Saturday, June 1, 2013

Graduation

My niece, the boy's only girl cousin graduated last week. She was born when I was in college, so it makes me feel old.

She's a good girl, great student and has done wonderful things already. In high school she started a cheerleading squad for disabled kids. She was on the news about that a handful of times. She even invited one, or two of them to her party.

This is kind a sweet story: My niece met two guys at the gym. They are twins. She got their attention. The one that was full of himself started walking over. She said, "I'm sorry I wanted to talk to your brother." He has alopecia, which is condition that makes him have no hair. He is used to the girls going after his brother, who does not have the condition. They've been dating for awhile now.


Here is my cousin and niece about the same age little and all grown up.

My niece is in the purple dress and in the black and white dress.



I have my graduation to go to today. I'm a teacher, so I have one every year to attend. I usually rattle off an artist's quote. This year I wrote something.

It's a parody off this book:
I teach Illustration, so it's fitting. I'm going to explain that I thought of the poem when a student's mom brought in cupcakes. I started to write If You Give a Grad a Cupcake, but it wasn't as funny as If You Give a Student a Cupcake.

If You Give a Student a Cupcake

If you give a student a cupcake,
They’ll want a cup of coffee to go with it.
They’ll make a McDonald’s run to get some.
They accidentally spill the coffee right by their laptop.
They’ll wipe it up.
Wiping the table reminds them of  laundry they have to do.
They make a trip to their parent’s house to do their laundry.
When they put the laundry in the washer,
They trip over their shoes and bump into the freezer.
Bumping into the freezer will remind them
They have to plan for supper.
They ask mom and dad for money.
The money is in Mom’s purse.
They will see a utility bill, which reminds them their rent is due tomorrow.
They will look for their own checkbook.
Their checkbook is no where to be found.
They realize that their checkbook is on their desk at school.
Dad pays for their rent.
At school they find their checkbook.
While reaching for their checkbook they see an art project that was due last week.
They start to work on their art project, but their cell phone rings.
They remember they wanted to text a friend, whom they often have coffee with.
Thinking of coffee will remind them
That they were going to have a cup.
And chances are...If they have a cup of coffee,
The person that sits next to them will have eaten the cupcake that went with it.

Sing, Sing a Song Saturday

I started doing what I call Sing, Sing a Song Saturday.  I'm going to post one song on Saturdays that the boys or I like. 

The song may be part of a movie, a kid's video or just a song we like. I'll try and include why we like it and/or the history of the song/singer.

This week I'm covering someone, whom I had trouble finding his name. No worries I found it! He is Danny Small (Geechee Dan). A NYC Street Musician.
 
He's a 71 year, who was thought to be an old homeless man who sings at bus, train, and subway stations for pennies. He actually lives with his son. He sings better that many people do today. You can tell me if you agree. I truly think he had true soul in his voice.

He's a self taught singer, originally from South Carolina. He moved to NYC when he was 18. He had a dream to become a famous singer. In the 80's he had a gig with the Cotton Club to sing two to three song a night under the name, "The Singing Dragon". He left that gig to go on tour to with a gospel band, which never went anywhere. :( He had smaller gigs.

From 2000 on he has performed in subway stations around NYC for sometimes up to 6 hours a day. He still has the dream of owning his own record label.

His influences are the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Chubby Checker, Van Morison, Smokey Robinson and Al Greene.



He was featured on a film called Pocket Change.



Follow Danny Small on Facebook

Friday, May 31, 2013

The Boy Just Wanted Cabbage!

I got the cabbage Daddy wanted me to get at the store. Little man Isaak was with me and said, "Can I have some of that when we get home?" I said, "Sure. I didn't realize you liked cabbage so much. It's good for you!"
 We got home, started preparing for dinner and Isaak said, "Can I have some of that cabbage for dinner?" Daddy said, "That's for tomorrows dinner Isaak." Isaak started to cry. Daddy said, "Isaak I'll give you some tomorrow."

I said, "Give the boy some cabbage! He asked me for some at the store. You have a whole head of it. He can have a little. It's not like it's chocolate."

Daddy ripped off some cabbage and gave it to Isaak. Isaak was so happy to get some. Sometimes a boy just has to have his cabbage.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Yellow Stripe

During the last testing in Jiu-Jitsu we chose to hold Mica back. Daddy didn't see him working at practicing as much as he should. Mica was mad at us. Other kids tested that probably should not of tested as well. We're paying for him to go; to move up we want to see him working at it.

He's been working at it ever since. That's really the lesson we wanted to prove.

In some cases all kids get rewarded. Mr. Rodgers talked in his show about all kids being special. I do believe in that.

He also said, “I hope you're proud of yourself for the times you've said 'yes,' when all it meant was extra work for you and was seemingly helpful only to someone else." I know Mica didn't practice getting his second yellow stripe for only someone else, but he did practice extra hard to get where he wanted to go.

I feel like in today's world we're lacking in hard work. Kids often think they get something for nothing.

Sensei says, "A black belt is just a white belt that never quit trying." I believe in that to.

Can you see Mica's smile? He was proud of himself. As a Mom I'm not a super sap, but I felt like crying happy tears because I knew that Mica worked for that stripe. 
LOL at the boy in the background that is bored.




Tuesday, May 28, 2013

WW: Reading {Linky}

Mica likes to read by himself and to other people. His nose these days seems to be stuck in a book.

Here he's reading to Isaak and Cousin Evan.


One day I couldn't find him. I looked in his room and in the living room. No Mica. Finally I found him the boy's apartment box reading.


Ironically he was reading Boxcar Children.



If you have a moment, please enter my low entry giveaway Space Warriors Blu-ray Combo Pack.

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Yesterday We Ripped Up Flooring

Instead of going to a fun parade, or have a picnic in a park we for the most part worked all afternoon and night ripped up flooring.

In the morning we went to a one hour family fitness class at the Y. It was the last one. :( They have the same schedule as schools in the area.

Then we went to Kohl's to get jeans for Daddy and sandals for the boys. I only found sandals for Isaak. In the two styles I saw they were out of 3's for Mica. They had 3's in other sandals, but they had no support in those.

We played two games of Trouble. That's a fun family game.

Then it was time to get the base board and crown molding off the kitchen walls. Daddy got it off the walls. I pounded the nails out.

Then we started ripping the floor up.

It had two layers of flooring; one on top of the other.


90s and 70s flooring was ripped up. In some spots the 70s floor was missing. It totally explained why the 90s flooring cracked in certain areas. It was sort of like peeling one wallpaper off another; only we could peel them up at the same time.

Then there was a white fuzzy paper stuff. I have no clue what that was called. That's about where we ended up. 

Luckily Daddy has gotten the ok to put things in a dumpster by his work. It just so happened that it started thundering right as he was leaving. While he was gone I heard it start to pour. I was hoping he wasn't getting rained on. He came back dry. He just missed the rain.

I could see that there is another floor under the white fuzzy stuff. It's a 50s deco floor, which is so much better than the other two previous ripped up floors. I only have a tiny section of that floor revealed.


The flooring we picked out looks somewhat like this:

Monday, May 27, 2013

Isaak's 5 Years Pictures

This is the one I picked. Except I made them move Isaak up to show more of his hands. Then I made them shrink him down, so his head wouldn't get cut off.








 We took a couple fun shots to.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Wendy's

We went to Wendy's to eat dinner. Isaak swore Wendy worked there, and owned the place. I told him that she did in fact exist, but didn't work there, or own the place.

Then Isaak said, "What does exist mean?"

I said, "It means she's a real person, but doesn't work here, and doesn't own the place."

He didn't believe me, so I told Mica and Isaak to go ask one of the workers.

They walked up to a guy and hesitated. Then came back to sit down.

Isaak said, "I told Mica to ask." Mica said, "You were the one with the questions."

On the way out I asked one of the workers about Wendy. He of course didn't know too much, but assured me that she does not work there. The boys were like, "What did he say?" I told them.

On our way home Mica said, "I think Dairy Queen is married to Burger King."

Summer Has Officially Started

School summer that is. June 20 or 21 is the official first day of summer. I always thought it was the 21st, but someone last year told me that it depends on the position of the moon. My birthday is the on the 21st, so I was bummed to hear that it's not the official start to summer.

What to do with the kids for the summer?

Mica's already saying, "I'm bored!" on the weekends. It's annoying because he has a room full of stuff to do. I want to say, "Seriously?" 

I wanted to keep Mica busy with camps, but he's not old enough for some of them just yet. One more year!

We have Mica signed up for a week day camp later on in the summer. Both boys are signed up for a week of acting classes. They start very soon. Isaak is doing a summer preschool with a community center. They're in swimming lessons again.

Today I decided on a new rule for the summer: If they whine about a task I give them (Mica's more of a problem with this) then they get more to do. If they do not complain at all about the task at hand, then they will be give no more tasks. Does that sound fair?

I've thought about starting up the chore jar once again. I never really followed through with it before. I just put a lot of tasks in a mason jar, and the kids pull one out to do. For some reason when I tried it before it never stuck. They are older and more capable now. I told Mica that his tasks are going to get harder, and Isaak's going to get some of Mica's tasks.

I've been trying to give Isaak tasks that help prepare him for Kindergarten today. It was cloudy this morning, so Isaak helped me make banana bread and no excuse bread. Isaak peeled all the bananas. I know he'll have to do this task at lunch time. He'll also have to make his own PBJ sandwich. I'm surprised the school even offers PBJ sandwiches with all the nut allergies. They do. They give the kids their own little container of jelly and peanut butter. The bread comes separate. Here's Isaak making his own and Mica's sandwiches:


Trust me it's not all work. This morning we played the game Trouble. Isaak had a little problem with the trouble part of it. He kept going back to start. I'll be excited when the water pads open up. It's too cold for that yet. Soon we'll be going to South Dakota. Shhhh...the boys don't know about that one yet. We rented a cabin in the middle of no where, we're going to see a lot of sites as well. I won't announce when we're leaving, but I'll certainly tell you all about it when we get back.

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