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.

Dance Picture Day, Take 6

Meghan is not amused by Mom's antics on Dance Picture Day, Year 6.

Last weekend we had dance pictures. This is a wonderful day when you take your daughter, all her upmty-six costumes, hair ties, and various unguents and sprays, and drive yourself into the dance studio. Then you proceed to torture your kid into her tights, leotards, itchy skirts, and hair-dos, OR your daughter tortures you by either refusing to push her legs into tights while you try to dress her in the back of the car or by wanting to do the whole thing, including hair-do, ALL BY HERSELF. (This would be when your basic two year old and your basic nine year old look basically like they are having the same tantrum, albeit with a lot more eye rolling and head cocking from the nine year old.) Then you all wait while the photographer desperately tries to get the littlest ones to stand still and all look at him at the same time.

Then and only then do you go in to watch your daughter pose and get HER pictures done.

Ballet 5 girls waiting their turn.

The pictures them selves are lovely and well worth it. After the fact.

Meg tries a pose out before the snap.

During the fact, though....

You end up with pictures like this:

Meg shows us she has neck tendons.

and this:

Meghan. Seriously.

and at the end of the day, like this:

Mom. WTH. Seriously. If I could say WTH, I would.

Allegheny Creamery and Crepes

This weekend, the kids and I had a quick supper at our local crepe shop. Why, a local crepe shop, you say? How urbane! Well, this isn't just any hick Pennsyltucky town!

I had my first crepe the summer I ran away from home and lived at the beach in Rehoboth, DE; my mother was horrified. There was a tiny crepe shop called Cafe Papillion in the walkway where I worked in a gift shop. After my shift, I would stop and try new flavors of sweet and savory crepes. I was very taken with my sophisticated self, living on my own (sort of ) and eating French cuisine (again, sort of). I miss those days!

Penny Lane in Rehoboth Beach

Even though we had donuts for breakfast and Mickey Dee's for lunch, I like to expose my kids to other kinds of foods and restaurants. And only because we had had such a crazy day (selling tickets for Meg's dance recital, getting dance pictures taken, Ethan's belt rank testing for taekwondo and a jr. high percussion concert to complete the insanity) did I take them out to eat thrice. This is why we hit the crepe shop. And I was feeling nostalgic.

Meg does not like crepes, so she chose soup and salad. Orzo and spinach chicken soup with mixed curly greens and homemade ranch dressing.

Ethan chose a Nutella and banana crepe with chocolate milk.

I had my fave; a blueberry with orange ricotta cheese crepe.

This crepe shop sells ice cream from a local dairy, so we ended our meal with a scoop of Graham Cracker Crumb Cheesecake ice cream. Every thing was so fresh and tasty. This was exactly the break we needed.

We also took advantage of a another feature dear to our hearts: a Book Crossing. This shelf has a little sign that directs patrons to borrow, read, return, or replace. All housed on a killer bookcase that I would like to have at home. We enjoyed our meal in silence, all three paging through a new read.

Here's a link to an article in our local paper that was published when the shop opened:

Click here.

Yum!

Today I Miss My Hair

Recently, I made my first donation to Locks of Love. If you haven't heard of this organization, here's a link: http://www.locksoflove.org/ They provide wigs for kids who have lost their hair for a variety of reasons, from cancer to alopecia. I was glad to be able to make a donation; for some reason, even though I've had long hair off and on since my teen years, I had never gotten around to it.

But today I miss my hair. Being sick with long hair - you can pull it up and still look relatively alive. Short, mussy, unwashed hair is not doing a lot for me today.

Bronchitis

Hello, bronchitis, my old friend.

I've come to cough with you again.

Because a germ, softly creeping,

left its seeds while I was sleeping.

And the hacking that was racking

on my lungs, is still not fun.

Amid the sounds of springtime.

Thank goodness for z-packs.