Sneaky statues

At the beginning of August, Natalie went to an acting camp for a week (3 hours a day). She had fun. She learned the game "Sneaky Statues." What you do is have one person as "the watcher," and the rest of the players are statues. The watcher closes their eyes, and counts to ten. If you're a statue, you get into position and freeze. You're a statue so you can't move, but the game is sneaky statues, so there is a twist. If you're a statue, you move when the watcher isn't looking. Your goal as a sneaky statue is to change positions, and move, but not let the watcher see you. It's a great quiet game for large groups of children.

Natalie loves the game. It's a little surprising to me because the game requires, holding still and being quiet. I should love the game too (see quiet), but it's a hard game to play when there is only one statue and one watcher. The game allows children to work on inhibition (the ability to NOT do something) as they often have to suppress urges of laughter and of course movement. I hope her first grade teacher likes the game!

Here are pictures of Nat and Kira as sneaky statues.



And then Tia watches (Tia tries to make Natalie laugh... it's very funny.)

Blur

This last week was a blur. As you know, Katie, our wonderful nanny got married. She's on her honeymoon and we're scrambling!

The Online Class starts next week and I've been putting materials together and getting organized.

Anyway, here are some Disney Picts. Some of the pictures show the "Princess Faire" area at Disneyland. It's a nice place for little kids. They have story time (told by the princesses) and coloring and other little crafts (e.g., make a paper crown and put stickers on it). It was shady and cool and contained (so the little ones couldn't run off). Thanks for that Disney!

(Unfortunately, Disney, you lose points for making it hard to get out at night after the Fireworks show. It was a great show, complete with a real live flying Tinkerbell (worth seeing!) but at least direct traffic so people know where to go to leave since the main streets are blocked for exiting.)

A weekend of princesses

Katie got married Friday. It was a beautiful wedding at D*isne*yl*and Hotel. Katie was breathtaking and the little girls loved every moment. Kira took copious notes about what all she wanted in her wedding.

Katie rode in Cinderella's carriage, had footmen, and had lots of beautiful flowers. Kira cried when she learned couldn't ride in the carriage. (See pictures.)

Nat caught the boquet, and Kira cried thinking Natalie was going to get married very soon. A little boy who is 2, named Noah who Matt (Katie's husband) takes care of was at the wedding. Tia and baby Noah danced and Noah followed Tia around and wanted to hold her hand. Baby Noah's Mom looked just like Kira--kind of crazy. Tia loved Katie and followed her around. At the end pf the wedding, all the little girls were completely exhausted. Kira ran off a couple of times. On time, she took herself to the bathroom, and another time she went off to pout.

Nick and i didn't get to dance much--too busy chasing little girls. Tia cried when we had to leave because she didn't get to dance the last dance.

Click to see the pictures.

First things first

I have more to tell you about the wedding and a lot to share about our trip to Disneyland!

But first...

The first day of first grade.

This post brought to you by the foundation to increase the use of the word first.

Flower Girl

Yesterday. More pictures from Katie's wonderful wedding soon...

You're right. You do need one more. The absolutely beautiful bride.

And now, she's 3!

For her birthday, we went to gymnastics camp! All 3 little girls. Tia loves gymnastics so it was super fun. (We've continued to go all week.) Then we took a nap (3 hours of bouncing will take it out of you!), then we went and got frozen yogurt. Next up was a bath and presents. It was a fun day for a new three-year-old!

Flying and Bobbing

It's Super T!

Part 2

Our July trip Part 2. Part 3 (the final) will appear at some point in the future.

Financial Genius

Today, I got out a big pile of coins. I had Natalie do math. I would ask her to make me a certain amount of money, e.g., make me $0.72. She'd do it. Then I'd ask her to make me $0.72 with a different number of coins. (I'd tell her not to use dimes (or something like that) and make the amount in a different way.) She lasted for about 45 minutes doing this activity.

For our next activity we did something like this... What if you had 2 quarters, how much money would you have? What if you went into a toy store and the toy you wanted cost $0.49? What could you do? Could you buy it? The first answer she gave was no, I couldn't buy it. I then reminded her of how sometimes I gave cashiers money and they gave me money back. I asked her about prices and how much money she'd get back. She got tired of this game after about 5 minutes, but it was harder and she was tired. We'll do it again. I let her put the big pile of coins in a box and it's our "math money."


Money is a great way to get kids thinking about numbers in a real way. So is cooking. In first grade, they do a lot with time and money (teach them about the importance of both early, heh). We'll do a lot at home because I think it's important to supplement what the schools do.

Nat is good with numbers. You talk to her about them and then she keeps thinking about the concepts. She'll come back a few weeks later with even more knowledge. It's exciting.

Natalie has been working about an hour a week with a tutor and she's made a lot of progress this summer. I can't believe we start school in less than a week. OH MY GOODNESS!

Happy Birthday Uncle Joe!

From the little girls (and the big people!).

Busy

The days of summer are coming to an end. Today, we went to the dentist. I forgot my camera, so no teeth cleaning photos this time. All the girls were really good. Tia had the full dental experience today. The girls are so big--all of them are doing nearly the same things it seems--no babies!

In a week, Natalie goes to first grade.

Last week, on Friday, Grandpa F went into the hospital. He's now doing rehab therapy to get strong again. Go Grandpa F! Grandma K is going in for surgery soon too. Sigh. We're thinking lots of good thoughts for everyone.

Did I tell you I'll be teaching online for Pepperdine University this Fall? I wasn't going to teach, but it's in a graduate program and it's online. I am excited and busy preparing.

Here's a photo of the little girls swimming last Friday at the 08/08/08 party at Larry and Patti's house.



More soon.

Say Good night Gracie

According to this* it's an urban legend. However, it's not an urban legend that Tia said, "May you be excused."

Scene: Dinner Table

Nick: Tia, say may I be excused.

Tia: May you be excused.

Yup. Documentation for the queen of one-liners.


*copied and pasted from the Wikipedia in case it goes away.

"Say goodnight, Gracie"
The legend was born of their vaudeville routine and carried over to both radio and television. As the show wrap-up Burns would look at Allen and state "Say Goodnight Gracie" to which she would simply reply "Good night." Popular legend has it that Allen would say, "Good night, Gracie." According to George Burns, recordings of their radio and television shows, and other references, that never happened. The confusion may have been caused by Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Stars Dan Rowan and Dick Martin used a similar sign off routine wherein Rowan would tell Martin to "Say goodnight, Dick." Martin's reply was always "Goodnight, Dick." In an interview years later, Burns said it was simply that no one ever thought of having Allen say "Good Night Gracie". However, the former Burns and Allen head writer, Paul Henning, did use the "say goodnight" bit at least one episode of the Beverly Hillbillies (The Richest Woman, aired January 5, 1966, two years before Laugh-In premiered. JED: "Say goodnight, Jethro." JETHRO: "Goodnight, Jethro.") This gimmick would later be picked up by Ed Randall in his WFAN radio show "Ed Randall's Talkin' Baseball."

Aunt Kira

Photo by Natalie. (We're entering a new era... Nat's taking pictures.)

Perhaps

Perhaps my favorite picture from the trip... The morning we're leaving. It's early. Need I say more?

Trip Pictures

Part 1 can be found here. Look for Part 2 in a few days.

Zzzzzzzzz....

Here's how the little girls slept at Grandma and Grandpa F's house.

A different baby

Here's a picture of Grandma F as a baby. Awww! She's probably about 18 months old.

Letters...

Nat has written a couple of letters to her kindergarten teacher this summer. Here's the latest where Natalie tells Mrs. G. all about her garden adventures.

Quote of the day (Space)

Kira: Tia, do you know where Mars is?

Tia: No.

Kira: Space!

Tia: Oh...

Kira: You need spacesuits to breathe.

Huntin' Bunnies

Not really... When we go to Grandma and Grandpa F's house, the girls love to "hunt bunnies" with their uncles. Hunting them involves running around the yard and chasing the little brown bunnies that live there. The goal is to see how close you can get to one by sneaking up on it. Of course, you get to say, "Shhhhh....Be very very quiet, we're hunting wabbits," in your best Elmer Fudd voice. (Or if you're old enough to get the reference, you say it.)

Here's one of the little bunnies this summer.