Daniel, commenting on Edward's incessant humming: "Wow, he sure loves music."
John (in jest): "Yeah, maybe he'll be a professional musician one day."
Daniel, takes a moment to consider: "Then maybe I'll be a professional talker. 'Cuz I sure do LOVE to talk!"

Yes, yes you do. Case in point, yesterday at the Hawkeye Spring Game (intra-squad scrimmage; admission price was a can of food for the local food bank) we had not been in our seats for 5 minutes before I turned to Daniel with an exasperated, "Daniel! How many questions do you think I can answer? I should be counting them to see how many!"
Daniel, in response, with zero irony: "How many has it been?"

A-freakin'-LOT!

In his defense, it was a little confusing to watch the Hawkeyes play the Hawkeyes. And they had a kind of wacky scoring system so that the defense had a chance to get some points on the board. All in all, it was a lovely day to be outside, the boys got closer to the field at Kinnick Stadium than they'll ever be again, and John and I earned another year of "No WAY are we paying to take you to a game when you can't even pay attention for 10 minutes."

Later in the day, the boys and I took a bike ride and ended up running into some friends headed in the opposite direction. We turned around and went with them to their destination park and the boys all had fun playing together (these are friends with boys the same ages as ours; the younger is in preschool with Daniel.) The allure of the creek was strong and despite being told three times not to go in, Daniel and Drew ended up with full mud immersion. I do try to be patient about the love of mud, and I was much more calm about this one than the first thaw mud experience this spring which necessitated washing all the winter outerwear on an already busy evening.

However, I did tell Daniel that if he wants to play in the mud we have to be better prepared with the right gear--e.g. boots or water shoes. I was particularly dismayed at the mud-covered brand-new (three weeks) tennis shoes.

Fortunately, after a dip in this bucket, the uppers were mostly mud-free. However, we're pretty sure that every time they get even remotely wet (dewy grass, rainy day, etc.) the mud will ooze from the bottom resulting in black socks. Oh, well. Daniel himself stripped to underwear behind our front bushes, washed his hands and feet in the bucket and then went straight to the shower.

And for a bit of equal time, here is Edward with his quint-plane--five paper airplanes all attached together. It will come as a surprise to no one (except its creator) that this plane did not fly far. But there was joy in its creation and that of the dozens of other planes flying around our back yard this afternoon. Two fabulous spring days in a row on a weekend. What a gift!

Time for dinner and then a bike ride for ice cream. We know enough to enjoy it while we can. By the end of the week it's back to 50s and rain.

Yesterday started out below freezing--you know, typical April. I asked Daniel if he wanted to go out to get the paper and he responded, "No, it's too cold!"
Disappointed, I said, "Well then why do I even keep you around."
He deadpanned: "Because I'm good for other things...like cleaning toilets."

In his defense, it was quite cold. I outfitted him for Edward's soccer game in his warmest winter coat, snowpants and boots. This did not prevent him from climbing all over the playground, but he did find it was a little more difficult to crawl through tight spaces (like this web climber) with all that extra padding. He never said he was cold though!

After the game, we visited our local bike library and found a bigger bike for Edward. People donate old bikes that the volunteers fix up and sell. Most kids bikes (including ours) are $10. Budget friendly! That allowed Daniel to upgrade to Edward's former bike and we'll soon bequeath the smallest in our armada to a younger friend.

 By the time we got home for riding, it had warmed up to the 50s--sweatshirt weather.


Later in the evening, we were reading a book about Mt. Rushmore in preparation for our summer vacation. The story noted that the sculptor and his family moved around for his work to several states including Georgia.

Daniel: "Georgia!! She's famous--you know Georgia from Yo La Tengo. They named a whole state after her!"

John has been conducting music appreciation with Daniel on Wednesday evenings when I take Edward to religious ed class.

Last week Daniel's school had its annual music concert. I was not expecting to be the videographer, so this is not high quality, but I imagine it will suffice for the limited audience. One of my colleagues who has an older child at the school was using a much better camera with an aisle seat and a tripod. If he ever posts better video, I'll link. In the meantime I give you:

When Sheep Get Up In The Morning


B-I-N-G-O


The Littlest Worm


And since we're overloading the Daniel video, here's a little piece I edited together for our amusement. Daniel has been making great strides with reading and is very proud when he can look at a sign and read it aloud. During Lent we went to the Catholic school fish dinner fundraiser on a Friday night, and as we were driving up, Daniel read the sign, "Fish Dinner, Keep Right." I exclaimed, "Wow, Daniel, great reading!" It took another beat or two before John said, "Wait, that was Daniel? That was great!"

I've been getting books for him from the library that are heavy on rhyming words, so of course, Hop on Pop came back into the rotation. This reminded me of an old video so I persuaded Daniel to let me update it with his new skills.

Team Kenyon was small but mighty this year! Very thankful for the only dry, sunny day in the 7-day outlook. But we must quibble a bit with the gusty wind, which made it quite chilly for our posse. Here we are inside the clubhouse after the walk. (New location this year--Brown Deer Golf Course. Parking was tricky, but the inside gathering space was appreciated!)

Thanks to our friends and family, we have raised more than $3,000 for the March of Dimes and it's not too late to add a bit more!

The colored leis represent healthy babies (green), premature babies (purple), and deceased babies (white.)

 Why would one feel the need to remove the handles from his jump rope and then stick the handle on his ring finger? Edward must be a distant relative of Sir George Mallory, because the answer, apparently is, "Because it was there." This isn't even the first time he's stuck his finger into a hard-molded plastic thing that we then had to attempt to remove with scissors to avoid a trip to the ER. At least this time he didn't freak out Grandma and Grandpa in the process. No more jump rope handles.

On the upside, it was nice enough today for our first al fresco dining of the season. Looks like we might need a bigger table and chairs. Also on the hunt for a bigger bike for Edward. Ah, spring!