Mount Squishmore

While doing a brief tour of the European countries in history, Audrey was impressed with the amount of old and stately castles that were still standing. I challenged her to make her own out of wood blocks, and it was quite expansive!

This was a tribute to Big Ben.

I noticed there was an efficient rocket-launching area at this castle, looks a little northeast of the moat. You never know when a princess will need a quick getaway.

Having studied some important places in the U.S., we fashioned our own Mt. Rushmore out of playdough.

 

I was looking in the Google Search History for a website that I had visited earlier in the week, and stumbled upon these attempted searches:

**Can dogs eat one cup of olive oil?
**Dogs: how much should my dog eat/cottage cheese daily rations?
**Can dogs eat tomato sauce with green peppers?
**Are green chilies ok for dogs?
**Which foods are toxic for dogs and cats?

and lastly,

**Alternative medicines for dogs

These are the kinds of "trails" the web researchers and advertisers probably look at to determine how to get hits on their websites. I just chuckled as I read down the list of things ****someone**** had entered in the search bar, and not shortly thereafter did I keep the dog outside for the rest of the day.  I did NOT want to revisit any of those foods Charm had possibly ingested.

The sun has set, the dog's stomach seems settled, but the questions still remain:

Was someone holding a cooking class with the dog as the only student?
What would possess someone to feed a dog a cup of olive oil anyway?
Did this person think that a cottage cheese chaser would help keep the oil from leaking out the other end?
Did Charm enjoy the green chilies?

High School Musical

I cannot believe I haven't done a follow-up story on Claire's performance in High School Musical! As you can imagine, the role of a "mini-Sharpay" fit Claire like a [Gucci] glove.  The 3 actresses nicknamed themselves Sharpay, Sharpette, and Sharpetite--which was Claire.  (Ok, that was kind of an inside/backstage joke and not-so-funny in print.) Claire was so fantastic to watch, prancing and preening around the stage.  She always had these over-the-top sequined and pink outfits, replete with purse and matching cell phone. Claire did not speak one line in this entire play, but her actions and attitude said it all!

Claire's Grandma Ellen had the treat of being in town for the last performance. We proudly escorted Miss Claire to the cast party :o)

This faboo cake was designed by one of the parents. Apparantly, she does something cool and different for each show.

The party was at a piano bar down the street that let the cast of kids request any songs and the guy would play them. I was amazed at how many of them knew all the Journey tunes!!

It's All About Your Perspective...I Guess...

Claire (drawing a cartoon picture of Julian):  Hey Julian this is gonna be a picture of you when you're 20!

Julian (eating, as usual):  Oh ok.  Cool.

Claire: I'm going to make you have a tattoo!

Julian:  Oh ok.  Make it be two swords crossed.

Claire (stated in her famous multi-questioned way):  Hmmm. I don't know how to draw swords.  How do you draw swords? What do swords look like?

Audrey (peering over Claire's shoulder):  I know how to draw swords.  Just draw a banana with a handle on the end.

Audience laughs.

End scene.

Seattel

We took a Sunday off and went to Seattle to make a memory.  First we hit an awesome breakfast dive called Beth's on Greenlake.  (A person could actually order a 12-egg omelet or scale it down to a 6-egger. Holy Cholesterol Batman!!)  It was filled with been-out-all-night characters and weekend suburbanites like ourselves. Hand drawn pictures from the patrons adorned the walls...most likely to cover holes and grease spots.  The drawings ranged from toddler art to tattoo art, the latter being VERY strange.
After a filling repast, we drove the few blocks to the lake (what--did you think we would walk there? After all we were pretty full from breakfast.).  Found a parking spot and headed toward the walking path, but...behold! A chocolate shop!  The Blubberton Oath says that we musn't pass up an opportunity to snack on something new.  Several truffles later, we continued to the lake.
We made certain to stay on the "Walkers" side of the path and not obstruct the path of the cool Seattle people, rollerblading astride their Kelty strollers, holding Camelbak steel water bottles, and wearing Northface clothing.  Our big Walmart butts knew our rightful places....yeeeeeepppppp.
Our brisk jaunt took us to the playground, to the shore of the lake where Claire found a button in the icy water (this is a memorable detail), and to a tree with knitted mini-mittens hanging upon its branches.
Within the next few days, I found that Audrey had drawn a picture labelled "Seattel". I see the little brown-haired girl in the picture is smiling.  Looks like a good memory.

As promised...

As promised in an earlier post, here is Ethan's train picture!

Ethan said this was himself on the porch and the other people were Audrey's friends :o)

Audrey worked hard on this drawing. She really spent time trying to figure out how to draw the arms and legs of the animals.  I also love the windy day effect!!

Still Life

Audrey: watercolor fruit bowl

Claire: watercolor fruit bowl

Audrey's rainbow always have pots of gold under them.  Such is Audrey's view of the world!

Claire's rainbow...beautiful colors.