I Caved

Well, I succumbed to the Disney juggernaut and took the kids to see the touring company of "High School Musical" on Saturday. It was a lot of fun (are you jealous, Aunt C?). Of course, the voices were very good; the sets were cool (basketballs dropped from the ceiling during "Get'cha Head in the Game). Mostly when I see a Broadway show, I just think about how freakin' hard it is to get one of those jobs (this from personal experience), so I'm just happy they're all gainfully employed.

I resisted allowing HSM into our lives for a long time. Then I finally thought "Well, why exactly?" Mostly because it's Disney, and I detest their insidious marketing to children (although McDonald's is worse).

But I love musicals (Disney's among them), so I broke down and rented it with the kids. It's pretty harmless, despite the fact that real people don't look the way these kids do (they're so clean!). It's basically "Grease," only a lot less raunchy. And the heroine doesn't have to dress like a ho for a happy ending. So I guess it's OK. What was hilarious was that M4 loved it as much as M3, and he danced around the house afterwards singing the songs.

And dang it, even I catch myself singing the songs...

Nooooooooooo....

It's snowing. Much crying and gnashing of teeth.

The new glasses

Well, here they are! Of course, she was amazed at how much better she could see after she put them on. She is excited about them, but I feel at bit sad that this is the beginning of her life as a visually impaired person like myself. She does look awful cute in them, though, dontcha think?


Here is a photo from swimming lessons. And finally, with some art work that was selected for the area elementary art show.

M4 in his first advertisement

Somehow M4 ended up in an ad for our college art gallery's community day. This is the photo for the ad. That's his good buddy H with him. They've got some goofy smiles!

Happy Easter!

Uh huh, snow. Flurrying all day. But a lovely Easter anyway with Nana and Boppa and our international "daughter" and her beau.

Speech

I don't usually put my politics out there, but I am now...this guy could be our next President. Just close your eyes, picture George Bush, then do that weird morphy thing they did in that Michael Jackson video until it turns into Barack Obama. Then breathe a sigh of relief. Oh yeah, and vote. (P.S. This speech is over 30 minutes long, but listen or read the transcript when you get a chance.)

Poor genes

Well, it finally happened. I refer to M3's visit to the eye doctor this morning...yup, she's getting her first pair of glasses!! And they are really cute: purple and green, small lenses. It made me think about the Coke-bottle-bottoms they called glasses when I was little. I wore a lovely series of those throughout my childhood. I'll post a picture of M3 in her cute new ones next week, and maybe I can find an old picture of me for comparison. I'm sure the kids will laugh their heads off!

Spring break has been pretty dreary thus far, exacerbated by the fact that I am teaching extra classes for people who have gone away (not that I am begrudging them their break...they definitely deserve and need it!) but mostly because it has been horribly cloudy and grey. Today the sun is finally out...hooray!

My parents lent us Season One of The Wire of which I watched two episode last night. Um, I could have watched all night, but thought better of it.

Nana and Boppa will arrive later today for an Easter visit. The Easter Bunny is on his way!

Spring fever

M4 and I can't resist the sun and warm weather (45 degrees!! Woo hoo!). So we're braving the mud and going for a bike ride! This may mean muddy stripes up the backside (ahh...flashback to college). The snow is melting...not to make you guys in Maine jealous or anything. Of course, next week is spring break and that always means snow. Happy spring in Iowa!

An outing and another birthday

We spent last weekend in KC with Grandma and Grandpa, which is always so much fun! At the Gogol Bordello show, we realized that in our party there were four people celebrating milestone birthdays this year! Four people born in: '48, '58, '68 and '78. '78 is my sister, C, but I won't name any other names. The show was really fun, although we stayed out of the gypsy punk mosh pit.

An advantage of this blog is that it makes me think about taking photos. Over the past few years I've had a tendency to remember the camera only during big events, but the smaller moments are important to remember, too!

For example:

M3's bowling form.

Happy bowlers!

The cake the kiddoes decorated for Daddy's birthday.

Safety goggles!!

A very curious spider monkey at the zoo. Grandpa was clicking his teeth and the monkey copied.

So it's good to be reminded of these moments.

Snow alien, cute earthling & birthdays

Last Saturday, we built this on a lovely sunny day.

M3's birthday party at the local bead/fibers shop. Everyone had a great time making jewelry. M4 made me a necklace...isn't he sweet? M3 got to invite all the girls in her class...there are only 8 girls total, to about 14 or 15 boys. Every section of her grade is like that!! Almost two to one. Is there something in the water here?

Boy news

In the interest of clarity, I shall refer to the Ms in numerical order according to their birthday. Oldest to youngest, I guess.

So, this morning M4 and I discovered that he has grown an inch and a quarter since September! Holy cow! That seems like a lot. He's starting to look like a boy...sniff. This only underscores the fact that he will be going off to Kindergarten in the fall. On the one hand, hooray! On the other, waaaaahhhhhhhhh.....

I'm sure he wouldn't want me to mention it, but M1 did a Red Flannel 5-mile run recently at a 7:03 pace. I think he may pooh-pooh that, but I don't!! He mentioned that it was his last race in that age bracket. Movin' on up!

What would you do for your 40th birthday?

Go see Gogol Bordello, of course!!!

Here's a link to check them out: http://www.myspace.com/gogolbordello

Some photos M took with her Christmas camera

Help my brother win coffee for a year!

N, hope you don't mind if I post this link...of course, we are the only ones who know about this blog at the moment!! But I'll invite others and they can vote!

Click on the title of this post to watch N's video and vote so he can win some coffee...maybe he'll share the love!

Dunkin' Donuts Hazelnut iced coffee rules!