Blogger Catch Up- Right to Read Week

The theme for this year's Right To Read Week was 'Community'.  Hmmmm- a tough one to ignite the imagination for sure.  

Earlier in the week, Will went to school dressed as Jack Hanna for Dress-Like-A-Community-Hero Day.  After seeing Jack Hanna cry last summer on the news when speaking about having to shoot those wild animals which that idiot released before killing himself in Zanesville, I think we all gained a new respect for the heroism of Jungle Jack.

I carried the theme into our design for the cake contest and planned a cake based on the book 'Z is for Zookeeper'.  

Who doesn't love an heroic Zookeeper?

Right to Read Week

This year's Right to Read Week was a little bittersweet, knowing that the Diocese had eliminated the librarian position for the upcoming year and this would be one of our last opportunities to enjoy the boundless enthusiasm of the amazing school librarian, Mrs. Ruefle.  

I was also a little nervous about this year's theme: 

The Civil War.  

How on earth would they get elementary school students interested in the Civil War?  How would they explain some of the complex and very mature issues?  

Because I spent many of my formative years living in the south and because we vacation frequently in Charleston (the very place where the Civil War began) I tried to interest Will in the historical places he had been and seen.  

"Will, remember Fort Sumter?" 

"Will, remember the Hunley? The first submarine to sink an enemy war ship?" 

"Will, remember Fort Moultrie?"  

Will just wanted to know who the good guys were.  I tried to explain that both sides wanted different things.  I tried to explain about states' rights.  Will just wanted to know which side wanted slavery.  I gotta give him that- that's pretty much a deal breaker.  Despite my best efforts to muddy the waters, the school did a great job of making the Civil War exciting to kids.

The festivities kicked off with a field trip to a Confederate cemetery right here in Columbus (yes, really!).  Camp Chase was a prisoner of war camp on the west side of Columbus and the cemetery survives.  There are 2260 Confederate soldiers buried there.  It was nice to see the soldiers from so long ago being honored in a beautiful, peaceful place.  All the trees in the small cemetery are native to the south and every year, reenactors hold a ceremony where they sprinkle a little dirt that has been brought from somewhere in the south on each grave so the soldiers can rest in southern soil. So interesting! 

The next event was the family cake decorating contest.  I found a book about a cat who was the garrison cat at Fort Sumter during the war.  We won First Place.  

Score one for the South. 

We put together a drummer boy costume for 'Dress as a Civil War Person' Day.  Note that Will chose to wear Union colors.  

Score one for the North.

At the end of the week was the Reading Festival.  The Drum and Fife Corp from Camp Chase provided amazing music.  Will sampled hard tack and johnny cakes.  An Abraham Lincoln impersonator delivered the Gettysburg Address.  At a model field hospital some kids from the upper grades pretended to perform limb amputations without the benefit of anesthesia, which was interesting to me.  

Score a million for Right to Read Week and Mrs. Ruefle and the teachers at St. Mary School. 

The Tour de Donut

A couple of weekends ago we drove out to Arcanum, Ohio and participated in the Tour de Donut with our friends Jean and Mark.  

The Tour de Donut is a 33 mile bike ride through the lovely (mostly flat, thank goodness) Ohio countryside with 2 rest stops where you can eat donuts!  And for every donut you eat, they subtract 5 minutes from your time at the Finish Line.

I can't think of a nicer way to spend a Saturday: 

touring the beautiful town of Arcanum and the surrounding countryside, 

spending time with Jean and Mark, 

enjoying fresh air and exercise, 

posing for pictures with Mr. Sprinkles, 

and eating donuts!

Stadium Cake 2011

This fall, we made the annual pilgrimage to see the Stadium Cake.
We always seem to get there just as they are dismantling and cutting the cake... which I guess is the best part.

Once again, Jen's family did an amazing job.
Something new this year- you can 'friend' the Stadium Cake on facebook.
(I'm pretty sure the cake has more facebook friends than I do.)

That's a Fat Dog

Poor Noodle.
He'll be 8 years old in September and this winter I noticed that he seemed to really slow down. His joints seem stiff in the morning and he doesn't spring down the stairs like he used to; he steps more gently now. I guess I didn't really push him to go on long walks and he did pack on a few pounds over the past months. I'll be the first to tell you that he's been looking a little fluffier than usual.
Apparently this creates great alarm in perfect strangers.

Now that the weather is warm, we are trying to include Noodle in our outdoor activities. One evening last week we headed to Three Creeks Park for a little family stroll. Then the boys wanted to play on the jungle gym for a little while so Noodle and I rested on a bench nearby.

A little girl came over and asked if she could pet Noodle, then she said to me, "That's a fat dog." I said something about how that's why we brought him to the park to exercise and then she went away.
Not 10 minutes later a woman and her daughter came over to sit on the other end of the bench and I heard them say that they also have a chocolate lab (named Moose) at home. When the dad came over he said to me, "How much does that dog weigh?" I said I wasn't sure; at his last check up he was 85 pounds. "Oh" he says, "He weighs a lot more than that now."

As it turns out, there was not in fact a convention of rude people at Three Creeks Park that night. Last weekend we took Noodle with us to my parents' house in an entirely different state. On Father's Day we went to a state park near their house for a picnic. We were all walking along the trail when we happened to pass another group having a picnic and man called out to me, "How much does that dog weigh? 100 pounds?". I did my best to ignore him but his female companion felt the need to add, "My sister had a dog that got so big they had to carry him up the stairs."

Really, people?
I don't thing Noodle is a freak of nature or anything. I mean, his legs can still touch the ground; we are not having to drag him along with his stomach on a skateboard.
I have a theory that since I have lost weight, Noodle just looks much bigger walking next to me.
Honestly, though, lay off my fat dog.
He's very sensitive about his weight.

Wonders of Nature

In between rain storms last month, I wandered in the yard, wondering where to begin with the spring yard projects and I noticed that the water iris that lives in our pondspawned a land iris that lives in the flower bed next to the pond.Huh.

Stadium Cake

On November 13th, the Nittany Lions played the Buckeyes.
Though Ohio State didn't give JoePa his 401st win, the weekend was still very festive on account of the
Twentieth Annual Stadium Cake.
We went down to the stadium to visit our friend Jen as she and her family displayed the cake it took them a week to make, slice it up, and pass out pieces in exchange for donations to a scholarship fund.

Jen gets ready to wield her cake server.

Fans begin to gather.

My camera battery died before I got a picture of the Smiley boys enjoying their cake. I managed to get us all pieces that had tiny Penn State fans on them (little blue and white dots of icing).
They were delicious.

Boo at the Zoo (or Halloween Burnout)

It seemed like the Halloween celebrations went on and on, so by the time October 31st finally came along I think we were all a little burned out.
But we decided to partake in one more festive event: Boo at the Zoo.

First, Will refused to wear his costume.
Then, when we passed the first station where they were passing out candy treats I asked Will if he wanted to go over and he said,
"Don't you think I have enough candy?".
(That was actually a Proud Parent Moment for me)

One good thing was that the zoo was not that crowded. So you know those animal statues that are all over the zoo that you can never get a good picture of your kids on because there are always 10 zillion other children crawling all over them? Well...

Hooray for Fall!

Mums and pumpkin on the porch: check

Cement goose
(which Rick insists must live on the back porch so only our closest friends who love us anyway will see it)
dressed in his Buckeye uniform: check

Pumpkin spice latte: check

Photo-op in front a display of gourds: check

Aaahhhh- it must be fall.

You just might be a Midwesterner

How many pictures of yourself in front of the pumpkin tower at the Circleville Pumpkin Show do you have to have before you can consider yourself a true Ohioan?
I think this is number 6 for me.
This picture was taken from the top of the Ferris Wheel (not by me of course)

Llama llama surviving Barak Obama

Okay, so the world didn't end. And thank goodness or we never would have had the opportunity to go to Alpacafest.When we were in Bedford a few weekends ago we visited an Alpaca Shop that had just opened. They carried sweaters and scarves and socks and other things all made from alpaca (to be honest I'm not clear on the difference between an alpaca and a llama). Rick got a really nice sweater that is lightweight but very warm and is so soft. The ladies in the store told us about the country's biggest Alpaca Convention that takes place right here in Columbus Ohio! Seriously, the Chamber of Commerce could do a better job of advertising these things.So we spent the morning at the fairgrounds today strolling among the alpacas, watching the alpaca judging, chatting to some very nice folks, and (spoiler alert for family members) doing a little alpaca apparel Christmas shopping.Alpaca Fun Facts we learned:
(1) Their hair is called 'fiber'.
(2) Alpacas come in two varieties, Huacayo, which has fiber that grows straight out from their bodies giving them a fluffy teddy-bearlike look, and Suri, which had fiber that grows in long graceful dreadlocks.
(3) If you own alpacas you have to have more than one because they will die of loneliness.
This little boy is trying to lead his alpaca through an obstacle course. The alpaca sort of looked like it didn't get the point.

Our favorite alpaca: a black Suri named 'Surius Black'. We chuckled at the Harry Potter reference because we're nerdy like that.

The Pumpkin Show

A couple of weekends ago, we (along with seemingly millions of other people) went to the Circleville Pumpkin Show. If for no other reason than to soak in a bit of small town Americana and sample the various pumpkin flavored delicacies- pumpkin chili, pumpkin pizza, pumpkin burgers, and of course pumpkin fudge (which is oddly a little spicy). We usually like to go at night and catch one of the parades- the pet parade, the highschool band parade, or the princess parade (all equally as thrilling)- but this year we went during the day. Will was all about the rides. He rode the carousel and the ferris wheel. He somehow talked mommy into going on the spinning pumpkin ride (much like the infamous Disney World teacup ride) and begged to go on that big battering-ram-like ride that swings back and forth in a huge arc (neither daddy nor I were in the least tempted). In the Fun House/Ball Crawl, Will got to rub elbows with Little Miss Pumpkin Show 2008 who was adorable in her black and orange striped tights. Seriously, when in a person's life do they ever get to sit next to a 1,300 pound pumpkin?

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Today we drove way the heck out into the wilds of Ohio to find the Ohio Caverns. This is certainly not a place you would stumble upon accidentally- out past Marysville, not quite to Bellefontaine, winding country roads, backing up because you missed the tiny little sign marking the county road number. That being said, they did a great job of making it a picturesque destination. Several tidy buildings perched on a hill with well kept, park-like grounds and a big picnic shelter. And it was decently crowded- there were about 30 people on our tour.
The tour starts by walking down what look like basement steps from the Visitor Center. Since Will is rarely allowed in the basement (Grandma told him there were bears in hers) I wonder if he now thinks there are caverns in our basement.
The walk through the caverns was neat. It was fun to hear about how they were discovered. They've been leading tours through them since the 1920's. Will liked looking at all the cave "teeth". And though we saw no bears, we did see a bat!

"Bee doesn't like lobster!"

Grandma and Grandpa made a quick overnight trip to Ohio this weekend to go to a lobster bake with us. It was really lovely. The lobster, the salads, the corn, the potatoes, the salmon, the desserts were delicious and enjoyed by everyone... except Will. Although he did try the lobster, he most decidedly didn't like it.
It's funny how many lobster bakes we've been to since we've moved to Ohio. The Rotary in Bedford has one every year that we try to make it to. We've also been to a few oyster roasts with my parents and their friends Ken & Carol. Even when I lived in Boston and went to Maine pretty often, I didn't eat lobster as often. Huh... Ohio.
Now that I think about it, there was a guy stationed with us in Iceland who was from Boston and had some lobsters flown in by one of his pilot buddies. It's amazing what you can do with some dry ice and a jet.

Jungle Jim's

Today we drove down to Cincinnati and went to Jungle Jim's International Market. I wish I had taken my camera. The best way to describe it is to say that if there were a supermarket at South of the Border (that place on I-95 at the border of North Carolina and South Carolina) it would be Jungle Jim's. It is not a shopping experience for the weak-spirited. You enter past an enclosure of cement giraffes and elephants spouting water, into a gigantic warehouse which contains a dizzying array of meats and cheeses and produce and live fish and singing soup cans and a life-size fire truck perched atop a display of what must be every single hot sauce produced in the world. We spent the most time in the international foods section and brought home ginger beer from Bermuda, paella rice from Spain, finishing salt from France, and lingonberry jam from Sweden. The best find was the sugar-in-the-raw sugar cubes that I used to buy in Iceland.
I won't give away the surprise about the restrooms; I'll just say this - their bathroom has apparently won awards.
You can check out their website at www.junglejims.com.