Monday, February 22, 2010

Busy at school with the kids

This year Valentine's Day and the Chinese New Year were on the same day. I helped to organize a party in Jacob's class. They painted Chinese couplets, decorated cookies, learned about the legends of the Chinese New Year, ate Panda Express and made chocolate dipped fortune cookies. It was a lot of fun hanging out with the kids.

As a fundraiser this year, the school hosted a silent auction of art. Each class made a piece of art with the help of a professional artist. The turn out was of course low but the event was well done. I bid on both boys art work but was out bid at the last minute on Jacob's.
This is Jacob's class painting. Jacob was in the "yellow" group.


This is the winning art work from Jackson's class. I believe Jackson's piece is on the white matting in the lower left corner.

Science Fair Projects


This year, Jacob's project was about crystals. He disolved alum, a pickling spice, in water until it was a saturated solution. Then he poured it into a clean eggshell. As the water evaporated, crystals formed. Pretty cool.





Jackson's project was on volcano's, again!


Monday, February 8, 2010

Two Pyro's

These days the boys have discovered fire. They crumble, they toss, they poke to build the biggest fire. It sure keeps them occupied and quiet. I'm going to have to change the name of my blog to "Two Pyro's".

I can't complain, we actually had a lovely Friday night. The boys and I made movie munch cookies. These cookies got rave reviews and include chocolate covered raisins, Recess's Pieces, and peanut M&M's. Then we, including Aron, made home made pizza. I think we finally perfected our recipe. On recommendation from a friend, I went to Whole Foods for the the dough instead of TJ's. What a difference, it was easy to work with and cooked in the right amount of time. So with pizza and sauce from WF's and quattro formaggi, pepperoni, arugula, and prosciutto from TJ's we are good to go. On a whim, since I had left over prosciutto from Christmas's chicken saltimboca I used it topped with arugula. Wow, was it good.

I prefer to eat dinner without the TV, but sometimes rules are made for braking. So like in my childhood and for many other families for many years past, we ate pizza and enjoyed cookies while watching "Cloudy with a change of meatballs" in the "good" living room. (funny movie, really liked it)
And so went a simple evening that was good because of the people I spent it with. I know one day not too far off the boys will think it's lame to cook with me and will want to watch horror movies alone in their room. I also know that I wear myself out with the daily routine of "should's" and "must's" and take for granted that the boys will be their another day eager to hear me ask if they would like to play a game or have a story read to them. All I can do is continue to try to do better.

Something to remember

" Dad, I want grandma's Lexus."
"Why?"
"I want something to remember her by."
"Think smaller, much smaller if you want something to keep of grandma's"
...................(long pause)..............."okay, I'll take Pepper."