Monsieur Moustache

Here’s what happens when Mommy takes a shower and doesn’t notice the brown marker lurking in the bathroom:

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Cartoon Family!

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Photo Sharing – Upload Video – Video Sharing – Share Photos

Merry Christmas, Brother John!

My dear husband made a special Christmas gift for my brother.  You really should go take a look.

Rob Schneider?

I’ve seen this around and noticed it puts out fairly accurate results.  So finally curiosity got the better of me.  I had to know–who is my celebrity look-alike?  I’m not sure about the accuracy in my case, but . . . Rob Schneider?  What’s up with that?

OK, I’ll be honest with myself.  I think it’s the nose.

I ran photos of the kids, and half of their matches are Asian.  Huh.  Margie made two strong matches with a young Leonardo DiCaprio.

Update: I tried this with a different photo of myself, and Tiffani Thiessen showed up again as my #1 match.  So I’m going to claim her as my celebrity look-alike from now on.  I’m sure she won’t mind.

If you decide to try it, you may find yourself spending hours testing photos of your family, your friends, your dog, and the hairy fellow who showed up in the background of your vacation photos.  Fair warning.

Christmas Comes Early

From Gifts from A&E

Christmas came early to our house this year when Daddy brought home gifts for the kids from a coworker.  This coworker is the chauffer who helped us in a time of need, and he and his wife always remember our kids on holidays with cards, gifts, stickers . . . all the things kids enjoy so much that moms and dads often don’t think of providing.

When the kids opened their gifts tonight, they found new card games, lots of chocolate, and enough coloring books to keep even Kid Artist busy for quite some time.  Junior has a new toy car and a car book that makes beeping noises (he loves it!).  Margie has some pretty new bracelets, and Baba has a harmonica!

Daddy’s orchestrating the post-gift-opening celebration.  He pulled out the ice cream maker and has it churning out rootbeer-flavored frozen custard.

Thanks so much, Andy and Eve, for remembering our kids!  You’re special friends to them (and to us).

More pictures here.

And So It Begins . . .

I went to pick Baba up from gymnastics tonight and there was a little girl flirting with him.  Flirting.  With my son.  Batting her eyelashes and taunting him: "Girls rule!  Girls rule!  Hey, Baba!  Girls Rule, Boys Drool!".  I guess I should expect this when he’s the lone boy in his class.  But he’s only eight years old, for crying out loud.

My consolation–he’s still innocent to it.  He finished tying his shoe and looked up at me with confusion in his eyes, wondering, no doubt, why in the world that little girl was acting like a human hen.

That’s my boy!

Parkening and Sykes

James and I had a fabulous evening last night.  On Saturday we snagged last-minute tickets to a Christmas concert performed by Christopher Parkening and Jubilant Sykes at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis.  My parents took the kids overnight (thanks SO MUCH!), so yesterday afternoon we headed to the Big City for an unexpected date night.

I’m a bit of a minimalist, so this concert was perfectly suited to my tastes–two men, black and white, alone on a large stage: one with his astounding talent on guitar and the other with his equally-phenomenal voice.  My purpose in attending the concert was to hear Christopher Parkening, but as a bonus I learned to appreciate a new vocal artist.  Jubilant Sykes may now count me as one of his fans (that voice–WOW!).

After the concert James had a message on his cellphone telling him he didn’t need to be at work until 11:00 this morning, so we had yet another gift tacked on to our weekend.  My mom’s got the kids until lunchtime today, so we’re enjoying a rare quiet morning in the comfort of our own home.

Margie’s Church

"Look, Mom, I made the place where Andrea got married!"

Welcome back, you two! )

Beep! Beep! Beep!

If you’re in need of a laugh, check out Fidget Farkleberry’s backing-up truck imitation.  Aren’t little boys just grand?

Flood!

This morning we finished up our study of the Mississippi River with an activity we couldn’t squeeze in before leaving for the wedding last week.  I found a teacher’s guide for the PBS Nova episode Flood! and used the directions for the "Overflowing the Banks" activity to teach the kids about tributaries, floods, levees and wetlands.

I started by reading Flood by Mary Calhoun aloud to the kids, and then they built a model river out of clay on a large cookie sheet:

After the model was complete, we simulated a flood by tilting the cookie sheet and gradually pouring more and more water into the "tributaries" until the land downstream was completely flooded.  Then it was time to build levees to see how they changed the flow of water in a flood:

Finally, we added "wetlands" (simulated by sponges) to our model to investigate how marshy areas intact around a river affect the flow of flood water:

Now if only I could figure out how to get the clay out from under my fingernails!