A trip to the Art Musement

Charles and I took Logan to the Art Museum for the first time on Sunday, after her field trip there Tuesday was cancelled. Once she caught sight of the Grand Basin and Art Hill she was torn...mummies and the "Cap for Sale Guy" or running down the huge hill in the beautiful weather. But we told her the hill would be there when we came out and we'd still have time to run too.

So we started off to find the painting, she spotted Monet's "Waterlillies", we looked at "The Dancer", wandered through the Christian inspired art, Logan was impressed by a statue of the Virgin Mary with Child that was created in 1360, she thought it looked like it was made of wood. Then we found the painting, George Caleb Bingham's "The Verdict"...there is a man with 3 hats on that reminded Charles of "Caps for Sale". Logan wasn't all that impressed, time to go see the mummies.

On the way, we saw a statue thought was hilarious...a man scratching his tushy. Then we got to the mummies, looked at those for about three minutes and the inevitable "Can we go now?" occurred. We got her through the pre-historic period, Native American clothing, modern furniture and then she was ready to go, modern art impressed her not at all (I'm with her on that one!)

So we headed down the hill, having played two hockey games in less than twenty four hours I went a little slower than Logan and Charles. There were some idiots (college age boys of course) standing on the ice in the Grand Basin throwing a football, paying no heed to the fact that the ice behind them was thin but hey whatever. Of course Logan then wanted to try out walking on the ice too. Hey, I lived in Minnesota, I am all for pond skating but not when there are thin patches to be had. But Charles kept insisting that Logan would be fine on the ice, it was several inches thick, but yes...I was a worried mommy. She did stand out on the ice for a minute and walk around in a small half circle, but I really didn't feel good until she was back on the steps, but she really was fascinated by the ice, throwing it and seeing its thickness.

Then we headed back to the hill, she noticed several people flying kites and wished that we had brought one as well. Instead she used her imagination and I was very impressed by what she came up with. We found a string, she got a leaf, Charles tied one end of the string to the leaf and with the other she got the leaf airborne. It was so great to watch her delight in her creation and excitement when it worked. It was the perfect end to the weekend!

On the me front, I scored a goal in a game Saturday night, had an assist Sunday and was +5 overall for the weekend. Ronnie wouldn't let me transfer my stats from the Ice Holes game over to my Hericanes stats but in my head I'll be +3 on the season...and 3 points too : )

A conversation with Nora....

(Setting)I am in the bathroom, Nora is in the family room on the chair talking to what I originally assumed was herself but came to realize was directed to me...

Nora:"Daddy?"
Me:"No, Daddy isn't home yet remember? He'll be home tonight after bed."
Nora: "Daddy?"
Me: "He's not here"
Nora (slightly louder) "He's not here?"
Me: "No, he's not here."
Nora (slightly louder): "Daddy?"
Me: "He's still not here"
Nora (louder): "He's still not here?"
Me: "No, why are you yelling?"
Nora: "Why am I yelling"
Me: "That's what I asked"

I felt like I was in a Cheech and Chong skit only there was no pot...I love the mind of the two and half year old.

My other favorite Noraism this week is her telling her teacher Darla "I don't have accidents in my underpants" as she is peeing in them. I guess it's like Homer Simpson says, "If I don't see it, it isn't happening it" (ok, his was if I don't see it it's not illegal but I'm sure that'll be used in adolescence).

Happy New Year!

Can't believe its 2008! I remember being a kid and thinking 2000 was way far off and trying to figure out how old I would be in "x" year and thinking whoa, that's old! Here I am, old! Ok, not really, 33's not really a big deal but ever since 18 life has just flown by.

The last ten days definitely flew by, Christmas seems like a distant memory. Again as a kid I loved having my birthday then, I thought it was magical and despite what most people expected, I never felt gypped but that's probably because I was an only child and only grandchild so I got a good haul and I we celebrated Chanukah. But not that we host the festivities at our house (and I use that term loosely) I don't really get the chance to enjoy the day. We got up in the morning, the girls opened gifts from us, my parents came over for breakfast, we finished cleaning up the rest of the house, why I don't know it just got trashed again five hours later and the next thing I knew it was 6:00, our house was a wreck, Charles and I were exhausted and everything was done. The highlight of my day was Charles attempt at a Christmas tree cake that was a wonderful idea in theory but ended up more like Mt. Vesuvius. Tasted better than it looked though. Other highlight was my handmade card and coupons good for sleeping in, breakfast in bed, a night out and things like that courtesy of my husband. For him that was the equivalent of a romance novel, and I was touched by his thoughtfulness.

The rest of the week past in nothingness, just what I wanted, we played, read books, colored, napped. Friday Charles took the day off and we went ice skating with Adam, Erica and Julia and their neighbors at the Mills. It was Nora's first time skating and other than not being pregnant it was exactly like Logan's first time, one of us having to bear her entire weight and drag her around the ice, but towards the end she started to get the idea to move her feet. I don't know if she enjoyed it, I know the big girls did, but I can see her liking the idea of checking people down the road.

New Year's Eve was our experiment, the Boyet's came and spent the night, the girls played, decorated crowns, and stayed up all the way to 8:30. I've never seen three kids crash as hard as they did. We were worried about Julia and Logan sharing a room after the last time we had someone spend the night and the girls were up until late and then up at 4:30 AM. They probably would have been ok if Logan hadn't gotten freaked out by the fireworks and had an asthma attack...that's my girl! The adults partied it up downstairs with a movie until Elise woke up at around 10:15 causing Erica to have to call it a night, I followed suit at around 11 (not 10:30 as previously reported, I checked my watch for the last time at 10:58). We finally went upstairs at about 1:40 AM after the guys finished their other movie. Do we know how to party or what?

Today was our first day back to school, it was hard to get back into the routine, even though we hadn't been sleeping in or anything, I think that ease that we had gotten into made it hard to have to rush around. But at least I don't have to deal with the Highway 40 shutdown!