Grocery Store Tour

As part of our preschool field trip series, I scheduled a "behind the scenes" tour of our local grocery store. Apparently this is something they do regularly. We skimmed the fresh produce, went to the loading dock and receiving area, walked through an enormous cooler, met a few managers here and there, visited the deli, and spent a significant amount of time watching a bakery employee make one of these:

Then everyone was treated to milk and cookies from said bakery. Alice had a tough life lesson in hyperpalatability. After hearing that she would get to enjoy only one cookie, she burst into tears, "Why do they make these taste so good?! *sob*sob*sniff* I want a hundred of them!"All I could say was, "Yeah, I want a hundred of them, too. They make them that way on purpose." :(

I couldn't tell that any of the kids were particularly fascinated with any aspect of the tour, but when Bobby asked Alice about it later, she enthusiastically described the enormous fridge and the Barbie cake as her favorite parts. No mention of the cookie fiasco.

Robert was well-behaved and interested in the tour. He was MOST interested in the balloon display in the floral section, but reasonably comfortable and obedient the whole time. He's mellowed out a lot the last few days. Hitting less, snuggling more, and using words before freaking out are all good signs that juggling two will get easier someday :) Maybe.

Little House Inspiration

We've been reading Alice Little House in the Big Woods as part of her bedtime routine. This is her second time, actually. The night we finished it for the first time, Alice declared that she couldn't remember the beginning anymore so we should start over :) She's excited to hear the adventures of two little girls about her age. We had just finished the part of the story where the girls get to drive into town for the first time in their lives. Their Ma wraps their hair with rags the night before and then the girls have long, silky curls the next day. Alice couldn't resist the notion of shiny, curly hair and asked for a few curls of her own.

Why not?

The instructions in the book were very clear. How could I miss? Alice was so jumpy and excited that I couldn't put in more than 7 or 8 rolls. Here she is jumping for joy that they're in:

 

Half of them came out of her hair while she slept :( but two stayed in where she could see the curls for herself the next morning.

I'm lucky she's easy to please :) and that she didn't ask to shoot a bear or make maple sugar instead.

Co-op Preschool Field Trip

 

This week, our little preschool group visited the Anita Purves Nature Center in Urbana. This is the same place Alice has enjoyed Nature Day Camp for the last two summers. She gave me the grand tour. I was especially excited about the living bee hive. I just love that stuff. Here is Alice in her formal-picture-smile pose by the beehive door.

 

It was a self-guided tour through all of their educational displays. I was honestly impressed with the variety and depth of the topics covered in such a small space, but most of it was beyond the scope of a preschooler's comprehension. We'll have to come back in a couple years. Still, there were moments I caught the kids surprised...

mesmerized...

and thoroughly enjoying themselves.

After a brisk jog through Busey woods, we picnicked at Crystal Lake Park. Bob worked on his solo forward-slide routine. Nice form, extra points for stylistic flair.

Alice concentrated on friendships. Here she's rocking out with Spencer B. in a small portion of some firefighting, bad-guy-chasing, car racing adventure. They also collected a few pounds of acorns that we had to dump out of the stroller before heading home. I'm thinking I will miss adventures like these when Alice starts kindergarten next year. Maybe I'll have to start a toddler playgroup for Robert ;)

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week we are all sick and staying home from church.  Most of us are not super sick just coughing and sneezing. Robert, however, has croup and a fever so he is sick.  Yesterday Alice was wishing that she would get sick so that Susan would pay more attention to her, and so he could sit around all day and watch Sesame Street.    Today she woke up with a stuffy nose and was kind of happy about it.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week has been very odd.  It started out mostly normal with work and all, but ended up very different.  On Thursday at about 2 p.m. I flew out to LA.  There were some recruiters that had contacted me through linked-in, which is not uncommon usually about twice a month, but the fact that they didn't really give up even when I said that I am happy where I am at is uncommon.  I figured at the very least I can practice my interviewing skills and be ready for the next thing that happens.

The trip out was not bad.  I flew into LAX just about an hour late, but was able to take a taxi to the hotel and go to bed fairly quickly.  The next day was the interview.  It went fairly well, except for lunch somehow what I think is wasabi got on my french dip sandwich.  I hate the taste of wasabi, spice is OK but the flavor is disgusting.  Anyways the interview went well, they told me that they will make me a job offer and I left.  Don't worry, Susan has already decided that she does not want to live in LA right now and barring them giving me mounds and mounds of money we are going to stay here.

The trip home, however, was not too fun, but I did not realize it was not fun until about midnight last night when I realized that I probably got food poisoning at O'Hare on my way back.  So my gut has not been happy, but I am doing a bit better now.  At least good enough to write this.  Also the burrito I suspect in this incident also ate one of my fillings.  When I was done with dinner I got up to take a drink and found a large hole in one of my teeth that I thought had been filled previously.  So on Monday I get to have that refilled.

One of the best parts about the trip is that I decided to bring back real presents for the kids, not just the left over granola bars I had to snack on, but something real.  So I stopped at a store on the way home from the airport, don't tell Alice, and got a stuffed cat for Robert and a little Rapunzel doll for Alice.  Robert loves cats for some reason.  Every time he sees a picture of one in a book he signs cat and says meow.  He loves the cat and snuggles it all the time.  Alice also loves the doll, she is listening to her CD of Rapunzel music right now giving her a hairdo, and make-believe play with the doll.  It is nice to see that I can make both of the kids very happy.