I Love My Kid, how 'bout YOU?

Over Spring Break (*cough cough*) while we were in Canada I got an email from B-mans' teachers telling me about a project they were giving to the kids... I mean the "family". Here's the email I received:

Family Project

3-Dimensional Seussical Character

We recently celebrated Dr. Seuss’s birthday with an extensive author study. Also, in Math, we have introduced 3-dimensional geometric figures (i.e. cone, sphere, cylinder, cube, rectangular prism, triangular prism and pyramid). As an extension of our study of geometry and a connection to our study of Dr. Seuss, scholars will complete a family project at home. Each scholar will design an original Seussical character out of a household item made of a particular 3-dimensional shape (i.e. box, can, paper towel roll). Parents may assist with locating an appropriate 3-dimensional item that can be altered using original thought and creativity. Any art supplies or tools are welcome to decorate the unique Seussical character (i.e. construction paper, paint, pom poms, wiggle eyes, feathers, etc.). It is important to include the distinct features of a Seussical character so attached pictures have been provided on this note as a reference. Scholars will be expected to identify the 3-dimensional shape used to make their character as well as some of the attributes of their shape (i.e. sides, faces, corners).

All Seussical characters are due Friday, March 26, 2010.

Thank you for encouraging creativity and mathematical thinking.

Ooooh K. So you want my KINDERGARTNER to step up and make a 3-D character using geometrical shapes? Riiiiiight.

Bull.

Crap.

You know what this REALLY is, don't you? It's a "How involved are you, as a parent?" test. It's a "How much do you really love your child?' question.

I asked B-man what character he wanted to do. I tried to steer him towards a fish or Thing Two. But no.

This is who he choose. Can you tell who it is?

Get Your Cook On

I started making up a batch of Apple Crisp the other day (who says skinnier is better?) when Ms. R came wandering into the kitchen.
"Mom!" She exclaimed "I can help you with that!"
"Alright honey, what part do you want to do?"
"The same part I helped grandma Char with" She answered.
"Which part was that?" I asked.
She proceeded to take the bowl I was putting the apple peels in and ... start eating the peels.
I could do nothing but laugh.
"THAT was the 'help' you gave gramma Char?"
Then I asked her if she wanted to do a little bit more, like help me cut up the apples.
She eyed up the BIG knife I was using and asked hesitantly if it'd be safe (first and foremost, she's a safety girl.)
I put my hands over hers and showed her the right technique and told her when she got to the "butt" *snicker snicker on her behalf* to stop so she didn't get too close to her fingers.
Yeah. The slices were three times the thickness I generally cut them.
Yeah. It took me an extra 20 minutes to cook the crisp.
Yeah. She took A LOT of pride in that dish ;)

Disowned

After seeing this picture ... my mom may disown my daughter ...Yep, she ate everything BUT the middle of the cinnamon bun, mom ;)

Spring Break

First of all ... when did we all become so stinking politically correct that we can't even have this break AT Easter or call it EASTER break anymore? I mean, seriously. Why do other religions object to Easter as long as they get a break? It's probably just me being politically ignorant and stubborn. But still.

Any who. The kids and I headed back up to Canada with my mom (we decided to fly using air miles, since driving would have cost us well over $1000) for our Spring break and my niece Emma's baptism. Not THEIR EASTER break, but our SPRING break. Which meant the Canadian cousins were in school the whole time we were there.

For me, it was still well worth going. There never seems to be enough time to see/do it all. There are always more people/places that I could/should have seen/went. It's one of the things I love about going up to Canada. I can do absolutely nothing but sit at someones house all day and play games with them ... or I can be running around like a chicken with my head cut off (does anyone else have an actual visual picture of that in their head? No? I do.) trying to get to everyone/everything I want to do while I am there.
Either way, there is always someone around.
I love that.

Ms. R was given the class "Scooby Do" for the trip. So we endeavored to take as many pictures of her in Scooby in various "Canadian" settings. Airplane, Airport, with her grandpa at his store, at the R.C.M.P. station, with the southern Alberta wind turbines, out at her great grandma and grandpa Bowlby's farm ...

B-man had a great time up in Canada. There was the actual flight to Canada, swimming at a pool my sister in law rented out, tons of Wii play time, tromping through the fields at my grandparents place, meeting new "friends", learning the art of "stair sliding" ...

There's never a lack of things to do in Canada. On hand I'm sad we are probably not going up there this summer ... on the other hand I REALLY hope that means that my sister in law is coming down with her kids so we can explore Texas together for a few weeks.

Cruisin'

Hahaa. That's Soooooo funny.
You know what happened to this post?
The mystical "You Apparently Don't Know How to Use the Internet" fairies.
They are an evil bunch. EVIL I tell you!

I had wrote out an entire entry. Filled with correct spelling, pictures and happiness.
I had however failed to take into account that I had signed out of my email account in the midst's of it ... hence out of blogger.
None of it saved.
None of it but the title.
Darn you blogger and your finicky ways. (That's right, I'm not taking any blame for this one.)

However, fueled with 12 hours of sleep I feel I am more than up to the task to re-writing and possibly even making my last post better.
You'll never know the difference since I didn't post the last entry ... But in all confidence that I can post THIS entry I'll say it's much better than the one that came previously.

On to the adventure!

My mom and I choose to go on a semi-short cruise of a week (not too short - those just seem like a waste of time and money) to test out a number of things. Most importantly how tolerant we were of cruising. As an avid motion sickness person, I was worried. Very worried. That I would spend the voyage curled up in a ball, clutching my head, running to the toilet, miserable beyond belief.
These little puppies, I am sure saved my neck. As it was, I just felt like I was a wee bit drunk without the nasty side effects. I honestly enjoyed the feeling immensely ;) Anything in the name of not getting motion sick!

The first day was all about Seeing the Ship for the First Time getting Mustered and coming back to our first towel animal. (On that note, our room stewart was AWESOME. He remembered our names and greeted us every time we saw him... oh yeah, and he kept our room immaculately clean.)

Our second day was spent at "sea" - well, more the Gulf. But that's just splitting hairs. My mom and I weren't prepared for how little there was to do on our ship during the sea days ... fortunately I had brought a Cribbage Board along (on the off chance we'd have time BEFORE we got on the ship.) So we played cribbage, did some Suduko, DIDN'T lay in the sun (it was darn chilly!), got dressed up for the "elegant night", watched a show ...
This was the day we got some exciting tides too! Our cabin was on the bottom level, which seems to be just above sea level when you're going 16.5 nautical miles per hour (my mom and I spent a lot of time with our tv on the ship locator channel. It told you where we were, how fast we were going, where the winds were coming from, what the sun rise and set times were). Some of those waves seemed to billow up to above our cabin window. It was stinking facinating to watch. Then again, my mom and I decided we are both very easily entertained.

The third day was a port day. Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico. My mom wasn't too hot on the idea of seeing Mayan ruins (which is what the excursions for this port are) so we just hung around the port town. Walked trough the street markets, laid out on the beach, got harrassed by street urchins, ate bad Mexican food, got Henna tattoos, endured two 10 mile bus rides on stinky, hot, crowded buses. Over all ... an interesting experience. Any day on vacation is better than a good day working, right?

The next day was Cozumel, Mexico. We had opted to go on an excursion this port. It was a Zip line/rock climbing/rappelling/rope bridges/snorkeling trip that we were both TOTALLY pumped about. We were initially a little bit disappoointed by the set up of the operation. Instead of being in a jungle or forest setting it was at a resort. The zip line was over an expanse of sand/dirt and the whole area was less than 1/2 an acre in size. We still had a great time, despite failed expectations. The staff at the resort was upbeat, fun, and patient.

The best part though ... was the SNORKELING. I seriously could have done that alone all stinking day long. The fish, the color of the water, the bouyancy ... It was stuff of unrealized dreams. My next vacation is going to simply be about that - snorkeling.

We did a bit of shopping before we got back on the ship ... between my mom and I, I was the only one to spend any money. For two DelSol shirts for my kids. Everything else just seemed so ... tourist-y. Other than the jewelry. And I'm not a jewelry wearing type of gal.

The next day was once again at "sea" (Gulf). We joined in some BINGO games, mom took some dance lessons (from an extremely adorable South African), took part in "The Amzing Esctacy Race" (which we "won" a trophy and medals for ... I think simply because we were able to debate certain technicalities so well), hung out on the "Serenity Deck" (adults only) for some quality sun time, watched the last cruise produced show (not nearly as good as the first one) ... generally just hung out. It was a great last day.

It was a great cruise.
Neither my mom nor I really understood how people could gain 7-10lbs on a cruise. Sure, there is a lot to eat ALL of the time ... but there is always salads, fruits, activities, steps to climb ... I had three deserts a day (the best part of breakfast was the strudel that completed it!) yet, I still actually lost weight. Weird.