Cousins Group Photo, sort of

Every August since moving to Minnesota the cousins have posed for an official photo. I think I'll leave the photography to Neil or Patrick because this is what happened when I tried. Sigh.

An Easter Story

At the breakfast table, Colleen tells a story to Amelia ---

Once upon a time in a galaxy far away, Jesus was coming to town and everybody was there saying "Yay! Yay! You rock!" and Jesus was tired so they gave him a donkey. He was riding the donkey and there were kids there and they said "Hoshana!" And Jesus said "I'm the King of Peace!" Then they had dinner and Jesus got in trouble with the police and they arrested him and threw him in jail. And they lived happily ever after - except then he died. But that's okay because he came back on Easter morning. But then he went away again. It's all very confusing. The End.

Amelia clapped and said "Yay! Yay!"

Robert's turn

Robert got all dressed up for Picture Day on Wednesday. With his fresh hair cut, church clothes that Nanny got him for Christmas and a clip-on tie, he was ready for his close-up.

When I picked him up from school he said, "Mom, I think I attracted 10 girls today. I looked really good."

Not expecting such a sentence from my seven year old son, I sputtered, "What?!" He confidently replied, "Girls like when guys dress up. You always say I look cute."

True.

The movies of our childhood

Elizabeth is coming of age, a little bit, and we've slowly allowed/encouraged her to read more mature books and watch more mature movies.

Shortly after we moved into our new house -- which seems somehow to have become a blog-free zone, for which we apologize -- Cate and I brainstormed a list of the quintessential movies of our childhood. For example, when I was Elizabeth's age, I remember Pa taking me to see War Games in the theater. I remember specifically because I got up to go to the bathroom while he was asleep and got in trouble because he woke up and I was gone!

Many of these movies fly past us on DirecTV, and we try to capture them on the DVR. Elizabeth has already watched War Games and Ghostbusters, which is a Cate personal favorite. She's also seen Raiders of the Lost Ark. Here are the other movies she and I identified:

2001: A Space Odyssey
Back to the Future
The Birds
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
E.T.
Field of Dreams
Hoosiers
The Hunt for Red October
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Jaws
Space Camp
Star Trek (original cast, movies 2, 3, 4 and 6)
Star Wars

For Star Wars, that's the original trilogy -- it's funny to hear Elizabeth and Robert refer to the movie we all know as simply Star Wars by calling it Star Wars: A New Hope.

These are primarily movies of the late '70s and '80s, but I would say almost anything is up for discussion. What would you add?

Gap kids

Who lost a tooth now you ask? Robert!

He lost his first tooth at bedtime tonight (evidently a good time to lose teeth, who knew?). He calmly handed me his tooth and said "It's out." This doesn't seem to bother either of them. Doesn't anyone freak out when losing a tooth anymore? I remember coddling my loose teeth until they were hanging literally by a thread.

Robert doesn't really get to have a gap tooth picture though. His permanent tooth has been coming in steadily right behind. He still looks like a shark though, the spot right next to his new gap has both the baby tooth and the permanent one behind it.

Okay, so that's an inventory of Robert's teeth, just in case the world was wondering. Now, he's off to sleep. Right, Robert?

Almost-reader Colleen

Colleen has been making leaps and bounds with her pre-reading skills.

Many, many times in the past couple of months she has asked us "how do you spell... [insert any random thing within her sight line here]?" but she's branching out on her own now. She's taking her best guess from a few letters.

Today on a trip to the zoo, we had some funny ones. We parked in front of a sign that said "Remember you are parked in the Gibbon Lot." Well, Colleen told me she was glad we were going to get Dippin' Dots (that really frozen pellet ice cream). I told her not today. She angrily pointed, "But that sign says Dippin' Dots!!" There was some foot stomping and hrmph-ing. She certainly likes her sweets.

And later we stopped to have a snack at an eating area and she asked me, "What's a zoo coffee?" She was reading the "Zoo Cafe" sign.

This reminds me that we need to find her a preschool for this fall.

A birthday for Robert

We had friends over to celebrate Robert's birthday today, and although it was the first rainy day in six weeks, we grilled anyway.

Cate had already come up with the idea of doing pizzas on the grill, and although I had never attempted such a thing, we went for it. The Taste section in Thursday's Star Tribune wrote about making pizza on the grill, too, so it seems we weren't the only ones thinking about it.

Cate and my mom assembled this massive list of possible toppings: Pepperoni, chicken, homemade Italian sausage, Neil's fresh basil, tomatoes, mushrooms, black olives, peach chutney, anchovies, roasted garlic, hummus. Then, all of these grilled vegetables: red peppers, poblano peppers, scallions, red onion, leeks and pineapple. Also, fresh and shredded mozzarella, and tomato sauce.

Process was a little slow, but basically every pizza came out great. It was a cold, wet day outside and we went four kids pizzas at a time, then two individual grown-up pizzas at once. Neil was in charge of rolling out dough and I was in charge of grilling. Guests were in charge of selecting their own toppings and for the most part, I assembled them and cooked them. We had the grill on fairly low, cooked the crust for 4-5 minutes, flipped and put the toppings on, then cooked until the cheese melted.

It was nearly two hours in front of the grill, all told. And I saw some great combinations of toppings go by. Elizabeth had black olives, red peppers, pineapple and red onions. I saw something with sausage, chicken, basil, tomatoes, a veggie or two and just a sprinkling of cheese. A handful without tomato sauce. Just cool stuff. We would definitely do this again. (Ryan's photos included here.)

And when the group got big and involved some newcomers, we went with name tags. Ryan's girlfriend and her daughter were there, as well as friends of ours that hadn't been exposed to the whole group yet. People were named, and most of them labeled. To wit:

Robert: Birthday boy
Cate: Patrick's wife, Birthday boy's mom
Elizabeth: Robert's awesome sister
Colleen: (Not sure, though she is certainly awesome as well.)
Mom: Nonna, mother of the brood
Neil: Neil
Alicia: Alicia
Amelia: Mom Alicia, Dad Neil
Ryan: I don't know, but I later saw it stuck on his forehead.
Jennifer: Colleen's godmother
Kyle: Belongs to Jennifer (I hear Jennifer wrote this)
Cate: Just the first and last name
Max: Just the first and last name
Carrie: Friend of Patrick (the world-traveling soprano -- my label, not theirs)
Charley: Journalist (I didn't write this personally but when I refer to Carrie and Charley around the house it's as "our soprano and journalist friends")
Lindsey: Lindsey
Jazmine: Jaz, Jazzy

Robert received cool stuff, a couple of things which I'll spotlight: Finally, his own poncho, which Cate crocheted for him; a kite from the Jensens (he has been dying to fly a kite for a long time); bases for the backyard from Ryan; a crocheted creation from Neil and Alicia; a crystal mining set from Nonna and Da.

And no pony, no moon bounce, no Chuck-E Cheese, great 7-year-old birthday. Thanks, all, for coming and sharing an otherwise dreary day with us!

Last day as a 6-year-old

Robert and I went to a Twins game Wednesday night as an early birthday present. He loves to go on the moon bounce that's outside the Metrodome before we go in to the game, so we headed over there. We were surprised to find this sign next to it.

Last chance!

The game wasn't nearly as fun, nor were our neighbors as interesting as the last time Robert and I went to a game, but we still had a good time. Robert was much more into watching the game itself this time, and since we had seats upper deck behind home plate, the game laid out right in front of him, much better than deep in left field.

But I think the $25 a ticket was more than I've ever paid for a regular-season baseball game.

Happy Birthday, Robert! Hard to believe he's going to be 7!

Yep, definitely progress

Colleen just completed her third night in a row sleeping the whole night through in her own bed and waking up with a dry pull-up. Nonna has been bribing her with a trip to Wonderment, a shop she loves in the neighborhood, for staying in her bed all night Seems that may have put her over the top.