Sunday, April 21, 2013

Our weekend

Ben was so excited for Friday, which was Pajama and Popcorn day in the pre-K classroom. He kept asking how many days away it was. He was dressed and ready to go in record time that morning, modeling the new monkey pajamas from Grammie. Unfortunately, due to a run-in with a shelf at school while he and a friend were playing ball, he is also modeling a lovely almost-black-eye bruise. As luck would have it, picture day is tomorrow.



He had his first soccer class on Saturday. They have different stations where the kids (3-4 yrs old) practice specific soccer skills like dribbling, goal keeping, etc. He had a good time and made it almost until the end before getting grumpy, which seemed to be the pattern of several other kids too. Next weekend they will have a short scrimmage at the end of the class, which should be interesting!



After soccer, we headed over to the Flights of Fancy kite festival. We've been going for several years. It was a little chilly at first, but the sun came out and warmed things up nicely. The kites seemed to catch the wind well and there were tons of spectators who flew their small kites on the lawn near where we were sitting. Unfortunately, we realized when we arrived that Ben's kite was missing a piece of the crossbar, so it couldn't fly. We ran into a friend from work and her sons, who offered to let Ben try their kite, but by that time he was more interested in playing football, so they did that instead.





 


The kids stayed overnight at their grandparents' house while Dave and I went to see Itzhak Perlman play a wonderful concert at the Kauffman Center.  Here are a few of Jerry's photos of the kids.





Ben and Elizabeth modeling their matching Trinity University Tigers shirts that Dave bought them while visiting his alma mater during our trip to San Antonio.



"Flip me upside down! Again!"










Elizabeth started playing a game of peekaboo where she'd crawl into the kitchen, then peek back out.



One of our little bookworms, checking out some of her daddy's old books:




Elizabeth has also been working on popping out several new teeth at once; one finally broke through the surface on Saturday. Sophie the Giraffe is being put to use again!



Finally, Ben decided he needed to create a new recipe this morning while he was pretending to cook. Thankfully, his grandmother thought to write it down (including Ben's title). I can't imagine the sadness if such a great recipe had been lost to the ages. I'm sure Alton Brown is going to include it in his next cookbook. However, we cannot be responsible for stomach-pumping bills, should you choose to try it at home. Despite the inclusion of his beloved Fox Point Seasoning (salt, shallots, chives, garlic, onion and green peppercorns), I don't think that Penzeys Spices will be including it in their recipes any time soon.



Fiesta, Missouri style

I recently had a music therapy conference in San Antonio and we got to spend time with some of Dave's college friends while we were there. Our friends Chris and Amy sent back two cartons of cascarones for the kids to enjoy.  Cascarones are real eggs drained, filled with confetti, and sealed back up with tissue paper. They're mainly used during San Antonio's annual two-week Fiesta, which was a few weeks away. You're supposed to throw them or crush them over someone's head. We skipped that last option when explaining them to the kids. Ben thought they were amazing. Elizabeth just seemed confused.

Wikipedia has this amusing trivia:
"They are rumored to have originated in China and brought to Europe by Marco Polo.[1] In Italy they were first used as a courting ritual, filled with perfume and then capped with wax. Men would throw them at women they found attractive. "

(Because there's nothing sexier than a guy throwing an egg at you, especially with the subtext, "I thought that you could use some perfume to cover the fact that you need a bath.")






















Ben asked the next day if he could open the second pack of cascarones (or as he calls them, "fiestas"). Since they're kind of messy, we told Ben that we'd wait for a nicer day and open the second pack outside. He did not like this and decided to write an angry response on his Magna Doodle. He says it reads:

"Bad Mom said do not let me do my fiestas."


At least he's practicing his writing skills.