For the past few days, they’ve been drawing, reading, and playing chess. WHO ARE THESE STRANGE KIDS?
Yesterday, I came home from a bike ride (that’s kind of a lie. I went for a bike ride, popped a tire by the pub and ended up spending a few hours there.) and the boys were surrounded by drawings. Good drawings.
Somehow they found some video on YouTube that teaches kids how to draw using letters and numbers, and they’re now obsessed. I approve.
I posted a picture of the cousins in birth order a couple of days ago, but here’s how my brother got them to do it. Cue the giggles!
We came home on Tuesday so we could sleep in our own beds (my mom’s house, while large and lovely, is not quite large enough for four families, so the boys and I were camped out on the floor of my mom’s office on various mattresses and sleeping pads) and it was kind of sweet how sad Linus was to leave his cousins. Mean of me to take joy in his sadness, I know, but it just makes me happy that they are having so much fun together.
(He was also sad to leave the big house with the big yard. Yeah, kid, we all want a big house with a big yard.)
We had crawfish and shrimp Monday night, yum.
Ellie and Miles in their matching Wapuu shirts
Mesmerized by the fire pit.
Relatedly, my brother has spent a bunch of time working on his current Kickstarter project, which I promised I’d pimp out for him. A few years ago, he drove cross country and did a time lapse of the drive, which you can see here:
My brother made standing in a line, in birth order, into a game. Voila! Pics of the boys and almost all of their cousins. (Andrew is at home, but we’ll see him next month when we go to Virginia.)
1. Inexplicably, the boys are into Power Rangers again. They stopped watching that dreck a year ago, and now it’s back. Yuck.
2. I was asked to be interviewed for a multiples-related podcast. Fun! If it happens, I’ll share more details.
3. I got to see my high school BFF this weekend, which was great. She was in town for another friend’s birthday party, so it was like a tiny high school reunion. I know most people would shudder at the thought, but my high school friendships are among my most enduring.
4. Miles says “night mirror” instead of “nightmare.” I love how their mispronunciations sometimes make more sense than the actual word. (They still say “movie feeder” instead of “movie theater,” because you eat there. Duh.)
5. Today would have been Stinky‘s 17th birthday. I was talking about her with the boys, and Oliver rather hilariously said, “it’s her afterlife,” whispering the last word for dramatic effect.
I did that 8k race this morning, so I’ll be working on that post next. Don’t worry, it’ll be short.
I have nothing to report, fitness-wise today, since I took this morning off. All planned, normal rest day, etc. Tomorrow I’ll be back at the gym in the wee hours. Saturday I may go to the gym but maybe not since I have that race on Sunday. We’ll see. I know, zzzzz.
After I picked up the boys from school yesterday, I had to take them to the shoe store so Miles could get a new pair. I swear, I feel like I am always buying them shoes. And I’ve discovered it doesn’t matter if I buy them cheap sneakers or more expensive ones, they destroy them just as quickly. So off to Payless we went.
The boys still don’t know how to tie laces, and it’s one of those boring things I’m not really interested in teaching and getting frustrated with and they won’t go to college unable to tie their shoes, right? But as they get bigger, velcro shoes are becoming less common, so I had to bite the bullet and buy lace up shoes.
I’ll admit, they also look a lot nicer. But I’m not looking forward to either tying six laces every morning or teaching them how to do it. If anyone has any great ideas or resources, I’m all ears. I’ve watched a few YouTube videos that supposedly will teach me how to teach them, but I’m not sold. I think learning how to teach someone to tie shoes is like knitting – I have to be shown in person how to do it, I can’t watch a video. Maybe a book instead?
(Note about the photo at the top: Linus got new shoes, even though he didn’t really need them, but I bought them a half size bigger so in theory he can wear them longer. But because he didn’t need them, I would only buy him the clearance shoes, which are the uglier shoes on the left. Of course, he thinks they’re cool. But he’s a 7 year old boy.)
I had a friend take a picture of the boys and me at the New Orleans Moms Blog Easter egg hunt today. They had more fun helping with the setup than actually hunting for stuff. That said, we brought home plenty of Smarties. Woot!
Some more pics from the zoo yesterday. Still loving my new lens!
It’s funny because for the past seven years, we had zoo memberships but the boys weren’t interested in going. And when we did, it was mostly to ride the carousel or the train. So we let the membership lapse. But ever since they had their time at the zoo for school, they’re obsessed and have been dying to go back. So we renewed our membership yesterday and actually went around and looked at animals.
These are the photos that I think are good…
Some muddy animal. Linus could tell you what it is.Turtles on a log. If you don’t look for the fence in the background, it could almost look natural. Ish.Ollie.Sleeping macaw.Giraffe. (I guess I didn’t really need to label this one, huh?)Orangutan.George the peacock. Apparently all the peacocks at Audubon Zoo are named George. (Foreman? Not sure.)
And here are the photos that I just find amusing.
They all wanted to pose in front of their favorite animals. Oliver is excited about the sun bear.Linus wanted a neck like a giraffe.Miles loves the spider monkeys because they use their tails like hands. Linus was just ready.to.go.Dancing in front of the Jaguar Jungle sign.
The boys didn’t have school today, so George and I took them to the zoo before parent-teacher conferences. I thought this was a fitting place to get their monthly picture.
I wanted to blog about a few things that don’t really merit a post of their own.
I baked a king cake!
I’ve been wanting to try this for a while, and finally got around to it this weekend. I used the recipe in this blog post. [Please ignore the line, “(Pronounced Nawlins in case you don’t want to sound like a fool)” because that is absolutely, 100% untrue. Please don’t ever say “Nawlins” in my presence.]
The only changes I’d make next time are:
1. Three strands instead of two. It was very puffy. Not necessarily a bad thing, but there was definitely a higher ratio of bread: filling than I’d prefer.
2. Get a real baby, not a LEGO minifigure that I sterilized. Though it made for a hilarious photo. I crack myself up.
You’re going to put me WHERE?
3. Get the colored sugar to sprinkle on top. I colored the icing instead, but sugar would be prettier sprinkled on top of the icing (not in lieu of.)
I was really happy with how it came out, though. So yum! And P was really happy to get the “baby.”
Hair product recommendation
Saturday night, I went with some friends to a walking parade, Chewbacchus. I think you can imagine what the theme was. I looked all over the house for the Princess Leia wig I had at one point, but then I remembered that I have long dark brown hair. No wig needed, just a Pinterest tutorial!
Oliver had his writing journal from English class in his backpack and HOLY COW it was a treasure trove of cute. I can’t wait to get my hands on Miles’s and Linus’s. My favorite entry was the one that said, “Today I will inoy my dad.”
Yesterday was a big day. It was Oliver’s class’s last day at the zoo as well as the school’s mascot unveiling and their Mardi Gras parade.
The kids (dressed as animals for the parade later that day) gave presentations about things they’d learned in the last four weeks at the zoo. Oliver discussed endangered animals and something else. Reptiles?
Oliver pontificating on endangered animals.
After the presentations, we went to the zoo auditorium to watch the movie they make at the end of their 4 week session. Looks impressive up on the big screen, eh?
The drama!!!It’s a French film, so obviously subtitled.
After the film, there was a potluck and then we headed to school for the big mascot unveiling and the parade.
The kids had voted for which mascot they wanted, and so there was much excitement in the air as they unveiled…
What’s in the box?
Let’s open it up!
It’s the…
Loup Garou!
So here’s the problem with the kids going to a French school. Now I’m going to have to say “Loup Garou” a bunch of times over the next eleven years. Maybe can we agree the non-French-speaking amongst us can just call him the Werewolf?
In any case, he was pretty awesome. Very Teen Wolf.
The kids were really excited. Hey, has anyone seen Mr. Chip? Oh, just wondering.
pyjammy dot blog 