The Barefoot Kitchen Witch

Wild Blue Yonder

This past Saturday Bill and I took the kids to the Rhode Island National Guard Open House and Air Show.  I've never been, and it's been a few years since Bill has gone.  His nephew was going to be working there as well (he's a Load Master in the Air Guard) and we hoped to see him while we were there.

We went early, which was our smartest move that morning.  We got to park relatively close, and buses driven by guardsmen and women drove us to the air field and back again later.

I would have liked to stay longer (we were there for a couple of hours) but the kids were getting tired of walking around and staring at the sky after a while.  (Alex:  "Mommy, why do we have to walk and walk and walk and walk and walk and walk and go down the slide and walk and walk and walk?")  As a result we weren't there long enough to see the really big shows, like the Blue Angels.  (I did, however, see them fly over in tight formation while I was on my way to the grocery store later that afternoon.)

Anyway - I brought my camera and both lenses, and I took what pictures I could.  It was a little difficult at times - hard to focus or change settings with one hand while carrying Julia with the other arm.  But whatever.  It was fun.  And it was a perfect day - comfortable temperatures and nice puffy clouds in the sky.

If you are so inclined, you can see the pictures here.

You're not the boss of me

Clambake - An All-Day Affair

A couple of Saturdays ago, Bill and I took the kids and some clam rakes and metal baskets and gloves and the kids' plastic gardening tools and my camera down to Galilee to dig clams.  Bill had bought about four pounds of soft shell clams, or steamers, earlier, but in order to do the clambake we needed rockweed (a type of seaweed) and since we had to get that, we might as well dig for more steamers while we were there.

Kindergarten Here We Come

Alex's preschool graduation was today.

Yes, I know - preschool graduation.  What next?  Newborns will be switching their tassles over from one side to the other right after the nurse weighs and measures them.  Congratulations!  You've graduated from the womb!

But anyway.  They had gratuation this morning, complete with little red borrowed caps and gowns.  They get to keep the tassles.

Before the ceremony began, the kids got to run around and blow off some steam up on the stage.  Julia, who isn't aware that she's Alex's younger sister, was up there running around with them.  In fact, even after Alex's little group had been pulled off the stage to don their robes in another room, she was up there, chasing around with some of the other siblings.

And then it was just about time for things to get underway.  So we parents got our wild animals children back to ground level and dragged them back to sit with us. 

But things still hadn't started yet.  And Julia, ever-fidgety, needed - yes, needed - to race up and down the aisle between the rows of chairs.  Fine,  let her wear herself out a bit more; it will do everyone good.

And then, when things were one step closer to starting (you could tell by the merging and parting of all the preschool teachers over by the door) Julia decided to go back up on stage, solo, and run around and jump up and down and basically ignore her idiot mother standing at the edge of the stage hissing at her to GET OVER HERE NOW.

She'd come running toward me, giant grin on her little face, and then stop JUST out of my reach, drop on her knees and lean back a bit, then spin around and get up and race back across the stage.  I am a useless parent, obviously.  Bill finally couldn't stand the stress of it all and got up and caught her and carried her outside to have a chat.  When they came back in, she was pretty obedient.  Yes, my usefulness ended once each one was weaned.

Anyway, shortly after Julia was finally parked in a chair, "Pomp and Circumstance" (yes, I know...for pre-schoolers...hahahahaha) started blaring from a portable sound system, and in came the tiny graduates.  They marched up the stairs, across the stage, and were formed into a line by height - with the shortest kids at either end, and the tall ones in the middle.  Just like the Rockettes.  Alex looked very serious until he spotted us, and then he relaxed and waved a lot.

They began their show with the Pledge of Allegiance, and went right into "Yankee Doodle Dandy" afterward.  Alex and his best friend Chad, who were about 3 or 4 people away from each other (because Alex is tall and Chad is not) both kept their hands on their hearts through "Yankee Doodle" and into "This Land is Your Land" as well.  It was cute and patriotic.

Next - onto the summertime song - a rousing rendition of "Take Me out to the Ball Game."  Little hand gestures had been choreographed into the song, and my favorite was "For it's one, two, three strikes you're out" and watching all the kids staring at their hands as they carefully held up one..then twwwooo...then......THREEEEE! fingers. 

And then they chanted "Kindergarten Here we Come" which I don't remember at all, and followed that with "It's time to say Goodbye to our Friends" which I also don't remember - I think they were poems.  OH - no, I know why I don't remember those - it's because in between them, Julia decided she had to go potty.  So we dashed out of the room (in front of everyone, with Julia jumping loudly along behind me) and found the bathroom.  Took care of things, and by the time we got back, they'd started handing out (yes) diplomas.  Alex already had his, in fact.

I found out later that before that part began, during the SILENCE, Alex called out from the stage "DADDY, DID JULIA HAVE TO GO POTTY?"

After they were awarded their diplomas, they were free to go, and refreshments were served in the basement.  (This all took place at a church, by the way.  Not that it really matters, but I just like to keep people informed.)  Alex was happy to get rid of the cap and gown - it was pretty hot in there by the end of the ceremony.  We headed downstairs and the kids ate pizza squares and cake and watered-down apple juice and then chased each other around until Bill was ready to leave.

We headed off to the car, and then went to the pet store and bought a Cuban Night Anole to keep our Plain Old Regular Cuban Anole company.  Or to start a turf war - one or the other.  Stay tuned....

Good Morning

  I was outside around 6 this morning while the kids watched "Stuart Little 3" and Bill slept. 

I love this time of day...I like the angle of the sun and the dew on everything.  Here's a bit of what I saw out there...

Now do you see the little pink reflection in the water droplets above?

It's a reflection of the pink rose above it.  Isn't that cool?  If I had a different lens, I could have captured more detail...but still...kind of a fun little moment in my morning.  (Yes, I'm goofy.)

(Mere?  This one above is the one I was talking about...can't remember what it's called.)

And that's the lot.  Well, there were more, but this is a representative sampling.

Today we've got Alex's preschool "graduation" to go to - that's a bit later this morning.  After that we may go to the pet store and get another lizard.  The frog that shared the tank with the anole was found dead last Saturday morning in a corner of the tank.  So no more mixing of amphibians and reptiles in the same tank, according to Bill.  He saw some other kind of anole that he wants to get, so I think we'll be adding that creature to the menagerie this afternoon. 

For now, that's all.  Have to start figuring out what the cute clothes I can make the kids wear for the song-fest today.  Alex told me they will be singing "We love our flag," "My country 'tis of thee," "Take me out to the ballgame," and a couple of other graduation-themed songs like "hello kindergarten" and "bye bye preschool" or something like that.  He says he has to stand during all of this (because he's in the oldest of the 3 preschool groups...plus he's tall) and he doesn't want to because then his legs will hurt.  Uh huh.  You're singing anyway, buddy.  Your legs will be fine. 

The other night he told me he didn't want to sing because all his teeth would pop out.  I don't know where he gets these ideas.  But I told him that he could bring a bowl with him to catch his teeth if it happened.

Have a lovely day, wherever you are!

Oh Naturale...

One day last week Julia escaped from Bill at the midway point between getting undressed and getting dressed.

We found her standing on the back of the couch in the living room, which is below the GREAT BIG WINDOW that faces the street.  She stood there, unclad, leaning against the window, for all the world to see.

And on Saturday morning, the day of Alex's birthday party (as described in the previous post), he came out of the bathroom without a stitch of clothing on. 

"Go get your underwear!" I hollered in mock horror, to which he explained:

"But when my friends get here I want them to think I'm silly!"

Milestone

My firstborn child, my son, my little man, my baby boy...he turned five yesterday.

Five. 

We had a party for him on Saturday, with some of his friends and their parents and some relatives.  Of course, it rained.  Last summer we had a party for him and some of his friends and it rained then, too.  Probably because the main kid activities were to take place outdoors.

They still did.  Rain does not stop US! 

We had a dinosaur egg hunt - complete with thin plastic safari hats - and then the little kids played in the pool while the older kids filled water balloons.  The highlight was the THROWING OF THE WATER BALLOONS AT ALEX'S DADDY.  Bill's not so nuts about it because the little kids don't quite have the muscle power to throw a balloon hard enough so that it breaks on impact.  In my good sport husband's words "They never pop, and they hurt!"  We may not continue the water balloon tradition.

In addition to all this fun - plus all the running around up and down the stairs and in and out of every room in the house - loudly - we had good food.

Bill smoked 4 racks of ribs, made 3 beer can chickens, and grilled up a few hot dogs for the pickier eaters.  I made an enormous pasta salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, ham, soybeans, and red, orange and yellow bell peppers sauteed in a roasted garlic/olive oil puree.  I also made 3 family-sized boxes of Velveeta macaroni and cheese because I wasn't sure how many people would want that and because I'd rather have leftover food than not enough.  My sister brought a fruit platter, my cousin and his wife brought a vegetable platter...and we put out guacamole and salsa and chips and pretzels.  We also supplied juice and water and Bill's latest batch of beer.  Wine was available, but no one had any. 

The party ran from around noon until around six.  I hadn't really specified an end time for things...I just told everyone "come on over any time from noon on...."  As a result, arrival times and departure times were pretty staggered.

While the majority of the guests were at the house, we did the birthday cake.  Here's a really bad, rushed picture of it:

Please, first of all, excuse the mess that surrounds it - we left the dishes for AFTER the fun.  Anyway, in case it's not completely obvious, this is the "dinosaur cake" that Alex requested.  I'd made one last year - I must have a picture of it somewhere...Anyway - this year, because I knew we'd have around 30 people or so at the house, I went vertical with it.  That top section is a volcano...sort of.  There's the old, cooled black lava, and the newer, fiery red lava spilling over it.  The lighter green blobs (they looked a tiny bit better in person) were clumps of grass or bushes that had not, as yet, been touched by the liquid fire.  The dinosaurs you see are most assuredly out of proportion and drawn from every dinosaur period with no regard for timelines.

Alex saw the cake as it was assembled.  Inside, it's layers of pound cake with chopped cherries, strawberries and blueberries smashed in between, and vanilla (canned) frosting mixed with strawberry jam.  That stuff that I covered the cake with is called fondant.  It's like modeling clay, just to give you an analogy if you haven't encountered it before.  It tastes like blech, but it's fun to work with.  I didn't get tidy or fancy with this one - it's dinosaurs - they rough it.

Anyway, at some point during the contstruction of this cake, probably toward the end, Alex suddenly hugged my legs and told me I was the best mommy in the world.  I'm so self-critical about everything...it's nice to be reminded that I don't have to be perfect in my own eyes to be exactly right in someone else's.

Anyway, it was a good party.  The best part, for me, though, was earlier in the day when Alex woke up.  Julia and I had been up since before six or so...Bill was in the shower...and I could hear Alex starting to wake up on the monitor.  I heard him moving around on his bed, and then silence, and then, in a whisper, "party!"  He scurried from his room and started down the stairs, and I heard him, once more, still in a whisper, "party!" 

The next morning - Alex's real birthday - I made pancakes and we gave him presents from US, and of course he grew tired of new clothes pretty quick, but he liked the other stuff. 

Later in the day Bill took Alex fishing.  Big Manly Man fishing in the canoe.  Here they are, about to set off on their adventure:

They didn't catch anything, but Alex learned how to cast from a sitting position in the canoe without whacking Daddy in the head with the tip of his pole or the lure.   

All in all, a pretty good weekend.

There's a bright golden haze on the meadow...

...and the corn is as high as...

...well, okay...not exactly...and not yet....