlined and cut this:

A nice intricate design that challenged his carving abilities and really reflected his view of the season.

Then Lastborn chose this one:

Again, just perfect. This is Lastborn's view of just about every season. This is why we secretly refer to him as Frat boy. Kudos to Lastborn for doing almost all the tracing and carving. He's growing up.

It was a wonderful night. The temperature was in the 60s and the sun was out until 7pm because the time change was moved to the following weekend. Most of the neighbors were out on their front lawns to give out candy and there was a party atmosphere. I heard that one cul-de-sac off our road set up tables near the main road and had all the homeowners out at the tables. So the kids didn't even have to walk up to the houses. They did one-stop-shopping instead.

Firstborn has made many friends including Mrs. M. Mrs. Ms house backs onto the ravine behind our house. Apparently, her sons played out in the woods for years. One son is in Jr. High and the other is in HS. So she is only too aware of the imaginary powers of these woods. She made a point to tell Firstborn to be sure to stop by her house because she was giving out full size candy bars. Firstborn has even played with her kids a little though they are a bit old for the woods. He is drawing them back in with is fort-building and imagination.

The highlight costumes were two teenage girls dressed as the teletubbies and three teenage boys dressed as Mario, Luigi and Waluigi. The Mario brothers even acted the part. Running randomly around yards and jumping up to bop their heads on tree branches, just like the characters in the video game. They even carried a tape player playing the theme song. Very creative. Of course they got extra bite size Hershey bars.

Lastborn pooped out about halfway through the neighborhood. He wanted to come home and sit on the couch in front of the TV eating candy.

In the end, we had enough candy to cover the neighborhood and the boys filled my biggest Tupperware bowl with more candy than you can imagine. They definitely like this neighborhood.

The heathen!

Well, I dragged the family to church this Sunday. Lastborn is getting his first communion this year and I felt that it would make his life much easier if he were actually exposed to church before the actual first communion date. So with much whining and complaint, I cleaned the three boys up (yep, DH too) and dragged them with me to mass. I couldn't get DH going any earlier than the 11AM service (and then he had the gal to complain about how late we were done).

It was a very different church for us. Very modern with high ceilings, large windows and very little adornment. The holy water was in a large modern fountain in the middle of the lobby. And yes, DH did feel the need to explain to the boys that they were neither to play in the fountain nor throw coins into the fountain.

There was no direct entrance to the church from the parking lot, you had to walk through another building. So we were entering feeling pretty vulnerable and out of place.

We sat down in a pew near the back hoping to not be noticed and the kids behaved rather well overall. I was beginning to relax.

Then came communion. I asked Lastborn if he wanted to go up with me or stay alone in the pew. He decided to come with me as he usually does. So we walk up to the altar with Lastborn in front of me, Firstborn in front of him. We get to the Eucharistic minister (I was smart enough to pick a Eucharistic minister instead of the priest. Whew!), and Lastborn puts out his hand for a piece of the host. He's obviously not following the prescribed rules for accepting the host, so the minister knows immediately that he's not had his first communion.
So, I push him gently to the side and approach the minister myself.

Not good enough. Lastborn pushes his way back and tries to reach into the challis. Oh my. I don't know what he was thinking. However, I do think that when I told him that he was getting his first communion this year, that he thought it meant immediately. He was determined and when the minister said no to him, he looked at her with the most accusing eyes. So then the minister offered to bless him and he suddenly got scared and tried to run off.

So, I have decided that the whole reason why Catholics bring their kids to church every single Sunday is so that they can avoid the embarrassment of being exposed as seldom visitors when they actually do show up and their kids do something like jump into the holy water fountain or shout out "why can't I have one?" at the top of their lungs.

Pig Latin

Lastborn has become an expert in Pig Latin. He is now holding classes with the 2nd grade at recess.

Worshiping from afar

We are Sox fans. It's not that we want to be. We were born that way.



You don't realize how much a part of the landscape sports teams are until you change your landscape. Yes, the game was on each night the Sox played. It was a big thing in the playoffs when they were playing Cleveland. And it felt strange that while we were watching the playoffs, we were hearing fight songs from Cleveland instead of the stuff we are used to hearing from Boston.



But then the Sox won and we heard nothing. Nothing! Can you imagine? No recaps of Game 6. No wallowing in our 2004 win and the reverse of the curse. In fact, no mention of a curse was heard on the radio airwaves here in Dayton.



It was a strange silence.



At this point, I can admit, I'm not a big sports fan. It is really something I partake of more because I can't get away from it than that I have any particular interest in it. I watch playoff games and series games when the Sox are in because otherwise, my husband and I would not see each other, and because they usually knock off the air the most interesting shows. So, what else is there to do?



So I watched the games from afar this year. Not all of them. Usually only until 9 o'clock when my short sports attention span would quit on me. They were good games. Even a bit entertaining.



But again, there was silence the next day. No post-game recaps. No comparisons to previous series. No jokes in between news stories on the local news. No Red Sox day at school to support our home team. Of course, all of this is to be expected. After all, I'm not in Massachusetts any more. But, it still felt strange to not hear constant coverage of what Manny is doing and how Lester was having such a comeback after his health issues. Just silence.



Except for Jordan's Furniture. They made the national news on Public Radio. Leave it to Elliot to figure out a way to parlay the Red Sox win into national advertising for his regional store. Good ole' Jordan's Furniture and Underprices.



Go Sox!!

Amazon knows too much

I was just up at Amazon updating my wish list for Christmas.

I thought I was pretty cool. My music choices are pretty hip and new.

It was suggesting other music that I also like, even a book I was interested in buying.

but then it suggested ...


The Wisdom of Menopause: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing During the Change, 2nd Edition
by Christiane Northrup

How? How did it know. I'm not some young, hip college kid into cutting edge music. I don't have a page on myspace.com. I'm a 40 something mother contemplating menopause. It's a little scary.

I love Mr. Clean

The magic erasers that is. Did you know they take black walnut stains out of off-white carpet?

I refuse to think about what is actually in these little wonders. They got my carpets clean, that's all that matters.

The tooth fairy gets impaled while retrieving a tooth

I've been very busy with work deadlines and not writing half the stories I want to write. But, I'll take a minute for this one because it is just too rich.

Last night, Lastborn was working on a loose tooth. He worked so hard, the tooth was bleeding quite a bit. This scared him. But he kept working on it. I told him that if he wanted to, he could leave it be a while, and try again later.

"But what if it falls out while I'm sleeping. Won't I choke?"
"No," I replied, always the voice of reason. "It's too small to choke on. More likely you'll swallow it. Then you'll have to wait until the next day when you poop to get the tooth to give to the tooth fairy."

He looked sideways at me, a little worried. Then he replied. "No way! Will you get it out of the toilet for me?"
"No!!! I don't do that."

Noticing that he looked really worried now, I offered him this consolation.
"Don't worry, the Tooth Fairy fetches teeth out of the toilet if she needs to."
He wasn't buying it though and he kept working on the tooth convinced that he had to get it out right now! And of course he did.

That's when it hit me. We just bought a loft bed for his room with a double bed underneath. The idea here being that we want lots of places for long distance guests to stay with us, he would love to sleep in a loft bed and we should have room for sleepovers as well.

What was I thinking? On top of this, the order got messed up and the mattress for the double bed never came. Instead, there's just a bunkie board. Not enough for me to walk on to get to Lastborn's pillow. Yes, his pillow is on the wall side of this behemoth contraption. And the bunkie board is a bunch of thin slats of wood on a wooden frame all surrounded by a cloth cover. Each slat is not strong enough to take the weight of a person standing on it. It's meant to have a mattress on it.

DH immediately saw the dilemma when he came home later and I told him that Lastborn was now sleeping with a tooth under his pillow.

"Well where did he put it?" he asked.
"Under his pillow of course," I replied.

DH rolled his eyes as if I should have come up with a better plan.
"I tried. I told him that he should put it at the foot of his bed so the Tooth Fairy could get it more easily, but he insisted that she can fly just fine to his pillow."
"Well, did you at least see where he put it?"
"Of course. I made him show me. It's in the middle of his pillow."
"Well, I'm not dealing with it," was all he replied. Then a minute later. "I can just see this. You're going to come crashing down while trying to find the tooth. We haven't even been here a month and we're already gonna end up at the emergency room."

Such faith.

So at bedtime, I fished a crisp dollar out of my wallet and climbed the stairs to Lastborn's room. I turned on the hall light and crept into his room. Very carefully, I stepped onto the frame of the bunkie board to approach the head of his bed. Suddenly a sharp jabbing pain hits my toe. It feels like I've just been stabbed with the end of a staple. I can't scream.

With the other foot, I step forward to position myself closer to his pillow. My right toe is still stapled to the bunkie board. It's fairly dark even with the hall light. There's just enough light to see outlines.

He's sleeping facing the hall, head centered right over the tooth. Not good. I reach my hand carefully under his pillow and then I think I see his eyes open. It's too late for me to duck down and with my arm wedged between the bars of his loft bed, I probably can't maneuver myself low enough to be hidden anyway.

"Are you awake?" I ask innocently.

After a pause, he says, "No." and closes his eyes again.

"Well, I'm just going to pull your covers up a bit" I say. Weak excuse. I reach up with my other hand over the bars and pull up his cover while reaching for the plastic baggie that holds the tooth with my right hand under his pillow.

Feeling very smart right now, I begin to retract my right hand from under his pillow, only to find that it's stuck at the elbow between the bars. A little wiggling and my now-bruised elbow is free and I slip the dollar under his pillow with no further interruptions.

Remember, my right toe is still attached to the bunkie board with a staple.

I carefully step backwards finding the frame of the bunkie board with my left foot. Slowly I detach my right toe from the bunkie board. and step onto the carpet.

The white carpet! Am I bleeding?

Thankfully, no. I limp downstairs to tell DH all about it. I'm very proud now. No crashing. No ER visits. No blood. But my toe hurts like hell.

Little Mound

I've been chomping at the bit to find some of the parks in town. There are many as most Ohio towns try to conserve green spaces for common use.

The Little Mound park is around the block from us and was first on my list to check out. This area of the state is well known for it's Native American earthen works. The one in our neighborhood is not one of the well known mounds, but it is still very interesting to see close up. Makes me want to journey to see the serpent mound.

Along with the big hill that the kids like to climb on and run down (I hear it's great for sledding in the winter as well), there is also a small play park. Swings, climbing structures and a couple of benches for mom. All in all it's pretty great.

Just a question for my readers: If you lived next door to a great park like this, would you invest in a swing set in your back yard?

Light switches

Most of this house has no overhead lighting. The kitchen has it and the hallways, but none of the rooms. The builder was nice enough however to make an outlet in each room controlled by a light switch. Some are controlled by a few light switches.

The problem is figuring out which outlet is controlled by the light switch so that we don't have to go stumbling into a room to find a light to turn on. It took us 2.5 weeks to find the outlet in the family room. We have found the one in Ken's room, but we are still stumped on all the other rooms.

How you know your a buckeye

Most of the time, the move seems to have not really happened. It's like I have a new house, but I still live in Tewksbury. I work in my house, so I don't get out much. And really, things aren't so different here. But occasionally, I will see a sign that reminds me I'm not in Tewksbury any more. I'll summarize.

Signs at the entrance to an interstate reading "No pedestrians or slow moving farm vehicles."
The RMV is the BMV.
No deposit, No returns.
Rush hour lasts about 10 minutes.
I bought wine at Walmart. And it wasn't half bad.
And the number one indicator that we aren't in Tewksbury anymore:
We went to a sports bar for lunch today. The football game was on. The bar was fairly full for a Saturday afternoon at 1pm. Every one was dressed in red, with Buckeyes logos on everything. Some people were wearing necklaces-red and white beads and then these huge brown beads. The brown beads were actually buckeyes (not the chocolate type).

And, yes, they had corn hole tables there.

The children have not yet picked up the twang (and don't let DH tell you they don't have one here), but I suspect that Lastborn will be able to turn a great twang by Christmas.

new math

Lastborn is pretty certain I'm 25 years old. I don't do a lot to dispel this myth, but I have never started this myth either.

Tonight, Lastborn asked me how old I was when I got married. I told him 24. He thought for a minute and said, "you've only been married one year?"

Yep that's right.

Then I thought for a bit and realized that I was indeed 26 when I got married. So that means I got married next year. This made him think for a minute and then he said, "Ah. You're a time traveller!"

I think he might have figured out that I'm not 25 at this point.

Neighborhood Life

Well, there are certainly a lot of kids in this neighborhood.

Next door is an 8 year old boy, and he has a step brother who visits some weekends. We don't see them much because both parents work.
Across the street there is a 10 year old boy, a 6 year old boy and a 9 year old girl. In the cul de sac across the street there is another house with a 12 year old boy, a 10 year old boy and a 10 year old girl.
At the end of the cul de sac is another 7 year old boy and his 7 year old sister. And there are a couple of other girls around the neighborhood.

Every day, kids are knocking on our door to play with both boys.

The 10 year olds all play in our back yard in the woods. It's the hot spot of the neighborhood. They would spend all day out there regardless of the weather. They come in dirty and tired and so happy. Currently, their project is to build a fort in the woods using sticks and branches. We will have to send pictures once they get the structure working.

Stepford

Maybe it's because kids are so well mannered in Ohio.

Maybe it's because most houses here are carpeted.

Maybe it's because this neighborhood is in the middle of a black walnut grove.

DH wanted to insist that the kids remove their shoes on entering the house. I think that's kind of rude to expect of visitors.

Every time a neighborhood kid enters our house, they either take off their shoes or ask us where they should leave their shoes. I'm amazed. And maybe a little scared.

The Trees are Alive!!!!

Remember I mentioned the beautiful forested lot on which our new house resides? Well, all good things come with a downside don't they?

Most of the trees are black walnut trees. And black walnut trees make walnuts. Yesterday, the boys and I spent the morning picking them up so that DH could finally mow our lawn and relieve the worries that the neighbors are experiencing.

My first idea was to send the boys out there to pick up the nuts. Firstborn did go out at about 8:30 and try, but the squirrels, suspicious of his behaviour, started throwing nuts at him. So, he came in quickly, giving up the fight.

It took us a couple of hours, and Lastborn, who has an easier time sitting on the ground (and then getting back up), became quite stained from the black walnut skins he was sitting in. We must have picked up three bushels and still there were more.

Too bad the kids don't like walnuts.

Just east of the center

Lastborn: I know where Ohio is on the map. It's just east of the center.

Wood stove looking for new home.

Come quickly. We will need to find a trash site if we can't find a home.

And yes, we will clean out the ashes that are currently in it.

Mico

Today, I went letterboxing with the boys again. We were searching for remcat's two new boxes located near the Mico Kaufman statues in Tewksbury.

In our 8 years here in Tewksbury, we have driven past these statues so many times. They are really part of the scenery for us. The boys take little notice of them and I thought it would be great for them to see the statues up close before we left. My plan is to take pictures of various sights around town for a scrapbook that the boys can take into school with them when the start in the new school. It's also a book we can look at as a family when we are feeling homesick. These statues play a big part in the book, so going for the boxes at them was a twofer in our mind.

The first statue we visited was of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan.

Annie Sullivan was born in Tewksbury to a poor Irish immigrant couple. When her mother died shortly after the birth of her younger brother, Annie's father felt forced to leave the children in the Tewksbury Alm's House. Annie and her brother both had an infection that killed the brother and left Annie blind. Due to her determination, Annie was able to go to school at Perkin's School of the blind, but being from a poor background, she would have to work once she graduated and where does a partially blind woman get work? Well, teaching Helen Keller of course. The statue depicts Annie teaching Helen her first word, water.

After collecting the box, we spent some time running around on the common and playing on the bandstand. The boys loved that.

Then it was on to S. Tewksbury to find the box at the fire station. We needed a good cover because there were guys surveying for the future move of what is affectionately known in that part of town as the pimp pole, a large obtrusive eyesore of a cell tower pole that was erected less than 30 feet from this statue. It was not easy taking this picture without the pole in the middle of it and I'm sure the angle I'm shooting is not the best angle for this shot. I also tried to get the boys to stand in such a way as to look like they were hanging off the hose, but they weren't listening very well.

Our efforts to find the box were derailed when a group of three hikers walked into the area. They ended up sitting right where I was sure the box was located. I suspect they were also boxers. But I didn't know the secret handshake at that point and asking if they were boxers would sort of give it away, wouldn't it? So we left promising to come back some other time.

After giving up on the muster box, we crossed the street to check out the statues at the Methodist church. This one is called Touching Souls. The children sit with the souls of their feet touching. Each child has the clear facial features of a different ethnic background. The boys are playing duck-duck-goose in this picture.


We had a great time and checked off the list one item we had wanted to complete all summer; get pictures of Tewksbury landmarks that we want to remember.

Our new house

Due to popular demand, we are including pictures of the new abode in Ohio!

The living room.

The entry

The great back yard for the boys to play. We are talking about erecting a tree house in this stand of trees.

There are 4 bedrooms, 2 full baths upstairs and a large family room downstairs.

literally

Dh asked Lastborn to go into the kitchen, in the cabinet under the sink, and get a single white plastic bag from the box he would find there.

First, Lastborn went into the kitchen and grabbed a plastic shopping bag from the table where the remains of the last shopping trip still sat. Why go through the effort of looking under the sink when there were bags on the table? We use these bags to line our trash cans, so it made sense.

"No," DH said, "from the box under the sink. Go back and try again."

Lastborn returned to the kitchen and got a white plastic bag from under the sink. This one had stuff in it.

DH scratched his head and carried it back into the kitchen to see where Lastborn had gotten this bag. DH was expecting a folded up plastic bag from the box of new plastic trash bags under the sink. He didn't think that the garbage can stored under the sink is also a box and it also contained a single, white plastic bag. Literally

There should be a law

Against teachers who request that parents send liquid soap into school with their first and second grade kids...


And then don't check every backpack to make sure all the soap has been turned in before said first and second graders get back on the bus.

Would you like to hear this story?

Law of conservation of Rs

Years ago, my brother in law coined the phrase the law of conservation of Rs when referring to the Massachusetts accent. Everyone has heard the typical pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd refrain when picking on Bostonians, but few understand that natives are not just throwing those Rs away out of lack of respect for the power of the letter. Neigh, for every R dropped from the end of a syllable, another is placed on the end of a word where most other regions would not notice the R.

You Californians don't have the subtlety to assess the need for an R at the end of the names Rita, Anna, or Emma, but Bostonians, well, they're all about subtlety.

But something always bothered me about the law of conservation of Rs. The added R is not a universal rule in all of Massachusetts. Many regions in the state drop their Rs but don't add them to other words. For years, I was haunted by the worry of what happened to those R or how we could exist with the equation being unbalanced in this way.

But now, I can rest comfortably, for I have found the missing Rs.

Where? You ask? In Ohio!
We soon will be moving to the land of the refugee Rs. Our new address will be in Warshington Township. However, since those in Ohio can take subtlety like those in Boston, it is spelled Washington Township.

This will require some study on my part. You see, I spend lots of time translating spelling words because my sons tend to spell what the teacher says and their teachers are always adding and dropping Rs. Discovered this on a test where firstborn correctly spelled the name Connor. But the word was supposed to be corner. :-) Now, when we go over spelling words I test them both on the correct and the Massachusetts pronunciations.

premarital

The other day, we were in a restaraunt; me and the boys. I had picked them up from camp late because lastborn had a field trip that he was not arriving back from until late. When we have these late camp nights, I'd rather go out than make them wait for me to fix something hot.

Lastborn had a sticker on his arm when I picked him up. I asked if he had put the sticker on his arm or if a friend had. His response was just "no."
"No?"
"No."
"Well, how did it get there?" (the obvious question)
"A girl put it on me."
"Oh, a girl put the sticker on you? Do you think maybe she did that because she likes you?"
"No. She just put the sticker on me."

So of course, Firstborn and I started picking on him.
"She must really like you." I said.
"I bet she wants to kiss you," Firstborn said.

Lastborn took all this pretty well with no anger or frustration. So Firstborn kept pushing until I had to pull him back a bit.

"You know, Firstborn," I said. "Girls are going to start being interested in you soon. What are you going to do if one of them wants to kiss you?"

Firstborn responded with great determination.

"Everyone knows, mom, that you don't kiss unless you have been going out for at least 4 years." He said.

"Oh. Is that how it works?" I asked.

"Yes," he said. "And besides I believe in premarital."

Can you guess my response?




"What?" I spluttered, not quite controlling my reaction. And then, calming down a bit and taking a breath, I continued.

"Do you know what that means?"
"Sure."
"What do you think that means?"
"It means you don't kiss until after you are married."
"Is that right? OK. We'll go with that."

So much to blog, so little time

Heard from the backseat:

"everyone is a good dancer when they have to pee."

Conversations at Ecumenical Bible School

Each year, I direct the local ecumenical bible school. Our town is quite unique in this bible school. Four churches from four separate denominations get together to put on the bible school and we hold it on the property of the largest church, the Catholic church. This affects the dynamics of the school. well, for the adults maybe. The kids seem to have no idea what church the others come from, nor do they care.

One of the greatest things about working this VBS is seeing the interactions of the adults as they come in contact with a denomination for which they are not familiar. Every year, some conversation ensues about differences. They are usually light-hearted and interesting. By far, while the Catholics make up the largest population of the school, they are most often the center of these conversations. The strong tie to ritual and tradition makes them stand out among the Methodists, Congregationalists, and Baptists.

This year, our house sale was the focus of one of those conversations. Some of the staff asked how the house sale was going. Of course, I told them of the almost 3 month struggle in this very tight market and how we were beginning to believe that we would never sell it this year.

One of the Catholic members asked if we had buried St. Joseph. Well of course, I replied. We purchased him, prayed to him and buried him head down near the front entrance of the house. But Joseph wasn't coming through for us.

The Baptists, Congregationalists, and Methodists were just listening with wide eyes. St. Joseph in the yard is not a tradition of their denominations.

One of the staff told us about how when she entered her new house for the first time they found a three foot, dirt covered statue of St. Joseph on her kitchen counter. Many of the Catholic women harrumphed. They were supposed to take him with them and put him in a prominent place in the new home.

My response was, "three foot tall? Ours is only three inches."
To which they all replied "that's your problem!" and "No wonder the house hasn't sold yet."

Even the non-catholics were able to jump in on this one. No matter what your denomination, size does matter.

I wonder how many of these non-Catholics will be burying St. Joseph next time they sell their house.

What's in Ohio?

Once again, I have come up with a new answer for the question everyone seems to ask me, "But what's in Ohio?

http://www.daytondailynews.com/l/content/oh/story/living/travel/2007/07/05/ddn070607goroadside.html?cxntnid=dlh-070607

I knew about the big basket, but the tin man? Big Butter Jesus? Shopping in a candle? What more could you want?

That Attic Smell

Attics are always a source of material for the imaginations of young people. Think about how many children's books take place in attics. Steamer trunks that lead to different worlds live in attics. Poor little girls living in boarding schools are relegated to attics and then saved by rich neighbors. You could even see the famous Wardrobe of C. S. Lewis hanging out in an attic (I know, it was in a room at the end of a hall, but you could imagine it being in an attic). I think it is more than the fact that kids can climb up there alone and explore. There is something about the smell of the wood heated and cooled by the outside air year after year, the "cathedral ceilings" as they are called by real estate marketers, and the deep recesses and shadows. Attics are just cool.

Grandpa's new house has an attic. And while it's a new house for him, it's not a new house to our family. This was the house my mother grew up in. And her bedroom is up in the attic. One, single room with a nice hardwood floor and a big double window carved out of an unfinished attic with wide sub flooring boards exposed, and cheap wood paneling hastily tacked up on the ceilings. It's a great place for kids. There are boxes to explore. They can all be together on one floor, but if they want to get away to some privacy, they go behind the bedroom wall in a corner to be alone. There is one bed set up outside of the bedroom. Grandpa refers to that as the dormitory. He has visions of the kids all sleeping up there on that bed and the cots and other blow up mattresses. I hope he can get some carpet up there soon so they can take their shoes off while they are up there. Right now it is sliver city. But they still love it. Its away from the adults. There is elbow room. It is very dorm like. And it captures their imagination.

I think they will very much look forward to staying at Grandpa's house. Even if that attic does get a little hot in the summer.

Letterboxing, part deux

This weekend, I ferried the team out to Schenectady to visit my father. My sister from Kansas City, KS is visiting him. We don't get to see them often, so their coming back to civilization is a great reason for a trip out to Sch'dy.

I decided to check out some letterboxes while we were there and I also thought that bringing the niece and nephew with us might be fun both for the boys and for the cousins. So we became scalzidragonfireballs + 2 from KS.

We checked out the boxes at Union College. There are 4. We found 2! We were uncertain of the clues for the first box and we forgot to even look for the fourth. The boys were a bit tired and I didn't want to push them too far, so after we found box number 3, we just went for ice cream and then home. The stamps were very well carved and I showed all the kids how the log books were hand made. We got to see how all the boxes were put together and now Firstborn has a good idea of what we are looking for.

Cousin J found the first box. She can be tenacious. And she was very creative in applying the clues to what we were actually seeing. Don't want to print a spoiler, but the clues could not be followed to a tee on box #2. So you had to use logic and she did that well. So did Firstborn, but I dissuaded him since he was giving a suggestion but not showing me his logic. Had he shown his thinking, I might have said, go ahead and try it. It just seemed like he was desperately grabbing at straws. Next time, I will be more patient and ask him to explain why he is looking in that area.

Firstborn was able to find box 3 quickly. We won't take away points for the fact that it was out in the open. :-) We will give him great points for being very discreet when he found it and not shouting with joy the way his face showed that he really wanted to. We wanted him to find Box #3 because I want him to be excited about this. So when we were reading the prescribed plaque and he couldn't figure out how to pronounce the word Schenectady (he was looking at it upside down), I made a big show out of making him come around to my side of the stone to read it. As he came around the stone, he couldn't help but see the box. The whole time cousin J and cousin B were smiling over his head at me because they had seen it. Lastborn was totally oblivious as he usually is. But he mostly participates in letter boxing for the social aspect anyway.

Once we stamped in, I asked Firstborn to re hide the box "better than he found it." Silly me. He headed back into a pile of brush to "hide it good." so I had to explain to him that this phrase means to use the same spot, but cover the box more thoroughly.

We did have fun and cousin B thinks he would really like to look up some boxes in the Kansas City area.

While the kids did enjoy their ice cream at Stewart's afterward, I don't think that the ice cream was the highlight of the day.

It was so nice for me to have an organized way to show the kids the Union College campus, the Nott Memorial, Jackson's Gardens, and so many other sights in the area. We could see St. John's church from the distance though none of the kids could recognize "Grandma's Church." So that was a fun thing to do as well. Then I told them about how Aunt P and Uncle L had been married in that church and I pointed out the Union College building where they had their reception and told them about how Aunt P had a bagpiper lead us all as we marched across Union Avenue (4 lanes of traffic) to the building at Union College and how traffic had to stop for our little parade of about 100 people.
I pointed out the Dorms and how they are all called houses just like in Harry Potter. Firstborn even said he liked the campus and might be interested in going to College there "if only they had Chemistry there." Well of course Union offers Chemistry. So maybe he will be attending Union too. We only have to wait 8 years to find out.
So how many other college campuses have letterboxes hidden in them. :-) What a great way to start the kids thinking about going off to college.