More than the end of the year

This end of the year program was a little more than just the end of the school year for Grant. It is the end of his time at First Presbyterian Preschool. I want to thank First Pres (I think) for helping pull Grant out of his shell. It is a small, nurturing school, just what he needed. While it was perfect for years 2 1/2 - 3, we are in search of a little more for year 4.

One story that stands out in my mind was told to me by his teacher at our parent conference. She asked if Grant ever sings or performs for us at home.

No, not really, other than dancing around with Olivia, but nothing on his own.

Oh, really?
Well, each morning during share time, the teacher would ask if anyone had a story or song to share. And each morning, the girls in the class would volunteer to do just that. One particular morning, Grant raised his hand and said he had a song.

Really?? Grant got up and sang a song to the whole class?

The teacher expected, well, a song. He stands up and turns to face the class and starts making noises - all kinds of noises but mostly of the robotic, gun shooting, explosion type sounds, while wiggling his fingers and twisting his body. This lasted for about a minute. When he was finished, the teacher asked him what song that was and he said it was the "Transformers" song... which is funny because he hasn't seen the Transformers movie or cartoons. She tells me that each morning from then on, he would get up and "sing" his Transformers song.

I've tried to get him to do a repeat at home and he won't. So my only regret is that I didn't sneak in and film him from the bathroom.

Now that he is fully out of his shell, I wonder if the next school can help put some of him back? Just kidding...

End of the year performance...

Is it over yet?Seriously, I'm about to burst...Yay! Finally!Mommy and Grant...The best part... cupcakes with my BFF Weston...Maybe the ear tastes better?

Lobster Perks

One of the perks of being married to a Lobsterologist is that we get to eat some of his research subjects.

One of his perks is getting to travel to cool places for workshops and conferences.

In May, he gave a talk at Bigelow Lab in Maine and returned with lobsters of the other kind. Sweet Maine lobsters – the kind with the big claws that we don’t get down here in Florida.

While I enjoy eating them, I can’t deal with the boiling part. In fact, I had to leave the kitchen. There was no way I could watch this cute face meet his demise.

The kids enjoyed it though.And we all enjoyed dinner...

May 29, 2009

Is she REALLY 7 years old?!?!? Really hard to believe. Especially when we see her like this...with an ipod.

Well, actually it is a knock-off. There was no way we were going to buy a girl who has lost 4 pairs of goggles in 4 months time the real deal ipod. It works the same and she doesn't know the difference.

I just can't believe she is 7. It seems like yesterday we were feeding her out of syringes and hoping she'd get over the 5 lb mark. Now here she is, one of the tallest in her class. And listening to ipods. At least she still plays dress-up and barbies.
and guns.
Well, not really. She'll play with Grant for about 5 seconds and then it's back to barbies.But... one thing they do enjoy together is the Wii. Thanks to Mimi and Popka, we now belong to the "cool family with a Wii" club. Boxing is Grant's favorite game - go figure. I have yet to play it b/c I have this secret addiction to video games. Believe it or not, I really do. So, I haven't gone there yet... but it sure will become tempting on one of these hot summer days.

May 18, 2009

I'm sad to say that Grant is now four years old. Sad only in that we've enjoyed every step of the way with him and I'm sad to say goodbye to the threes... but, that said, we surely will look forward the next year as well.

We celebrated at school and at home. I took the easy way out this year and simply baked him a 2 layer cake topped with a toy spiderman. He loved it.Closeup...He really only asked for two things this year: the good spiderman (above) and bad spiderman (below). Bad spiderman is his favorite.He took pirate treasure cupcakes to school with him. Beneath the X was buried treasure. Party time!Two friends... Adam and Elijah... how photogenic are these two?I'm not sure how poor Jessica survived the year at this table!!Weston digging for treasure. Grant says "treasure be damned, I'm just eating it all."

Night Party!

One of the fun things about having a daughter (and a willing, easy-going, younger son) is that at moment's notice you can be treated to a night like this one.

Bring on the Night Party...

Olivia decided one evening that we would have a "night party."

First, she selected her outfit b/c as most night partiers know, this is the most important part. She selected an ensemble made by Grandma 2-3 years ago.

She set and decorated our dinner table.She picked the music - Adele, not bad.

She even made a sign.And then they danced. And showed off a few signature moves.Wish you were there? You can be, sort of:

Part I


Part II


Don gets in on the action, and Grant takes it to the next level:

Girl Scallops at the beach

Olivia and I had our first girl scallop camping trip. To a beach house! Come on, this is Florida after all. None of us really knew what to expect other than the Girl Scallop troops in north Florida have access to a beach house near Jacksonville. Turns out that it is a building in the middle of a city park a couple blocks from the beach. We don't know the history but I'm guessing that someone donated the property to the city with a request that the building be used for Girl Scallops.
Now, we all have an idea of what a beach house is and I'm sure this one doesn't fit the bill for most of those ideas, and while it has cement floors and one sleeping room for all of us to share, it sure was a lot easier than doing the tent thing with 10 or so six yr old girls. And it has a shower. And AC.

Okay, so maybe this really wasn't a camping trip after all.

At the meeting prior, we prepped by making beach buckets. Upon arrival, we ordered out pizza - no "poor boys" for these "campers."We really didn't have any structured activities - just lots of fun at the beach - which really is what this troop (and moms) needed. It was a great bonding, getting-to-know-you type of trip. Especially when we broke out the wine after the girl scallops hit the hay.

Thalia and Olivia...Amanda found a few live LARGE snails, which in all my years at the beach, I've never seen...Yes, that is my girl scallop way out there, giving all the other girl scallop moms heart attacks...A dried up girl scallop...Arts and crafts...At least five stories later, the girls went to bed. And the moms broke out the wine. Wish I had pics of that.The next morning we took one last stroll to the beach before leaving. Sushi for breakfast anyone?
And if you are wondering why "Girl Scallops" - that is Grant's translation for Girl Scouts. And I absolutely adore it.

Along with kajamas instead of pajamas.

Orange and Blue Game

We learned very quickly that little kids and football games don't always mix. Once you run out of snacks, it's all down hill. However, the Orange and Blue spring training game is perfect for them. First, they get to experience a real game with the band, mascots, cheerleaders and big crowd (64K in attendance - more than some teams get during the regular season) in not so hot weather. The quarters are shorter but at $5/ticket it doesn't matter if you have to bail early.
We went with friends Howard/Lisa and fam and Matt/Deb and fam.
The tail-Gators still come out in style...Everyone loves a little Tebow...But even Tebow fans get restless. Hmmm, maybe I can bug this person next to me.Ha-ha-ha. She is almost as funny as I am.
Whoa, now listen lady... if you don't get up and cheer things are going to get ugly...This is how it's done...
2 bits, 4 bit, 6 bits, a dollar....all for the Gators, stand up and holler!!!

M-i-ss-i-ss-i-pp-i

Don and I took our first business trip together - to Mississippi of all places. My former employer (FSG) is a member of COSEE (Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence) and they are interested in possibly participting in a program that the California COSEE group out of Berkeley started up several years ago. The name of the project is COSIA (Communication Ocean Sciences to Informal Audiences) and the goal is to, well, communicate ocean sciences to informal audiences.
The idea is to set up a college credit course for undergrad and grad science majors to teach them how to... yes, you got it... communicate ocean science to lay people. More specifically it is to allow them to become better communicators about their research, educate the general public and encourage some of these future scientists to enter the world of education in hopes of generating even more future scientists or science teachers.

Lucky for me my former boss could not attend and thought of me as a replacement to fill the "educator" role. And lucky for Don, he is married to me and was therefore selected to fill the "scientist" role. That, and he is a damn good scientist.

So off we went to Ocean Springs, MS.

While I don't have any pics of the conference to prove we were really in attendance and while I'm sure you are thinking oh darn, no pictures of a conference... really, I could have had some interesting ones to show. It was very interactive and fun.

I do however have some pics of the 6 hours of free time that we did have. And we made the most of it.

A drive up the shore found us in the continuing Hurricane Katrina recovery cities of Gulfport and Biloxi.
Abandoned, right up on the beach...These pictures just do not show the devastation that still exists 4 years post hurricane. Extremely long sections of shoreline, where commercial and residential buildings once stood, remain vacant.
Here is a remaining house pad and some vacant spaces. The blue trailer in the background is one of few quick homes that were built presumably for temporary shelter. But only a very few of the large, brick mansion homes have been rebuilt.

A vacant gas station lot...Some visible damage still remains. This is a building from the William Carey University, only a few hundred yards from the shore in Gulport.This photo speaks volumes. You can see the stripped trees on the barrier island just offshore.
The trees really caught my eye. While they remain standing, their twisted and reconfigured shapes tell the tale of the beatings they endured. As I was standing amidst all the destruction and loss, I noticed this small patch of Indian Blanket Flower (Gaillardia pulchella) - one of my favorite native FL flowers. They made me smile.We managed a quick hike in the Gulf Islands National Seashore.And snacked on honeysuckle.Since honeysuckle isn't terribly filling, we had lots of room for the unbelievable oysters we found at a local restaurant.
They were HUGE! And at $5/dozen, we ate A LOT!Gimme oysters and beer for dinner every day of the year...As for COSIA, and most everything else in life, timing is everything. We both learned a lot and it is a fab program but with UF slicing and dicing its budget each year, it may not happen just yet. But not all is lost, I am certainly going to implement some of the ideas and techniques we learned to current programs at the FLMNH.