Holiday Photo Shoot

I wanted to attempt some holiday photos early so I would have time to try again and still get the cards ordered and mailed out, so we went to a local mall that has a beautiful old carousel.  I envisioned wonderful pictures of the kids on the carousel, smiling, laughing, and being cute and natural. Of course, I couldn't get either one of them anywhere near any of the horses. They did ride it, Malcolm once and Dorothy twice, but they only wanted to sit on a bench.

Not bad, but not exactly what I had in mind either.

I told them to hold on to the pole, in an attempt to salvage my vision of a carousel Christmas card.

This is the face Dorothy makes if you tell her to smile.

After failing at the carousel, we tried some pictures at some of the giant trees.  Dorothy didn't want to sit down and pose, so I promised her a cracker.  Then, I thought better of it and tried to get her to take a Tic-Tac instead.

You promised me a cracker.

What do you mean I can't have a cracker?

I just want a cracker!

She finally got her cracker, but she still had no interest in holding still.

They are both getting suspicious that this photo taking business is going to go on for a while.

Dorothy makes a break for it while Malcolm simply refuses to face me.

And thus ends another holiday photo attempt.

Making Music

Kevin brought up the old keyboard for the kids to play with.  He set it on the toy box that holds the trains because it it the perfect height.  One, or both, of the kids drug over the little chairs that go with their table and chairs set and they were too cute sitting there, playing the keyboard together.  After a while, we heard Malcolm yell, "Doh-fee, come back!  We have to make a musical!"  We wonder if this is what life was like for George and Ira Gershiwn's parents.

With the turkey hat from the school feast.  They both had to go get hats to wear for a while while making their music.

She watches everything he does so carefully.

Malcolm does a little mixing while Dorothy composes.

School Feast

The Friday before Thanksgiving, Malcolm's school has a feast and a little show afterward.  The kids make most of the food, then sit down and eat together.  That morning, I cooked a turkey breast then got to use the electric knife to carve it.  We wrapped up the turkey, and Malcolm and I headed off to school.  Dorothy was not happy with the thought of being left behind, but she and Kevin joined us soon enough.  There were lots of stations set up where the parent volunteers would supervise the kids making the fruit salad, lettuce salad, corn muffins, and flower arrangements.

I got set up at a fruit salad station and the kids loved using the apple peeler and slicer that peels the apples in one long slinky. There were also grapes, bananas, pineapple, oranges, strawberries, and honeydew to peel and slice. Some sections were much bigger than others, but the kids did a great job and were very proud of themselves; even if I had to keep a couple of them from sampling as they were working.

Once all the food preparation was completed, the kids all found a seat and each table said something they were thankful for. The kids then went through and got a yummy plate of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, mac & cheese, corn muffins, fruit salad, and veggie salad. Dorothy and Kevin were there by then, so Dorothy got a plate too and ate lunch with the big kids.

After the meal, pie was served. Malcolm had apple pie while Dorothy had pumpkin. Both of them, of course, had whipped cream.

Eating the whipped cream off of the top.

After the meal was the show which consisted of funny songs about turkeys being on strike, mashed potatoes, pilgrims who got a bit stinky on their voyage to the new world, and more. It was very cute, but we could quite tell if Malcolm was singing. He barely did any of the motions either. He was very excited about the show, but was really reserved this time.

Adjusting one of the hats he was very proud of making.

Malcolm had been telling us bits and pieces about the show, including that there were two kinds of hats. He mentioned the Indian hats, but when Kevin guessed pilgrim as the other kind of hat, Malcolm told him, "No, turkey!" in the "how dumb can you be?" tone.

Having the Blues

Last night, Malcolm was having a hard time playing nicely with his sister, so he was sent upstairs to his room to have some alone time and calm down a little bit.  Once he was past being angry, he started singing, loudly.  He was making up a song about a train, going out to sea, and having the blues.  It took a while, but he finally settled on these four lines for his song (the last word of each line gets held a really long time):

I saw train
Comin' down the tracks
I got the blues
It goes out to sea

Mr. Steve

We love our local library and are usually there a couple of times a week.  They have some great programs for kids and, of course, we check out lots of books.  The children's department has really expanded since Malcolm was born four years ago and the ladies there are all very nice know us by sight.  I think some of them even know the kids' names.  I'm not really sure of the details, but the library won some sort of a contest sponsored by PBS Kids and Jet Blue.  They will be getting $10,000 worth of Random House Children's books and today there was a special program with some of the characters from PBS Kids.  They had Hooper (A hamster? who does little educational promos between shows), Super Why (I have no idea who this is), and Mr. Steve (who sings songs between some of the shows).  Malcolm loves Mr. Steve and always wants to watch the parts he is in when they happen to be on. It took a little reorganizing of our schedule, but I decided that I thought hte kids would enjoy it, so I took Malcolm out of school a little early and scheduled a make-up class for Dorothy for gymnastics and took the kids to the special program at the library.

They were both a little overwhelmed, but enjoyed themselves. There were a lot of people there and it was a little louder than they are used to, but they both did great.

Hooper.  Both kids wanted nothing to do with either of the costumed characters.

Super Why.  Malcolm is on the far right in a black sweater vest.  Mr. Steve and David Carter are the first two people sitting against the far wall.

Malcolm waiting for it to start with Mr. Steve's guitar, Woody, int he background.

The first guest was David Carter who is a children's book author and illustrator. He read a few of his pop-up books to the kids, and they all got a copy of Lots of Bots which Malcolm had to read before nap time.

David Carter reads his book, "Lots of Bots."

David Carter also did some drawings based on kids' suggestions.  Malcolm suggested something, but I couldn't hear him because I was too far away.

Next up was Mr. Steve who I thought Malcolm would be super excited about. He was a great listener and stood or sat when asked, but he didn't really participate beyond that. He took it all in though. At the very end, Mr. Steve invited the kids to come up on the stage with him, but Malcolm didn't want to. He sat in his spot and listened to the song, but kept a safe distance. Dorothy had made me hold her the entire time we were there, but then wanted down to join the other kids up on the stage.

Mr. Steve takes the stage.

Mr. Steve, singing a song while Malcolm stands, frozen on the spot.

Dorothy makes her way to the stage.

She made it!

Mr. Steve walked around a bit during his song while the kids were on the stage.  Sorry the camera work isn't better.  I was far away, and people kept getting in front of me.

Once it was all over, it quieted down pretty quickly as most of the kids were eager to leave and see Hooper and Super Why who were out in the main part of the children's library.  Dorothy got a little one-on-one time with Mr. Steve, but Malcolm hung back and was feeling shy.

Yes, she insisted on wearing her necklace today.  You can't see them here, but Mr. Steve liked her shoes (which she also picked out) and said that his daughter has a pair just like them.

I'm glad we went, even if the kids were overwhelmed at times.  Neither cried, but Dorothy was mighty suspicious of that giant hamster and practically climbed me to get away from him.  When Super Why asked them for a high five, they both declined.