everwas

a blog by Ian Kennedy

Tag: kids

  • Finale

    Tyler’s Pre-K class gave an end of the year performance today. They’ve been practicing the words to their songs for the past few weeks. We caught on to the “suprise” when we heard Tyler singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame and knew we never taught him such a song. I’ve got the whole thing on video if anyone wants to sit through 15 minutes of 5 year-olds warbling off key to Yankee Doodle and Little Rabbit Foo Foo but I think it’s something only a proud parent can love.

    On a flyer the teachers gave out was a particularly funny list of responses to questions.

    “What’s special about your Mom?”
    Tyler…She always gives me more stuff than my sister.

    “What’s special about your Dad?”
    Tyler…He always hugs me

  • Strawberries!

    Tyler gets started

    The weekly harvests have begun at our local organic farm, the Watershed, where we split a family share that allows us to share in the food that they grow there. Most of the crops are harvested for you and all we need to do is drive down the road to fill up a couple of grocer bags full of wonderfully fresh and pesticide-free veggies. It’s fun to go with the kids because each week there’s always something that’s available on a “pick your own” basis. In May, it’s strawberries to be followed soon by rasberries and, *yum* blackberries. This week too were snap peas which are so sweet you can eat them right off the vine!

    Julia in the strawberry fields

    Summer is truly here as our neighbors, the Trasks, have yet again graciously opened up their pool which is unofficially known as the, “East Franklin Swim Club.” After a morning of picking in the fields, a dip in the pool is always welcome.

    A bit of Fame touched our block this weekend as we heard the good news that the Trask’s daughter, Emma, who had been busting her butt for the last year on a Michael Moore film project not only was able to attend the Cannes Film Festival but also that the film won this year’s Palm D’Or.

    Not only did Fahrenheit 9/11 pull down the world’s top film prize, it received a 20-minute standing ovation (a record in the film festival’s history) and was only the second documentary to win the Palm D’Or in 50 years.

    As you may know, the film’s original backers have pulled out which prompted all kinds of conspiracy chatter and probably only helped boost the film’s profile. Disney’s recent punch in earnings was due, in a large part, to their theme park business and the most successful Disney theme park is in Florida. Some say that Disney didn’t want to jeapordize their cozy relationship with the Governer of Florida, Jeb Bush (the President’s brother) by distributing a film so openly critical of the President.

    Disney just can’t seem to call any of the right shots in their film division. First they piss of Steve Jobs and send him, Pixar, and the Shrek franchise off in search of their own distribution channel. Shrek 2 opened last week to a “record shattering $125 million” for through this weekend. Now it looks certain that Fahrenheit 9/11 will be a money-maker as well. I recall Moore’s first documentary, Roger & Me, was extremely profitable because production costs on a documentary are so reasonable. Way to go Emma!

  • Number 5

    It’s been a grueling curriculum at St. Matthew’s Little Leisure this year. Tyler’s pre-K class covered a letter each week. The first week was the letter “A” and they worked on crafts that used apples, colored in construction paper cut in the shape of an “A,” you get the idea. After 26 weeks of that, they moved onto numbers and picked up the pace a bit and covered a number each day. On Tuesday, Tyler was home sick with a stomach ache (he slept it off) and he subsequently missed the number five. Today he was back in school and they covered the number six and they had Tyler make up his exercises on the number five.

    Unfortunately, this confused Tyler on the order of the numbers – he thought they were teaching him that the sequence was 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 5 – which I had to straighten things out with him tonight as I put him to sleep.

    Imagine the chaos this would have caused if he went through the rest of his life with these numbers the wrong way around – all because of a stomach ache!

  • Shopping

    Flash, the name Tyler gave our trusty green Honda Odyssey served as our chariot for a shopping run to a huge outlet mall about 30 minutes away in Pennsylvania. We only go there a couple of times a year and I think we now have it down to a science. We head out as early as possible and time it to arrive about 10 minutes after opening. After securing a good parking spot that allows for rapid, clean lines of escape, we head inside and plunge ourselves into the major stores we want to hit that day. Momentum was pretty good but we got way-laid at the Marshall’s (pictured above) which was fascinating because the household goods and toy sections were like an attic for failed consumer goods. The 3 foot pepper mill, the porcelain statuette of a cherub playing soccer, the gigantic paella pan, cooks for 40 – these were the things that stores just couldn’t move and one can see why!

    Tyler picked up a pair of “scooter red” Keds, Julia a fresh pair of flower-patterned spats, Zoomer got some shirts and a funky pair of floodwater-hemmed jeans, and dad got a bunch of short-sleeved shirts for the Summer and a nice running shirt to make up for the 2002 World Cup Brazilian soccer jersey that was melted down in the dryer.

    We got home late and I now understand the seething disgust reserved by parents for the man that drives the ice cream truck. We hadn’t even gotten dinner organized yet when his plinkity-plink sugar-high melody could be heard warbling it’s way around our corner. The kids immediately started moaning and frowning their entire bodies in an attempt to soften our resolve that they were not to spoil their appetite despite the fact that the entire block of kids were lined up outside the truck for their jet pops and crazy cones. The truck had parked itself strategically in front of our house and the melody played itself over and over as the ice cream man served up one treat after another, the tune was almost mocking us, as if to say, “come on, don’t be such a prude. . . .it’s just ice cream after all. . .” I have to hand it to the kids though, once the truck motored away (this time at top speed, not the tempting crawl when it first came to our block) they finished all their vegetables without too much fuss.

  • Birthday Party

    Just got back from the first of three parties today – this one had a magic show delivered by a clown named Ferris that had the kids rolling.

  • Cheetah

    Cheetah

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    Tyler’s been acting out that he’s a ferocious cheetah these days. If there’s something he doesn’t like, he lets out a growl. It reminds me of Calvin or Snoopy.

  • Tyler’s 5th Birthday

    We celebrated Tyler’s fifth birthday today by renting out the local gymnastics hall. This was the first time we had a big party for him and he was thrilled to have so much attention. It was also great to see how excited his friends were to see him. Nothing like ice cream and padded walls to get your Sunday morning started with a jolt! More photos posted here.

  • Tyler’s alternative views

    Tyler’s alternative views on the world are a never ending source of wonder. This morning, when I asked if he had any dreams the night before, he said that he had his pillow on the wrong side. Pressing him for details, he added that his pillow has a dream side and a no-dream side – ah yes, of course.

    He also is clever with some of the words he invents. My favorite is still the sprinkler that he calls an, “upside down waterfall” but another good one is “prickles” which he coined while hiking through the woods.

  • Thug

    Julia practices her thug look – “you gotta problem with ‘dat?”