carsickness

On the way down from Castle Rock State Park yesterday on twisty-turny Rte. 9. Dan is in the back seat with his head buried in a book, as always:

Me: Dan, the road's getting curvy. Probably a good idea to stop reading for a while.
Dan: [Mutters something about how he's fine.]
Johnny: Why did you tell him to stop reading?
Me: Because sometimes when Dan reads books in the car and the road has lots of twists and turns, he gets carsick.
J: I never get carsick.
Me: No?
J: No. I can't read.

Other photos from March/April

The week before Dan's birthday party, it rained buckets. In fact, it rained 20 out of 31 days in March.

Dan's specially requested birthday dinner. How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child...

 Chicken strips from KFC, for crying out loud

And for dessert: Dirt cups, please: Jell-O Instant Chocolate Pudding, gummy worms, Oreos

Honestly. Why do I spend time and money making real meals out of real food? 

Johnny. Notice Doggy tucked into his breastplate.

"I want to listen to my brain," he said.

Jedi Partay Redux, continued

Part II: Location, location, location
Stanford E-Quad. Perfect. Grand porticos, long, wide paths, spacious lawns, grassy knolls, ancient tree in an arena.


Part III: The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
5:00 p.m. Kids arrive; free time
5:15 p.m: Kids assemble sandwiches to eat later.
5: 30 p.m. Treasure Hunt
5:50 p.m. Eat sandwiches, unveil and eat cake
6: 15 Light saber combat instruction
7:15 Free time
7:30 The End

Part IV: Gang aft agley
Which is to say, "Often go awry"--I'm quoting Scottish poet Robert Burns, from whose poem "To a Mouse" the line comes: "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men/ Gang aft agley". (Brainy, but I can't take credit. I remembered Robert Burns and his poem thanks to its appearance in a wonderful book called The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Hidden Gallery. It's the second in what I think will be a three-part series, Part III of which I am eagerly awaiting. If I get a spare hour (hah!) I'll write about it.)

But I digress. So. Gang aft agley:

Jedi Partay Redux: Tai's 8th birthday

Part I: The Cake

This year, I got to bake and frost a cake from scratch, instead of having to order a dreadful, (and dreadfully) overpriced Baskin Robbins ice cream cake featuring a Star Wars theme. All the um, wisdom literature warns us not to attach our happiness to ridiculous stuff like cakes, but there it is. In my still unenlightened mind, homemade cakes expresss All That is Good (love, mostly) and franchise store-bought cakes topped with licensed mini-figures are evil incarnate.

Which is not to say that our Good Cake was not topped with licensed minifigures. Oh, no. License upon license upon license, actually. Dan arranged several of his LEGO Star Wars/Clone Wars guys and a small LEGO military vehicle in a tiny battle scene. The First Battle of Geonosis (the Arena Battle), to be specific.

However, this flurry of licensing atop my devil's food cake with buttercream frosting (original recipe from Grandma J, who baked this cake for her children) was mitigated by the following:

• Dan doesn't own most of the minifigures represented in the actual battle. So he improvised, figuring correctly that his friends probably didn't even know what the First Battle of Geonosis was and therefore wouldn't notice or care about the missing figures.
• The battleship was of Dan's own design.
• Dan arranged the figures himself at the party.

We watched a clip of the battle on YouTube

to get the frosting just right—a sort of terra cotta/sandstone color. The end result was dangerously close to pink, but since the guys on top were fighting a battle to the death, it didn't matter.

Ta-daa:

So for those of you keeping score at home, it looks like this in my book:

Star Wars franchise..…..........................................................+10 Dark Side

Battle of Geonosis (from Episode II: The Clone Wars)..….....+5 DS

With LEGOs..…......................................................................+5 DS

But LEGO's cuten up violence....................................................................+3 Light Side

And were improvised.................................................................................. +5 LS

Dan-designed starship..................................................................................+5 LS

decades-old cake recipe..............................................................................+10 LS

homemade frosting.....................................................................................+10 LS

the exact color of the dust on Geonosis....................................+ 5 DS........+5 LS for effort

Dan did all the decorating............................................................................+5 LS

So that's Dark Side 25, Light Side 43.

Up Next: Location and Letting Go 

  

How to Drive Your Mom Crazy

Be three years old and sing "I am sexy" to the tune of Frere Jacques during your bath:

I am thex-thy, I am thex-thy
I am thexthy, I am thexthy
I-- a-m thex-thy, I-- a-m thex-thy
I am thexthy, I am thexthy.

(I know, right?)
Lather, rinse, repeat until hoarse.

Why do I always have to do EVERYTHING?

I think it's fair to expect an almost-eight-year-old to shut the car door when he gets out, don't you? Because certain almost-eight-year-olds seem to think that my standards are too high.

Martha Stewart Days, Jedi training, drums

Happy Valentine's Day. Raaaargh!

Didn't get a chance to post around Valentine's Day, when we got all DIY. But here's a photo of Dan's shoebox Valentine's Day mailbox (you remember those, right?). They were supposed to make them at home and bring them to school. The only rule was no violence. And of course we made the Valentine's cards as well--little foam hearts with glowstick arrows. Okay, honestly? RT and I did most of the work. I'm sure Dan would have been happy to slap a couple of stickers on the box and buy and distribute a chintzy little $3.00 pack of Valentines from Walgreens. But I wanted to do the project and Dan let me. I own that--it's all about me and my need to make stuff from scratch. But hey, it was fun family time.

Sith Lord Darth Dan vs. Emily
Each pair in the class choreographed a routine--and each time, it was the Sith who won.

Then I made Dan a Jedi robe. First time I've ever used the sewing machine that RT got me for my birthday eight years ago. But what a great way to break it in. I measured Dan, drew the pattern on taped-together pieces of tissue paper (the packing kind, not Kleenex), had him help me design the neck fastener, the whole nine yards. My intent is to make one for Johnny before he grows into Dan's.

Dan wore the robe this week to his final "LED Lightsaber Combat" class--essentially a stage combat class that he's taking through Parks and Rec. The teacher is a fencing/martial arts guy as well as (I assume) a Star Wars fan--he's built tons of awesome LED lightsabers and a couple of blasters as well.We've hired him to do Dan's birthday party in a few weeks, so stay tuned for news and photos.



Oh, yeah. One final thing. I caved and we bought Dan a full drum set on craigslist. $200 for the entire thing, which is a bargain even I couldn't pass up. It's not a quality set--billed as "great for beginning drummers", and already dented, and the cymbals, according to reviews online, are awful. But everything works and it makes tons of noise--what more could a 7-year-old rock star wannabe want?