Q4's Halloween party

At Q4's party at school all the kids got up on stage when called. All the witches. All the bugs. All the princesses and fairies. Oh, that's our category!

Q4 on stage


One of Q4's teachers was introducing the characters, and Q4 was trying to tell folks that the little girl at the end was Aurora, and somebody else kept saying Sleeping Beauty. Aurora! Aurora! Get the name right! One clap only for you idiots. OK, I'm outta here.


Me & Q4 in the audience

C6 chooses a pumpkin

I wasn't here either, but C6 also had a pumpkin patch down in Magruder Park. Fun!

Is this the right pumpkin?



No, this is!

C5's class parade

I posted the photos but forgot to post them here. I went to her classroom early and helped the kids get their outfits on. Most of the 6 year olds didn't care if I was in the changing room with them (girls only) and most would go in together, but a few were very private, going in alone, no help from me, taking their time. Just wondering when the switch happens ... when do you change from being ok changing in front of your friends and a strange mother to not being ok having anybody else there? I can't remember.

My 6 year old sweetie (notice the book? She had it as part of her costume. And the waist apron ... well, we forgot that at home). Also, does her costume look familiar? It should. Last year she was a princess. Same skirt. Similar shirt. Different headgear.



C6 and her prairie girl friends (notice how nice their costumes are.)


C6's whole class


The parade:

Q4's pumpkin patch

I wasn't there, but here are C41's photos:

Twirl-y skirt!

I LOVE this skirt. SO twirly!!!

1, 2, 3 ... 100 (again)

This time Q4 (last time it was C4). She just got past the 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 tangle that she was stuck at for about 2 years about 2 months ago. And this past week she's been counting to 100. Just for fun. In the car. At the table. Whenever she feels. Must be a 4 and a half year old thing.

Dancing to ABBA

Q4 discovered ABBA the other day. She's been going through the old CDs in the basement and dancing/bouncing (today was The Meters Live) to musis she finds. Here are her ABBA dances. I DO NOT know where she learned those moves. Really.

I like the one because of the beautiful dance steps. I like the other video because of the little index finger twirl. That is so Q4.






PS. Remember that hat I made for Q4 the other day? It fits me because it is stretchy ... it is a great bed hat. MMM warm. We'll see if I have to make my own.


PPS! Remember that twirly skirt I made C6 about a year ago? (almost exactly a year!). I had a charge to make Q one, too. Well, I finally did it this afternoon. Made from freecycle fabric. One which is already fraying, so I don't know how long this skirt will last. But then, C6's skirt is so dirty and disgusting and it has frayed and gotten holes and had to resewn, and is so faded ... but she still loves it. Pictures tomorrow when she puts it on.

New socks

Thank you B&J ... (Beanutbutter & Jelly?) C6 put those socks on right away and nagged Q4 until she put hers on.

Camera didn't flash, I see, but here are the photos of C6's feet:

More paper clothing

This time Q4 was dressing C41. I have no idea what exactly he is wearing. I came down from a nap and there he was with these leg warmers and a chain/apron thing about his shins, plus a sw-or-ard and a bonnet.

I give him daddy of the day.

New hat

I just made Q4 a new hat. Amazing really, because I feel like crap and so does C41 and my head is about to explode ... Tylenol sinus did nothing, Motrin did nothing, Caffiene plus those two thing alleviated it enough so that I could get up, though.

Anyway, here is the hat!


yes, made from her old dresses.

And here is C6 wearing the hat (no flaps for her, please)

Stargazing

After letting C6 sleep through the spacestation flyover this morning, C41 promised the girls that he'd take them out to look at stars tonight.

So after dinner and a movie he obligingly took them out. Down the sidewalk, to in front of our neighbor's home. I assumed.

I popped my head out once; I didn't see them.

Some 30 minutes later I got a call; they were at the elementary school and Q4 was still going forward at a very quick pace.

I hopped in the car and went to collect them. Unfortunate for Q4, her arguement that she can't walk that far has now just been shot.

Did I say we had no pictures?

We have a few!


C6 Jumping!!


J4 & Q4 on the bear


Peek-a-boo!

Exaltation

C6 got her library card today. She was very very VERY excited!

Emergency sit

On Monday I had a H5 over over while his dad took his little sister to the doctors with 2 burst eardrums.

C6 and H5 were both thrilled to find out that he was coming over, and they were discussing all the things they could do. What they finally hit upon as a plan that satisfied them both was a book service. They created flyers and delivered them to the neighbors advertising the book service. When I asked what a book service was they ... weren't sure. So they figured out it meant they'd sell books.

What books? I asked. They'd make them! Even better. So they sat on the porch and made books together.

H5 isn't writing fluently yet, so he created a picture book and a nature kit, and one book where I had to laboriously spell everything out for him.

C6 wrote books like WWII, The Morse Code, and Landlocked States (3). WWII was quite good, it was mostly a treatise on how bad and mean and hurtful war was, but I'm not sure it was entirely facutual. The Morse Code was just a bundle of facts that H5 & C6 made up. And Landlocked States was a nice compendium of facts about three landlocked states (West Virginia, Iowa, and Arkansas).

And others. They then waited for customers. When somebody came by C6 would yell at them to ask them to come by. Some actually stopped. H5 demanded $4.99 for a book, but C6 dropped the price to $.01, (and even gave some away) and we had 3-4 sales. I suppose that is what you have to do when you are just starting out in the publishing field.


(note the exerpt from "The Morse Code"

Q4 was not absent for all of this. She was busy creating a sign:

Must clarify what I mean

Conversation with C6

C6: I have 10 things on my mind that I want to do
1) want to read in bed
2) I want to read on the couch
3) I want to read at the table
4) I want to write a story in bed
5) I want to draw leaves
6) I want to rake leaves
7) I want to read with you
8) I want to collect acorns
9) I want to make and sell books
10) I want to be late to pick up Q4

Me: We don't want to be late to pick up Q4; then she'll fuss and want to stay for the movie

C6: I know. It's the last thing I want to do.

How did I manage to have a whole weekend without a photo

We went to the zoo! The park! to dinner!
And all I got was this of K40

Acorns

C6 was very busy this afternoon cracking open acorns. I think she'd make a good historical interpreter (like an interpreter/craftsfolk at Old Sturbridge Village). She explains exactly what she is doing. I liked that.



As you can see, she is planning on making dye. As C41 mentioned (Ahem. Annoyingly commented upon seeing this video), it might actually be the outside, or "skin" of the acorns that should be used for dye. The bit that she is tossing over the side of the porch. No matter, if we ever get to the making dye stage we'll do a little trial and error.

Picture Day

Homework

C6 has homework every night. Last year we just blew off the homework, but this year I've had her sit down and do it every afternoon.

One of the things they do is write sentences with the "word wall" words in them ... this week the words are "in" "be" and "what" ... so one of the sentences she wrote was "what is the end of the numbers?"

Brilliant, right?

Next sentence: "Glop is in a pumpkin."

OK, back to earth, she's six.

Stars

Random picture to entice you grand-folk:


And a wee story. On the way back from They Might Be Giants this weekend we were discussing the stars, and singing the ditty:

Star light
Star bright
First star I see tonight
I wish I may
I wish I might
Have this wish I wish tonight.

C6 understood that you needed to keep your wish secret if you wanted it to come true, although I tried to get her to understand that you sometimes to make your with happen. So, if you wanted to be a palentologist, you have to go to school, study anthropology, science, got to graduate school, etc.

So Q4 listened, and understood that sometimes you have to get some help with your wish, but not too much help. So she decided to whisper her wish just loud enough so I could hear it:

Star light
Star bright
First star I see tonight
I wish I may
I wish I might
Have this wish I wish tonight.
... I wish I had CANDY in my room.

Apples etc.

We headed up to pick apples in upper Maryland today, going to Distillery Lane Cider Works up in Burkittsville, MD. We'd visited on September 4, after our trip to Harper's Ferry for C6's birthday. We had the chance to pick apples, feed the cows the apples we found on the ground, and buy some apples and cider.

C6 is picking a Liberty apple. We bought some of these in September, and I though they were kind of boring. Juicy, sweety, crisp, but not WOW! Reading my little apple book today makes me think they will be better this time.


Q4 is holding the apples we picked off the ground for the cows here.


Then C41 bought some apples. Hopefully extraordinary apples. Can't wait to try them!!! According to Roger Yepsen, they are all traditional cider apples. Since we got them at a distillery-cider works ... well, that just makes sense. Look at that Bramley's Seedling... it is HUGE!!! It weighs ... 1 pound 1.7 oz!!!

TMBG

The Millenium Stage at the Kennedy Center has a free show every night. No tickets required, no seats, pretty amazing.

Well, on October 2nd They Might Be Giants performed there for a quickie, 1 hour show. 4000 available "seats" (standing room only). We decided to brave the time (6-7pm) and go for it. Yes, it meant leaving at 4 to get to the Kennedy Center by 5:00 (via metro ... and there was metro on the green and red and blue lines) so we could get in. Even at 5:00 the line went from the door around the corner, to the next corner and over onto the giant patio. I think the line was a quarter mile long.

We got in line, and withing 5 minutes the line was moving. Whew. We followed the leader and made it inside and then had another 30 minute wait, which extended to a 45-50 minute wait before the show actually started. That was difficult. C6 is wiggly and easiy bored and really quite a pain. Q4 was getting whiney and hungry (she didn't eat the food I brought). Then C6 had to use the toilet, and I realized just how large the crowd was ... we were the front quarter, and had to wade through (what seemed like) 1,000 annoyed people and their children to get to the restrooms.

Finally, the show started, and they played some classic songs, some songs from the new album, and some kids songs from the albums we own. Q4 was very excited whenever a song came on that she knew, and a few that she didn't. She sat very very patiently on C41's shoulders, and then mine.

I had had C6, but I took her down and then couldn't get her back up. So then I took Q4. She did not want be on my shoulders because I'm 10 inches shorter than C41. Fair enough, but whining wasn't going to change anything. So I took her down and showed her the view from the floor and suggested to her that she could either look at behinds all night or be on my shoulders. She giggled (haha mumma said bums!) stopped whining and chose my shoulders.



Don't be fooled by the morose looks. They actually had a good time. Q4 did not want to leave despite almost falling asleep on my shoulders ("I don't want to miss anything!!")



That was the width of the venue. Those are all the people who were in front of us. It was very long and very narrow, with a cute, small stage at the front. Essentially, it was the foyer of the Kennedy Center. As you can see, every single genXer and their elementary- and pre-school aged children from the DC metro area seemed to be there, along with a smattering of older and younger people who found the kids annoying. This wasn't a kids show, but it certainly was kid-friendly.

complaining of the cold

Q4 came downstairs after a dress change complaining of the cold. She insisted her dress was a snuggly dress. It is courderoy, so yes, it COULD be snuggly if she wore a long-sleeved shirt under it.



However, once she turned around we realized why she was cold.