Month: December 2010

Liam’s Lego Tie Fighter

Liam has been building a Lego Tie Fighter this afternoon. He worked on it for about two hours non-stop. It looks just like his earlier version, on paper: https://billtowne.com/?p=2209

Starting his work on his work bench.

Progress is made.

Finished product

The light sabre

Darth Vader

Are you happy with your rainy afternoon project?

Yoga

Helena and Ada have been taking a yoga class at Lifetime for a couple of months. They don’t like it very much, particularly Helena, but I pretty much make them go each week.

During Dori’s visit, she went to watch them, and I asked her to take the camera along. They keep the lights pretty low (well, off) for much of the class, so I can’t make fun of her photos even though the last one is dark.

The teacher (who remembers Ada, but not Helena, which bothered her) gave each kid a towel to put over their eyes, perfectly folded. Except Ada just threw her towel over her eyes. And just like she sleeps, she isn’t exactly one to lie down without being at some awkward angle.

The class:

Helena:

Ada, or some crime victim.

Foshay Tower

I took Dori and the girls up to the top of the Foshay Tower. It was windy and cold, and the girls couldn’t stand it. Besides, the walls of the observation deck are quite tall, so it is difficult for the kids to see much of anything but the sky, which they could certainly see from the ground. We did get to look at the Metrodome’s collapsed roof, though.

Science Museum

Today we took a trip to St. Paul to go to the Science Museum. Helena has been talking about the Hubble Telescope because we’ve seen a billboard for it around town, and since it was the IMAX movie, we did that as well. It was the first time any of us have been to one of those. The screen may have been large, but I could have done without 35 minutes of watching astronauts screwing in bolts. The images of the Universe that the telescope has taken got short end of the stick in this movie.

But the kids did like the museum itself, although we’ve been there before, and they’ve gone with school or daycare. They ran to the musical stairs as soon as we got in, and they used up lots of energy in the play area.

Afterward, we went to Mickey’s Diner, where we got to see two men get arrested across the street. Helena and I laughed at the guy, who for some reason had his hands up in front of his face rather than over his head. I told Helena that he must have said, “I didn’t take the nut, some chipmunk did!”, which she laughed about for an hour.

Ada Continues to Learn

Sometimes when the kids say something cute, but entirely wrong, I won’t correct them. But I’ve finally told Ada that it is “CHIPmunk”, not “CHICKmunk” while reading a book together.

The same book where I asked,

“What kind of bird is that?”

She looks at it for awhile, so I give her a hint:

“Card…..”

“Cardboard?”

Helena and Liam laughed for two days at that one.

Snow Day Trip Downtown

The kids really like the trips downtown. We got a special treat this time…..the bus driver that almost talked nonstop. She even mentioned the new “hideous shade of green”  flyers that had the holiday hours.  Helena usually gets on for free, but the driver on the way home insisted that she pay her 75¢, which luckily I had.

This time we went to Candyland, Macy’s Holiday Show, Target for XL Ziplock Lice Bags, the Wells Fargo Museum, and the fountains (once again). Afterward, we ate a quick lunch and then went sledding. Ada liked it much better this year. She only began to cry once we got in the car to go home and realized that her fingers were quite cold. Once Helena’s hat was put around them, they were much better.

Waiting at the bus stop
Happy on the bus
Another broken window at Sunny Side Up
Cute picture, but Ada needs a bigger hat
Helena looking out the window
Liam was never the photogenic one
Paydirt!
At Macy’s
Inside the elves’ factory
At the IDS again
Wells Fargo
Liam on the stage coach
I find it funny that Liam was the only one that would get on the saddle
Helena figuring out Morse code
Liam at work
And some more
Dad caught stealing money
Helena, Liam, and some other girl sledding
Ada enjoyed her time this year
Liam with a “borrowed” sled.

Ada’s Tired

She came downstairs late after being able to sleep late due to the snow day. She immediately went to the dining room table. Helena and I laughed because breakfast wasn’t nearly ready.

While Helena was making the batter for the waffles, I look over and see that Ada has fallen asleep at the table. Forty five minutes later, she is still there and hasn’t finished her breakfast, although she has gone through two glasses of milk.

Helena’s Wit

While getting malted milk balls out of the “sample bin” at Rainbow, Helena notices a sign on them that they are on sale.

She says, “That means nothing to us”

———

Later on that night, while Liam is peeing he says, “It smells like butter”.

Makes me not miss toast.