Bookmobile at preschool

NanaB switched her schedule around so she could be the librarian to accompany the Bookmobile to Charlotte's preschool for its annual visit last Friday!  I asked if I could come in as a parent helper and so I got to lead kids up in small groups to visit the Bookmobile and browse the collection.  First, though, NanaB came in to read the class a couple of books about libraries.  Charlotte got to bring NanaB in and introduce her to the class.  (You can see Charlotte sitting in the front row on the right, next to Mrs. Mann.)

The kids had a crazy good time on the Bookmobile.  It cracked me up how excited they all were.  In fact, when I knocked on the door to the classroom to come in before Barb even arrived, I heard the kids inside start chanting "NANAB!  NANAB!"  They were disappointed when it was only Charlotte's mom at the door.  There's going to be a whole little group of library patrons who insist on calling Barb "NanaB" (rather than Mrs. Stringer) when they see her at the library.

Charlotte's teachers have all known Barb for a long time (since she taught all of THEIR kids in preschool and has been visiting First Friends as a librarian for many years), and they delight in telling me that they call her "The Real Mrs. Stringer" and I am simply "Mrs. Stringer".  Since Peter will be starting there in the fall and attending for two years, I've got a while to hear that little joke a few times.

Happy 31st Birthday, Grandma JoJo!

When we called my mom this morning to wish her a happy birthday, she told Charlotte she was turning 31 today.  Nice try, Grandma JoJo.  Only 30 years off there.  Charlotte totally believed it though.  Apparently having a grandmother who is younger that your own mom isn't a problem in Charlotte World.

Anyway, I just wanted to re-post one of my favorite photos ever of my beautiful mom and wish her a happy 31st birthday.  I guess if she's already getting senile, I should just go with it and keep her happy.

(I know Petey looks like a complete chucklehead spitting all over everything in this photo, but Grandma JoJo looks so pretty that she outshines her grandson's orneriness.)

Cool collage photos

I still need to post about our trip to Lake Havasu waaaaaaaay back in November, but I wanted to post these cool collage photos may mom made from pictures we took on that trip.  I need to get these printed and framed!

Great work, Mom.  Can you please teach me some photography skills so I can up my game, too?

Fashion chaos

We're having a lazy day around here.  I'm sewing, the kids are playing about 19 different games every 5 minutes, and the house is a disaster.  Peter is Batman one minute, AlphaPig the next, Diego after that, and then a secret agent -- I can't keep track of what I'm supposed to call him and I keep getting it wrong.  Charlotte is lost in "Charlotte World" (as she calls it).  If spring ever gets here, then maybe my sanity may return.  Until then, I feel like I'm living on the edge.  Thank goodness for Diet Coke.

But I digress.  Today I sewed Charlotte a pair of knit shorts that turned out to be too big around the waist (I suffer from a complete inability to accurately measure her non-existant waist and get it wrong about half the time).  So no pictures of that.  Then, I took one of my old t-shirts and tried my hand at making a her t-shirt with some cool elastic at the shoulders from this tutorial.  As long as you don't look too closely at it, it turned out great!  I made it a little long because I hate it when her t-shirts ride up over her sweet little round belly.

Check out the modeling session we did in what little natural light we have coming in through the skylights in our eating area:

Cute, huh?  Yes, Charlotte's hair is just a leeeeeeetle wonky.  Please ignore the pajama pants.

I told her to pick some poses, and then it was off to the races.  Look!  She has arms like mine and her Auntie Ernie's, with the hyper-extended elbows!  Let's just hope she doesn't get our eyebrows.

While I was downloading the photos, Peter said, "what 'bout ME?"  So, I took a photo of the horrific outfit he's wearing -- a rash guard swim shirt (that used to feature Spiderman, but unfortunately the web slinger has long since peeled off), some pj shorts (not even the ones he wore to bed -- the ones he dug out of a drawer and insisted on putting one because they were "cool"), and his beloved Batman cowboy boots.  Yes, it is currently only 47 degrees outside, but Peter feels no cold when fashion is at stake.

Looks like it's time to clean up our act and get things under control before Daddy gets home.

Bangless

We're growing out Charlie Jo's bangs, which has led to a long search for appropriate mechanisms to hold those pesky bangs in place.  This stretchy head band is doing the best job so far, but it is far from foolproof.

The better method (which sadly, does not jive well with her froggy bike helmet) is two pigtails placed ridiculously close to her forehead.

That is the best smile I can get out of her while she is watching TV.  Yes, some of her bangs are escaping, but that's after a morning of working hard at preschool and wearing the hood on her jacket up this morning.  Hard headbands won't keep her bangs back just yet, and barrettes simply slide out of her hair.  She is probably a little too old for the good old "whale spout" hairdo of the past.  Short of stapling the bangs to her head, this is going to be a looooong spring and summer of stretchy headbands and pigtails.  Doesn't she look like a different kid with her hair pulled back?

Dance-o-rama

This winter and spring, Charlotte has been tearing up the dance floor at her ballet/tap lessons (a birthday present from Grandma JoJo and Grandpa Spike).  She and her bestie, Shelby, have absolutely loved lacing up their tap shoes each Tuesday morning, and we're going to be really sad next week when Tuesday rolls around without a class to attend.  Before she took this class, Charlotte had always maintained that she didn't NEED to take classes because she already KNEW how to dance, so maybe Charlotte can just open up her own dance studio and teach.  Here are Twinkle Toes and her bestie, ready for action:

Peter insisted on posing for a picture as well, but he refused to hug his buddy (Shelby's little brother, Vince).  So here they are, separately:

Pretty ballerina!

For the final class, the parents were allowed to come in and watch.  Corey even snuck away from work to see the little dancer in action.  Every parent, of course, took a million photos.

The class always starts out with tap.  Here is Charlotte, warming up at the barre:

Whitney, Shelby's little sister, was entranced.

The girls then performed a little routine they have been learning, and it was absolutely darling.  It's really short, so if you are curious to see Charlotte and Shelby in action you can check it out here:



Wiggling!

They were supposed to strike "a really cute pose" at the end of the routine.  Here is each girl's interpretation of that instruction:

Next, the girls put on ballet shoes next and did some ballet exercises.  I'm not sure if they did a ballet routine, because I had to head out with Peter so he could go to his Stretch-n-Grow class (sort of a goofy exercise and creative movement class).  Corey stayed to take some photos though.

Walking on tippy toes across the floor!

Thank you so much for the dance lessons, Grandma JoJo and Grandpa Spike.  It was the perfect birthday present.

The Henry Ford

Niki and I took the kids on an adventure this afternoon to The Henry Ford, a truly spectacular museum in Dearborn, Michigan.  The Henry Ford is about 12 acres under roof of trains, planes, automobiles, 19th and 20th century technology, furniture, farm equipment, etc.  A note about these pictures - the lighting in the museum is fantastic, but makes it very difficult to get good pictures with out a specialty flash on the Nikon.  Plus, I took a lot more pictures of stuff than the kids.

On the way in, the first thing we saw is one of the original Weinermobiles.  There was also a couch that looked like a hot bun with pillows that looked like condiments right next to it.  I did not get a picture of it, but there will be more about that later.

The museum is well laid out, with lots of room between the exhibits.  Niki and I let the kids lead us around.  The kids made a beeline to the planes.  Here is a DC-3.

There was a barnstormer display.  Peter stopped to chat with one of the spectators.

The kids led us to the trucks . . .

To the trains (this is a Canadian snowplow that attached to the front of a steam engine) . . .

To an Allegheny locomotive . . .

To the Lionel model train exhibit . . .  The museum sprinkled play places for kids throughout the displays.  Next to this Lionel model train exhibit (which was right next to the Allegheny locomotive) was a lego station.  This was great for kids our age - they could look at displays, then play with toys related to the toys nearby . . .

Back to the cars - the kids found a 1984 Plymouth Voyager - predecessor to the Big Red Van.

There was a automobile travel display - including reconstructions of hotel rooms from the past, motorhomes, trailers, and this little VW bus.

Holiday Inn sign . . .

Old-school pop-up trailer . . .

We visited the racing car display.  I know that we live in the age of "Xtreme sports."  That's wrong.  The early race car drivers were certifiable - more on that later.  I dug these racing goggles.

Mom, Charlie, and Peter admired a Ford GT40.

This is a belly-tank lakester.  Back in the day, hot rodders would build these out of aircraft belly-tanks (belly-tanks are disposable gas tanks - a fighter jet would drop the belly-tank when it got to its destination).    If I came home at night and told Niki "I found this old belly-tank.  It used to be a gas tank for an airplane.  I'm gonna build it into a racecar and then see how fast I can make it go," she would slap me.

This is one of Henry Ford's 999 racers.  I believe this is the one that he personally achieved 91 MPH with on a frozen Lake St. Clair.  Can you imagine how terrifying that would be?

Craig Breedlove stuffed 4 Chrysler 426 V8s into this rig and proceeded to set a land speed record on the salt flats.

Charlotte found this salmon and grey 1955 Chevy.

A Brass Era Model T.

There is a sizable collection of Lincoln Presidential limos.

Niki and Peter found this pre-fab lunch restaurant (which is operating as a restaurant on the museum floor, just as it did in Massachusetts in the '40s).   

The kids led us back to the airplanes.  There was a fuselage mocked up to look like a DC-3,a  Ford Tripower, and an early Boeing.  Charlotte is ready to take off in her DC-3 seat.  I didn't get a picture, but the Ford Tripower part of the fuselage had wicker chairs for the passengers to sit in.

Back to the cars - the Mustang concept car . . .

And an "exploded" Model T, showing all the parts . . .

There is a sizable furniture and housewares section that we skirted.  Here is an exploded chair.

It was about this time that we lost Charlotte.  We sat down to take a break, and Charlotte disappeared.  After a mildly panicked search, I found her.  She walked over to me, not upset at all, took my hand, and said "I got lost.  I wanted to play in the hot dog."  Turns out she made a beeline for the Weinermobile to play with the hot dog couch.  Then, we sat in a combine harvester.

I did not get a picture of it, but we toured the Dymaxion House, the kids looked a a number of dollhouses, then played in this one . . . 

We're looking forward to returning - and to hit Greenfield Village once it warms up around here.