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.