Mama On The Move

Wow, have arcades changed since I was kid.   I can't remember the last time I took the kids to an arcade.  I know they've been to them before, but it has definitely been a looooong time.  Years. We found a deal on Groupon where we got $30 arcade cards for only $16.50 (I love Groupon).  I thought it would be something different to do for family time. When I was a kid, we used quarters in arcade games.  When I got older you had to use tokens.  And the games would spit out paper tickets at you when you finished playing and when you were ready to leave, you could trade in your tickets for a prize.   I think it was 500 tickets = a green Jolly Rancher or something like that. Anyway, arcades have come to the modern age.  Now, you give the cashier the amount of money you want to spend, and she gives you a "credit card" with that amount of money on it.  Instead of putting coins or tokens in a game, you swipe  your card through it and it deducts the cost of

Katie is currently studying the Revolutionary War at the Mama On The Move Academy For Exceptionally Gifted and Talented Children of Dizzying Intellect.  I was asking her questions about the material she had covered today. "Where did the American army corner the British in 1781?"  (The answer is Yorktown, in case you don't know - although you should.) "Um.....it was that port town.  I can't think of the name." I gave her a big hint, "Well, it sounds like 'port town' but it starts with a 'Y'." "Um......Yortland?"

On our trip to Florida, we pulled in at a service station to gas up and get a snack.  The girls hurried to pick out a drink and a snack while Kerry filled up the car. I was trying to find the snack and drink Kerry had requested as well as find something for myself that wasn't gross when Katie asked if she could get some beef jerky as her snack.  Sure, no problem. It wasn't until I had checked out and my brain registered that the snacks seemed to be awfully expensive that I realized something was amiss.  I looked at my receipt and realized Katie's beef jerky was seven dollars . "Katie!  You picked out a seven dollar package of beef jerky??" She looked horrified, "I didn't know it was that much!" "You should check the price when you choose something.  Don't just take it and assume it's the same price as a Slim Jim!" When we got in the car, I told Kerry about the price of the jerky.  Then Katie asked me to help her open th

What we did in Florida: And then we went to a surprise party.

We went on a spur-of-the-moment road trip to Florida. Rigger and Ringo knew something was up as soon as they saw the suitcases.  They are so pitiful, standing by the door with their ears and eyebrows raised.  They know suitcases mean we won't be home for a while. After we loaded the suitcases in the car, we decided to walk the dogs.  When I held up the leash, Rigger came running to me high-stepping like a prancing pony.  His excitement was visible in every muscle of his body.  He thought  he was going with us.  Ringo was excited as well, but he contains his enthusiasm better. Usually when we take the dogs out, they head straight for the curb.  That's where all the dogs who are being walked around the neighborhood leave their scent.  Our dogs usually drag us to the curb so they can leave their own scent in response to the other canines.  The edge of our yard is the Facebook of the dog community. This time however, our dogs headed straight for the cars in the driveway.  R

Emily is making a bug collection for Biology.  We have often stopped everything we are doing to capture a bug without squishing it. Last week, we were heading into the Red Cross building to check on a babysitting course.  As we were about to open the door, Emily spotted a wasp flitting around. "I need the keys so I can go get a container out of the car!" she screeched, I handed her the keys and Katie and I waited for her to run back to the van where her tennis ball container was available for bug holding duties.  I was not thrilled about deliberately taking a live wasp in the car but felt like it should be okay as long as no one accidentally knocked the lid off and released an angry wasp in the van. But as it turned out, I had other things to worry about. Emily came slowly trudging back from the parking lot with her head hanging low. "I just locked the keys in the van." Kerry had to come rescue us and the Red Cross had closed early so we had to sit out

We had to use a port-a-potty while we were at the Wolf Fest.  That's never a positive experience, but at least one of them was a lovely blue color. When I came out of it Kerry quipped, "How did you like your journey in the Port-A-Tardis?  It's cleaner on the outside than on the inside!"

We recently headed over into Missouri for "Wolf Fest 2012".  Kerry's always been fascinated with wolves (and all wild creatures) and I knew he would love, love love this!  The girls got to pose with the wolf mascot (they were beyond thrilled to be in this photo).  We got to see some really cool demonstrations.  We watched demonstrations of therapy dogs, sled dogs, dogs pulling carts of flowers, and dogs pulling people on bicycles.  It's amazing really what they can train dogs to do!  We got to touch lots of animal pelts and skulls.  All the pelts were from animals which had died of natural causes.  No animals were specifically harmed for their pelts, anyway. We saw plenty of wolves too.  They were behind double fences but we could see them very well.  There were volunteers at each enclosure to tell us about the wolves.   One volunteer was especially interesting.  She said many animals in the wild will kill or abandon an injured member

Ringo likes to find a nice sunny spot to rest in.  I snapped some pictures of him lying in a square of sun and then told the girls to each write a Haiku about him as an exercise in poetry. Katie's Haiku: Lying in the sun The shadows dance like the wind. I yawn.  I am tired. ************************* Emily's Haiku: Why are you asleep When you woke me up at four? Die, die, die, die die.

I can remember the first time I heard of the book "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein.  My college roommate told me about it.  "I love that book," she told me. "I can't believe you've never read it!" A lot of people have recommended books to me over the years, and there are very few that I specifically remember.  In fact, as I'm sitting here trying to remember, I can think of maybe four books out of hundreds that were recommended to me where I still remember who told me about it and what I thought of it.  I think I still remember this because 1) it was a children's book and those weren't usually recommended in college - I  was just surprised by that and 2) I read it and I hated it.  And not just hated it a little.  I thought it was one of the most depressing stories I'd ever read.  I love a book that makes you feel strong emotion, even makes you cry, but this one was just depressing. If you haven't read it, it

Katie and I were studying her poetry lesson on Tuesday.  This year, we are using the book "Painless Poetry" which gives us snippets of various types of poems and teaches us to compare and contrast in order to better appreciate poetry. In this particular lesson,we read the poem "Fog" by Carl Sandburg.  I read it out loud to Kate: The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking  over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on. Then I asked Katie to describe the setting. "It's in a city overlooking a harbor.  It's quiet and foggy, probably night or early morning." "How is the setting important to the poem?" I asked her. "Because it wouldn't make sense if it said it was looking over a taco ."

Okay, if you are driving through South Dakota, you have to stop at the Corn Palace. You'll need to use the bathroom anyway and this is just bizarre enough to make it interesting and give you a chance to walk around and stretch your legs. The girls posing with "Cornelius" outside the Mitchell Corn Palace. The first Corn Palace was built in 1892 in order to showcase - what else - corn ! It was to encourage people to settle down there and was a testament to the fact that the soil was good and you could raise a family from food you grew in that soil. It's been rebuilt a few times over the years and has finally morphed into a giant arena covered in corn murals. And I don't mean murals about corn.  These are created out of corn. In the hallway around the main arena, they have pictures of the Corn Palace from each year of its existence.   It's as interesting to look at the old cars and clothing styles of the people in the pictures as it