I Thought His Head Would Explode

Ethan recently attended Lego Mindstorms Camp at the Kids College/Penn State Altoona. Getting in to the camp was a saga in itself, as we applied (and paid) in early May, only to receive a phone call that the camp was full. A 30 kid waiting list was also not welcome news, and disappointed sulking commenced. Ethan declined to attend any other Kids College camps and disappeared into his Lego Man Cave room and began building non-Mindstorms creations. The check and application were returned in the mail. Depressing.

The week before the camp was to occur, Ethan met me at the door, hopping up and down with the cordless in his hand. "You gotta call!! There's an opening!! At the thing!! MOM!!"

After talking him down off the newel post and listening to the message, I called to reserve and pay for the last opening. Ethan could not fathom that someone would drop out of this camp. I could not fathom that someone did not want to get rid of their 11 year old boy for five weekday mornings building robots. With Legos. In a Lab. With other 11 year old boys!! DUDE!

So here is a picture of the Brain (Pinky was not amused at having to ride along for a 40 minute ride to drop him off and refused to have her picture taken) with one of his creations:

We must prepare for tomorrow night.

Why? What are we going to do tomorrow night?

The same thing we do every night, Pinky

- try to take over the world!

Another Zany Picture

Would you be surprised to learn that this girl:

Is also known as Zany Girl?

Yeah, me neither.

Moon Tree

Since the kids are bitching about geocaching asking ever so politely to skip geocaching in the sweltering weather, I decided to grab a cache all by myself on the way home the other day. I don't know why they don't want to climb all over rocks and bushes in 90' heat, but whatever, wusses.

This one was an easy find and a reinforcer for me that caching alone is sometimes a lot more fun.

This is why I love this hobby. If not for geocaching,

I would never have known about this gem:

Last Week, It Was Hot Enough...

To Fry An Egg!!

Last week, when we were in the grip of a record-breaking heat wave,

Meghan decided that she needed to check out an old myth:

After about 2 and a half hours, there was a hint of white starting to show.

After 2 more hours, we hosed off the sidewalk.

Apparently, it needs to be a hell of a lot hotter than 104' to fry an egg on the sidewalk.

I hope I never see a day that IS hot enough.

The Dick Schoolhouse

Meghan and I were geocaching today, and hit a cache near Ethan's karate studio: The Dick Schoolhouse.

Did it always sit built into the bank so close to the road?

We had fun imagining the kids who must have lined up at this doorway (Meghan has just finished yelling, "RECESS" at the top of her lungs in the bottom picture), had their lunch in the grass, and washed their lunch buckets out in the spring that runs by. We wondered what they would make of us in our modern clothes, with cars zooming nearby.

The stream was freezing, even on a 80' day.

Ok, I don't know if there were lunch buckets, but they must have carried their lunch in something. Off to Google I go. Now, there's something those kids couldn't have imagined about the future!

Several neat links I found whilst looking for information on lunchboxes:

http://www.ushist.com/school_house_supplies_toys_f.shtml

http://www.senecaschoolhouse.com/

http://www.foodmuseum.com/exhbitschoollunch.html

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodschools.html

Small Town Saturday Night

Well, it wasn't exactly Saturday night. It was last Wednesday evening, and we were celebrating a softball win with a local custom: a trip to the Meadows.

The Meadows is a frozen custard stand that sits at its namesake corner, The Meadows Intersection in Duncansville. I do believe this is the original location; we pass through this intersection several times each day, and Ethan and Meg crane their necks to see the two specialty flavors of the day, in addition to vanilla and chocolate. My personal favorite is cappaccino chocolate chunk, Meghan's is cookies and creme, Ethan's is chocolate peanut butter cup, and Matthew likes Whitehouse or teaberry. Yuck. (Side note; the other day, it was cappaccino choc chunk, which rarely occurs, and I actually FORGOT to stop on the way home. I'm still pissed at myself.)

At any rate, if your team wins, and sometimes when they lose, the whole group hits the Meadows afterwards and your coach or another parent buys everyone a small cone. Meg's pigtail softball team is sponsored by The Meadows this year; no idea if we get a free cone out of it or not. There are usually at least three or four other teams there, so the kids are sure to see someone they know. In addition to the frozen custard, there is a mini-golf course, batting cages (to keep the baseball/softball customers on winning streaks), an arcade, large bushes for kids to run between and under, and lots and lots of Adirondack chairs to sit in and watch the show.

And on this night, there was the best entertainment of all: karaoke!

Hard to see, but one guy is playing the broom and the other has a mouth harp.

They are singing "Play Me Some Mountain Music".

Ethan finds some friends and they start a kick line.

Meg Macaroni (no. 17) hopes no one knows that the dancing fool is her bro.

!!!

Just realized that no one is eating ice cream, er, I mean frozen custard in these pictures,

but that is actually not the point of going to The Meadows. Not for the kids, anyway.

Best Concession Food Ever

Mommymommymommymommy!! Theyhavepicklesonsticks!!

CanIhaveonepleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease???

Wait, what? Umm, okay?

Win.